I note you put your location as Manila. CX is a Hong Kong airline and I would say that kind of response is pretty common in HK so I would be very surprised if you were getting an email from an Indian centre - that seems far more HK to me! Chinese people are very abrupt and factual (and that's the good ones, the bad ones just say "cannot" to whatever your request is and walk away). Live with it. I think the lack of an apology for the cockroaches is far more serious than your professional email exchange, which says far more about you than it does about Cathay.

You know I hate people making an excuse for poor customer service in HK just because it's its not in HK's "DNA". Honestly while I do get "that" at times at eateries and food stalls, I don't recall having a bad customer service experience at high end restaurants or hotels in HK. Abrupt and factual is one thing, but I think it its unprofessional for the agent to just say I was on leave without at least offering an apology. I don't really know whats so wrong with expecting an apology because clearly some lapses happened on the airline side. I mean will it be really that inefficient if the agent said, "I apologize for the delay in response, as I have just returned to work today." vs "I have returned to work today, after being away on leave, therefore the delayed response."?

I maybe alone in thinking that an apology will make things right, I was raised to apologize immediately when at fault, own up to my mistakes and try to make amends. Personally, I don't care if I get my money today, tomorrow or next month, the proper thing to do is at least say you are sorry for not getting back to the person sooner as you were away (I really don't care if it was for business or pleasure.) at least the person would not think his follow ups were ignored.

What people fail to realize or refuse to accept is we are talking about Cathay Pacific's Customer Relations Department...and we're not talking about some accommodation of a request by Marco Polo Club. I would assume the main reason the CRD is there is to maintain good relations with their customers...clearly you cannot foster any goodwill between customer and the company if the company representative comes across as curt and unapologetic.

**I tried to search for the agent's name and found that he's based in HK but doesn't seem to be a local.

You're wrong. That's not rude.

You should pick your battles. This is not one of them.

I got my funds and got an apology from CRD today so I'm good.

Crazy disgusting!!! Would you please let us know which route this is? For my more than two decades of frequent flying, I have only seen roach once onboard Singapore Air TPE-SIN Y. SIN is the only SE Asia destination for me, rest of my travel all to NE Asia or US/EU.

BTW, the one on SQ jumped on my table when I was about to have my meal, scared the crap out of my wife and kids, and I, like Psychiatrist, had to kill it myself. I did show the body to the FAs, but forgot to take a pic. They were very apologetic, and promised to sterilize the whole plane after landing. Afterward, I exchanged tons of phones and emails with SQ for like 6 weeks, then finally got 50000 AC miles in the end. It was an AC redemption trip right before it got devalued

I'd also think that the email is impolite even in common workplace internal email standard. Glad you got the case resolved in the end.

As for cockroach, well unfortunately cases seem to happen every while and then. Better if you at least send a simple email to further raise the flag; one more case is one more alert (hopefully).

While subpar food seems to be a general case now, dirty cabin isn't, at least not from my recent experiences, and i hope it wont be in the future. I would say those cockroaches, bed bugs are alerts that definitely need attention.

As for the email, having one simple sentence saying 'i sincerely apologize for the long wait' makes the perception much much better.

Today OP confirmed he is an entitled ... person.

there is over the top polite and apologetic, and a statement (or sentence) to represent the company's apology as a CRD/CSR.

And having neither of that is, in fact, rude. and those who accept the rest of the dialogue without the apology is just looking for the compensation.

Hence methinks why an apology is required. (Seriously, how hard is it to type "We are sorry to have you go through such-and-such")

I'm not arguing with you, just curious. CX F used to be my main ride between BOS and BKK, about six roundtrips/year. Since things started going downhill, I fly them only very occasionally now.

It's MEGA-entitled ...person, thank you very much...

because air!