tomofmaine

I often find (ex-MLE in this case) that the CX.com availability varies greatly from Ctrip, Expedia, etc. The OTAs will happily sell C, D, I fares, but CX.com and CX call centres only sell full J.

Ex-USA, I find the USA point of sale on ExpertFlyer is pretty accurate, same for ex-HKG the HKG point of sale. In this case, which point of sale matches ex-MLE? The Expedia offering seems to roughly match what the HKG point of sale returns in terms of inventories.

I know that sometimes the OTAs have access to different inventories, but it's a little striking when a website will sell an I fare, yet CX.com won't even sell D, or C, and goes straight to J.

EDIT: I’ve found, as many of you have as well, that country to country fare differences often exist, both via phone and at CX.com. In this case, all CX web/phone variations only show full J.

Any guidance from the resident experts? I'm trying to avoid the OTAs, since I find making changes is easier direct with the airline. Thank you.

percysmith

I thought ex-MLE runners simply bought from cathaypacific.com https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...rate-pnrs.html

tomofmaine

I've done ex-MLE before (not as a run, but out of normal travel plans), and had no issue with cathaypacific.com, but in this case, the airline's public availability is very different from that of other websites/agencies.

jagmeets

Likewise, Expedia-SG will often have deals that you will only find under specific credit card promos’ details page, or sometimes, not at all, on CX.com

ermen

I am surprised that the OP has these comments. i have never found ex-CMB or ex-MLE I / D fares on any other website apart from CXs. Do you have a concrete example?

The CX website is horrible to search for fares - I would much prefer them to publish them to the wider public and I can then pick it up from itamatrix / google flights.

tomofmaine

Ctrip and Expedia. February 4th departure, MLE-HKG one way. Expedia and Ctrip both will sell 3 D fares, cathaypacific.com won't even sell a full J now, says Business is entirely sold out. ITA also shows at least D3 for sale.

ermen

Wow. That is bizarre. But can't say I am familiar with ex-MLE (more ex-CMB).

Don't think its a POS issue - i looked at EF with HKG POS and it shows D5 for your dates (can't check MLE POS... maybe that is it - CX MLE POS is not showing anything??)

Tip: Maybe call the CX line and see if they can book using the published D fare?

tomofmaine

In the past, calling the outport phone number often yielded the lowest, market-specific fare.. but in this case, I tried a few regional offices, including the MLE office, and what they see matches what the website says.

percysmith

An alternative form of HUACA...good...

ermen

if CX can't price you the lowest fare (available to the public), they deserve to be in the trouble they are in.

Company seems to be run by incompetent boffins (ok apart from the lounges + hard / soft product)... and getting worst (e.g. new website is horrible)

CX time to wake up.

Cambo

It takes around 1 year to get some "quick" non-IT fixes from management level implemented at the world-wide operational level.

It takes around 5 years to solve fundamental IT related issues, because often "IT issues" are not IT issues, though simply a bad structural definition of company business rules. Had these and IT cannot make any decent bread of this. Usually a result of many years of plastering bad contracts into an IT system.

tomofmaine

What surprised me the most is that, on some attempts, MLE-HKG was showing completely sold out (not even full J), when the OTAs were selling D fares.

kaka

i have had a decent priced oneway LHRHKG business class ticket 10ish years ago. (50% of return J/C fare)