iten

Just got an email from MPO....Is this another "enhancement" where they takeaway your permanent hold and replace it with a DIY 72 hold online?



We're always looking for new ways to make it easier for our club members to travel well, and we think you'll find this exclusive Hold Your Fare benefit very convenient.

Exclusive new benefit for members
From today, you can secure your flight and ticket price for up to 72 hours before you decide to purchase. This feature normally requires a deposit, but the fee is waived for you as a Marco Polo Club member.

Hold Your Fare is available when you book Cathay Pacific or Cathay Dragon flights on our website at least 7 days in advance – and if you're travelling with family or friends on the same booking, they'll also enjoy the extended holding period free of charge. Simply sign in to your account before you begin, or input your membership number when you enter the passenger information during booking.

How it works
After your booking is on hold, you'll receive a confirmation email, and you'll have 72 hours to complete the payment process and confirm your booking. If you decide you don't need the booking, you can cancel any time or it will be cancelled automatically at the end of 72 hours without charge to you.

380Flyer

Bravo CX for this benefit for MPO members. Now, let’s implement Lifetime status for MPO tiers!


Exclusive new benefit for Marco Polo Club members

From today, you can secure your flight and ticket price for up to 72 hours before you decide to purchase. This feature normally requires a deposit, but the fee is waived for you as a Marco Polo Club member.

Hold Your Fare is available when you book Cathay Pacific or Cathay Dragon flights on our website at least 7 days in advance – and if you're travelling with family or friends on the same booking, they'll also enjoy the extended holding period free of charge. Simply sign in to your account before you begin, or input your membership number when you enter the passenger information during booking.

How it works

After your booking is on hold, you'll receive a confirmation email, and you'll have 72 hours to complete the payment process and confirm your booking. If you decide you don't need the booking, you can cancel any time or it will be cancelled automatically at the end of 72 hours without charge to you.

sxc

I don't think the "permanent hold" guaranteed your fare - it was always subject to ticket price changing at time of confirming (but I am not certain about this).

However...does the 24 hour hold for non-members now go away, and you have to pay a deposit in order to hold a fare?

EDIT: just did a test booking, and yes it looks like non-members can no longer hold fares for 24 hours for free. The deposit being asked was HKD100 for a ex-HKG fare.

rienhart87

wasn't this feature already given to silver, gold, and diamond members? I mean on top of the 24 hours hold. I remember once i hold a booking and because CX does not take Amex for payment from mainland china, they had to hold my booking for one more day (for reasons I still don't quite understand). When I raised this to MPO agent that I will miss the 24 hour deadline, she just said "due to your status, we can hold the booking longer at no extra cost"

andersonCooper

Tested it out for US-HKG and US-SIN route, wit the deposit at $10 for a 72 hours hold. Indeed no longer an option for 24-hour free holds.

Ausriver

CX was always ok to hold your booking as long as a reason was provided to GO and SL, normally few days (if not too close to departure) is fine. However, that would involve a phone call to CX to hold and another phone call to make payment.

Now they're making 72 hours online holding for everyone, free to MPC members, which make it really easy for a MPC member to hold multiple possible itineraries and choose one to ticket later.

1010101

I use the 24 hour hold a lot, in fact i used it a couple of days ago. I'm not joining MPC any time soon so this will affect my bookings with CX. Usually i will hold the fare and use the hold period to get approval. Now if there are any price changes between asking for and getting approval i will have to book another carrier.

percysmith

My understanding is travel agents can hold for a lot longer, for little cost http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...l#post22782467

sxc

So the real news here is that a fee has been introduced to hold bookings.

1010101

Yes.

I wonder if CX will ever make any decisions again without copying BA.

QRC3288

To be fair, I booked a Swiss ticket earlier this year and paid to hold it. I am not too familiar with the EU airlines....I actually fly them a surprising amount (mainly LX, LH BA and AF longhaul, with a preference for any of the three but BA), but I don't "follow" them like I do CX. I have no idea if Swiss or BA went first, but I'm almost certain I paid to hold a fare I found attractive for me and Ms. Qrc a while back.

I generally only aim for BA F if I must go from London to the US, where all the options are less than ideal. Otherwise the other guys offer better products.

sscywong

No... Make it absolute clear...

Previous Pay Later: Hold fare and seat for 24 hours for free for everyone

"New" Hold your Fare: Hold fare and seat for 72 hours, a fee for non member, free for MPC

The usual seat reservation for MPC elites: Hold seat only, up to 24 hours before departure for DM, but need to call... Fare price is never hold for seat reservation... Like if you reserved a seat now for a flight departing March 2018 and CX increased the fare of your booking class say in November 2017, you need to pay the new increased price if you ticket it in say January 2018

sscywong

And I guess many of you missed this point 16 of T&C...

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...onditions.html

sxc

Applies only to the US and probably because of DOT regulations requiring a 24 hour cooling off period.

christep

So what does "in the United States" mean? IP address?