boybi

Slightly off topic, does the chaos in London airports also affect CX (and other international flights) in LHR?

brunos

Booking CX long term is total lottery.
CX announces its plans for a few months ahead; currently up to September. But that is also subject to some changes.
https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...e-fly-now.html

IMO CX reintroducing F in 2022 is extremely unlikely. They do not sell F for the coming months (even if 77W), hence F0. The only F sold are probably awards that have been issued a long time ago. They will have very few pax to downgrade.

BA/CX will move you to another OW airline only if there is award space available. Frankly, your best hope is that your flight operates and that BAEC downgrades you to J. If that flight is cancelled and CX is quite full in J (as expected), you stand a good chance to be downgraded to Y or refunded. Standard QR awards from HKG seem impossible. Finnair suggests that they might resume, that could be your best hope. CX via CDG, FRA or AMS might be another hope. Unlikely that BA will resume. But the worst is never certain and miracles can happen. December is so far away.

nomadabroad

My CX250 flight in Oct has been zeroed out and not available for booking, but is still showing as confirmed under manage my booking.

CX agent is saying this BS - “As far as I see in the system right now everything is confirmed. Our internal department sometimes close the sales for flights and reviewing the schedule. If there will be any changes you will automatically receive notifly about changes and cancellation.”

my worry is that they’ll keep it confirmed until last minute / a few days before cancelling it….any experience on this so far?

JW95

Given that CX is now set to operate up to a maximum of 2 flights a day to LHR for the remainder of 2022 and into summer 2023, what on earth are they doing with their other slots for the (former) CX238/237/239, 256/257, 254/253 flights? Unless they plan on expanding their cargo operations in place of these flights, Cathay are no doubt very mindful that they're in serious danger of losing these slots permanently, which could be a big problem in the longer term, especially if/when they plan on increasing their London services again, and LHR is full.

nomadabroad

Got this response from CX re my supposedly cancelled flight in Oct (but still showing as confirmed on mmb)

“ Our head office is finalizing the schedule for October flights and we will have the answer by the end of this month”

They don’t even seem to know what schedules they’re running beyond Oct so would caution anyone booking ex-LHR….

CX HK

What even is the weekly schedule for HKG-LHR right now? Is it still 1x every day, except on Wednesday's and Sunday's where there are 2?

There are also absolutely no award redemptions available, and the one-way cost for these flights are insane (similar to round trips before). Other airlines - Singapore and Qatar - are also at capacity it seems. HKG-LHR is a very, very popular routing. The VS suspension is being felt. Has BA also suspended all direct flights?

JW95

From what I can see, CX252 is maintained each day, with CX238 and CX250 scheduled on specific dates this summer. So a minimum of one daily, rising up to 3 daily for certain days, unless this has been revised again?

I do wonder what are the long term prospects of London-HKG? As you rightly say, it is a very popular route, but with the way things are going now, I'm genuinely worried about CX permanently losing most of its valuable LHR slots going into the long term. This is going to be a major problem going forward once CX rebuilds its network and wishes to expand its London frequencies once more, similar to pre-Covid levels and LHR becomes full again.

nomadabroad

They are selling tickets knowing 99% they won’t be operating those flights and then providing zero alternatives

LHR-HKG flight (CX250) cancelled…no other flights available….

On the return HKG-LHR have been moved around so many times now that there is no way I can make it from my BKK connection, flight has been zeroed out as well (CX255) so most likely cancelled too.

On top of that , zero answers to Whatsapp chat, 4+ hours waiting on call and then dropped out, impossible to get through to anyone.

Avoid like a plague, honestly not worth the stress.

If you have a booking with CX, check with google flights /expertflyer every few days as most likely one or more of your flights will be zeroed out / moved around / cancelled.

If you are thinking of booking CX, just go with QR and avoid the stress.

what a joke and sad to see the state that CX is in now

JW95

Thought I'd resurrect the thread a little after some time, as a lot has changed since it was last active. CX is undoubtably in a much better position as far as capacity is concerned on LHR-HKG than last year, with up to 5 daily flights now, as was the case up until early 2020. I note that from the timetables that LHR will begin reverting to an all 77W operation from March (A350 will no longer be seen at Heathrow which is a shame, as much prefer this a/c over the older 777). However, does anyone know what the schedules will be like going into S24? CX's timetable is currently showing a max of 4 flights per day, one with the 77W (CX251/252), the other 3 with the A359 (CX255/250, CX253/254, CX257/238). I suspect that this will probably change to an all-77W operation and the 5th daily flight (CX237/256) reinstated.

I also wonder if LGW is likely to ever come back with the A359?

US HK UK flyer

It's hard to imagine they will actually downscale ops on this route. HK has vaunted to 12th place in the list of most flown Heathrow route destinations, with over a million passengers in the year, not far from where it was in autumn 2018.

drivingflyingwalking

I have been told that when LON goes all 777 after march it will be the first LH route for the reconfigured 777 product (new business class), and a priority to ASAP have all flights operated with the new product! 🤞

SLGO

Not surprising to know LHR would have the first route for new products. But I’m a little surprised that it'll be all 77W, even when not all flights are with F. From pax point of view, having one or two 359/1 options would be a lot better.

lixiaojuventus

Indeed! I much prefer A359/A35X to B77W. It seems that A35X has a similar capacity as B77W:

A35X: 46C + 32W + 256Y = 334 seats.
B77W: 40C +32W + 296Y = 368 seats.

Therefore, A35X even has a larger C cabin. Maybe we can see at least one A35X serving the LHR route?

drivingflyingwalking

Agree it is a little surprising they wouldn't keep the 257/256 rotation as an airbus since it's often lighter on the loading, but I was told that LHR is a massive cargo port for Cathay and the 77W offers more space/weight capacity for the cargo customers and is their equipment of choice! I guess we forget that the self loading freight isn't the only customer on these flights 😂!

CarefreeBA

I believe that having the rest of Europe up to daily flights/fully intended schedules is a priority over the reinstating of LGW