Cathay Online Booking Fail
 

Just gone through a whole Multi-City business class booking twice - hours apart - only for it collapse at seat selection.....

Grr

Tried to book over the phone and same issue throwing up one fare on one leg - for one pax - no longer available.And just about doubling the price for 2 on the whole journey.

Anyone know the issue? It shows available on ExpertFlyer and Google Flights too.

We are unable to proceed with this booking. One or more of the flights you have selected is no longer available. Please select different flights and search again. [15012

It gets worst. So as suggested tried to book one Pax only - still same error code

They are starting to make Philippine Airlines ICT look OK!!!

Yeah, CX is going more and more down the drain with their customer faced IT.

Only when you enter the payment phase of the booking, the availability is held. Not only for CX, though in general.

Always skip the seat selection during booking, to avoid timeouts, disappearing availability and a million other reasons.

Both EF and GF (as well as matrix) tend to start running behind on factual availability vs. what is displayed. Not only for CX, though across the board.

Also keep in mind, that, IF you "check" too many times the routes and availability for that route, on an airline website, the "AI" behind the website will notice this and decreases the availability for the lower booking classes, trying to persuade you to book a more expensive one for your so desperately wanted itinerary.

Nowadays, you need to book straight away, when you see something you want.

If the booking is still far out, you may want to suspend the booking and wait until availability for the pricing/booking class you want comes up again.

Great advice! Thanks!

I am trying to book for flights, and after choosing the itinerary, this appears:

We are experiencing technical difficulties.

Tried several browsers already to no avail.

We are experiencing technical difficulties
 

Same experience over 2 days with different browsers. IRRITATING

A call to CX in London was at best unimpressive despite the efforts of the agent.

Problem is likely P class for business. It shows as available online (EF - Matrix AND cx online). But the agent could only see one despite EF showing 9.

First attempt was that only one - not 2 - P available. She tried to book just one. That rejected as no longer available (still showing 9 on EF a week later).
She tried different Points of Sale to no avail.

Tried adjacent days and....... just lost the will..

Partner booked a convoluted but very cost efficient CX routing for her need to go through HKG to Aus stopping off 3 nights en route in each direction.

I booked on PAL ex KUL.Planes and crew fine - everything else horrible.

Saved nearly $2K and got better timings for our schedule.

ALSO NOTE these P class fares are crediting ZERO with most OW operators. Topic of much dissatifaction on other EF Fora.

I seriously doubt it.

False - airlines would love to be able to do this like hotels and insurance companies do, but unfortunately the tech behind it doesn't allow it. All is happening is simply there is one seat available in a given bucket and by you selecting that option to commence the booking flow, that seat is now held for a pre-determined amount of time. Some airlines its only 15min, others like QF are up to 2359 the same day (which is why you get the 'want to complete your booking' email with an associated PNR). If you break that booking flow and go and do something else and then return and start it again, that one seat is still held by your previous search and hence the next available bucket is displayed. In the medium term this may change with IATAs NDC, however, uptake by airlines is slow and hence is not yet something that is widespread. Until then, we got the 80s tech.

Cheers

Ah.... CX IT is top notch as usual it seems!

Finished selecting my itineraries and seat selection. And after clicking Hold Fare, it returns an error.

Now, trying to do everything again, but is stuck with "We're loading your flights now". Did it again, still the same.

Of course, though, you disagree with everything I write. Looks a bit like a crusade.

I just wrote about my experience. For this situation, it was availability on LX (and the LH group in general), where some 3-4 availability in that booking class just disappeared overnight, after I was "checking" for a couple of days as a preparation for an upcoming trip on very short go/no-go notice. And a few days later, LH/OS showed the same disappear. Not a gradual reduction in availability, though just drop to zero, overnight. I did end up flying with another airline (with lower pricing). Granted, it was a route, not that many people fly, and my IP address was constantly varying, combined with a persistent cookie-clear, so it would stick out in search overviews as several people checking for that route.

What you describe is the "original" way it worked, but times are changing, airlines are more and more trying to monetize on this.

Regarding the lock on availability, this is also changing from the past (being right from the first selection) to only a lock, when you did make the final choice and are invited to pay. I am not sure, which airline it was, but there was one that even explicitly mentioned this aspect during the booking process with a recent booking I did.

And for those, knowing better: Feel free to ignore what I write. I don't mind.

I disagree that airlines are still using 80s tech.
Some have advanced tech where availability is influenced by search on specific flights.
I do not know for CX and their website is chaotic at best.

double post. Apologies

I cant even get some Multi-City itineraries to get beyond loading fare details. Its beyond me why they cant fix this - its adds to people trying to call them, putting pressure on the call centres and just annoying everyone involved.

Why cant they spend money and time on fixing something so basic instead of trying to create a lifestyle brand is mind boggling

For the CX site, there is currently a "golden" rule: When you change parameters like single/return/Multi-city, change destination/route, always restart from scratch. Clear the browser cookies and restart the browser. Then straight to the stuff you want. From there, it (sorry) might work. Do different and expect the booking to crash somewhere along the line.

Also keep in mind, that, especially on complicated itineraries, it could be somebody snags your seat/booking class on one of the segments, so, once you are there to select (or even pay), the intermediate/final check fails and you have to start again. I also have my doubts, whether the intermediate and final checks are the same. My impression is, the final checks are more thorough/restricting, with the consequence, the booking fails before you can make your payment. It all has to do with a more and more "real-time" booking process, where availability is no longer locked, until the final check, just before the payment. It does have its benefits, though also the consequences. As such my advise to skip things like additional services, you can easily add later on.

Good luck.