It looks like some LAX flights are cancelled today - for example, CX883 on Fridays are all cancelled. From Cathay's website, only CX881 on March 8, 10, 16, 18 are left. The situation seems worse than expected, especially the cancellation of Friday flights. We have reservations on one of the Friday CX883 that has been moved to a CX881, so now we have to try our luck again on hotel reservation.

The question is: is the current published LAX schedule stable over March? JFK seems a backup, but as we are in LA, we really want to avoid a transit.

I'm in your situation too; I booked a similar flight ex LAX and it just got cancelled 2 weeks prior to departure. Very "convenient" considering the quarantine hotel is already booked and paid for...

Anyway, I don't think there is any way to really know it precisely. I mean, what if you're scheduled to fly in a week or two? It really can throw you for a loop given the quarantine hotel rules. Given they did it this so soon prior to departure, I don't think you can 100% be sure about things until you're on board. Although I'd sure like to think, after getting moved to my new flight (on a different day of course, which means going back and crossing your fingers with your hotel), this won't happen again and they have their schedules sorted out now! Because now I'm off trying to sort things out with my hotel and make sure they have space for my new slightly different arrival / departure dates. Although I bet most hotels can accommodate, no doubt there will be some unlucky souls whose hotels can't accommodate the new schedule and they're SOL.

I wish I knew who to blame - presumably the culprit is either CX, or the government, or the relationship between the two, or all of the above. Either way it's the travelers who lose out. It does strike me as "super inconvenient" to cancel our flights and change schedules for operational reasons 2 weeks prior to departure, when all our quarantine hotel arrangements are set in stone and not easy to swap around. Certainly CX and the govt (they wrote the rules!) must be aware that the quarantine hotel rules for incoming passengers are very strict and therefore, changing flight schedules at the last minute is a major problem for the passengers!

Presumably it's due to air crew issues, which in turn is due to incredibly restrictive govt rules whose rules towards airlines like CX recently changed. Which threw all the schedules off. CX made a big deal about February 22 being the date they'd know everything; so I assumed once Feb 22 or Feb 23 had passed and the flights were still solid, we were all clear. Likewise, I paid my quarantine hotel and booked my transit and hotel in LAX. But no. I guess my assumption was wrong. so I don't really know what to say!

I feel for you.
I will soon be in a similar situation (from Europe).
I would not fault CX as there are dependant on the number of crew who are willing to select the horrendous schedule. Schedules are not set in stone as the new experience might have an impact on how crew/CX adapt.

I have other friends in comparable situation. It seems that cheap hotel are quite full (los of helpers and SEA pax). but not luxury ones.UNless you wish to book the presidential suite, there seems to be lots of availability allowing to book last minute. I doubt that your htel would not allow aday flexibility in the booking.

With so few long-haul flights into HKG and the covid quarantine, times are really hard for us.

In normal times, does Cathay have day departures from LAX or are they all red eyes?

Normal times, you refer to flight schedules in prior to the pandemic, right?
The answer is yes. At best time, there were daytime flights (CX-885) and two red-eye flights (CX-883 & CX-881).

Yes, pre-pandemic. Thanks

I would not cal a 15 hour flight redeye

Anyway, pre=pandemic schedules are meaningless for Cathay for year(s) to come.

Actually, for a period (circa 2015-2018?) they had two daytime departures in addition to the two nighttime departures: CX897 departed around 9am (similar to CX841 timing ex-JFK) and CX885 departed around noon.