A Fix for the New "Elevated" Award Booking Engine
As most of you have probably experienced by now, the new "Elevated" Cathay website has literally made award flight searches all but impossible.
I've put together a userscript that basically forces the website to accept the old booking engine parameters, and I've submitted it to greasyfork for anyone that's interested. The main features are:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...er-plugin.html EDIT 2022-08-29: NEW FEATURE! Batch availability search! Please see further down at post #15 for details. EDIT 2022-09-01: Bug Fixes Please upgrade to the latest version 2.3 for a bunch of bug fixes. Among them, the most important one is that economy seats on certain airlines were erroneously counted as premium economy. Also, the availability count was incorrect for connecting flights, as it showed the higher number of seats between the two flights, rather than the lower one. The batch search feature is now no longer hidden by default, and does not require the 9 clicks secret activation gesture. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...244ef6a518.png https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f63ea7e065.png For desktop, you will need to have the Tampermonkey or Greasemonkey browser extensions installed, then install this script: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/44...rch-fixer-2022 Once installed, login to your Cathay account, and go to the new flight award search page at https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...ht-awards.html There will be a new search box at the bottom, where you can enter your origin, destination, dates, and passengers. The search box will work on both the search facade, and on the results page, which means you can switch route searches without going back and forth. Hope you'll all find it useful. P.S. If you want to install this on a mobile device, you'll need to install an app like Hyperweb or Stay 2 - Userscript manager that enables userscript extensions in mobile safari and chrome. It's a bit more complicated to get set up compared to desktop. If enough people are interested in that I'll make a step by step write-up. |
Thanks for this. It works sometimes but then I also get this error a fair bit (see below). To be fair I also get this error many times, when searching with the new crappy CX interface
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0a041beebf.png |
Originally Posted by lifeonthego_k
(Post 34537537)
Thanks for this. It works sometimes but then I also get this error a fair bit (see below). To be fair I also get this error many times, when searching with the new crappy CX interface
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0a041beebf.png |
I figured it out - the airport codes are case sensitive! When inputted in caps I don't get the error :)
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Good catch! I've added a fix that converts to uppercase before calling the API.
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So I've managed to test out a comparatively easy-ish way to use this trick on an iPhone.
There are several tools out there that enable user scripts in Safari, but since userscripts are rather technical in nature, it can be a pretty daunting process for the non-technical crowd. I've evaluated a few, and these are the most straightforward flows I could find: Option 1: Completely free
Option 2: The most painless, but not free. ($0.99/month)
I don't have an Android on hand to test, but greasyfork has a list of options on its homepage for mobile Android:
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You are AWESOME !
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You are the best!!!
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has the new website also come with new award routing rules? I'm trying to book a multi-city JFK-DOH-SYD in Biz & F respectively (on QR) and the cathay website shows availability (cross checked with BA) but it errors out after selecting the multi-city flights. The connection time in DOH is < 24 hours.
So as usual I start a chat with their agents and the agent says she cant see any availability at all! Is this the new normal? or case of HUCA? thanks! PS: I have booked this same award multiple times in the past and it worked every single time (worked as in - the chat agent was able to book it for me) |
still impossibe
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Originally Posted by ricktassie
(Post 34544294)
has the new website also come with new award routing rules? I'm trying to book a multi-city JFK-DOH-SYD in Biz & F respectively (on QR) and the cathay website shows availability (cross checked with BA) but it errors out after selecting the multi-city flights. The connection time in DOH is < 24 hours.
So as usual I start a chat with their agents and the agent says she cant see any availability at all! Is this the new normal? or case of HUCA? thanks! PS: I have booked this same award multiple times in the past and it worked every single time (worked as in - the chat agent was able to book it for me) I did not HUCA, and just bit the bullet and booked separately, so I can't speak as to whether a different agent may have helped. For data point purposes, my particular case was a TSA-HND and HND-LHR flight all on JL with a 17 hour overnight connection. |
An easy fix…
Just in case CX/ MPO are still monitoring this forum..
The answer to your IT woes is right here, on this thread. you won’t have to invest in a call centre that can handle the complicated, yet correct itineraries the brain trust here will generate. You won’t get brickbats from people who know the game. You will just bring efficiency in. Thank you, jaytw! |
After trying multiple phone agents via:
- their HK number and US numbers, - their WhatsApp chat/agent - as well as a detailed email (with screenshots from the cathay website & ba website) to their memberservices @ asiamiles dot com customer service center, and receiving nothing useful except the lame "we don't see the availability" & "the website isn't always realtime), I finally bit the bullet and booked my award via ba dot com avios (QR SYD-DOH-CDG in F). Yes that same exact award was indeed real and not phantom!! So p1$$ed at the sheer incompetency of these folks at the moment esp since I have a bunch of miles with em and it looks like NOTHING is bookable via partners - not even non-stop awards. (yes I tried the above script) I wonder if the DOT would have any provision to look into this issue if it may fall into false advertising or a bait and switch situation. Just devastated at the thought of having so many miles lying unusable. |
Hey fellow FTers! First of all, thanks to those of you who have bought me coffees, it is very kind of you guys :D
So, I've made a few updates to the tweak over the weekend, and oh boy, you're gonna like this one. If you've already installed the script and want to update, go over to the greasyfork page and press the "Update to Version 2.1" button. Then, in Tampermonkey (or whichever user script manager you are using) click on "Update". 2.1 Changes:
You can now batch search award availability on multiple consecutive days for all cabins and all airlines AT THE SAME TIME. To activate the hidden feature, you will need to click on or tap on the "Unelevated Award Search" text Nine (9) Times on the search results page. A new button labeled "Batch Availability for 20 Days" will appear, as shown below. Once activated, it will stay activated for future launches. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...31bf4cad07.png When you click on it, it will start search for award availability on the current route showing on the search page, for 20 days (actually 19) starting from the date entered in the "Date" field. It will show the available flights for every calendar date, with the flight numbers and corresponding availability in F, J, PY and Y. Non-stop flights will have a green background, while those with stops will be grey and show the layover city. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...151fb98526.png You can click on the dates on the left to load the actual Cathay engine search results for that particular day, e.g. when you are ready to book a flight, or want to see further details of the flights. Note that you cannot change your origin or destination for the batch search, only the date. It needs to be the same route as the one currently being searched, as the tweak uses checksums on the page to call the Cathay APIs. Each checksum is only valid for 20 API calls, including the one the page initially makes itself, so once they are used up, a further batch search will trigger a page refresh to get a new checksum. If you click on dates on Cathay's own date tabs in the website's original search results further down, you will also use up API calls, so the batch call may not always show 20 days. Please use this responsibly and do not abuse it, lest Cathay take actions to shut down or further obfuscate those APIs. If you find any bugs or have any feedback, you can fill in the bug report form here: https://forms.gle/zCUZzrajNscLzpsp8 Enjoy! |
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