Changing/Cancelling return journey for my son
 

Hi There Everyone,

I bought return tickets with Cathay Pacific (directly online) for London to Hong Kong for my son and myself.

We are currently in Hong Kong and scheduled to leave on the 20th January. However, we managed to find a school in Hong Kong who are willing to offer my son a place starting at the end of January. Therefore my son will not be travelling with me.

When I purchased my ticket, I was told that there would be no refunds, but changes were charged at £100. However, since I booked both tickets under the same reservation (because my son is only 6 years old and cannot travel alone), I had to book together. Cathay Pacific will not let me change just one passenger journey. It has to be for both of us.

Now I have a dilemma, if my son just doesn't show for the flight, will it be dealt with as no-show? Will I be charged? Will I still be able to travel without him? Is there any possible way of changing just my son's ticket?

Thanks for your time and advice!

Joe

ask them again if you can use your son's ticket for a future flight with you. i dont see why not. but you should be fine unless you've got a group ticket (even then i've forfeited GV2 tickets and my mom flew w no problems)

You can travel without your son. Yes his part of the ticket will be a no-show, but you'll only be charged if you want to rebook it. Otherwise, the ticket will just expire.

If son is only 6, presumably a parent or nanny will travel to bring him back from HKG at the next vacation or end of the term, so if you know the date, you might want to book that ticket at the same time as you make the change. That way there will be no issue about the reservation looking like the boy will be traveling alone, possibly at an age too young for travel as an unaccompanied minor on this route. You need to split the PNR and then make changes, liking the son's changed ticket to the new adult ticket.

Depending on your fare rules, you could lose the remaining value in the child's ticket if you don't make the change (or at least split the PNR and cancel the reservation) before the flight. If he just no shows, you should still be permitted to fly on your ticket, but you might not be able to use your son's return ticket later. However, this may be moot if your son's later travel will violate the maximum stay rule in his fare, so you should look for this in the fare rules before planning to use the remainder of the ticket much later. It might even be cheaper for the boy to return to the UK with you now and travel again to HKG at the end of January, depending on the dates involved and the minimum and maximum stay rules that CX uses on various fares.

Are you on a GV2 type ticket (as mentioned in kaka's post)? It may be under "Restrictions" and may say who you must check in with.

What's a GV2 ticket? How do I check? I booked directly with Cathay's website. The booking classes are LHR-HKG = "S" and HKG-LHR = "N".


That's something I can live with since we have no idea when to book his return ticket for. I did check to change to 1st August, but had to change my own ticket too and total charge was over £700.


What's the easiest way to check rules?



How do I check whether I am on GV2 ticket?


THANKS FOR ALL THE ADVICE SO FAR!!!

Bump please.

Perhaps consider changing the ticket to a future date when you will both be travelling together, and buy yourself a ticket for your travel on the original date. That is to say if your ticket was a return ticket A->B->A, and given you have already travelled together A->B, now purchase yourself a B->A->B ticket and when you return, travel together with your son on the remaining leg of the original ticket B->A

Call CX reservations and ask them if your fare basis is a GV2 ticket. If it is not, then tell them to SPLIT the reservation, so that you will have one reference and your son will have another separate reference.

You can then change your son's reservation separately to another date or else cancel it or no show it.

It will not affect your booking in any way and you can still travel to London and you do not need to pay the change fee as there are NO changes to your ticket. Your e-ticket is still the same, as is everything you originally booked including seat selection and meals (if booked special). You may also still retain the same reservations code... if a new one is generated, then your son would have the original booking code. Whatever you do with your son's booking is now separate from yours.

Thanks for the advice.

Your messages came a little late, but what I did in the end was very similar to what you suggested. I ended up cancelling my son's ticket because they were asking for HKD1500 for changing to April because the ticket had to be used within 3 months of original departure.

My son wouldn't be able to leave then so I cancelled it and was offered a refund for the taxes since the ticket was strictly non-refundable.

I guess it's better than nothing. Thanks again!

How much were you able to get back after all the cancellation fees?

Your part of the ticket is still valid right?

I'm not too sure, she did mention around £100 or so pounds. It works out as just the taxes for the return trip I think.

Yes, my flight was as normal.