Hi,

I have lurked here for a while but this is my fist post.

I am a Marco Polo Silver member and had a booking from LHR to HKG on Thursday 15th April, now because of the volcano my flight got bumped until the next day. Then the problems continued and my flight got bumped to Monday 19th, this was again cancelled. Obviously the problems have continued so i called Cathay yesterday to find out what was going on and they said the first flight they can put me on is May 7th!

A friend of mine is also flying Cathay and called the day before me, and got told the same date, on top of this, another friend called them today and asked about a flight from anywhere in Europe and was told May 7th.

My question for anyone who has any idea about this sort of thing, would all the flights really be fully booked until May 7th or are they just being cautious? When i log into cx.com i see that i haven't been assigned a seat for the May 7th flight so does this mean there may be a chance i would get an earlier flight? Do i need to call them to let them know that i would be willing to be in 'standby'. It just seems odd they are telling everyone May 7th and not assigning seats.

It's getting a bit desperate for me now, i was actually emigrating to the Philippines to start a new job. I rented my room out, i have no belongings and am staying in a hotel with just my suitcase, not sure how long i can hold out :/

Worst thing was, i used my miles to upgrade to business class. I was really looking forward to it, obviously now its back to cattle and i am unsure what happens with my miles

Thanks for any info.

Edit: I also have a completely unrelated question. I recently flew from HKG to LHR on a pretty much empty plane. However, i found that when i sat down in a 3 row seat, i had an elderly couple next to me. I was literally the only person on the plane with 2 people sat next to me. I asked if they checked in online and they said no. Now i know this may sound a little high and mighty, but as a silver member who has flown 60k miles in a year, why the hell would i get someone allocated next to me? I spoke to other people whilst stretching my legs on the plane and making small talk who said it was their first time flying Cathay, why weren't they put next to them?

Welcome to FT Pottypotsworth !

I hope they get you out of LHR before May 7th !! That sounds quite unreasonable IMHO.

Let's do the math.

CX has 3 flights a day to LHR. This time of year they're running close to 90% full. That's close to 1,000 passengers a day stranded since the airspace closure, all waiting to fly.

Once CX starts flying to LHR again, it's going to take weeks to accommodate the thousands by filling every empty seat that's not taken by people who are already ticketed to fly on operating flights.

The May 7th estimate is probably accurate.

Hi both,

Thanks for your replies.

Ok well the math is probably pretty sound but let me ask you this...

How come when my other two flights were cancelled they managed to get me on another flight the next day, and then within 4 days? Now its 3 weeks?

If i was bumped on the first day of the airports closing, surely i should be one of the first on a flight when they start flying again? What do you think they have done with people who are say, flying this Thursday? Who has got those spare seats?

How come CX.com still shows open seats for May 7th on their booking engine? Surely all the people who were supposed to fly today/tomorrow who have been cancelled should be filling up these seats? They have been telling everyone who called the earliest flight is May 7th since Saturday, surely people would have snapped them up in the 2 days since then?

I guess perhaps i just have to accept it, but something just doesn't seem quite right to me.

May 7 is probably a bit too late.

When I asked about availability 2 days ago, I was told there are seats for rebooked customers on FCO-HKG on 27 April, or CDG-HKG on 26 Apr, didn't ask about LHR or other cities.

The Gold guarantee have absolutely been a savior in this matter, as I can rebook on any CX flights I want from Europe to HKG when they are operating with 3 day notice.

Hi Pacifboot,

Your answer is very intriguing, thanks for taking the time to reply. Since i am only a silver member and don't have the benefits of gold, is there anything that you could suggest that i might say on the phone that may get me on an earlier flight? Should i ring the Marco Polo HK Club phone number as opposed to the LHR number and try and sort it that way?

Thanks

Anecdotally, a friend stuck in HKG trying to get home to Germany was booked on Lufthansa, and was given a May 3 ticket (original ticket April 18). She has been told she either could return to the airport every single day and hope to get standby in case airports in Europe eventually started opening, or take May 3.

Hi Pottypotsworth,

This is my first post and I would like to say I have nearly exactly the same problem as you. I'm flying in the opposite direction, HKG-LHR originally on 18th Apr, but I've phoned up and have been told that it's rescheduled to the 7th May. "Manage my booking" on the website soon showed that I've been confirmed for this flight. Today I tried again, not calling MPC but the travel agent I've booked the ticket with and they've told me there's a spare on the 3rd May, which is slightly better, although it's CX 253 which arrives at 2100hrs in LHR, not ideal.

I'm MPC Silver as well, but I've been told it doesn't mean anything as all those travelling HKG-LHR are frequent flyers like us. So I would suggest, if you can, go to the CX booking office in person or keep calling to see if there are updates on your flight. I think it's unfair how they're slotting us into the next empty seats rather than taking us as the priority, or else it wouldn't be 3 weeks from now. Good luck and keep trying!

Quite strange that CX is giving the default date of flying for some pax as May 7, just today on SCMP, an interviewed LHR student stuck in HKG was quoted a flying date of May 7 as well.

I think that some underestimate the chaos that the unpredictable situation is creating for airlines (and their pax). Situation is critical for European airlines which are potentially bankrupt. It is just impossible to predict when the situation will return to normal at most European airports (except for some southern ones). Just in Hong Kong there are well over 100,000 pax waiting for their flights to Europe (I am one of them) and a few thousand more every day. CDG & FRA are reopening today but unsure whether any plane will encounter some technical problems or whether the cloud will change (could be new eruptions). No way that they can all be given confirmed seats for departure in the next few days and the situation change daily, so managing by status, assigning seats, etc.. is a futile exercise. Some pax have numerous bookings on several airlines, just in case; some are wondering whether to cancel the trip alltogether; just unmanageable. And some pax are in much direr needs than others whatever their status. Asking pax to come to the airport next day just in case could work the first day or two, but now airlines have accumulated thousands of stranded pax to each destination.
A colleague of mine due to depart on monday to LHR was reassigned by CX on a May 14 flight. At least he has a confirmed seat. If the situation improves then some seats will become available on earlier flights. But the situation could worsen again as volcano eruptions can come in series.

I am stuck in Manchester and have managed to geta boat ride to Amsterdam tomorrow in the hope of being in AMS and having seats booked on everyday out of AMS for the next week that I might get home to Asia

They have started their flights and I think they are starting some of their delayed ones. The CX site has a list of previously delayed flights which are all operating out of HK today so it looks like they are going to work hard to clear their backlog ASAP...

Check the CX website for updates...

Hey all,

I just managed to get through to Cathay and they have booked me in a flight tomorrow. My advice is to try and get through to customer services no matter how long it takes.

I am still a little concerned that is says 'on request' but she told me on the phone that it was confirmed so gonna head to the airport anyway

Good luck to you all, i sincerely hope that you get your flights.

my australian friends were quoted the 7th of may as a return date but got a call just now to say they fly back to auz tomorrow.....