We're scheduled on Hong Kong - Johanesburg next April 15 in First. And return in May. From what this thread is saying it looks like we're out of luck. What will they do to people like us who already cashed in the miles for First Class on this trip but get downgraded to Business? Getting the miles back and trying to rebook isn't possible since this award has been withdrawn ( U.S. to JNB via CX ). Paid tickets get a partial refund, I guess, but how can you do a partial "refund" on an award ticket?

Worry about it when it happens. However, note that the aircraft start going into the hangar for F removal from April 2004. If your flight is in April, it is highly likely that CX will be still selling it as a 3-class service, as there won't be any 2-class A340s in service yet.

If you're flying out of SFO, it's a 744 both ways, and if it's out of LAX, then it the new 346 or 744. Nobody here is talking about these planes. So far the one that was mentioned in the article is the 343.

BTW - I'm doing the same trip this Feb. with a return in March.
I've got 1A for the 4 segments. LAX-HKG on the 346 and HKG-JNB on the 744.

Can't wait!!!

JNB is served by an A340-300 during the Southern Hemisphere winter.

I did not know that.
Anyway, I would like to know as well as to what if any compensation should he expect if that happens?



[This message has been edited by andrzej (edited Nov 25, 2003).]

Maybe they will protect you the same way they would if they cancelled the flight altogether and you already had a ticket: put you on a flight on another airline (that still offers the class of service on your ticket). Maybe South African Airways JNB-HKG? We're hoping nothing will happen by next April-May on this route and we'll be able to avoid this complication altogether.

Zero. The award provides for dropping the class of service without compensation in the fine print, and all airlines take full advantage of that rule. They won't reroute you on another carrier, and usually won't bump pax for you (at least that is how it worked the one time it happenend to me, albeit not on CX). It is one of the risks in getting awards far ahead of time (lots of routes are losing F service these days). I can confirm that all A340 are being converted to 2 class, but not sure when that will be completed (probably June 2004).

Quote:

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by number_6:
I can confirm that all A340 are being converted to 2 class, but not sure when that will be completed (probably June 2004).

Is that based on newer information since the CX World article in the September issue? As mentioned earlier, that had the timetable for refitting commencing in April 2004 and finishing in August.

I really don't know what to say...

This case is really tricky... About YVR to HKG, I am not that much worried about it -- I am sure that either Boeing 747 or an Airbus A340-600 will do the summer runs (at least, this year A346 runs on the HKG-YVR route till the end of September). But HKG to JNB -- that is a tricky situation. One thing for sure is that they will not put on on SAA flight (even SAA runs some A340-300 subs on this flight)... Also JNB does not seem to have that premium traffic load -- SQ has converted the JNB routes with all two class Boeing 777ERs. So it is hard to spectulate...

Maybe you want to postpone the trip till November, when the high season is here and the JNB flights will most likely be run by the larger Boeing 747s...

For now, you can check on it daily... , but new schedule will not likely come out till Jan next year...

Carfield

PS. Also it depends if CX will confirm the leasing of BA's 15 (or 14) Boeing 747-400s, the delivery schedule, and how many of them will be used for pax, and how many will be used for cargo?