boybi

I also saved around US$1,000 per ticket for my upcoming flight with CX in J by booking through my travel agent.

Cathay Dragon 666

Any idea where CX has "outsourced" their sale of I-class China fares to? So far I've checked a few popular Chinese internet airline ticket sites and all showing the same or similar price as CX full-J fares for their C class.

GE90-115B

Maybe it has to do with the fact that it's MNL. MNL, like TPE, is notorious for having cheaper J class fares.

TravelwhileyouEat

Yes, Ex-MNL does have notoriously low J fares MNL-SFO-MNL comes out 3.8~4.0K USD, but that's beside the point. I wanted to book directly with CX since it's the most convenient. I was comparing the same route on CX's website with the same exact itinerary on an OTA. The convenience was not worth the almost $850 difference in the fare or almost 50% more.

I wish CX just offered the same fare price, this was on an I fare that had the same penalties as the one on the CX website.

A35J

Read many years ago it was because GC Nanda helped "secure an extra slot in DEL" (whatever that means...) In exchange, GC Nanda has the exclusive right to sell discounted ex-HKG tickets whereas Cathay must display the full fare.

Anyone knows when will the agreement expire?

sxc

Analysts' grim outlook for Cathay:

Cathay Pacific may report 2016 profit slump amid sluggish fares
http://www.scmp.com/directories/arti...-ticket-prices

triplefives

When I was reading through the article, I couldn't help but note the numerous pathetic excuses. For flights booked from HKG, based on what they're charging to HK customers, the passenger yields ($ per mile) are fine and dandy and they should be able to make a decent profit there.

They can legitimately gripe if they're talking about yields on connecting traffic, but yet, they want to increase capacity to further reduce yields???

Yes, the airline world has changed with the A350 and 787 which allow the long and thin routes (as well the subsidies to the mainland carriers), but instead of complaining, why don't they try to stop the knee-jerk reactions that ultimately create repeated waves of bad decisions?

KACommuter

The issue is they have diluted profitability as the HK market for high paying passengers is saturated. After all how many more investment bankers are there in HK by now? So their capacity expansion is very much catering to transit passengers, which are inherently less profitable.

Additionally the combination of inflated ex-HKG pricing and the new MPC status system actively encourages shopping for cheaper one stop J flights versus buying PEY and upgrading. Why pay HK$28k + 30,000 miles for a non-stop CX HKG/LHR J seat and get 110 TP's when QR costs HK$25k and gets 200 TP's?

Ausriver

I guess it will depend on company policy regarding travel classes...

SLGO

Exactly. While CX is trying to lure MPC members to fly J, it inevitably encourages them to fly J on OTHER OW partners given the higher CP/Price ratio.

QRC3288

yea. I'm not sure they understood this when rejiggering the program.

I might get flamed for saying this, and it is indeed selfish given my travel patterns, but I'd kill to have DM (or GO or whatnot) be "better" in relation to the basic OW partner benefits (formalize op-up priority for MPCs first, exclusive lounge for F and DMs only, etc.), which would justify DM and GO's significantly harder earn requirements vs most of their OW peers. As of now it's considerably harder to earn DM than most other OWE programs, yet there aren't a slew of tangible benefits.

I give CX credit for adding the mid-tier benefits. For someone like me they're good, because I can easily do 1,800 CP a year. But I imagine for most it's not enough. Take a Diamond who barely hits 1,200 CP. In many scenarios, it would be significantly easier for him to earn OWE via AA, BA or QF (in some cases you can earn partner OWEs in about half or less the $$ spent than on CX). This Diamond stands to receive none of the mid-tier benefits, so they are moot to him. Meanwhile, he runs the risk of not making DM because of how close his travel patterns are. This guy has a big incentive to switch over to another program. Whereas if CX actually made MPC benefits tangibly better than other partners, he might continue to accrue on MPC.

How can CX do this? Basically, they should be utilizing the assets they have - planes, lounges, HK Airport - to offer benefits above and beyond the normal OneWorld benefits, which naturally would pull people towards MPC. It would be an additional carrot you'd have to weigh in your value proposition.

I can give a personal example. I fly an excessive amount. The majority of my flights are on CX/KA, but I still probably do 40-80k+ butt in seat miles a year on other carriers (which usually translates into 75-150k "miles" after accounting for J and F bonuses wand whatnot). When I'm flying those other carriers, I wouldn't mind using the CX lounges in HKG...a nice benefit I previously had as a CX DM. But not anymore. This was definitely a "unique" aspect of MPC I'm talking about, where partners obviously don't get the benefit. CX needs to do a better job capitalizing on its assets IMO to actually make MPC stronger. Every OneWorld member out there knows you can't use OW lounges when flying on other airlines, so obviously partner travelers won't be peeved about this. It was a great way to actually enhance MPC without pi$$ing anyone off. And then...they took it away. I can't imagine it cost much, and I'm fairly certain it's not DMs on *A carriers crowding up the J lounges. CX has this data...I don't think I'm going out on a limb saying that. Most of my non-CX miles are indeed from airports not named Hong Kong. But sometimes (not often) I do.

Anyway, given CX's other problems I'm not optimistic. But the solution seems fairly obvious to me. Offer MPC benefits above and beyond those what simple partner benefits offer.

sxc

And other carriers encourage you to fly your "home" carrier by bonus mileage earning. As it is, there's too much stick and not enough carrot.

SLGO

You've got the point. Virtually no exclusive benefits to MPC members as also said above.

Sometimes I feel like it's those Silver members who are the most loyal, as only they have "exclusive" benefits.

Ausriver

I am one of those who barely made DM, 14xx cp last year and I saved about 200 cp for this year. I never intentionally flies other OW J before but since the switch I have taken 14 J flights with QR, MH and QF, mostly long haul. Those OW J flights almost made up 600 cp.
Company only allows travel in Y or I can pay the fare difference for PEY and with the V fare benefit gone, it actually wouldn't make much difference to me if I'm with another program, as long as I'm OWE.
If I would be flying any less, I will switch 100% as GO is a lot worse than OWE even if flying CX exclusively.

SLGO

Similar thoughts here. Although I don't fly much, but I may reach OWS with BA while only get SL with CX.