Recently flying F from HKG to JNB with my wife.
I confirmed seats 24 hrs in advance. Then, on arrival at HKG, was told that flight was oversold in F, 8 pax had already checked in and we were being downgraded to J! Not only that, but the worst J seats, in the rear of the cabin right by the economy cabin.
We were offered about $1000 each in compensation (which was the fare difference plus "a goodwill gesture") - we were on AONE fares so the difference wasn't great. We were also offered upgrades if we flew Cathay in the next 12 months, which we aren't going to be doing.
Can I expect any further compensation if I complain further? What can I ask for?
Is this a frequent occurrance? I was appalled, I didn't think this happened in F!

Doesn't appear you have the above but if you did, the compensation is apparently one palm tree (search the forum named after you).

CX never oversells F. It sounded more like a last minute booking of some VIP that needed to get to JNB in a hurry. OR you checked in less than the 40 minute cut-off check-in time. Then CX probably gave your seats away to someone who was on standby in F.

$1000 is more than sufficient for the fare difference between J and F. Considering you have a RTW ticket, and the diff is substantial considering all CX could have done is calculate the diff between that sector only and paid the diff between AONE and DONE based upon how much CX you're flying. And that they even gave you two upgrades to next class of service.

I really wouldn't expect more.. but you may try writing to Customer Service and see what happens. But from experience, that is already VERY generous of CX already.

We were there 2 hours before flight... And I had confirmed seats 24 hours before!

I don't think $1000 is generous at all, and, if the story as related by BA Loyal is accurate (no advance warning by CX, customers at airport 2 hrs before flight), CX's actions seem totally unacceptable to me.

CX should offer the difference in full fare, which is about $2000. Calculating the difference of a OWE fare is absurd: that same reasoning would say that CX should pay $0 if they double-downgrade an award ticket from F to Y.

CX should have handled this the way other airlines (esp US lines) handle oversells. Come up with an offer for anyone in F to downgrade, and keep increasing the offer until it's sweet enough for someone to take it.

I agree with Wideman. Consdering that the normal F/J fare difference is around $874, I would hardly call an extra $126 "generous" (especially considering the 2 hour advance check-in and reconfirmation 24 hours in advance). I have read accounts of BA downgrading from F to J and offering a free systemwide return ticket in F as compensation.

LOL! No, I nearly convulsed. I simply cannot believe what I am reading.

Mr Terenz, that answer is simply priceless. How can he ever not believe that such things happen as the exact same thing is alledged to have happened over at BA - what? I understand that he is a Travel Agent if memory serves. When was this? Last year? At this rate he won't have many airlines left to avoid!

Wait ! til I tell the chaps!

Hi Ho!

When BA did that due to closing off the front cabin, they gave, in cabin, an MCO equivalent to the passengers' whole itinerary calculated in full fare, even if you were on an award ticket. ^ Then again, someone had to sue BA for an involuntary downgrade (hence the palm tree reference earlier). CX and other Asian airlines are however known to be a bit cheap in the customer service/recovery department. I'm not sure if you signed away anything but using this when writing to CX as an example would be a good start. Might want to try to see what the CX condition of carriage is. I have an awrd ticket coming up imminently and would be pissed if this happened to me.

Agree 100%. There's nothing "generous" about $1000 if the fact are as described-- not with confirmed seats in F. I'm not saying it's "worth more" (it might even be the "right number" with the upgrades thrown in) but rather that characterizing it as "generous" is silly, IMHO.

It's always easy to do-- when it's happened to someone else-- but if we are being honest with ourselves and each-other, if it happened to us, we'd be mighty unhappy.

Color me cheap but I'd be extremely happy with that compensation package. In fact, I'd probably offer to downgrade\refund (as long as I'd downgrade to biz, but definitely not to Y unless I'd have a whole row to myself) if I could score that upgrade voucher.

Is that upgrade transferrable?

Check out my similar experience here. CX said it was AA's fault for not forwarding the ticket number to CX after the reissue, and I was offered bupkus from CX. Didn't bother following up with AA, too much work. I did get the miles and q-points as if I had flown in F, though.

Due to the involvement of AA-- and more importantly the issues raised by Darren in that thread-- I think your case was quite a bit different than the OP's here, which, IMHO, has none of the extenuating circumstances that you case (IMHO) had. Your case was quite involved and convoluted by comparison.

Involved and convoluted? That sounds kinky! I'll ask Mrs. Pickles if she's into that. On the other hand, maybe I shouldn't. She'd ask for another round in the CX F SuperPod as consideration.

The HKG-JNB flights can have people checking in REALLY early due to connections from other destinations. I've only seen a similar issue when SAA had cancelled or delayed flights from HKG, SAA would normally transfer revenue F pax's to CX. However to do this to the point that your were downgraded seems odd. I would have checked in earlier in the due to this fact.

Have you written to CX to ask for a proper explanation of what more you could have done to ensure you wouldn't have lost the F seats? This may put them on the line to explain how F was actually full (which it normally isn't on CX)