Yes and it has the pricing to match it. You have chosen a good example here of why this development is happening. HKG to BKK is about the same distance as LHR-LIS. Both routes have a lot of competition on them, probably more so on the BKK route. Plenty of services to choose from too on both airlines.

On BA the cheapest return fare is £91, though £120 is probably a fairer and easier to obtain comparison fare. In Club Europe it's £400 return and that's widely available.

On Cathay the cheapest return fare is £570 in economy and in business class it's £1400!

They might have been planning just that pre-referendum. However right now nobody knows what kind of air service rules will exist once Brexit actually happens- will Vueling be able to fly to anywhere at all from Gatwick other than Spain?
In practice I suspect they will be able to operate flights to all remaining EU member states because it is EU policy that new air service agreements with non-EU countries allow all EU airlines to fly to/from all EU countries. UK domestics might be a real problem.

Not a good time to spend any money at all on re-branding LGW shorthaul if it turns out to be wasted by 2019.

I don't see the UK imposing restrictions on who owns airlines that operate flights within the UK. Given that we are happy to have nuclear reactors owned by the Chinese and French. And as far as I am aware there is no EU law preventing an EU airline from operating flights outside the EU.

Fair enough, wasn't so aware of the price as this was a multi-stop trip through Asia with a fairly decent total price :)

Let me say straight off that I'm very, very nervous about contradicting this post, given the esteem in which I hold its author (and you will know I really mean that, c-w-s, in the light of our very enjoyable chat at the MIA lounge this past August ;))

I flew the HKG-BKK sector myself with CX earlier this year - and although I used a mix of cash + Avios to pay, I don't remember them being priced at anything like the example fares quoted here.

So with an eye to my next need to fly this same route, I have just checked out fares for likely dates in February of next year, and they come out like this :

Lowest economy return (books as O class) is HKD1862 inc taxes
Lowest business return (books as D class) is HKD6162 inc taxes

Using CX's own currency conversion chart, these equate to £198 and £658 sterling respectively.

Given how dramatically different these are from the figures quoted by c-w-s .... have I by chance got things horribly wrong :eek:
I have my hands ready to hold up if so !

PS I did my pricing on CX official site.

I find CX rather expensive for internal Asian flights.
Last time I was out there, Air Asia and Jetstar were doing economy flights with luggage etc. for £50-£60 compared to CX at over £400 for the same route.

I definitely wouldn't consider them unless I was using Avios and even then, probably for business rather than economy (unless circumstances dictated otherwise).

Right - let me make myself quite clear. I dislike this move more than I can say. It is like watching a relative of whom one is fond moving from a nice house to a council flat on a sink estate.

What i am trying to say is that this could be a nine-day wonder. If no one buys, then they'll give up. I have seen it all before. Who else remembers that when CE came along there was nothing offered whatsoever on Paris or Amsterdam - all the crew worked Club. On longer flights ET collected their meals on the way into the aircraft. Lasted no time at all - it was inoperative. can you imagine two crew members on a busy AMS managing to serve everyone and take their cards? No one seems to to have thought of the practical product delivery side. They rely on the pricing that not a lot will be bought - but when they do there is always trouble.

The other thing that one must remember is that not one Low Cost (with the possible exceptions of those operating flights for Iberia or Lufthansa fly out of Heathrow).

What is clear is that nothing seems to have stirred people up more than this change - I just hope that they all complain to the airline rather than just here.

Yes, sorry, you are quite right, I had overlooked the fact that many CX fares are so-called "private fares", and don't show up on my system, but certainly do on Cathay's own website. The first fare in your quote above is an Economy Save fare, as an example of this, and is widely available with a bit of advance planning.

However my core point still stands, Cathay - and Asian legacy carriers generally - charge a lot more for their service than European legacy airlines.

Fair enough c-w-s.

And yes, Asian legacy carriers can be pretty pricey for regional sectors.

Likewise Qantas on (some) domestics. Earlier this year I flew MEL-PER and was astonished to find that their lowest biz class return was coming out at over AUD2000. In the event I redeemed EK Skywards miles (although that wasn't exactly cheap either, at 76K miles). The positive was that QF's claim that their newly-configured A330's offer the best biz seat on any domestic route did - IMO - stand up (or should be that be lie-flat ......:-:) to scrutiny.

Anyway, think I must be well off-topic by now, apologies.

This evening we landed at a London airport after a short haul flight (details withheld to protect all involved). As we were waiting to disembark we were chatting to the crew and the question of BOB came up. The SCC asked us what, as Gold Card holders (they obviously knew who we were), we felt about it. We advised that we had already switched many of our shorthaul flights next year to easyJet. She wasn't surprised and started to say how she was not looking forward to the prospect. Unfortunately the ground crew knocked at the door and we were unable to find out more. I wonder what other crew think about it?

I agree not many will BOB. Some may elect to buy airside and bring it in. Here in US, I have seen a gradual increse in bring it from home or from outside the airport for one's taste and saving money.

A seemingly overkill outcome of the arms race QF and VA got themselves into, considering out of over a dozen daily segments only one is an "overnighter" and is a paltry 3.5 hrs actual flying time!

I've just had my last flight with free BA SH catering, PRG - LHR and was treated to a biscuit, despite usually getting a single wrap (Band 2 I think)....

Have moved all my revenue bookings to other airlines, so will now only being flying on Avios redemptions.

I got the reply, today, to my letter to Mr Cruz about the recent changes. Interestingly, it came by email not by post which saves BA 55p I suppose. None of my specific points were addressed and it was just the cut and paste sections which others have replied to.

I visited my godson in Worcester this weekend who is getting married in January in Austria and I had to explain to him that not only would he not get free champagne when travelling out to MUC, he would have to pay for his drinks on BA from now on. He's a reasonably frequent leisure flyer but wasn't aware of the changes. His reactions was interesting: "BA can't do that - if we'd known that we would have gone with Easyjet".

And so it begins...!

But champagne isn't available in ET now? It's for CE passengers and lounge users, neither of which is changing. He will have a new option to buy champagne in ET after the changes, however.