Dear CX: Goodbye
 

Four of four sectors cancelled, two in First and two in Business. No notification that two of the sectors were cancelled. On the one notification, ORD-LHR, they cancelled my day of departure and put me on a flight a day earlier.

I am sorry Cathay but you have become so unreliable as to make you unacceptable as a provider.

These are force majeure times, even if you or I were running the airline we couldn't do much better

ORD - LHR can't be a CX route? or was that ORD - HKG//HKG-LHR..

Sorry, ORD-HKG... CX 807.

Yes, these are difficult times but at a minimum they could notify me of changes.

With complicated travel, it forces me into very undesirable routes and times.

I very much like CX but... it has become too hard.

You got a lot of business going on in HK and the Mainland these days? Neither does CX so they are cancelling flights. Since the bulk of their customers come from these places, it’s expected that there are some disruptions. Now is not the time to complain or be precious, CX is fighting to survive.

Precious? You're having a laugh aren't you? Of course the OP has a right to complain given their story. The OP has made valid points in a calm, pragmatic manner and I see nothing "precious" at all. YMMV but you seem to be tilting at windmills.

Actually, they are not force majeure, but instead a business decision.

If CX is forced to cancel the service because of a ban imposed by any governments, then it is force majeure. If HKG is so dangerous to travel in and/or out, then it is force majeure.

However, in this case, the cut back is mainly due to the low demand associated with coronavirus, but not because how Hong Kong or other countries are being impacted, then it is not force majeure.

Who will you travel with instead?

Is your email properly set? CX can't notify you if you enter a dud or it's your agent's no-reply email.

I would deduce that OP’s email was correct, since he had 4 sectors but received cancellation emails for only 2.

CX has never been good at letting passengers know about canceled flight..
on our last JFK to HKG flight.. my daughter called me while we were at the airport to let me know the flight had cancelled.
Lovely crew/planes/service.. but the customer service is crap

Email in place after all, they did manage to notify me of 2 of the 4 cancellations and the entire booking, a RTW ticket, is one record.

I will fly JL from JFK to HND and then down to BKK. Then, rather than back to HKG and on to LHR on CX 253 (cancelled but not informed) will use QR or EK from BKK.

I know this can happen to any airline but I do not have time to check over and over again the status of CX flights.

Per above...no, this isn't force majeure. If CX had to (for example) cancel all flights in and out of Hong Kong then that would be force majeure. If a bunch of planes were unflyable because of an outbreak of coronavirus among the crew, that might fly. But CX is citing "commercial and operational" reasons.

Honestly, there are things they could be doing even if the email system is overwhelmed (posting a list of cancelled flights by day on a dedicated webpage comes to mind).
[MENTION=142732]AlwaysOnTheRoad[/MENTION]: You said that CX cancelled your flight day of departure and put you on a flight a day earlier. Do you mean to tell me that you were cancelled out and put on a previous day's flight?

No, the flight is in two weeks and they rebooked me onto a flight for the preceding day from when I planned to depart.

In fact, one of the two sectors for which I did not receive any notification and had to discover for myself.

I have my friend booked on CX807 ORD-HKG later this week and I can testify that CX could probably be better in notifying guests about disruptions. They decided to zero-out the flight since last week, probably last Thursday, and last Friday (or so) the AA codeshare flight is shown as Flight Cancelled. However, the CX flight was still in the system until yesterday when it was finally canceled, and she was moved up to Thursday's flight.

If AA knew the flight would be canceled last Friday, why did it take CX one more weekend to figure that out?