CX does not considerpassengers'card status when upgrading !
 

To all you people who think that CX upgrade passengers based on their OneWorld/MPO Club status...think again! Perfect example of the chaos that ensured happened today at BKK.

I have a confirmed J class ticket on CX713 from BKK to SIN. A business collegue who is travelling with me had a confirmed (and in fact, reconfirmed with CX 2 days ago) ticket in coach. He arrived at the airport first and received his boarding pass.He had been upgraded to Business Class. I had arrived about 30 minutes later to what looked like a war zone at the CX check-in counter at BKK airport.

When my collegue enquired at the Business Class counter if he could be seated next to me, he was told that I would be bumped off instead. So he asked that the new seating assignment be held till I arrived. When I did, I was told that I am being bumped off and would be put (along with 4 other passengers) onto another carrier. Our choices were GARUDA (!!!) or THAI airways. I didn't care so I asked my collegue to just take his flight and continue onto Singapore.
The check-in agent,whose name he REFUSED to give at the end of this fiasco, advised us that his seat had been given away because he had offloaded him while he was waiting for me! My collegue,whom I will initial "F' , literally blew his top!

There were only a handful of CX staff in BKK airport. The check-in staff are THAI AIRWAYS staff and they cannot care less if you flash them your MPO or Oneworld card in front of them. This particular agent, manning the Business Class counter (note: I know what you look like, even you refused to give us your name) ... had an attitude problem. When we asked him if all passengers upgraded to Business Class were Marco Polo members, he replied yes and brushed us off. We learned from CX staff later on that there were only 4-6 full fare paying Business Class passengers, and that everyone else sitting in the 60 seat section of Business Class today was upgraded.

Now what rifed us was the fact that CX told the check-in staff and especially the one manning the Business Class counters to HOLD the confirmed and reserved Business Class passengers till the counter officially closes... but this bozo released all the Business Class seats to the masses and literally nonstatus, tour group passengers were replacing full fare revenue earning Business Class passengers like me ...! Which is really not right!

Okay - there is nothing to be done. The seat is gone so what is CX doing about it? They endorsed the remaining J class passengers over to THAI and some to SQ.As I already hold a full fare ticket I could endorse and change to any airline I choose. But I wasted over 5 hours at the airport because of this!

Back to the bozo at the check-in counter. While he was processing 'F's 'ticket, he took his passport but didn't return it. We were searching high and low for his passport to which we said to Bozo that he was the last one to handle the passport. To which he denied that he ever took the passport and he never forgets and that we are 'mistaken and disillutioned`. The CX supervisor came over to see what the commotion was about and when we told her the story ... she began to look for the passport herself after the Bozo who lost refused to assist her any further. Guess where she found it? Right where Bozo had left it when he wnet to change the reservation to TG. To which he now just smiled and said his apologises...

Meanwhile F blew his top and I have known him for over 25 odd years and have never seen him blow his top before. This THAI staff is not fit to serve premium CX customers!

CX supervisor assured us that CX will credit mileage even though we flew on another carrier...now whether they treat it as status miles is another matter and I will have to wait a couple of days to address this issue when the miles post! She said she had telexed to HKG. But we`re also talking about the hitler types who man the customer relations department...so getting through them is another problem!

So what is the recourse here? Write to CX and complain bitterly about this bozo? I'm okay - I just went over to SQ and am now typing this post in the SQ First Class lounge..(I have a First Class ticket anyway). I know when I see 'F'tonight , I will be hearing an earful.

SO this is the story...when a flight is way overbooked on Cathay, you will be upgraded based on the time you check in..ie the later you are, the best time it is to be upgraded... and yes, you can even bump us Marco Polo and Oneworld Emerald passengers off!

PS-Please excuse my typos.Horrible keyboard in the SQ F Class lounge!



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[This message has been edited by Guy Betsy (edited 11-27-2001).]

let us know what CX's response is. i'm shocked at the way the BKK ground staff handled the matter.

Sorry to hear about all the mess and poor handling.

I was there on Friday. Those TG staff operationally upgraded me to Hong Kong all right. I had my Silver status in my reservation.

similar incidences happen in these airports.
whenever the staff is from other airline, MPO means close to nothing.

i always search for the CX uniform when i check in from these ports.

LHR is one black spot. US/Canada are a lot better, staffed by CX people, except in JFK.

i myself have repeated commented to MPO that they need at least one CX staff on each airport. GB, let us know what they say. to solve this problem they need to put at least 1 CX uniformed staff to each airport

This is discouraging to hear! I'm leaving out of BKK on a J ticket in two days time! How does one identify the "real" CX staff if trouble arises?

Calling the so-called 24 hour customer relations desk (which basically is the MPO line) is useless. I asked about what sort of compensation can one expect when bumped off a flight. The answer? "Don't know" - call tomorrow morning. HELLO? What if I'm in the US? I'd have to fit my calls to suit Cathay's timing?

What's the compensation for say AA or BA? Does anyone know? Since they're oneworld members, maybe CX might offer something similar. Or not!

Cathay is losing money - and they have lost even more today ... the upgrading of low revenue passengers to Business Class, the loss of actual full fare revenue Business Class passengers to other carriers. And what's worse is that other carriers who take on CX's passengers are not going to charge a contracted rate to CX. They'll probably milk CX for a full Y fare ticket.

Don't get me wrong. I still like CX for the service in the air. BKK ground staff did their best (at least the CX staff did) but their contracted staff from THAI obviously could not care less! I heard from a disgrunted CX senior staff today that 'management' is considering letting the THAI staff wear Cathay Pacific uniforms when checking in passengers!

the horror! we won't be able to tell the contract staff from the real staff anymore!

This may not help but ....

I think TG staff are in light purple uniform like those of TG itself.

CX staff, like those you see in HKG, wear red or dark purple uniforms and you will find them at the lounges airside.

CX also has its office open during check-in hours on a level one up from the departure floor, which is overlooking the departure hall. There I would think you would only find CX staff.

Reminds me of a time last year when I was flying J KUL-HKG. They had a trainess on the Club desk with the pros working the Economy desks. That would have been fine if he was supervised, he was not. It literally took 20 minutes for him to check me in!!!!!

In relation to contractor check-in staff wearing an airline's uniform is a common practice in airline business.

One example can be found at Air NZ Premium Check-in desks at Sydney Airport where Qantas staff wear Air NZ uniforms.

I feel airlines need to have their own staff at airports where they have several flights to/from a particular airport. For example, Cathay Pacific has its own staff at Sydney Airport and CX only has two flights a day.

On the other hand BKK have several CX flights from BKK to SIN, BOM/DXB, CMB, and HKG...therefore, there should be a strong case for CX to have their own staff at BKK as this will ensure that service delivery are kept at its highest standards of the airline.

If you have contractors working on behalf of an airline, I have found that staff attitude is different, product knowledge is not up to date and finally, morale is low.

Therefore, I think Guy Betsy has a legitimate reason to ask CX Customer Relations for a "Please Explain" from BKK Airport Manager as to what happened to Full Fare Business Class passengers where they were told to move to TG or SQ.

I think this is vert appalling for TG check-in staff to tell a Premium CX passenger to go and fly with TG or SQ.



[This message has been edited by etravelconsult (edited 11-26-2001).]

This probably will not work as 100% guarantee but CX also offers Internet check-in from 24 hours before departure. (Only for Marco Polo members?) You can get a seat assignment before going to the airport and you will also get a 'boarding pass,' which you can print out.

You need to pick up the actual boarding pass at the airport.

It also works for award tickets for CX flights issued by AA, for instance, so long as CX can enter your Marco Polo Club number, which doubls as AsiaMiles number.

I did this for my last flight out of BKK for economy, had a seat assigned. When I got there, it was upgraded, though. 'Icheck' will be shown on the tab side of the boarding pass. You also get bonus miles after doing this several times.

It seems to me that CX will station their own staffs at the CX gateway ports where many Chinese resides. For example, Vancouver also only have 2 flights a day (like SYD), not to mention one of them takes off at midnight. Despite such schedule, I was always served by the actal CX staffs. (I think it was the same even when Canadian Airlines, the OW member existed)

I think Internet checkin is a great neat thing. I find it fun, and for my previous flights, I was always the "first" person to checkin online. (please don't say I've got no life! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif ) You can check how many other passengers have already checked in by looking at the 3 digit number on the bottom right corner of your "virtual" boarding pass. It has numbers from "001 to XXX", depending on the numbers of passengers. For example, if your number say "004", then you are the forth person to have checked in.

I agree that internet checkin should greatly reduce your chances of being "bumped" on a full flight, and better yet, as Chiangi experienced, it might even give you a good chance of upgrade. However, the bonus miles only apply to those who have never used the feature prior to June or some particular date. (remember it was introduced in Febuary, and since I've used it in April, I am not eligible for the 1000 bonus miles... kinda unfair, eh?)

cheers

Actually, 3 - since one goes on to JFK.

Might be more to do with the alliance being new back then and it wasn't long before CP was withdrawn from OW.

BTW, is CX check-in at KUL done by MH staff (CX and Mh share their 4x daily frequencies)?

just a quick note...while you are not probably not eligible for the first-time bonus of 1000 miles...i think you are still eligible for the 2500 miles if you use it often...

from cathaypacific.com:
From now till 31 December, 2001, we're giving 1,000 bonus Asia Miles to first-time Online Check-In Users! What's more, you can earn 2,500 bonus Asia Miles if you check in 5 times online during the promotion period!

tedhl:

As to the online checkin, when did the promotion begin? I am trying to count back how often I actually used it. Thanks.