kaka

FlyPointyEnd

There are corporate accounts and travel agencies that still need to be managed by local offices. There are also local efforts that still need a person on the ground to manage from government relations to media and PR and until recently they even had a loyalty marketing staff.

percysmith

" when CX845 flight to Hong Kong was cancelled on the 3rd of August due to a tornado warning, CX New York said it would compensate passengers up to US$200 upon presentation of receipts"

Caused by CX vs not caused by CX.

blum81

I was there during the Xiamen Airlines plane crash mess.
In fact if that picture is from the Friday when everyone was stranded I'm probably standing right behind the person taking the picture in the article, first in line in the business line.

I'll explain my experience with this as I feel the article is fairly accurate but also understand your point on the systems being separate.

My now wife and I got to the airport at 12:30pm as I received a text telling me I was moved from the 12:30pm flight to the 3:30pm. As I walked to the counter we noticed that all of the staff were just standing around and a staff member told me I would have to wait an hour before I could check in. Fair enough... So we waited. Another hour went by and we were told to wait another 2 hours. As you can imagine the crowd began to build. After missing my 3:30pm flight, I was told that I can be put on the 8:00pm flight (flight times aren't exact, i just can't remember) so we continued to wait.

Come around to about 4-5pm, they did eventually bring us out sandwiches and water for everyone waiting. But by now it began to be realistic that I would miss my connecting flight to YVR at 1:00am in HKG. As the article mentioned, it was around 6:15pm when the CX staff finished their football style huddle meeting and rushed towards the counters....(yay! they're opening??? no...) then to inform the passengers the airport was closed and no flights would be sent out. I was given a piece of paper and literally told "sir, you can go home now", and in response, I said "What do you mean go home? I don't live here. I don't have a home here and I don't have a hotel." only to be given the "sorry sir, call the number on the piece of paper. sorry...".

Obviously, this didn't sit well with me as well as the hundreds of other passengers who were stranded, but I followed the procedure and began to call the number on the paper. It took me an hour to get through only to be told they cannot make changes to reservations at this time, and talk to the ground staff reservations.

now @FlyPointyEnd, this is where I believe the disconnect happens.
Throughout the 7+ hours of waiting, I fully understand that the airline is at the mercy of the airport authority and since it's MNL, I was not shocked at all at the lack of communication between airport authority and airlines. But what frustrated me and people around me is that we were being set into a loop.

CX ground staff were telling us to call the number on the paper. Then CX agents on the number telling us to talk to the reservation desk and ground staff at the airport.
CX ground staff & reservation desk were telling us to call the number on the paper. Then CX agents on the number telling us to talk to the reservation desk and ground staff at the airport.
CX ground staff & reservation desk were telling us to call the number on the paper. Then CX agents on the number telling us to talk to the reservation desk and ground staff at the airport.

I could go on but you get the point and you can imagine the frustration from this. The guy behind me was livid and experienced the same loop. I watched a vein pop out of his head in real time. But I feel for him because he was at risk of missing a funeral. Poor guy..

So the key part in this article that's missing is that CX was sending it's customers in a loop which really tells me that CX Manila and CX Headquarters really didn't communicate and plan this out the contingency properly for stranded customers. I actually remember calling CX Reservations around 4:00pm on my own and when I asked the agent if he could move me to another flight because of the crash he responded to me with "huh... what crash? There was a crash in Manila? Oh...". *facepalm.... no one told you the memo bro??*

But I will vouch for this part of the article where the author states "To be told that they needed an emergency reason to get on that next flight was like waving a red flag to the bull. ". After sh*t hit the fan and we were all told to go home I tried calling multiple times to different Cathay numbers to try to get a spot on the first flight out. Called the reservation line(s), Marco Polo, Marco Polo Diamond line and all said I will have to wait until Sunday to see, and possible earlier I could leave Manila is Tuesday. I said f*ck that. I'm going to keep trying.

I consider myself a pretty patient guy... understanding that the airline is at the mercy of an airport authority who are really incapable of doing their jobs. But when I was told this by the diamond agent I was livid.

Agent: "Your chances of leaving Sunday is quite slim as flights are all very full and unless it's an emergency it is unlikely you will be leaving earlier. What is your emergency that you need to leave?".
Me: "The emergency is that i'm going to miss my wedding".
Agent: "Who's wedding? Immediate family? Friend? Sorry but unless it's immediate family there is no guarantee you can fly out"
Me: "MY SAID IT'S MY OWN *!%$#*&@$ WEDDING! IF I DON'T GET ON THE *&@! PLANE I GOING TO MISS MY OWN WEDDING!"

At this point, I was put on hold (It's now Saturday morning around 12am) and I was told I would get a call back in an hour, and to my surprise I actually did get a callback and was told I have two J seats on the first flight out on Sunday morning. But the flight was oversold by 100 people so it isn't a guarantee and best to go to the airport early. So in a sense, I guess I was prioritized by emergency category, or it could have been the diamond status, who knows. This, I am very fortunate that I was able to make it to my wedding. Missed my bachelor party, but the party went on without me and apparently, it was pretty good haha.

My wife and I decided not to take any risks since the flight was oversold so we camped out at the airport Sunday morning from 12am to 4am making sure we were first in line to check in. We actually saw some familiar faces there from Friday and as sad as it was, one guy actually only got about 4 hours sleep for the two nights and didn't leave the airport. So yes, Cathay left a lot of people stranded. My wife and I were very fortunate to be able to sleep on a sofa bed at a colleagues place on Fri/Sat night.

But I will fully express that I was severely disappointed when I found out Air Asia and Malaysia Airlines gave their customers accommodations and food vouchers due to the crash. As a premium airline, you would think Cathay would do the same but when I complained after I was told that since it's not CX's fault, they are not entitled to provide anything, and to request a certificate to submit to my travel insurance company. The lack of empathy shown by Cathay from both ground staff and HQ towards their stranded customers was a complete letdown.

But yes, the article is fairly accurate, just missing out the following details

- customers were given a paper and told to call the number, then agents on the number were told to talk to ground staff.
- CX customers out of luck for accommodations & food vouchers, while Malaysia Airlines and budget airline Air Asia gave their customers accommodations/food.
- I do see this a big FU from Cathay to all the people stranded... But I'm sure Cathay is hoping it's swept under the rug by now.

Sorry for the long read but man that felt good to vent out...

khkchan

I think CX asking traveler's reason for standing by (family emergency, etc) is a very bad idea. Everyone paid their fare and it's not up to the airlines to judge.

IncyWincy

It was BA that used to have a big "retail" space on 156 Regent Street which disappeared about 10 years ago. It was about a block from Hamleys and now I believe some clothing store is there. There they displayed their seats, eg, when their Business Class seats came out.

FlyPointyEnd

Thanks for sharing with us your experience during the whole MF incident. I'm not making excuses for CX, in fact I think I have reached the point where I'm actually rethinking of either taking membership holiday or just quit Marco Polo once my year ends. Many people would think I'm sort of a CX apologist here...TBH maybe I am, but I'm just trying to be reasonable and seeing things from both sides. Bottomline, MIAA wasn't really prepared for this kind of disruption which was made worse by the lack of procedures for multi-flight disruption by CX.

This part I agree with, other airlines were more creative like SQ sending Scoot A320s which could still land at the shorter runway...I know that the town office staff were asked to report to the airport to help augment the staffing there and to assist with passenger concerns. unfortunately I guess there's very little they could do.

Glad that they had fun without you...hehehehe...Anyway clearly there was some communications breakdown somewhere, I think CX was not prepared but I was just pointing out that the suggestions made by the author (i listed them down below are somewhat unrealistic also)

My wife and I decided not to take any risks since the flight was oversold so we camped out at the airport Sunday morning from 12am to 4am making sure we were first in line to check in. We actually saw some familiar faces there from Friday and as sad as it was, one guy actually only got about 4 hours sleep for the two nights and didn't leave the airport. So yes, Cathay left a lot of people stranded. My wife and I were very fortunate to be able to sleep on a sofa bed at a colleagues place on Fri/Sat night.

But I will fully express that I was severely disappointed when I found out Air Asia and Malaysia Airlines gave their customers accommodations and food vouchers due to the crash. As a premium airline, you would think Cathay would do the same but when I complained after I was told that since it's not CX's fault, they are not entitled to provide anything, and to request a certificate to submit to my travel insurance company. The lack of empathy shown by Cathay from both ground staff and HQ towards their stranded customers was a complete letdown.

But yes, the article is fairly accurate, just missing out the following details

- customers were given a paper and told to call the number, then agents on the number were told to talk to ground staff.
- CX customers out of luck for accommodations & food vouchers, while Malaysia Airlines and budget airline Air Asia gave their customers accommodations/food.
- I do see this a big FU from Cathay to all the people stranded... But I'm sure Cathay is hoping it's swept under the rug by now.

Sorry for the long read but man that felt good to vent out...[/QUOTE]

It was a good read :-) Anyway as I said I was more of reacting to the article when it said,

CX IT for better of for worse is centralized in HK any changes on the website or an email to passengers would need someone in HK to actually do it. There's really nothing the local team could do about it.

Most likely it was a outport call, but normally even in HK I know passengers were not given accommodations...this was in contract to a Facebook post that went viral about how Singapore Airlines handled the situation at Changi.

If only this was possible. Unfortunately as I have pointed out, check-in computers are not on the same system with reservations. Even the training of the staff is different, would it have been made better? Definitely...is it possible at that time? I don't think so.

Well this part I guess he got it right, you went through the same thing also...I've had several bad run-ins with the CX hotline that I normally just call the local town office for assistance.

This part I totally agree....after the incident a few weeks ago during Typhoon Mangkhut, I feel CX doesn't really care for their passengers, DM or otherwise.

Arbeysix

Thanks blum81 and FlyPointyEnd for sharing. I am surprised to hear CX appears to have dropped the ball somewhat relative to other carriers at MNL given CX's longstanding and substantial presence there. Not to excuse but I think many, including seasoned industry insiders with significant MNL operational experience were genuinely shocked by the amount of time it took to remove this aircraft from the runway and I can see a scenario where assumptions were made in considering the operational response that the aircraft would be cleared within a certain period, commensurate with how long this would usually take plus a margin for the Manila factor. I personally (having been long term MNL based) was not shocked at all; but very thankful for the good luck that I wasn't scheduled to travel that week..

FlyPointyEnd

I flew on MH that following Monday...T1 was a mess although I think it was mostly because the stranded passengers had no where else to go but just form line near the check in counters while waiting for them to open. Navigating through them was a bit of a challenge...despite arriving around 3hrs before my flight, I think i barely made it to the gate in time for boarding.

blum81

I was based in MNL for work for the past 3.5 years and just recently moved to Kuala Lumpur. I remember having beers with my buddy in BGC and I told him "MNL only having 1 runway for wide-body planes is really going to cause havoc at the airport if anything happens to it the airport is dead in the water". The universe made it happen for me on my most critical flight out lol. But in the end, I wasn't shocked about how MNL authority handled it, but I was more shocked by how our beloved premium airline treated us.


Oh man... I guess the silver lining of being stuck in Manila was that I was at Terminal 3 and not Terminal 1