Form letter reply from Customer Relations
 

Last mont, I booked a departure flight for the wrong day (November 26th instead of November 25th) but didn't notice my mistake until after paying for the booking (I'm visually impaired, which doesn't help things). The website wouldn't allow me to change the booking. When I tried calling US reservations, they were already closed for the day. When I called the next morning, they told me the flight on the 25th was no longer available at my fare and basically said, tough luck.

Last week, I filled out the customer relations form on the CX website about the problem I had. The next day, I got what appeared to be a form letter saying they are dealing with more inquiries than normal, so they can't address my concerns in the level of detail they would like. They said they would forward my feedback to management for possible future improvements, but didn't address my specific problem. I replied to the email they sent, suggesting a specific remedy for my issue, but so far, I haven't even received an acknowledgement that they received my follow up message.

Should I just wait to see if they eventually respond or is there any way I.can be more proactive about it?

It is possible that your booking class was already sold out, although that is not usually the case around US Thanksgiving. Which flight and booking class did you ticket for? Which was your intended flight?

I was wanting a flight getting to HKG on the 27th instead of the 28th. I booked 883 on the 26th. I should have booked 881 the same day or 883 on the 25th.

I've noticed that the fares for my dates have been fluctuating a lot. One day after I called, the flight I wanted was available again, but it was too late to change without penalty at that point. The booking is in the N fare class.

I realize it was my mistake, but I found it quite frustrating that there seemed to be no way to fix the mistake right away since neither the website or reservations were available to help me that night. I suppose I could have tried to cancel and rebook, but that would have tied up most of my credit line until they got around to refunding the cancelled tickets.

This means we will be killing time in LA for two nights instead of one, with one day less to enjoy Hong Kong before going on to MNL than we planned on. No offense to LA, but we'd rather get to Hong Kong as soon as we can.

N is not available anymore on those two flights, and not even on your currently ticketed flight:
25-Nov CX 883: F4 A4 J9 C9 D9 I9 W9 R9 E8 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V7 S0 N0 Q0 O0
26-Nov CX 881: F5 A5 J9 C9 D9 I9 W9 R9 E7 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0
26-Nov CX 883: F5 A5 J9 C9 D9 I9 W9 R9 E9 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S0 N0 Q0 O0

Those flights have lower availability than your current flight n(V7, V0 versus V9). You may not be able to book N for those flights even if you have not made that mistake. At this moment with no N availability, you will not be able to change the flight even if doable in N (I am not sure if N ticket can be changed). It is possible that N may open the last 2 days. You can check if you can re-ticket at that time (again if fare rules allow such change).

The alternate flights were available at the same fare the night I booked. I checked to be sure as soon as I realized my error. However, with no way to contact reservations and no option to change the booking online, I wasn't able to change the booking. I thought about cancelling and rebooking, but figured that might trigger a fraud alert on my credit card, in addition to maxing out my credit line.

The next morning, the fare was no longer available. It was available again the day after. Someone must have held a reservation and then cancelled it.

Next time, I will put a reservation on hold, rather than pay for it right away. That would give me time to ensure there is no error with the booking first.

Fare rules allow change, but at $200 per ticket, plus fare difference. That's a pretty steep expense for a family of four.

I see. That can indeed be very bad. I suppose the fare difference is about USD300 between V and N. With a $200 penalty per ticket, that will cost a family of four an additional USD4x(300+200)=2000, which may be more than half of your current N ticket.

I don't know how full they are. If not too full, they may release some N fares the last few days, but that can be a huge gamble. The flights may also be so sold out that only the highest fares are available.

Sorry, but what exactly are you looking to get out of this?
1) You booked the wrong date.
2) US Reservation was closed for the day
3) You called next day (which I assume still within the 24 hour cancel-frame), and you been told Nov 25 is not longer available.

If you cannot/do not want to travel on Nov 26. Then why didn't you cancel your ticket at this point?


Then 3+ weeks later, you decided to email CSR. What exactly are you trying to achieve here??! :confused:
For them to pity your mistake magically offer you Nov 25 again without a change fee?!?

Yes it was my mistake. Yes, I could have cancelled, but I had no way to know that the fare would be back the next day. So, I decided to make the best of it. No need to attack me. I think I've been candid about the mistakes I've made.

Before writing customer relations, I contacted US reservations and asked them what I should have done differently under the circumstances. They told me that if I had listened to the entire after hours message, it gives an alternate toll-free number to call in Hong Kong. They said that if I had done this right away the evening I booked, I might have been able to get my problem fixed. The problem is that what they told me was not accurate. If you call US reservations after hours, the message does not refer you to any alternate after hours contact number, at least not when calling from a cell phone, which is all I have.

My issue is that they told me they have a process in place that I should have used to correct my mistake and it was my fault for not taking advantage of that, when in reality they do not seem to have that process in place. If they're telling customers that they have that option as a fallback, then they need to make sure it works like they say it does.

I don't expect a miracle, but I can always ask.

CX's IT and phone systems are substandard. That's why I almost exclusively use TAs except for CX Holidays.

At this moment, I am uncertain what to suggest...

Not trying to be rude here, but it would've solved your problem if you just called CX Hong Kong reservations. It's daytime in HK during the US evening. Maybe this can help you sometime in the future. Intl calling costs are virtually nil these days with Google and Skype. While Cathay has offices all around the world, Hong Kong is headquarters. Dialing HK from Google is 2 cents per minute..hardly a burden. No intl calling plan needed. Takes 5 minutes tops to setup.

In general my impression living outside the US is - right or wrong - the customer is expected to have a higher duty of responsibility, as long as the company provides a solution. CX Hong Kong reservations are quite accessible (unlike Cathay's MPC club, which is a complete disgrace for non-elites). And as you mention, you even had an outlet - you could cancel the ticket and rebook immediately. Your credit line and fraud alerts are your own business, not CX's. Again I don't mean to sound harsh, but that's just not their problem.

It'd be one thing if it was impossible to reach them....but that's really not the case. And the compensation culture where the customer is always right doesn't quite exist in Asia. You've got a burden to book your tickets correctly and, if you make a mistake, the responsibility is on you to find a way to rectify it. Not the company.

The biggest mistake I made was paying for the tickets right away when I reserved instead of putting a 24 hour hold on them. I'm so accustomed to having to purchase tickets at time of booking for US carriers that I didn't pay much attention to the hold option. Had I done this, I could have easily rebooked when I realized my mistake. Lesson learned for next time.

We'll make the best of it. We will still have three days in HK, but it means we'll be checking out Universal Studios Holloywood in LA instead of visiting Ocean Park in HK.

CX reservations contacted me last week. After some calls back-and-forth with them about the details of my case, we were able to come up with a solution. They didn't have any N class space left for an earlier outbound flight from LAX, but they were able to move our final HKG-LAX segment back by a couple days, giving us a second stop over in HKG on our way home. We will still have a couple nights in LA on our way over, but at least we were able to trim our time in LA down to an overnight for our trip back to DEN.

They very graciously waived the change fees and since the new fare was lower than what I originally paid, I didn't owe any additional fare. I don't think they will be refunding the fare difference, but I wasn't expecting them to.

I consider myself very fortunate.