How does CX prioritize passengers in the event of a strike?

For example, I'm traveling on F and J award tickets issued by a partner. I'm assuming for a cancellation inside of 24 hrs the burden falls on CX to get me to my destination (I'm told outside of 24 hrs the onus is on the ticketing carrier).

Would premium cabin partner awards be stapled to the very bottom, meaning CX's own pax on deeply discounted economy fares would be processed first? Or would premium cabin partner awards simply fall below, say, revenue First or Asia Miles awards where the passenger has CX status?

While I'm primarily interested in this topic for my own reasons, perhaps it would be helpful to construct a strike wiki that outlines reaccommodation procedures? (I didn't see one, though apologize if I was remiss).

Best to all - Jamie

Don't we have 2 or more threads on the strike alerady?

1) It's 3 months away, whether or not it will materialize is still even a huge question.
2) The last strike by CX of scale is a decade ago
3) I highly doubt anyone here would have such internalize procedure / policies
4) Even if such (updated) policy exist, and the strike does happen - do you think CX / HKG / outports will really follow it to the dot? Just look at the weather in the past week. Even statusless members have been op-upped.

1) Being a road warrior implies being armed and dangerous, outsmarting the weak and crushing your opponents. It doesn't just mean you fly alot. No such thing as too much information.

2) All the more reason we need updated info, as past precedent is an unlikely guide.

3) True, some questions are above and beyond the pay grade of FT.

4) All the more reason it helps to confront outstations with the rules they should follow. It doesn't always work, I admit. But this is why I carry a contract of carriage on my person, as well as lounge entry guidelines. I've never had any difficulty on CX, but I have had to pull out ammunition to prove my case both in outstations AND hubs of other airlines.

But I agree overall, hopefully this is no big deal.

Travel safely - Jamie

i don't know the answer to Jamie's question, but my selfish suspicion as to why this thread didn't gain more traction is this is the CX / MPC forum. While we rant a lot about CX here in general, I do think many forum members here are AM / MPC etc, and are flying on CX as such. Most of us are indeed "road warriors" in jamie's definition, but the last thing I want are a bunch of AA partner award tickets running around HKIA when the crowds are the worst, ranting and raving with the rules in hand and ruining my chances of getting rebooked. Of course, as a DM, I prefer CX prioritize us!. I hope no offense is taken here just putting my cards on the table!

I am clueless to the exact rules, but I guess if this anecdote is helpful as a long-time DM, I can say that my beefs with CX aside, accommodations / rebooking / etc when problems arise are things CX has absolutely gone above and beyond the pale for me , on multiple occasions, leading me to suspect CX has an incredible amount of discretion to solve problems if they deem you're worth it. My own experiences are due to a.) storms, b.) pilot work to rule, c.) tech planes (x multiple times), d.) items left on the plane and once dropped on the tarmac..(oops), and e.) a few idiotic things completely of my own fault that I cannot print here but suffice to say I was 100% to blame, two of the situations were quite serious, and yet some CX staff took it upon themselves to save my a$$. Very very grateful. In these situations, it was completely discretion and I have no doubt the rulebook was not followed to a "T", so to speak. Because if it was my problems were not getting solved.

I strongly suspect CX will prioritize a DM in trouble over a partner award, particularly now with this "CIS" or "CIV" thing where CX basically ranks their members. Even flying in J or Y I've been bumped to flights I had no business being on, I know of at least one instance where I have been rebooked priority over another F passenger...we were standing in line trying to get on the same KA flight to PVG after a cancellation of the CX service. He was an F pax continuing on to PVG originally in F but now KA was 2 class. I strongly suspect he was either a partner award or a cash ticket without any status. Granted, that flight was J only but the guy wanted on it badly, and didn't score the seat, and I did....as a Y-class passenger, and was promptly op-upped to J (I can also recount instances, PEK and PVG come to mind, where I utterly failed in my ability to get help, presumably due to the sheer # of DMs on those flights).

CX has a decent idea who pays their bills (including non-status, US-based passengers who buy cash tickets...I think they're tracking you folks too, which is certainly to your benefit). As to whether or not there is a written policy a la American style, I don't know. I don't think a written policy helps us CX elites! Although I understand why you would want that. But I know that when I've needed it, I have been accommodated without issue. it seems CX has a lot of flexibility to help their own members if they so decide it's worth it.

**edit, could be a moot point...strike looks averted...for now***

I think CX definitely prioritizes in some way their highest tier members over most other passengers, but sometimes they can be flexible for travelers especially if you're just transiting in HKG. For example, last time I encountered issues going PVGSIN, they rebooked be onto SQ without asking me for my tier (they were just going off people in the line).

Seems like institutionally transit pax (ie grAAbers) are first, but ground staff has some discretion to bump DMs up

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...assengers.html

Do grAAbers have CIV scores of their own on CX?

id assume yes, but should be rather low.

Why don't we wait to see if a strike will happen first. If you're too worried that your flight is going to be disrupted then change carriers now while you have the chance.

Wow, grAAbers, nice term.

Respectfully, waiting until something goes wrong to then try and decipher the rules isn't how I prefer to travel. And yes, I've booked two backups for my family - though regrettably that takes 8 award seats out of inventory for others, in addition to the 4 I originally booked. But so be it. It does appear as if the strike may be averted.

As for the other topics, I agree with others that transit pax should be given priority over local pax. Sure, this can work against me, but even with my status I don't think it would be appropriate to unseat a connecting passenger trying to transit to a single-daily departure at the hub, rather than me wait for another local segment a few hours later.

As for the other issue, I basically believe ticketed cabins should be walled off. Take care of all F passengers, but certainly prioritize your own elites while partners are at the bottom. Then take care of all J passengers, then all Y. Prioritizing your own Y passenger before a partner-booked F passenger is bad business, in my opinion.

My other question, which I didn't both to ask given the tepid initial response to my post...how will CX prioritize split-ticketed passengers when children are involved? For example, if I'm in F and my kids are in J (or even Y) on another PNR, that would create an issue. Here in the States, it works out well - the airlines can't force the kids to fly alone (they're minors, and can't be sent on without the parents' permission + copay), so the convention is to RAISE the kids to the priority of the parent(s). I'd be interested if CX also follows this "highest common denominator" procedure, or whether the parents would be LOWERED to the kids level of cabin/status. I do know that when it comes to companion upgrades (admittedly more of a US thing) that status is usually determined by the LOWEST common denomintor.

All the best, Jamie

No carrier in its right mind (if carriers have minds) would publicly disclose any such priority. Why? Because it simply begets petty bickering at a moment when tempers are hot, people are really stuck and favoritism is disfavored (unless you are favored).

It goes without saying that any carrier will take care of its highest value customers (not necessarily status, but value), those whom it must take care of (e.g., disabled, kids), and the noisy (getting someone out of your hair is a wonderful thing). And needless to say, senior executives will make arrangements for their friends.

Thus, buy a CX level a drink, get his mobile # and keep it with you.

Pinched from the JL forum http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/24878607-post22.html

Holy. Moly. !! Is anyone from CX paying attention?!

Now I know why I can't secure F award seats!!!! I stand no chance. I can't book vacations much in advance, and hearing these anecdotes now I know why I don't have a shot scoring as a DM (ie, I use Asia Miles as my mileage currency) within my ideal booking window of 4-12 weeks out.

Jamie, if I'm correct, you are AA not MPC right? How is it possible to hold so many premium award tix for the same route? CX is always harassing me to ticket my award bookings, gives me deadlines (which are semi-flexible, but CX/MPC always gives me a drop-dead date and then forces me to ticket), and then charges me $25 whenever I want a change. Not to mention, once I issue that ticket it's only valid for 12 months and I can't refund the miles, so it would be really crazy of me to issue 3x tickets on a single award itinerary.

Am I missing something? Or is this another one of those situations where it is actually better to be an AA EXP booking J and F award tickets on CX versus MPC?

(bold mine)

I think Jamie is an AA EXP, so he can redeem tickets with AA miles knowing there will be no cost to redepositing his miles later whatsoever.

https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/r...sp#reinstating
http://travelsort.com/blog/american-...-to-avoid-them

So (if he has the AA miles) he can book every F seat CX releases from JFK for weeks on end, and hold them til day of departure.

MPC DMs are at a disadvantage here, given I don't believe even DMs have waiver from the US$120 cancellation fees.

!!! Wow. NOW I UNDERSTAND! CX has limited visibility into their F loading because of partner cancellations. This explains the seemingly bizarre phenomenon below, which I've encountered multiple times (including this month):

1.) Try to upgrade J to F about a few months in advance. I am MPC DM.
2.) Told award inventory sold out.
3.) I waitlist. I don't clear, or take myself off eventually.
4.) I GET AN OP-UP TO F.

Yes, on multiple occasions I have gotten op-upped to F when I tried 1-2 months prior using my Asia Miles to upgrade to that very F seat I ended up getting for free. Brilliant.

Before, this situation made zero sense. But I now I get it. CX must have crap visibility into their F loading due to generous partner award cancellation policies! As a result, they aren't optimizing the F cabin yields. CX has no idea what the F loading is actually going to be like because they face all these partner redemption cancellations last minute! So what often happens is, guys like me who try to use our AM miles to book seats fail. So we are "stuck" in J class, until say 2 AA redeemers cancel their F ticket 3 days out. CX can't sell the seat, Y or J is overbooked anyway, and I get an op-up.

Or, even worse (from CX's profitability point of view), ID passengers fill up Y and J class, and then I get the op-up. Either way, it's both crap revenue management and a dis-incentive to join MPC/AM because you're at a disadvantage within your own program!

Obviously I can't be 100% sure, but given the # of AAdvantage members I meet on board CX F cabins to/from North America, I know it's a safe bet to say at least 2, if not more seats on every F flight I take to JFK, SFO and LAX are partner redemptions, not cash or MPC tickets. It would only make sense for folks to behave in the way jamie describes, it's completely logical. I would do exactly the same if I lived in the US and booked to AA. I'm just amazed CX has allowed it for this long. They're leaving revenues on the table.