Typhoon Mangkhut 16 Sept 2018
 

Be aware there is a fair chance HKG will get walloped on Sunday by Typhoon Mangkhut (possible super-typhoon by then). Cathay have started warning customers about disruption and there is a waiver of fees for flights booked for 16 or 17 Sept.

This is update 1 and the situation is likely to change over the next few days. Cathay Website update 1

One thing I have realised over my 20 years here is that, although CX has gone to the dogs in many other aspects, their weather people do seem to be pretty good at forecasting whether a Typhoon will significantly impact their operations. There have been plenty of T8s where they've basically carried on as normal, so for them to be highlighting this one 5-6 days out they must be pretty sure it's going to be a relatively big one.

Have a look at this:
https://www.windy.com/?18.771,125.200,5
https://www.windy.com/?2018-09-16-00,14.817,126.914,5

And, yes, that's a really big one. Bigger than the ones, the USA is peeing for in their pants.

Under the relaxed rebooking rules posted, should CX rebook me on a flight where there is only a higher subclass available, would they charge the difference?

While the wind speed may be greater at the moment, winds are forecast to slow to 80 knots (sustained) when it reaches Hong Kong according to this forecast.

Which is likely to be less than the winds from Hurricane Florence when it reaches the US.

Taking a trip this weekend and flying back on the 17th. Anyone know whether is it too late to buy travel insurance (usually go with AIG) in the event my return flight is delayed? Thanks

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Checked with AIG and was told newly purchased policies would not cover travel delay due to typhoon. However, policies purchased yesterday (same day as Cathay's travel advisory) would have been eligible. They decide on case by case basis.

They are no longer giving refunds if you want to cancel your flights. I'm supposed to be on the inaugural IAD-HKG flight this coming Sunday and between the East Coast Hurricane and the HKG Typhoon, it's not looking good for this flight to operate. They have already zero'd out the flight which is the first step toward cancelling it. I'd like to cancel the tickets altogether and book another flight to my final destination but without waiving the cancellation fees, I'd be out the $600 cancellation fees.

I'm scheduled to arrive HKG on 9/17 6am. Looks like it will be affected. Will CX usually hold and delay departure or divert to another airport?

If you try booking for the 16 and 17th you'd notice all flights are fully booked/unavailable. I think they have went ahead and closed all the flights in order to make it easier to shift around passengers later on.

I'm flying back to Manila from Shanghai on the 17th and Im pretty worried myself, although it seems like the Typhoon will hit HK on the 16th.

Looks like I am in the same situation. Flight arrives at 6am on the 17th with another flight out to PEN 3 hours later. In a dilemma as to cancel and book another airline or take the risk...

I am booked to fly to HK this weekend on QF, who dont have a change waiver. I dont really want to be there during a cyclone. Im hoping that that will change today or tomorrow.

I like using this website which puts together different forecast into one map.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d775cf7440.png
Looks like apart from HK Observatory, the other weather forecasts are saying that the Typhoon will be farther away from HK by the 16th UTC.

Very marginally though.

Could be, the forecast reference you give, does predict Mangkhut to be 105G130+ knots on landing at Hong Kong, which tends to be significantly above the max winds for land/starting aircraft. Be aware the timing in your reference is GMT, making it 8 hours later in the local clock. Which in turn implies, the wind speeds can be higher (somewhere up to 120G145 knots). Serious enough to be prepared.

Could be, though take into account, the highest wind speeds do not appear in (front of) the exact path, though some 20-50 nautical miles north of the nucleus.

Just tried to rebook my flight arriving KTM-HKG on Monday 17 by calling 3888.

Agent says plenty of seats available/for sale on the days we looked at, but no O class. Won't open O class either.

I mean, if you're really trying to minimize irrops, show some flexibility...I get seat reservations, extra legroom seats, etc. free of charge as DM anyhow - so it's not like I am trying to get anything extra from being in a higher fare class. But nope, sorry sir!



https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...-mangkhut.html
"The newly rebooked sector must observe and conform to the conditions of the respective fare rule, e.g. blackout dates, flight application, weekend/weekday travel, stopover charges and applicable seasonality by collecting additional/refunding difference (if any) as appropriate."

Im supposed to fly this saturday BRU-HKG-DPS connection in HKG on Sunday.
They said yeah we change to friday no problem just 2000 euro fare difference ..... how ridiculous is this airline. They told me to wait until the flight is cancelled. Thank you. I can see long queues already...

Connecting through HKG to another destination on the 17th.
How flexible is CX with weather? Would they have a chance to put me on a direct flight ran on a different carrier?

It is still nearly 3 full days out. A 10 degrees change in typhoon course will change the landing location that much, that no service disruption has to be expected in HKG. The more extreme the typhoon, the more chance, things go different then the weather models based on the lesser category typhoons.

Tried to go to Manage Flight to change my booking..... the website reject you.

Tried to call reservation office. They are now rejecting all calls due high volume of calls, asking you to go change your booking on the website.

(Audio)

Why then post

”We strongly request passengers travelling on these dates, and whose bookings were made on cathaypacific.com or our mobile app, to rebook their journey”

on the website, if they are hoping/thinking there’s a chance it won’t happen (which anyone knows it might)?!

Be aware that 18 Sep is also covered now

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...-mangkhut.html

I finally got through and they told me that if the flight is cancelled due to weather, they will NOT book on other carriers to get to my destination; they would only do that for mechanical. I didn't feel like arguing that point, so I just cancelled, got a full refund and booked on Qatar.

In your initial post you said Mangkhut is bigger than Hurricane Florence and that the USA is "peeing in their pants" even though Florence is smaller. Hence my response that it may not be when it reaches Hong Kong. I agree it's serious enough to be prepared, as is Hurricane Florence.

The forecast at the link in my post changed from when I posted to the time of your response. When I posted it indicated the eye hitting Hong Kong on the 16th at 1800Z with max sustained winds of 90 knots. There was no need to account for any time change, because the entire forecast (both the map and the wind table) was based on Zulu time.

Yes, refund is possible even on non-refundable tickets but I have not seen anything to that effect yet.

http://audio.sg/pic/refund.jpg

I tried to change my flight both sectors to a Oct date but after 5 attempts at various times, I keep getting this :-

http://audio.sg/pic/difficulties.jpg

I am not sure should I just cancel the flight....do I see a credit amount to my account?

Reservation hotline keep rejecting calls (2747333), MPC hotline (27475500) is a dead line now.

There will be no refund for no-show and my flight time is approaching.

(Audio)

I had a CX Holidays booking (flight + hotel made on CX website) with a return flight to HKG on 16 Sept.
They were able to cancel the flights for me with no penalty (usually CX Holidays has 50% penalty for cancellations 3 days or more in advance).
The hotel portion may or may not be refundable, but that's alright as I chose the cheapest hotel for 1 night only (as the plane ticket is a lot cheaper when purchased as a CX Holidays package).

I am booked on Asia Miles award flight from SIngapore to HK 1.20am 17th Sept. Trying to reach them but have been unable to so far, left messages on phone, fb and through the website. Guess I just have to wait and see.

Managed to get through on MPC hotline.

(1) Request to move my flight from 14-16 Sep HKG-SIN-HKG to 5-7 Oct.
(2) Told me they cannot do it as the fare are not the same.
(3) Told her I will, of course, pay for the difference.
(4) No can do because the fare class I am booked under, I cannot move my flight to Oct, it MUST stay in the month of Sep.
(5) Told her that this is a departure from their terms and conditions, see above, it clearly stated that I can move my flight to or before 14 Oct.
(6) She apologised and then suggested 28 Sep.
(7) Told her that I am already booked on CX flights every weekend from now, 14th Sep, 21 Sep, 28 Sep and that's why I am now booking 5 Oct. She say she is unable to help.
(8) OK, I said now you are forcing me, I MUST and I will fly 14 Sep to Singapore to add on to CX chaos on Sunday 16 Sep, there is nothing more to say. I thought I was helping CX by moving my flight and creating an empty seat SIN-HKG for them.
(9) After a while, she return to the line and offer me a full refund.

Now you know why the calls had been flooding the line. They are definitely not helping themselves by putting in new rules and new restrictions.

(Audio)

The forecasts for Mangkhut are showing an increased shift to the west, i.e. not a direct hit. But obviously that could all change when it passes over Luzon.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6a87878c07.png

By Sept 18, the typhoon is expected to be overhead northern Vietnam.

Looks to me, CX/KA are preparing to have the airplanes moved out of HKG, just in case, HKG gets a direct hit from the north-side of the typhoon (the heavy winds side). Then they will need Sept 18, to get the airplanes back to HKG and crews back in legal times scales. Airplanes don't like it to get extreme turbulent 145kts winds ....