No Overnight Allowed?
 

Background:
I tried to book a oneway flight involving a connection in HKG. The CX reservations agent at the reservations office in the departure city that I initially spoke to issued me a ticket that in no way corresponded to the flight dates/times I specified. I promptly called the reservations office back to change the flights to what I wanted and had originally requested. This involved taking a late flight out to HKG, overnight at HKG, then fly out of HKG the next day. Total connection time is well under 24 hours. No problems, the agent told me, except I'll have to pay additional HKG departure tax since the connection is overnight. I knew that, so that was fine.

Fast forward about a month.

I called today to switch over to the last flight from my departure point to HKG. That seemed to go fine - everything showed up in my MPC profile nicely. About a half hour later, the reservations office called me to inform me their ticketing desk won't allow the ticket to be processed as I am not allowed to have an overnight stay in HKG. I said my understanding was no stopovers were allowed, but as I was not issued the fare rules I could not be certain. Can I see them, I ask. Sorry I'm told, the fare rules cannot be generated for my ticket, but this interpretation is what the ticketing desk has said.

What recourse do I have? Is there someone I can speak with to have this resolved? The ticket is non-refundable, and apparently my desired routing isn't allowed. I was not aware of rules against overnighting (but less than 24 hr connection) at HKG but I can't see them for myself. The agent at the reservation office was extremely insistent, but the lack of overnight in HKG just doesn't work for me and I am not willing to blindly pay the surcharge for an overnight connection.

There is no definitive answer without more concrete details. ;)

Some unpublished fares sold by CX allows same day connection through HKG only. :( Most of the I fares sold ex-TPE are like that. The original booking was probably a mistake. The question is will CX honor the mistake or not? :confused:

I am flying ex-TPE, but paranoia got the best of me and I didn't want to post any details "just in case." It turns out my ticket is booked in I class. For some reason I had thought it was D, so I didn't understand why the restrictions would be so over the top - with an I fare, I can begin to understand.

CX won't accept the original booking, so I have no choice but to change it to a same day connection or pay up to a higher booking class. After sleeping on it, I've decided to scrap my TPE plans. :( I will re-book my inbound flight to TPE so that I can just connect to my revised itinerary.

So my next question becomes: what is the minimum connection time in TPE? CX website doesn't provide that information.

Edited to add: Also, is it too late to get rid of the angry face in the thread title? I think I have some egg on my face that should cover up the angry look :o

Minimum MCT in TPE is 60 minutes, but I believe 45 minutes is even though illegal, is doable. Most TPE flights are on-time, and the airport is pretty small. I just started my ex-TPE this afternoon.

However, I have done ex-TPE tickets with LAX-HKG on 885, and HKG-TPE on the next day, with only additional taxes charge. That was last year.

You can argue you case, because if you price out an ex-TPE on CX website, with a next day connection (But less than 24 hours), D fares are still valid, and the only difference is taxes.

The OP purchased I fare. @:-)

I purchase I fares ex-TPE several times a year. It is always restricted to same day connections at HKG only. If you want to overnight <24 hours, than you need to buy up to D fare which is a published fare. The only thing OP can argue for is for CX to honor original ticketing error. The overnight was never supposed to be allowed by the I fare rules. It is not a tax or surcharge to overnight, you simply need to buy up to D fare. @:-)

Yes, you can do TPE turn in 60 minutes. Some of the TPE-HKG flights are operated from Japan/Korea. You may want to make sure that you are on the same aircraft for HKG-TPE-HKG. @:-) If not, and your inbound to TPE is late, your return flight may leave without you as the aircraft is different.

Thanks so much for the advice guys!

This trip has turned out to be more of a learning experience than I had expected - but I'd much rather have trouble now than when I show up at the airport!

I've just gotten back from LAX this week on an ex-TPE I class fare purchased online via the CX Taiwan website and managed to price and travel with an overnight connection at HKG (both outgoing and return) as long as it was less than 24 hours. Only had to pay the additional HKG taxes.

I don't understand this additional tax thing. Let's say if I do TPE-HKG-LHR, would I have to pay additional taxes for connecting to CX255 rather than CX251 to LHR? [CX255 departs just after midnight, whereas CX251 departs at 23:55]

Does the same day connection rule means you can only connect with CX251 and not CX255?