I have a return on a TPE-HKG-SFO-HKG-TPE that I am trying to change. I paid about US$3000 for the RT ticket in D class. My understanding is that D class is discounted business but less discounted than I class. My fare is a screaming deal so I don't blame CX for limiting capacity on it. I'm just trying to figure out how they figure availability.

The flights I want are showing plenty of availability in both D and I class. My D class seems to be less valuable than I class however.

CX () 873 0 SFO 10/06/10 1:20 AM HKG 10/07/10 6:25 AM F4 A4 J9 C9 D9 I2 Y8 B7 H5 K0 M0 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0
CX () 879 0 SFO 10/05/10 1:35 PM HKG 10/06/10 7:00 PM F4 A4 J8 C7 D7 I3 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M0 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0

Is there more than one flavor of D class that is not shown on Expertflyer? How is my D not better than I? Can anyone shed more light on this?

Thanks,
Paul

D & I are practically the same in everyway apart from price. If you call CX direct in Taipei they will book it for you where a TA might not have access to it, also TA in Taiwan are notorious for saying the fare is not there so they can get more commission and sell you more expensive tickets. There is a company who I found who advertise on FT called Whose travel in Taichung and they put me onto this and saved me a fortune.

Thanks for the tip. I booked online on cathaypacific.com and have spoken to CX in TPE and at MPC. (I'm Diamond) It's CX not a TA saying the inventory is not there.

Availability depends on the POS (point of sale). EF reports US POS. It is very common that a fare class be unavailable if your ticket originates in a country (say TPE) and available if it originates in another country (say US). CX might open a lot of D fare from US where they are priced higher than from TPE (this is just a wild guess). I remember being on a RTW AONE and being very difficult to get a seat on BA from JFK-LHR although EF showed plenty of A availability.

I have spoken before to CX in Taipei and they say no yet this guy at Whose got me me the I class, I am also Diamond with CX but it does not always seem to mean anything to the Taiwan office.

+1.

CX system recognizes the fact that ex-TPE D fares are far lower than ex-SFO D fares. It could also be married segments, you need to have SFO-HKG-TPE available in D when married together.