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?

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.