Cathay Dragon 666

Bought Royal Jordanian and China Airlines instead, total for family of 5 all Biz is $4000 USD. Had I fly on Cathay the total would of been almost $6000 USD.

My travel agent can attest I'm as loyal to Cathay as it comes. I always ask for Cathay fares first and would still fly Cathay if they are reasonably more than non-LCC competitors. But not with a big difference.

So Cathay has driven me to Royal Jordanian and yet I still earn MPO points and miles. Also with all the MU and CI flights I'm banking I'm quickly becoming SkyTeam elite. Good job Cathay, other airlines and alliances should send you thank you cards.

d00t

In fairness, just as CX probably hasn't figured out its MPO which is causing damage in many key areas; other airlines likely can't figure out why the uplift in a certain segment.

eponymous_coward

Oh, so NOW price is important. I see.

So it's all about service levels until it's all about the price. Got it.

Cathay Dragon 666

No, if you take what I have written comprehensively it's about everything - service level, price, quality of product, catering, etc.

If it's Cathay vs. LCC such as Ryan Air, no brainer, it's Cathay.

If it's Cathay vs. Royal Jordanian. RJ offers flat bed, great Thai crew service, and strong catering, AND cheaper? I think anyone with any logical sense would choose RJ.

The old reason to pay a premium to stay a DM is no longer in play as Cathay as greatly reduced DM benefits to pretty much equal any and all benefits that comes with any C class ticket. If that is the case, time to spread the money around different airlines to enjoy same or in some cases better C class services at a reduced price? Surly, besides blind loyalty to Cathay, who wouldn't do this?

warakorn

Transpacific fares drop even below USD 500 quite regularly - just saw SEA-PVG-SEA at this price range with UA.

eponymous_coward

Sure, but RJ is running a fifth freedom route BKK-HKG-BKK, just like EK does (and KQ I believe). Usually prices on fifth freedom routes are very good because you're desperately trying to fill the plane- you typically don't have much local feed, the timings are often bad. Basically you're willing to fill the plane on that segment at a loss because the alternative is flying a bunch of empty seats at a BIGGER loss. But a fifth freedom route isn't really going to matter all that much as competition, any more than UA and DL flying NRT-SIN back in the day killed SQ.

CX is having the same thing happen to it that SQ, LH, BA, US3 and others are; pricing pressure from airlines like the ME3/CZ/MU/BR/CI that can affect C yields, pricing pressure from AK/TR/3K/HX that can affect Y yields. They also fly pretty expensive widebodies to places where the LCCs fly narrowbodies at MUCH less cost. It isn't all that clear to me that the solution is premium pricing in Y and discounted C plus shoveling goodies at elites. It seems to me that SQ and CX are having to deal with the same problems the USA airlines ended up with when WN showed up and began poaching customers right and left (and European airlines deal with when FR/U2 started taking customers away). The bottom line is airlines don't work without cheap Y filling the longhaul planes (and shorthaul routes start getting problematic if an LCC can seriously undercut you on price and cost when they fly a 737 and you fly a 777).

As for devaluing the elite proposition: AA, UA, DL, LH, BA, AF, AC have all managed to do this in one form or another in the past decade (so it's not unique to CX at all). In many cases pretty serious devaluation- devaluing awards in miles or availability, removing benefits, making benefits contingent on spend instead of miles flown. The US3 are making record profits while doing this.