So much for SFO...
 

I’m not real happy with my “favorite airline” at the moment. After stressing out over the status of my SIN-HKG-SFO July 1 repatriation tickets for the last few months, I was happy to see first that CX added SFO back to their schedule from late June a week or so ago, and shortly thereafter the HK government lifted the transit ban. So all good, right? I even spoke to CX last week and everything was go.

For some reason I checked the website again today and looked for a new booking on that routing for July 1 to see how full PE was and thus my odds of getting a free bump to business class. Lo and behold, the flight was gone, yet I hadn’t received any message from CX.

So I called in again today, and they explained that SFO has been removed for all of July! The change was made a few days ago, but they didn’t bother to contact ticketed passengers and said they would only do so within two weeks of departure. Which of course would leave very little time to arrange substitute flights at a reasonable cost.

Fortunately, it worked out OK - I was able to cancel CX and re-booked on JL via NRT for about the same cost, and I’m supposed to get the refund from CX. I’m guessing they didn’t like the load factors to SFO and pulled the plug, but it was only a few weeks after they added it back to the schedule. That and the fact I was not notified of the change despite holding a ticket, and only found out because I called them. I appreciate they are going through tough times, but this isn’t a great way to retain customer loyalty.

Moreover, to be fair, SQ just did the exact same thing to my wife and daughter’s tickets on the same day. Also with no notification. I managed to get them on the LAX flight and will route them to SFO on my own. No idea why both airlines bothered to put SFO back in their schedules, only to pull it out again a week or so later. So for those headed to the US on either carrier, LAX remains the only game in town.

Not wanting to be an apologist, and appreciate you'd like a place to rant.. I'd take a view that at least CX refunded your cash, no voucher problems unlike everyone's fav.... This is not a good time to be an airline, but I'm pleased that you have an alternative option that can still earn you tier points on oneworld :). I think if you really want to fly Cathay then Vancouver would be an option (except the Canadian border is closed...!), or as you say LAX is more likely, and is a lovely drive down highway one, especially since hiring cars is essentially a route to bankruptcy :)

(but thanks for posting)

Airlines are just interested to grab fresh cash - and then cancel the flights if loads are light.
This was to be expected - some people would fall for this trick, incl. you.

Forgive me for falling for such an obvious “trick”, rube that I am - I’ve only flown five million miles in my career! And I should have been much smarter to avoid those nasty airlines and booked trans-pacific passage on a tramp steamer, right? :confused:

And yes, littlevoices, it was a bit of a rant...

The SFO flight is still there. CX872 depart on 1st July 0045am from HKG. Not sure what is your original flight though.

But the problem is that the flight from SIN CX636 arrive at 0015am on 1st July. So can’t make the connecting flight. Thus CX is not selling this connection.

And for SQ, they did not reinstate SFO at all. So far, they have been sending email to paxes for official cancellation around 21 days before the flight. Although they did announce that most flight are cancelled before that.

Well, as I understood -> CX has not refunded the ticket in cash.

Take a look at airlines like Lufthansa, Swiss, SAS -> they are playing the same game.

So basically do not fly for pleasure until 2021 to avoid getting played...

airlines have no control over government decisions to close or open borders - they try to plan under assumption of travel restarting but i believe HK just extended the lock by 3 more months today...

I booked a CX flight ex SFO in late July, so I have been tracking the inventory. Early last week CX still listed 3 daily for sale for the month of July. On Wednesday they zeroed out CX851 and CX879, and changed CX873 to 3 weekly. As I was booked on CX851, I had been wishing they could remove those phantom flights out of schedule so that I could rebook. This morning I received an email from Cathay saying my flight has been changed to CX873, a day earlier. EF shows CX879 still on schedule and CX851 gone.

Cathay really should get rid of those flights with zero inventory in order for people to rearrange travel ASAP.

I don't understand why you didn't just book the SQ direct to LAX? It isn't that far to SFO. Yes, I know it doesn't connect to any flights that will take you to the Bay Area.

a. I actually prefer flying Cathay. SQ is a pretty good backup option, but being OW Emerald seems to get me better treatment even though I’m PPS as well.
b. I booked these CX flights almost 6 months ago - it’s a family repatriation, not a pleasure trip. Our visas are expiring in Singapore, so we can’t just hang out here as long as we like.
c. Even when flying in Business class, I don’t like the 16-hour nonstop from SIN to either LAX or SFO - much prefer to break up the trip. And this one won’t be in Business.

But at this stage, I’ll fly whoever I can get so long as I can rely on it operating on July 1. So hopefully JL won’t cancel like CX and SQ did.

It may be showing on the website, but two CX phone agents have assured me that all SFO flights have been zeroed out for July. The entire month. Not a connection problem.

The problem is that the website cannot keep up with the schedule changes, even days later, it appears.

dont think this is correct. I guess the zero out the past few days have something to do with the transit. CX mention that they are adjusting some of the schedule so as to fit in more transit. So guess they zero out first.

For example SIN-HKG flight have been bring forward to arrive at 2245 hrs in HKG in July so as to connect to SFO n other flights.

Right now you can book SIN-HKG-SFO on 3/July 5/July on CX.

The extension of the lockdown was something that almost everyone had to expect.
Again, I am defending my position -> airlines need fresh cash to finance their operations (esp. lease payments for the planes). They'll do anything to achieve that, even selling for tickets, where everyone knows that they will be cancelled eventually.

Exactly, do not spend your own cash for new tickets in 2020! It's too risky!

Status is practically worth nothing during the Coronavirus pandemic.
If you need to move your family from SIN to SFO due to visa issues, I'recommend to monitor the situation and book only flights at a very short notice.

It will be an interesting new world.

US has banned Chinese airlines from coming to USA starting June 16. US also cancelled Hong Kong's special status and see Hong Kong as part of China in one country one system last week.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/reu...hina-1.5596578

So if we combined those two. It may effect Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific to be able to fly to USA after June 16

Mwaa, the guy is on war with some 60+% of his own countries' population, putting the whole country on fire, ehhh, civil war. And the guy is even on war with about the whole world.

And now, raising his "promised" walls -after the physical one failed 100%- by raising traffic restrictions.

In the meantime, the Covid-19 virus spread in the USA is not getting lower and due to lessening the contact restrictions will fuel up a second wave of Covid-19 infections. So, I certainly can understand China (and the rest of the world), do not want to see infected US people arrive.

Looks to me, this is going to end in a huge disaster for the US population.

Same, same with other countries, where populist Bokitos managed to become head of state (Brazil, UK, Russia, to name a few).

For now it is not applied to Hong Kong. US-HK civil aviation agreement is still valid. This ban on Chinese airlines is countermeasures for China's "Five-Ones" policy, which makes US airlines flying to China impossible.

It is not a new policy. US airlines have been fine in the last few months without flying to China.

What's the sudden urge to fly to China? Is it because China is much safer than US now?

1. DL and UA have still been flying passenger planes to China at a fairly high frequency, but without passengers
2. The Five Ones policy has resulted in extremely high fares (i.e. demand is significantly in excess of supply)

Because there is business. Overseas Chinese, especially those Chinese students may have urgent need to return to China, but flights between US and China are extremely constrained. A $6000 one-way Y from US to China is very common. Chinese airlines can do this business, but US airlines cannot. So here is the dispute.

This business has been going on ever since the virus broke out.

US airlines chose not to participate in earlier months.

Per DOT communication, the issue is not only that US airlines can't fly to China now, but that US airlines can't fly whatever frequency and to whatever destinations they want.

One flight per week is a non starter.

exactly.

China does not want to fly to more destinations in US with higher frequency, no doubt that it would not grant US arilines more destinations or higher frequency.

That DOT shuts down US-China flights is quite an empty threat to China.

Actually it might have worked.

Up until today there is actually prerequisite for airlines to apply flights under the five ONEs policy, only those who was still flying to China on 12 Mar are eligible to apply. This is the main reason why none of the American or European airlines can apply for even that one weekly quota, as they have suspended all routes to China before that. But this part of restrictions has just been lifted today
​​​​​.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...KBN23B081?il=0
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Under this new policy foreign airlines can also apply for one weekly frequency, but the route will be suspended for one week if there are 5 pax tested positive upon arrival. If there are more than 10 positive cases, the route will be suspended for 4 weeks.
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To get back to the topic, I guess the hope for cx to restart a meaningful number of routes even on reduced schedule will be tied to how quickly the transit restrictions in hkg is relaxed further. Airlines might only cancel flights much closer to hoping rules are eased and demand are back in.

It's not a sudden urge to restart flights to China.
Delta and United have been trying for awhile but to no avail.

Not trying to be political, but the U.S. has not done anything so far. So the impact to CX is practically nil.

An important note - for this Administration, always wait until the official documentation has drawn up, otherwise, consider everything else is BS.

For MU, PVG-LAX pencils because they have economies of scale at PVG (e.g. lots of one flight per week services). By contrast, if AA, DL, or UA were to restart LAX-PVG, it would be their ONLY passenger flight between the US and China, and they could do it once per week. Even if they were to outsource all ground handling to MU, the numbers would still suck.

Isn't it the same for MU in LAX? Even if MU oursources all groud handling to whoever, the numbers suck.

MU also has the option of flying from other cities in China (e.g. Nanjing) to the US. While certainly not ideal, the playing field is not level.

I thought Chinese airlines have the same restrictions. Only one flight per week per foreign country.

Just have a quick check: CX has resumed booking of SFO-HKG in July......

Looks like you’re right, the website shows the first SFO nonstop is July 3. Too late for my purposes, but still very strange that just a few days ago two separate agents told me the whole month was zeroed out for SFO under the latest schedule. I’d be very wary booking it after that experience, especially after they cancelled our July 1 tickets without any notification or offers to rebook.

they only stop the sale for 2-3 days on around end of May to adjust the schedule to fit in the transit timing. (Eg SIN-HKG was reschedule to arrive at 2245 instead of 0015 to catch other connecting flights) The agents did not see any flights for July during that period, so assume that the flights are cancelled.

already mention that it was zeroed out for few days to adjust the timing and meet transit requirements. CX have mention in their press release as well.

You forgot that nowadays the " U.S. people " you mentioned are Chinese citizens who wants to return to their own country. China is only blocking its own people from returning.

Hi guys,

I have family member booked on 22nd JUNE direct flight CX872 HKG-SFO 00:45am departure, how far out does CX do a cancellation on flight?? I assumed this first flight to SFO back since Pandemic. OR should I will try rebook to
LAX-SFO 22nd June with 00:05am departure ??
TIA !

You should be quite safe with CX872 22 June. Lots of seats sold on the plane

sounds good, hope all goes well!
Thank you!!