ajy733

I am with British Airways Avios program....If I book a flight on Cathay I am wondering which of the economy tier I need to book to get the most BA Tier points and avios. I have done a booking but without paying for the ticket I cannot see which class of fare ( Y or something less) it is which determines the point amounts. Can anyone advise or I will call cathay I guess

Thanks

ernestnywang

All booking classes may be Light, Essential, or Flex. You need to cross-check with ITA Matrix, EF, or a TA to find out which fare class you will be book into.

Cambo

It's not listed.

Since this booking class is an essential item (on top of the listed rule details for dummies), I think, you are entitled to a full refund, when the resulting booking class does disappoint you, when being informed only after booking/payment is completed. Though, I also think, it'll be a "fight" to get the refund claim honored. I'd say, to just call CX, when you nearly finished your booking (IE, stop at the payment stage). I'd not be surprised if they would be able to retrieve your partial booking and continue on that booking when being on the phone.

Guessing, based on third-party info might be a bit of a risky challenge, given that the light/essential/flex mixed over the booking classes, creates a whole list of options/prices not shown at EF or so. EF shows USD pricing and CX does show you HKG-based pricing.

brunos

EF gives you the HKD pricing for HKG-based. Or in the local currency of all major origins.

But you are quite right that EF does not list most of the special fares that CX uses. Hence, it is of little use for that purpose. I don't know about ITA matrix.

lsquare

What's the difference? I find this all to be very confusing.

ernestnywang

Take a look at https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...omy-fares.html

LYuen

At a specific moment, Light, Essential and Flex are with the same fare class (RBD). It will move to higher booking classes when ticket price increases.
Only when you are accruing Asia Miles will you earn more miles by purchasing Essential or Flex ticket instead of Light

Back to OP, it might worth checking the accrual rate with Qatar Airways for Avios - Qatar offers double the status points and Avios on Cathay flights for most economy booking classes

Cambo

Or, so to say, there is an undocumented dispersion of booking class rules into Light/Essential/Flex fares, and the upcoming passenger no longer has any insight or choice, regarding the booking class. A Y (normally with full flexibility) booking class, lost all its flexibility when it's the Light flavor. And an O flex gets the Y goodies, never heard of, for the lowest booking class.

LYuen

At any booking class point, a light, essential or flex fare type ticket can be issue. Ticket benefits only depends on fare type. Asia Miles and Cathay status earned depends on both booking class and fare type. Miles and status earned to other oneworld FFP only depends on booking class.
I think this is Cathay's take when some airlines moving the miles earn rate from distance based to ticket price based. And on hiding the booking class, basically Cathay want people to use their own FFP instead of their partners'.

CarefreeBA

(Drifting away from the OP's original question) I think revenue management also contributes to this. The lower (fare) classes will be filled first before the higher classes in all instances, and people won't buy a Y fare if an O fare is available purely because of flexibility (of course, if someone wants to willingly pay more, then there's nothing stopping them?).

This does mean that if you book an O-flex fare with 'free changes + fare difference', that you are likely to be hit by a large 'fare difference' come the time to change it if the lower sub-classes are full. This can really sting those during holiday travel periods.

csycsycsy

Or switch to continuous pricing?

Cambo

Especially, when the fare differences are largely hidden, as is now the situation.

Only during holiday periods, or just always? Looks to me, like this mechanism has ingrained a huge customer dissatisfaction. And exactly those customers the airline earns money from.

CarefreeBA

Theoretically always. The mechanism is definitely designed to make money; more so during holiday periods when there are periods of virtually guaranteed 100% loads due to the large amount of boarding school students travelling from the UK to Hong Kong/rest of Asia and vice versa. At other times, it may be possible there are fares in H/K buckets where as at those times, you'd be lucky to find a B fare.

Nicc HK

Cathay has a track record in doing this, targeting the loyal customer who is lowest in the spend leagues.

percysmith

I’m not sure what’s wrong with that - O essentially means don’t even think about rebooking it. It is akin to snatching a redemption on the border of the redemption window - if you need to rebook, be prepared to redeposit the redemption and pay a full cash fare.