Will IAD-HKG return?
 

Has anyone heard speculation or anything official about this route returning once things get back to normal?

CX removed IAD, SEA, and EWR in fare sheets distributed to Taiwanese TAs for fares up to 30JUN2022 (the furthest out date with a fare now), so it doesn't look like there's plan to return right now even after things get back to normal.

Bummer! That route saved me a ton of time in the few years it was around and loved the plane!

I took it once (and got my anniversary upgrade!) and loved it, too. Hope it will eventually return in the future. It remains CX's longest non-stop route in history.

Are there noticable cuts on other routes compared to pre-covid levels in that fare sheet?

IAD is a permanent cut, i.e. terminated:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...rmanently.html

I'm also really bummed about BRU getting cut. Oh well.

Ones I'm no longer seeing are:
SE Asia: CNX, CRK, DAD, DVO, and MES
S Asia and ME: BAH and MLE
N America: EWR, SEA, IAD
EU: BRU, DUB, and LGW
Africa: CPT
Mainland China: CSX, KMG, KWL, NNG, and TNA

ex-RMQ fares are maintained with a note saying flights marketed by CX and operated by UO are eligible. Most KA routes are still listed, so it probably means CX is planning to take most routes.

CX has not issued ex-Taiwan fare sheets for Japan and Korea this year. In the latest one issued in Aug. 2020, covering dep. until Dec. 2021, KMQ, KIJ, and TKS are not listed. Interestingly, not only OKA but also HIJ were listed in Aug. 2020.

Interesting. Of course this does not mean, that everything else will come back, but I assume that those are the destinations that are definitely being axed for the foreseeable future.

SE Asia: I think the destinations make sense, mostly very thin leisure routes, it felt that many of those were run by KA to see if there is a demand, and if so, they were kept. No relevant business route.
ME: honestly surprised about BAH. I would have thought they charge a premium for that tag-on flight from DXB.
N America and EU: EWR and LGW are obviously secondary destinations in the same city. Makes sense to consolidate for the time being. I assume BRU,DUB,SEA can be booked as a quite smooth connection through YVR,FRA or LHR. Just Washington DC market will be cut off I assume.
China: Also the thinnest routes cut. Interesting to see if they will resume CAN.

Will be interesting to see if they will resume the TPE-JP/KR routes and SIN-BKK at all or if these are gone forever.

AA and AS will have plenty of service to IAD or DCA once things are “normal”. AS’s service to YVR from SEA doesn’t work well with CX. Probably easier to just clear at SFO or LAX (AS/AA connectivity for SFO/LAX is leaps and bounds better than at YVR).

Agree on SEA and DCA; ORD is probably the best connecting point for DCA-bound (and BWI as well) flyers looking to fly CX across the Pacific.

IAD is a different story though--the only pre-Covid CX-AA connection point was LAX, and over in the AA forum there is some debate as to whether LAX-IAD could be shelved for good. It wasn't a particularly good itinerary anyways, particularly if you're flying F/J, given the 5-6 hours in domestic F on the "connection." If LAX-IAD does disappear, seems like flying AA metal all the way via DFW would be the best bet for those needing to go to IAD. (AA does not fly ORD-IAD or JFK-IAD.)

AS is a full OW partner come April. AS flies SFO/LAX-DCA/IAD (in normal-ish times), as well as LAX-BWI.

You are probably not used to having to think of AS as a viable partner for CX when it comes to OW-style support of itineraries, but there will be options that way.

Yes, it means 5 hours in a domestic F product. Nearly the same thing is likely to happen on a USA-HKG-SIN itinerary, with the last segment in a CX regional J product.

CX's partnership with AC would give some additional options for YVR-SEA I think.

EDIT: Or not, I guess that partnership is for domestic Canada flights only? Can't seem to book anything SEA-YVR-HKG on AC+CX except via OTAs.

Sad to see MLE go.

Fare routing allows both AS and AC on SEA-YVR.