sokolov

Hi,

CX has issued new customer friendly rebooking rules due to the volcanic ashes incident. At
http://www.cathaypacific.com (direct deep link not possible) it says

"As a result of the Iceland volcano outbreak situation, with immediate effect, rebooking, rerouting, cancellation and refund charges will be waived for all tickets issued worldwide (irrespective of fare type) on/before 15 April 2010 for travel involving London, Amsterdam, Paris, Milan, Rome or Frankfurt till 30 April 2010."

And, amongst other things, it says:

"The newly rebooked sector must observe and conform to the conditions of the respective fare rule, e.g. black out dates, flight application, weekend / weekday travel, stopover charges, and applicable seasonalities by collecting additional / refunding difference (if any) as appropriate."

Now I have a ticket in O class for Friday April 23 PER-HKG-FRA (issued in 2009). The ticket rules would include a free stop over in HKG. I would like to move the second leg (HKG-FRA, CX 289) by 24 hours to April 24. So I called the FRA office of CX (Australian office was closed) to make that change.

I was told that the information on the website was incorrect and only flights that have been cancelled can be rebooked for free.

I really don't believe that because there would be no point for CX to announce these new rules on their website if only cancelled flights would be affected, since they have to rebook these passengers anyway!

What's more, I think that CX (or rather one of their passengers) would be happy if I was travelling a day later and thus a seat was made available a day earlier, since due to the vulcanic ashes incident these flights will be very full for quite a while.

Anyway, I was told I would have to pay 14 Euro for extra taxes in HKG (I'd happily pay that) plus 300 Euro for the ticket change (which I don't want to pay because of the mentioned new rules). Then again she said that in my booking class there weren't any seats available anyway so I couldn't rebook even if I paid the 300 Euro.

However, the booking engine tells me that some discounted economy class seats ARE actually available for the flight I want to take (I don't know which booking classes).

Maybe someone of you can help me. Who can I talk to at CX that actually knows about the new rules they have published on their website and can rebook my flight?

I understand these new rules as saying that ALL tickets to FRA until April 30 can be rebooked WITHOUT a fee depending on availability. And it doesn't say availabilty in the very booking class (O won't be available for a long time); since there are economy seats available on CX289 on April 24 I would really like to take advantage of these new rules and move my flight by 24 hours. I would of course pay the extra tax charged by HKG, but definitely not the 300 Euro asked by CX's FRA office. My ticket has not "blackout dates" or "seasonality" restrictions and a stopover in HKG would be free (which was actually confirmed by the FRA office).

TNX for any input!

sokolov

In case anyone is interested, here is the full set of rules from the CX website:

Special Ticketing Guidelines for Iceland Volcano Outbreak Situation
As a result of the Iceland volcano outbreak situation, with immediate effect, rebooking, rerouting, cancellation and refund charges will be waived for all tickets issued worldwide (irrespective of fare type) on/before 15 April 2010 for travel involving London, Amsterdam, Paris, Milan, Rome or Frankfurt till 30 April 2010.



Cathay Pacific / Dragonair tickets
Cancellation / Refund
Waive on cancellation and refund charges.

Rebooking / Rerouting
Such requests are made on/before 30 April 2010 and before departure, for travel involving London, Amsterdam, Paris, Milan, Rome or Frankfurt till 30 April 2010.
No-show passenger is not eligible for the waiver.

Revised (new) travel date must be on/before 30 June 2010 and subject to flight availability. In which case, the ticket expiry date will be adjusted accordingly.
Rerouting can be made to Cathay Pacific European online cities only (London/Amsterdam/Paris/Milan/Rome/Frankfurt), subject to flight availability.
The newly rebooked sector must observe and conform to the conditions of the respective fare rule, e.g. black out dates, flight application, weekend / weekday travel, stopover charges, and applicable seasonalities by collecting additional / refunding difference (if any) as appropriate.
Re-issuance charges will only be waived due to the expiry of the original ticket.
Group Tickets
Please refer to your local travel agent.


Frequent Flyer Programme Tickets
Please refer to the Asia Miles Terms and Conditions at www.asiamiles.com

For further details, please contact The Marco Polo Club at (+852) 2747 5500 and Asia Miles Service Centre at (+852) 2747 3838.

ChrisLi

As of time of post, seat counter shows

CX 289 24 APR F2 A2 J2 Y1

Other showing all 0

I guess its better for you to stick with your origional plan as it also help airline to allocate the seat easily

pacificboot

One of my flights is showed as canceled, so I called up MP for options, but I got two very different answers

Agent 1: Flight are cancelled "just in case", and will return back to on schedule as soon as airport opens. And my flight departs 24 hours after the airport is scheduled to be open, so I have no idea why the flight is cancelled

Agent 2: Flights are definitely cancelled, and CX will contact me for rebooking and they cannot do anything now.

So I guess I will just wait and see what happens - I would hate to be stuck on days like this where flight rebooking is so difficult.

cathaylonghaulff

I am stuck in Manchester trying to get to Amsterdam to catch the HKG flight. I am booked in paid business class. KLM is flying me to Amsterdam. Now the AMS HKG flight is shown as departing 5 hrs late on Sunday, which is the next open flight. KVS shows all zero's on all seats so maybe another F upgrade will come my way. Just need to hope I can get to AMS Sunday morning. Dont mind a couple of days delay but need to go to Japan Thursday for the Moto GP so dont want to screw that up.

pacificboot

I just called up CX/MP, and they told me that they are not rebooking anyone into new flights, because of the rolling delays and high uncertainity. So basically, I am stuck here in Paris, and no idea when I am getting back to HK. They won't let me rebook to Rome or Milan since they are all full. I was wondering if I should book seats on other airlines, so that I don't get stranded here for days? But another issue is that those flights may end up cancelled, and I end up paying more for nothing. What are other people experiencing? Are you getting rebooked by CX?

toyotaboy95

MXP was just reported by TVB News in HK to be cancelled tmr while FCO is supposably to operate as scheduled w/ larger equipment (34B -> 74A).

cathaylonghaulff

Website is showing AMS HKG as cancelled yet they just emailed me to say it will depart 5 hours late on Sunday. I have also found out that my connecting flight with KLM to AMS is on a seperate ticket, just hope I can get home without too much trouble

pacificboot

Seems like the AMS-HKG flight on Apr 18 is not departing just 5 hours late, but 2 days and 5 hours (meaning 53 hours). Anyways, I am still stuck here in Paris, and have been rebooked for Friday.

cathaylonghaulff

did they have staff on hand at the airport or did you call them, they are not answering calls in LHR or AMS until air space has opened

cuteusmaximus

Quick question -- My flight from CDG to HKG was cancelled. I need to get a refund. Can someone tell me the number to call? There are loads on the website, and I'm not sure if Marco Polo club is the frequent flyer section. Just a quick confirmation before I phone up Hong Kong! thanks

christep

It depends how you bought the ticket.

sokolov

so why can't i use that Y-seat? That is economy after all, right?

I assume CX Would be happy about everyone who wants to travel later and thus be flexible with booking classes.

Is there a way/website where i can check that seatcounter myself for various flights? i could probably go to paris, rome or milan instead of frankfurt.

Tnx

ChrisLi

Not knowing which quote you are quoting, anyway.

This is called revenue control and basically every airline want to fulfill the request of passengers who paid more and / or their loyal customer first (e.g. CX DM / GO can utilize their seat guarantee right to secure a seat before others, not sure if applicable in current situation though), For the seat availability I quote, My 2 cents that when someone take that Y1, CX will move one of their frequent flyer into J cabin and release a Y seat down there.

The easy answer: Point of Sale. If you purchased from TA, call TA; if via cx.com, call e-service center; if via ticketing office, contact the specific ticketing office.

sokolov

I have corrected it now.

Exactly. There are a lot of passengers who have paid more or are more loyal and are booked on the Saturday flight, but would rather go earlier (like, Friday). So I though it would be in the interest of the airline to give me a seat on the Saturday flight and make one of their more valuable customers happy by giving him my seat.

However, I do understand that it is not an easy task to know WHO wants to fly a day earlier.