CX First Timer Questions!
 

Hi everyone! I'm going to be flying on my first international flight and would really appreciate your help in answering my many questions. I will be flying in economy class from YYZ(Toronto) to SGN(Ho Chi Minh City) with a stop in HKG(Hong Kong).

1) My relatives are loyal Cathay Pacific customers and insist that I fly with them as well. However, when I was looking up tickets, I found Air Canada to be $200 cheaper. Is it worth it to fly AC and save $200? I've read a lot about rude service on AC, but CX has terrible seating.

2) I am a university student, and cost would be a big factor in choosing the airline. I was wondering if there are any student discounts?

3) I will be flying anytime in May to August and will be staying for two to three months. The cheapest CX economy ticket I found was $1064 before and $1356.xx after taxes and fees. Can I find cheaper or is this already a good deal?

4) Would it be better to use a travel agency or just purchase the ticket online? I've read that some charge a fee, so it might not be worth it in the end.

5) Does CX price match?

6) I noticed that CX has a maximum stay of 3 months. Does anyone know why and how I can get around this? My original plan was to stay for 3.5 months. I'm not complaining about missing .5 months, just wondering!

7) Some stopovers in Hong Kong are 15+ hours long. Silly question.. Can you leave the airport to wander around Hong Kong for a bit and come back in?

Any other infos and advices are much appreciated.
Thanks all. And sorry if this is in this wrong section! :D

I'm sure that there are more experienced members who can answer your questions, but here are my personal observations:

1. I fly the YYZ-South East Asia route somewhat often (3-5 times annually), preferably on SQ (with AC connections), sometimes on AC, sometimes on CX, sometimes on KE. I must say that the service I've received on AC (albeit in business class but I can't imagine it being that bad in economy) have been nothing short of courteous, genuine, and professional (although not in an overly indulging manner like that you would get from Asian carriers) and certainly far from rude. Overall I'd say if you didn't come on board expecting the royal treatment you would not be disappointed. I have no experience with the seats on CX but the AC seats are not bad although I personally think they could use more padding. CX's IFE of course is far superior and more reliable (which might compensate for the hard seats :p)

2. There are student fares on CX (not sure if they have it ex-YYZ), but they aren't necessarily the cheapest, they just entitle you to extra baggage allowance and more flexibility in some cases.

3. May-August I believe is shoulder season, $1356 on CX quite good, I believe last year a family friend paid around $1200 for YYZ-CGK in April. Are there change of date fees involved with this fare? Not having change of date fees may be handy if your plans are not yet firm. The change fees on the cheaper AC tickets will milk you dry!

4. I'm not sure as I have always bought my tickets online and I don't hope for much discounts since my travels are usually during peak periods but I'd imagine some agencies might have access to promotional fares that you would not be able to find online.

5. Not that I'm aware of.

6. I believe the next higher fares will get you 6 months stay. Not sure how much more you'd have to pay.

7. Definitely, just make sure you get your onward boarding pass from the transfer counters before you proceed to passport control. :D

Just to throw in an alternative for you, EVA Air might have competitive fares ex YYZ although they only fly thrice weekly, I'm also not quite sure how the schedule is for SGN connections.

I hope this helps :)

Hi YTO, thanks so much for responding! I don't expect to be pampered while flying economy class, so I guess the service on AC won't be a problem for me. I just based my assumptions on some reviews I read online(Skytrax) about the AC flight attendants being rude because they had a union to back them up. Oh my, if AC seats need more padding, CX must have terrible seats! I've read a lot about their shell seats and people prefer AC seats over CX. And I also assumed CX was better because they have 5stars compared to AC with 3stars.

Aw, that's too bad that the price doesn't lower for students. I don't plan to bring a heavy luggage so I guess it won't affect me.

I found an AC ticket for $1160 all in! Although it's only $200, it's a lot for me since I'm a broke student :p. That's why I needed people's opinion to decide if paying the extra $200 is worth it for CX.

The change of date fees are not included for CX. For economy, it's $50 to change date, and $200 to cancel! I don't expect a need to reschedule anyways.

I guess it's worth a try checking out the travel agency. I'll just ask them if they charge a fee before I ask them for help. :p

That's awesome that I can wander off, because being stuck in the airport for 15+ hours will drive me nuts! I never heard of EVA before, but I'm sure it's worth looking into.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond! :D

Any other info and advice from members are much appreciated!

I actually haven't run into any rude AC FAs even on Domestic Y (although I'm sure this isn't the case for most people). In my experience the older FAs who you'd expect to be grumpy are actually the nicest. I have however run some bad apples on CX on board intra-asia J. If I may ask, with AC, what would be your routing? If possible I would recommend routing through NRT as both catering and service are usually top notch ^.

Why, thank you for the advice. And yes, if I am going through AC, the cheapest fares tend to be going through NRT. However, I do not understand why the arrival time to SGN is very late on AC. They seem to land after 10pm. That may become an issue, because I don't think I would feel very safe taking the taxi at nighttime.

For the NRT-SGN flight, are you referring to the ANA-operated flight (codeshared with AC)? I did a quick search and most of the AC codeshares to SGN (whether it's NRT-SGN or HKG-SGN by UA) all arrive late at night, and safety may really be a problem.

The CX seats aren't really that bad (depends on personal preference), and I like them. If you're referring to the negative reviews on Skytrax, note that they're biased and don't like particular airlines that pay less advertising money (so in return, they remove or reduce the positive comments). Plus, people that like the seats don't always comment online like the ones that hate them. By the way, they're expected to change Economy Class back to reclinable seats this year supposably starting from the delivery of the A330 B-LAK (that's already arrived in Hong Kong).

1) I wouldn't pay $200 more to fly CX. CX has some strengths, but given cost is your biggest concern, it is not really worth the $200 ($200 is close a 20% premium!). I personally really hate the non-recline economy seats on long-hauls as it is very difficult to sleep in (it is great for sitting so short flights are fine)

2) Try some of the travel agents near school campuses that have access to student fares. Couldn't hurt to try.

3) $1300 for CX sounds about right

4) I've found CX online to be quite good relative to travel agents, but if cost is your major concern, wouldn't hurt to price shop a little

5) Does CX price match? Not that I know of.

6) CX fares go up quite a bit when you want >6 month validity. When booking online you can select a higher fare class and you will the ticket validity in the confirmation page

7) As many have mentioned, it's very easy to go to HK from the airport. The train takes 25 minutes to central. Many nationalities can enter as a tourist without a visa.