Upfare process on CX?
 

Hi All,
My company will only book us in Y. How easy is it to call CX and pay the difference to upgrade it to J? Will I be able to simply pay the difference between my booked fare and the lowest available J fare from their website? Or is there some stupid rule that I can only upgrade to a full J fare, or pay some upgrade fee?
I want to know this before booking a Y on CX, so if it's easier to do this on other airlines, I would book w/ other airlines instead.
Thanks

It depends on the conditions around your Y class ticket. If you are booked into one of the cheaper subclasses then they normally have pretty strict change conditions and you may have problems. If however you're booked into one of the more expensive subclasses (Y, B, H, K) then it should be relatively easy. I'm not sure that CX will make the change if the reservation is via a travel agent. I do what you're wanting to do regularly but do it via our company travel agent - meaning the company is charged for the approved fare and my personal credit card is charged for the difference in fare. Works like a dream (assuming the price is right).

Availability of all subgroups of J fare, for direct sales, decides the main part of the difference you have to pay. If discounted J fares are all gone, you need to pay the difference between full J and your econ ticket price.

Purchased subgroup of Y fare, decides any add on price, and also, if you are allowed to rebook into another fare category at all.

I bought in Y once, and wanted to pay up to a PEY ticket. Availability is abundant, but was told by CX that for that sector, up-sale from Y into PEY is not allowed.

It would depend on which other airline you are talking about to know if it's easier with them. But I'd say QR or SQ will most likely be happier if you want to pay them.

That's what I do always :cool:

My experience:

Y (subclass) can only up to W or J (mind you price can vary even for the same subclass. Ask your agent to check all fare code). You can ask your agent or CX to do so. But don't ever think about upselling Y to D or even I

For other subclasses CX usually won't handle the upgrade themselves as they don't know the fare your agent charged you and the special fare arrangement you and your agent has so they can't calculate the fare difference.

But your Co's agent may or may not help you to do so (as this may be troublesome to their accounting department). My agent told me direct upsell unlikely as it is essentially a cancellation and re-ticketing rather than a direct reissue...

Nonetheless, that's my experience. YMMV

As a general rule, airlines won't touch a ticket issued by a TA. And most TAs won't do upsell because of the accounting trouble it generates. But ask your TA.

Some airlines offer bidding for upgrades or paid upgrades at OLCI or at airport. CX does not and you have to pay the fare differential. Using miles to upgrade can be an easier option.

They were thinking about bringing it back though, upgrade bidding, CX.

I'm serious.

Actually I'm not against the idea, just CX has a very good track record of messing stuff up....... So I've zero expectation on how they'll do it...

- Who can bid?
- How to determine who win? Bid amount? Total fare (i.e. Bid amount + fare paid)? CIV?
- How CPs will be counted?

Interestingly I've been wondering what the process is on CX too.

I'm booked in Y (V class). I've looked in Manage Booking and started a dummy change my booking, but that doesn't give you the option to change class, just the flight or move up the Y class categories to a fully flex Y ticket.

I'm guessing I'd have to ring up and they'd quote me the the current PE fare, plus the £100 change fee, plus I'm guessing a telephone service fee?

I did try searching on the CX site and found this link,

Terms and conditions - Cathay Pacific United Kingdom(HTML, 51025b)
...booking change. No further upgrade by cash, Asia Miles or otherwise will be entertained after Enhance upgrade has been successful offered...be entitled to any further upgrades for such flight whether by cash, Asia Miles or otherwise...

http://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_G...onditions.html

But when I pressed on the link, I got a 404 error:

We can't find the page you're looking for.
This page could have been archived or the address is incorrect. Let us help you get back on track.
(Reference no.: 404)

I'm guessing this is the bid system talked about above.

Do CX ever proactively offer paid upgrades, either online, at check in or at the gate? Or even on board? I say on board because my very first CX flight LHR to HKG I got stuck next to a person of size. On saving grace was that it was an exit row so I could get out easily. But after 12 hours of sitting contorted I would have gladly paid to move. However it was a pre-xmas flight so I knew chances would be slim of spare seat.

No. If you want to be in PEY, then you would have to do as you described below:

Correct. But there is no telephone fee.

global hk call center is very efficient to handle these matters

Not trying to give CX any evil ideas....but I wonder if CX actually charge a telephone service fee, or say $15 USD every time someone calls in enquiring about their waitlist, would this eliminate the horrible wait time on the phone for non-elites :D

Any updates on this from the posters? I'm in exact scenario as OP.

Y tickets are about $900, PE about $1500, I would love to pay the difference to confirm PE, but I'm told our TA (Carlson Wagonlit) can't handle personal credit cards. If I had to suck it up to pay an extra 100 plus the fare difference, I could do that assuming it works for a TA ticket.

Im planning an upgrade for this spring and waiting for points to get into account first...but CX told me since a TA did trip they have to change it. So I have to first call CX to see if availabile, if not then what other flights that day do have availability......If I need to change flight then call TA first to make change and then call back CX to do the point upgrade...

Its a pain...but worth it since the upgrade is to F longhaul...

This sounds like a good news. I wonder why CX axed this trial before while some other airlines seem doing it happily... becoz pax just don't buy J and wait for the bidding??

Well good news is I found out our tickets get issued on CX stock, which should be helpful (I think?)

But I'm still a little confused after going through this thread as it looks like there is conflicting reports, and because I'm not sure if Y is referencing general economy in some posts or full-fare economy in some posts.

I've never flown Cathay before, but if you buy a CX ticket, CX stock, in one of the lower economy buckets, does Cathay let you upfare to premium economy (looking to E)? Or rather, does CX have a 24 hr grace period, where if need be, as a poster mentioned above the ticket could essentially be cancelled and then applied towards a new ticket at the higher cost?

I actually found a CX premium fare cheaper then a one-stop flight from my airport that most people would take, but that would still raise flags since it's not in economy, and I can't be doing that (I'm told, even if it saves us money). As a result I have to jump through some hoops to make this work.