Status of CX 841 this Friday
 

My dad was supposed to be flying back to HKG from JFK this Sat. But CX841 has been cancelled and now it's on Friday at 7PM. Anyone know the load of this flight? He has been told that this flight is pretty "full". How's that for social distancing if everyone is packed next to each other?! I don't have expertflyer so I can't look it up.

Can some of you help me out?

If it is really full, I might have to find a route to LAX for one of those 3 CX flights for him so that he is not exposed to covid-19.

Thoughts?

Because CX does not care. Really.

Your father is not the first one, and also not the last one whom CX pulls this stunt.

EF won't help you given:

1. Unless most of the fare classes have been zero out, there is no definite information about the load.

2. Many CX passengers do not have seat assignments until very late before departure. So its seat map now is fairly inaccurate.

The best your father can do is shelter in place if possible. Many reported cases in Hong Kong were after travel. Given NYC is an extremely hot zone, I don't really believe traveling now is a good idea now.

Thought CX is down to only LA and Vancouver in North America 3 flights a week in April and May?

Let me try to help and clarify.

First, CX had retained 845 leading up to 4/5 originally intended to be the last flight out, but subsequently cancelled flights down to 1 ex-JFK in first week of Apr.

The timing of flights is being modified because CX is unable to take off after 8p from T8 - T8 only has 1-2 transcons left these days and my guess is TSA wants to close early - hence CX would need to either delay until morning, as in 3/26 845, swap to 831/841 as in 3/29 831, or take off from another terminal that operates (T4). CX prefers the former two options as they can afford to park a 777 frame overnight, off the terminal, with no need to get it back to do intra-Asia / EU run.

I can say that these days flights are mostly full but not necessary at 100%+ across all cabins. J is being overbooked with pax downgraded. You will also have a lot of non-duty crew flying occupying a whole row (A, B, C) when possible. Being the last flight out, it is going to be a crowded flight from cancellations and consolidation.

As a side, LHR loads have been very low.

By the way, most pax are well prepared now with protective equipment, hence hope OP's father is as well, and wish him a safe journey.

I'm not a medical professional, but I'm guessing that the following scenario would be worse as increased exposure points exist, say if you were to change flight to be NYC-LAX (on AA) then LAX-HKG (on CX)

Considerations:

• Another airport to visit / interact with people (LAX)
• A second flight to interact with (full of people from NYC, which seems to have a virus hotspot), likely to also be fairly busy though not packed
• Risk that CX does the same cancellations or the flight is still full, so you get the two points above, plus the same busy flight and outcomes. As mentioned, these flights are down to 3 days/week now its April, so they should in theory be running with a fairly full load. I came back from SFO the week before the travel restrictions started in HKG and the flight was full in J

Personally I would consider the following, in this order:

1. Delay the flight for a few weeks if catching the virus is a real problem (shelter as garykung rightly put it)
2. Seeing what you can do about a paid/in-advance upgrade. Business class has near social distancing on Cathay anyway if you can take a "1" window seat. These are even more popular now I guess.
3. Taking the direct flight, obviously taking sensible precautions like a good mask

I honestly think that the medical/government advice is #1 (I'm no expert), unless it is a really urgent thing to get to HK. You have to balance the odds of your dad getting the virus in NYC (probably fairly low if you keep yourself locked at home), vs the chances of getting it on a 15 hour flight to HKG (which is I am guessing in the low %s, but still present, certainly the chances are you'd be exposed to it). Any pre-existing conditions or age could make that infection very serious. The only reason I'd be leaving the USA now is if I had poor quality insurance or my area didn't have ubereats/deliveroo to provide me with food when needed.

Problem with J is, when everyone board, you would be exposed to 300+ Y pax walking past your seat anyways.

It would be nice if CX do boarding through 2, or even 3 doors during this period of time. Not safe-proof, but anything to lower the risk.

Is this an airport thing i.e. air bridge setup?

For B77W, boarding via door 3 (over wing doors) probably needs a lot of carefully maneuvering around the wing?
Even if this is doable, it's probably too risky in accidentally damaging the aircraft.

As a J pax, don't board first! Let everyone including Y pax get on before you get on.
Then nobody will be walking pass you but do wipe down your seat and everything around it before sitting down.

It is not a thing.

Yes - there are gates having 3 jet bridges. But they are designed for A380. In fact, the 3rd bridge is positioned higher for A380's upper deck, and placed between the 1st and 2nd, making it impossible to move into the position for B777 for the overwing exits.

If that's a big concern, one can always hang around the gate and be the last one to board.

The overwing doors aren't meant for boarding.,,

I was on CX845 on 3/26 from JFK to HKG. ET was showing availability (i.e. flight wasn't zeroed out before departure) across all classes, however, my flight ended up completely full on the date of departure as ISM told me. Therefore I think what ET currently showed isn't at all accurate as many pax like OP (or his dad) is still trying to rebook. When I called CX about my original flight cancellation (which I was supposed to fly on 3/28), they told me I was protected on 3/26. The other 2 flights, the last two out of JFK, on 3/29 and 4/3 were completely full.

My flight ended up being delayed to the next morning given the restriction on T8 departure passed 8pm as someone mentioned above. In J, there was a full set of cabin crew occupying. As a result, CX upgraded me and my daughter to F.

To answer OP's original question, I still see ET availability of CX841 on 4/4 showing per below, but I highly doubt this is accurate given the fluid situation.
F4 A4 Z0 J7 C6 D6 I5 U W9 R9 E9 T0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V0 S0

Thanks for all the responses. Very helpful. My dad lives in HK. He visited us late last year and was supposed to go back to HKG mid-Jan (when COVID was just getting worse then). So he decided to stay put here in the US until things got better in HK before returning. Fast forward to today, the tide has changed. The US is hammered while HK is recovering. Fortunately, we live in South Jersey, and not being affected as much as in the NYC area. Thus, my concern about him (having a clean bill of health, going into JFK, flying on a full flight with potential asymptomatics for 16 hours).

He is stubborn to say the least. But he does run a business in HK and China. So this long absence from the business has not been that easy for him. So I understand why he wants to take the last flight "home".

At this point, all I could do is to load him up with protective gears (masks, gloves, etc) and hope for the best.

Anyway, thanks for all the valuable comments. Maybe I will show him this thread and he may change his mind.

If I may make one more suggestion, besides goggles, bring 1 bottle of hand sanitizer (up to 12oz now) and 1 cannister of wipes - your father will see other pax wiping down their seats, at least in J - many Y pax have coverall suits.

Addition: One more thing to note, past several flights from Kennedy all had positive COVID-19 cases, many had multiple. The last one CX831 on 3/29 is not looking good.