SIN-HKG bargain fares seem to be tied to local credit cards' promotions. This year's HSBC creditcards promo fares were very good... if you manage to find friends who have Singapore issued HSBC cards ! :D

Actually the deals are pretty much the same for HSBC Visa Infinite/Premier, DBS Treasures/Insignia, ANZ and other cards..and just slighlty better with ANZ on 2 to go fares. But that said, inline with high fares exSIN nothing to write home about really (S$6.5K ish to the US west coast, when ex CMB fares were just a shade over S$4K).

i got protected onto sq / ul on revenue ticket...

CX used to have SIN-CGK/BKK/CMB flights. Now 2 out of 3 have gone. Will it axe SiN-BKK also soon?

I wonder if having nonstop flights to CMB will allow CX to reduce prices. At the moment fares are a crazy HK$8500+ (incl. tax) in Economy and over HK$22,000 in Business (that too for 73Z with regional config).

I suspect this has something to do with not wanting to cannibalise revenue from the HKG-SIN/SIN-HKG segments. With those out of the picture can prices now fall to more realistic levels, on par with say BOM/DEL/DPS etc?

A bit surprised that CX has decided to axe CMB-SIN. If you are on a flight to/from CMB on CX, you would notice that a lot of the passengers deplane in BKK/SIN, basically the local Sri Lankan market travelling. Very few passengers originating from HKG make it all the way to CMB, and vice versa. Is there really enough traffic to sustain a nonstop HKG to CMB ? Is this a move for a potential HKG - CMB - MLE in the future ? The only reason I can think of... is the increase of traffic between CMB and Mainland China, so CX/KA would become the obvious choice of carrier.

Economy tickets between HKG and CMB are fairly reasonable if one is able to use the package price, GV2, typically in S class. Tough luck for the business or single traveller of course.

I've noticed this too. But is it because it's just too inconvenient for people to fly via somewhere to CMB?

I think that this may open up some more connecting traffic from West Coast/Midwest USA to Sri Lanka via HKG.

I just can't imagine there to be a lot of traffic between HKG and Sri Lanka, except for the feeder traffic to/from China / NEA / Americas.

I think it is mainland China factor. I was in CMB about a year ago and quite surprise there were many Chinese there.

This is probably why actually they are downsizing the aircraft. Must be much cheaper to fly a 333 than a 77W. For connecting traffic they can offer same product as long haul too.

Maybe they considered changing to a 33G to fly HKG-SIN-CMB same routing as they have now, but decided that using a SIN slot to fly 33G was not worth it as there are not enough seats there to fill demand, so just bypass SIN and fly direct to CMB instead.

Random thought / data point - when I last took HKG-SIN-CMB, at luggage claim in CMB, noticed quite a lot of bags from QF flights connecting in SIN onto CX to CMB. If you look at say SYD/MEL to CMB today, you can fly on QF to SIN connecting onto QF codeshare flight number (operated by EK) to CMB.

last time i flew SIN - CMB, Y was like 10-20% full... loads were terrible...

I see that CX711/2710 are back in the schedules after 30th March onwards.

Whilst 2710 is bookable, 711 seems to have been zero'd out. Anyone got the inside scoop? seasonal direct and via SIN at other times, or canning the plans to go direct altogether (the direct flights are still bookable till March end- i know..if only wishes could fly!)?

I checked for next July, CX2710 is still on the schedule, but can’t be booked. According an AA agent (RTW desk), the whole flight was “sold out”, her exact words.


Seems new schedule (for non-stop CMB-HKG-CMB) has yet to be loaded. On CX web site, tried flight search CMB-HKG for next summer. Still came up with CMB-SIN-HKG on CX2710 and CX736 respectively.

October 27, 2014 is not that far away!!!

Can someone comment on the 333 long haul business seat as quoted in the linked article?

They are, IMO, the best seats in business. No pun intended.