pochi

great deal for some specific route
but i wonder why there's no Beijing

sxc

The SYD fare is $21k plus taxes. But you can buy it seprately for $21.5k plus taxes anyway??

pochi

main usage is for something like CTS.

triplefives

Thanks! It's like an opportunity to get non ex-HKG pricing when actually flying ex-HKG so not too shabby if one knows the travel dates in advance.

Not sure why the prices start with "From..." this time around. I think they used to be one standard price across all flights in the same category.

sscywong

I've deleted the email after reading it already... Completely not attractive at all...

sxc

ChrisLi

I found the India price relatively attractive (if it is really $8000 for J, that I check my flight for end of month it's already $12K ish).

2nd tier EU city price is not attractive if you can transit (e.g. Swiss is having 26K to BCN during Mobile World Congress while CX wants 30K++ I know it's non-stop but well...)

jayke

If booking is within 90 days to SYD, the normal fare is around $26-29k, so the Vantage fare is still better value in that window, but not as cheap as it has been in the past. There's also a restriction on CX138 - the overnight flight from SYD to HKG.

fairhsa

Ok so the only way to even try is to know your dates in advance. The only dates I know are obviously the ones in the next couple of weeks, and I have a trip to Colombo and to Manila coming up, both usually done in PEY and could be vantage passed for the same price.

or could it?

Well the answer ended up a clear NOT A CHANCE.

You can only book into I class availability. So, even now before the rest of the world gets it, there are almost no seats available.

Add to that, dates around CNY are blocked which I only found AFTER the girl did manage to find me some passable dates with I availability... And then said I couldnt have them.

This is a COMPLETE [insert naughty word of choice) SCAM.

And in answer to the person who said it was the outport prices for ex-HK... No actually for most destination not even that good! (I do a lot of outport flights).

Why on earth would they run something so utterly useless and call it a benefit that Gold and Diamond get there first? These kind of things engender more disloyalty than loyalty.

(Oh and my bookable upgrade got rejected yesterday, 4 months in advance for Vancouver, probably due to their last f-up in Vietnam). Not happy Cathay.

Moscowflyer

I was initially quite keen to buy a few tickets to the US for travel in the first half since I know my dates. However, I checked the Vantage pass fares for IAD, NYC and CHI against the usual ex-TPE fare deals...the Vantage pass fare is US$1,000 more expensive than the ex-TPE route for JFK and almost US$500 more than the IAD route ex-TPE. To be fair to Cathay, you have to be willing to start in TPE but you rarely have to book far in advance and they're often fairly flexible on changing the flights if you need to.
So overall, as long as you don't mind starting in TPE, the Vantage pass to the US isn't great value compared to that. If you're always starting in HK though and can plan ahead, it seems like a good deal.

tfung

I think for the most part, the uninformed ex-HKG casual traveler will think this is a good deal... Pretty sure anyone who travels a lot and do their research will not find this attractive at all..

pochi

For Me, I think the only attravtive things is CTS and only CTS. This is a port with insane price and nearly impossible to redeem. Reposition didn't help (ex-China/TPE/South East Asia)
For transit, you will either have to stay at PEK/PVG/TPE over night or arrive late or red eye depart.

For direct competition, HX's flight is around 7000-800 HKD. So the only way to use this pass is to CTS

(In no-agent speaking)

HKUSFLYER

This is true, although I don't quite understand why it has to be so expensive......

Seems quite easy to transit via Haneda as there are lots of flights between HND and CTS