Eagle2000

SFO is a reckless airport design for commercial/any planes. especially with the thick fog that rolls in randomly at times and parallel runways. A disaster waiting to happen. JMHO

Cathay Dragon 666

I have been planning my trips for the rest of the year, and I have never seem this in my Ctrip searches in the past, but as of now every trip I'm taking Cathay will always show up in offering the cheapest fare or in the top three. This used to never of happened. Cathay used to be one of the more expensive fares offer on any routes I'm searching on Ctrip. I usually only search for C class travel, but out of curiosity I did some Y class inquiries, and they pop up as one of the cheapest fares too. I don't fly Y so don't know if it's anything new. But I can't fandom it's always the case that airlines such as China Eastern and China Southern are more expensive than Cathay.

By the way, my relative just flew Cathay, EWR to HKG, and he has a 2 year old daughter. She was crying so he took her to the back to calm her down. One Cathay stewardess actually told the man to go back to his seat because she's too noisy (to the crew apparently, but the pax it's ok). No it's not serving time nor rotation time. It's during level-flight when the crew is just sitting in the back chatting with one another (according to him).

Eagle2000

Looks like the Cathay FA's have been taking lessons from Air Canada FA's! lol

jackmeister

Except AC FA's are usually OK with it...........

boybi

With passenger numbers continually dropping, how long can CX stay in business? Asking this because I book my flights (all for leisure) almost a year in advance. Will travel insurance cover it if CX suddenly goes bankrupt?

SKT-DK

They will not be going bankrupt - whilst O&D traffic to/from HKG may have dropped, CX still has a substantial amount of transfer traffic.

moondog

I don't see them going belly up anytime soon either, but O&D is a lot more profitable.

Eagle2000

As far as I know as long as paid for by credit card you will be reimbursed by the credit card company if paid by it.

As for travel insurance it should be HOWEVER, please read the fine print, especially for travel insurance for credit cards....This could be a whole other subject.....

moondog

On the topic of insurance, Ctrip sneaks an insurance policy into the plane (and train) ticket booking process; you need to opt out of it if you don't want it. Most of the people in our company insist on us paying for it, and we don't mind because it only costs CNY20 or so. As recently as several years ago, this wasn't a complete ripoff because it had a provision that paid Y300 for delays of 3 hours or more, which were quite common at the time. In fact, many people who knew about this provision (you needed to claim it yourself) came out ahead. Moving on, I was considering ponying up for the insurance on several recent HX flights because I thought it could come in handy if HX suddenly liquidated, so I read the terms and conditions. Suffice it to say, liquidation is on the very long list of exclusions.

percysmith

From Oasis Airlines precedent, airlines don't get remitted fare proceeds til fares flown, cardholders can charge back if airline ceases trading.

brunos

That is very strange.
Maybe it was a special deal when Oasis was nearing bankruptcy.
Otherwise credit card transfer money to airlines pretty fast after booking. Otherwise ticket would not be issued and remain on hold.
TAs may have different arrangements with airlines.

Once you have paid for a ticket, say three months from now, your only hope is either 1) consumer protection laws where the credit card is issued or 2) travel insurance associated with the credit card.
For example, UK has fairly generous consumer protection laws. For travel insurance, the fine print is quite important.

That being said, CX is far from financial distress. And if it ever gets in distress there will be interested "sponsors" and buyers. For all practical purposes, CX is the only Hong Kong airline left (HX is semi-dead) and I cannot envision that CX will disappear unless HK is in total turmoil.

sxc

Not correct. One of the standard features of visa / MasterCard / Amex is that if you don’t get the product you paid for, they will pay you back. It’s unrelated to travel insurance and unrelated to whether the bank has given cash to the vendor. It’s one of the selling points of why you should use a credit card, and one of the reasons they charge the vendor the fees that they do.

brunos

You are right that it is a selling point, but I think that your statement might be too broad, at least in some countries.

You can certainly claim for a charge back. Visa will start a dispute resolution proceeding and send the request to the merchant. The merchant can either accept it and will be debited of the amount (transferred to you) or disagree and provides relevant documentation within 30 days. In a bankruptcy case , the merchant cannot dispute the claim but nor can he pay back. Then the merchant acquirer (bank) is liable, not the card-issuing bank. That is a good protection in most countries, but can be a lengthy process.
Luckily, some credit cards temporarily credit you of the disputed amount until the dispute is resolved.

Eagle2000

I sincerely hope that CX Management is not arrogant and think that they are far from financial distress...With NO end in sight for the protests a few more bad quarters, eventually CX will be in financial distress. Their profit margins aren't exactly fat.

For me I have no fears of the ongoing protest and will continue to visit HK and transit through there. I cannot say for certain the perception of others.

I get it, Cathay maybe too large to fail for HK but if Air China (largest shareholder) took over, they will for certain lose my support and perhaps many others also.

moondog

Were CA to takeover, CX might lose the support of you and others, but as long as CX retains its monopolies and near-monopolies on many nonstop routes, they will remain "Hong Kong's Airline". Are you thinking of starting a competing airline if they sell out to CA?