CX potential downgrade question (J to PY)
 

Booked BNE-HKG-DXB tonight in J and made the reservation using miles. At check in the agent couldn’t check me in and had to call over a supervisor.

they said my second flight HKG-DXB is overbooked and offered me HK$1,500 (US$200) to downgrade to premium economy. Obviously that’s a terrible offer for a 9 hour flight and they felt pretty embarrassed offering it. I said for US$1,500 I’d consider it but they didn’t really have any flexibility. Anyways they had to call some big boss on the phone to allow me to check in. They told the boss I’d prefer to stay in business class. They were able to print my BNE-HKG boarding pass but not the second one to DXB. They said I’d have to sort it out in HKG

luckily I have a 10 hour layover which I am planning to use to explore one of my favourite cities tomorrow. However, what are my options in this situation?

unfortunately I have to be in DXB tomorrow night for work meetings the following day. If it’s a choice between going PY or not going I’ll have to take the downgrade but the offer is really terrible. Will they be more likely to negotiate to a reasonable offer in Hong Kong? Would they rebook me in EK in J? Or am I just stuck with whatever they give me?

any help or advice prior to tomorrow would be appreciated. Planning to sort it out before I leave the airport tomorrow morning.

If you accept their offer then you are just going to get whatever they offer you.

If you don't accept their offer and they still have to downgrade you, you will likely end up with a significantly higher cash compensation than HK$1500.

Most likely what will happen is that they'll try to convince someone else to accept a downgrade offer instead.

This happened to me a few years ago while I was still an SL and booked in long haul PE. They desperately wanted my PE seat and kept on offering me more and more money to downgrade to Y. I kept on refusing. At the gate my BP beeped and I was upgraded to J instead.

I guess after becoming GO/DM we never end up in a situation where they might want to offload you.

Push to fly. It’s up to them to find another person to downgrade.

Out of curiosity, what was their final offer and did they offer to put you on the next flight instead?

YVR Uncle was offered HK$12,000 to voluntary downgrade from J to PE on HKG-YVR a week ago, which was the roughly fare difference I worked out he was due had they IDGed him (says something about how overpriced purchased PE is)

Then offered him one night's hotel to fly on the next day CX838 rather than the CX888 he was on.

He refused both and check in found another volunteer.

Final offer was HK$8000. No offer to put me on the next flight instead.

On arrival in HKG this morning they had a sign with my name on it. They offered me the same HK$1,500 again, plus first class lounge access

i told them I’d do it for US$1,500. They refused, so I said no thanks I’ll just stay in business class. 5 minutes later I get a ping on my phone saying “we’ve reassigned your seat”. And I’m now in a middle seat in premium economy. Then they called me a minute later and they said on the phone “we’ve changed your seat so you can get through the transfer area but we are still looking for volunteers”

it seems like they are pretty intent on downgrading me. I get it, I’m an experienced traveler and I understand as a no status passenger on a mileage ticket I’m at the bottom of the list. But the offer is still terrible for a 9 hour flight. What should be my next move when I get back to the airport later today?

I'm sorry to hear about your case. The amount offered is pathetic. I suggest you publish it in Chinese, on RedNote app (Little Red Book). That should more likely help you get the attention justified

royng , no need, they owe him fare difference on time of booking.

david_oz , you're owed fare difference on day of booking per Conditions of Carriage (they will try and offer fare difference between fare you paid and day of downgrade, resulting in very little refund) (enforceable by partial credit card chargeback) (PM me with your day of booking and fare code, I'll look it up in EF for you).

it doesn't matter if you are miles or cash. Miles is form of currency just like cash. let us know how you go. unfortunately for a no-status pleb they may play hardball.

I never had downgrade offered to me so i can't say. but if on personal trip with spare time i will gladly take some cash compensation IF they also refund full fare difference. For work trip - i think contract fare specifically say 'not suitable for downgrade' on ticket condition to prevent staff cashing in and fly on inferior trips and i will fall on this to fight back.

thank you. I sent a PM. Where should I have the discussion with them? At check in? At the gate? After the flight?

im a pretty reasonable guy and im not even that upset about the downgrade. I just want to be compensated appropriately for it

Sorry if it's miles it's a lot simpler - not date dependent (so no need PM)

Then it's just the miles difference (115K - 75K (just do a dummy redemption https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_HK.html ) pro rated by distance (3,688/(4,318+3,688) https://www121.jal.co.jp/JmbWeb/JR/SectionMile_en.do ) = 18,426 AM

Raise it to customercare https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/36829981-post3.html

Appallingly low compensation. $1500HKD? Seriously? That's not even the fare difference between subclasses within PEY let alone the difference between PEY and J. It seems like an outright scam even though the ticket was redeemed.

I think quoting the fare difference is a good way to make it clear what's fair.

Just putting this out there based on a couple of anecdotes. I've been offered about $10,000HKD before when asked if I'd be willing to volunteer for a downgrade from J to PEY. All on flights between HKG/YYZ.

Not a very good form though.

This is probably why they singled out OP, if they're assigning a cash value to mileage difference, then the dollar amount is going to be rather small indeed.

They'd have to pay out significantly more for any revenue ticket.

Is upgrade voucher still something CX issue?

(wouldn't be very useful, if OP doesn't travel on CX much)
Not too sure of the t&c.
One-class only?
Revenue tickets only? Or can it also be used on a redemption ticket?

Exactly. Usefulness of these miles largely depends on what you intend to use them for. If you are looking to use them on Y tickets only or stuff from CX shop, I can see it's value. If you would like to use them on CX premium cabins on longhaul routes, it's very challenging due to very limited availability. I don't think folks would want to accumulate too much Asia Miles in their account if they want to use them exclusively for longhaul F/J redemptions since they are so damn hard to burn.

HK$1,500 / 18,426 = $0.081 per mile so I personally rather have miles. Obviously this is the archetypal YMMV.

Yeah. I don't want to be at the mercy of CX inventory. I would rather take cash any day even if at a discount.

But then again, for $1,500, I would have the J seat for an 8-hour flight...

So I got to the gate about an hour before the flight time and explained the situation that it looks like I’ve been downgraded despite rejecting their offer twice.

they asked for my passport, and printed me out a boarding pass with a business class seat on it. But that’s not the end of the story. When I boarded the aircraft there was a guy sitting in the seat.

He’s like “oh you have this seat? No problem I’ll sort it out with them. I’ll just sit over here in the meantime” and he grabbed the neighbouring seat. He seemed like a nice guy. I asked if they gave him the same seat and he said no he is crew, and he’s flying the flight back. Anyways he just kind of disappeared and I’m not sure where he went.

they are just about to close the doors and they’ve taken my food order so I assume all is good now and I’ll actually be going in business class. Yay!

thanks everyone for all the help today. Luckily I didn’t need it but hopefully it comes in handy for someone in future.

A little strange, but if it was a deadheading pilot there is only 3 operating crew on this sector and 2 bunks so he could have jumpseated for take off and then occupied one of the bunks for the duration of the flight.

what crazy lack of professionalism by CX all the way around. not much other way to describe it.

all sides are playing the mileage game, nobody more than CX. it's a ticket. their behaviour here is quite bad.

sharing my dp

Last Sat I was checking in CX316 at F counter . The staff asked me if I was willing to seat in W. I replied if there were seats available they could move me to CX368 ( I was not in a hurry then) but several seconds later a supervisor told me I’m good to go.

Curious how many DM ppl in J.