Ausriver

CX138 yesterday (19th April) has been re-scheduled to 17:00 today, due to late arrival of CX139 from Hong Kong. To make it even worse, the connecting KA flight at 8am today has been pushed to 8am tomorrow. So basically my friend's over night flight from SYD - HGH became 2 day flights, requires 2 night accommodations (1 in Sydney and 1 in Hong Kong).

After few calls she managed to get on to CX110 this morning and connecting to a night flight to HGH, however CX refused to organise any hotels as they said the delay was caused by the air traffic control at HKG not caused by CX. So she was out of her own dime for a night at the Westin Sydney.

Will CX be responsible for this extra night of accommodation at Sydney and would they do anything if she sent them over a copy of the hotel bill?

christep

This is what travel insurance is for, no?

plunet

Unless you can evidence that these delays were not due to weather and consequential ATC restrictions into HKG, then no point asking CX, approach your travel insurance.

Ausriver

Thanks for your clarification.

Also when she tried to re-route to Mel (SYD-MEL-HKG-HGH), CX said they OK with the re-route, however will not cover the SYD-MEL leg... Is that also a normal practice?

Also when they re schedule, why re schedule it to so late in the afternoon, not the first flight in the morning?

londonexpert

QRC3288

Obviously the details about why matter, not necessarily the length of delay itself. HKG has been slammed with extreme weather the last 2 days and the airport has experienced significant delays as a result. As other posters above had said, if it's weather related you're not really entitled to compensation....

I'm not sure if your original SYD flight got caught up in the weather issues I'm referring to. I didn't know the curfew thing but the poster above mentions a plausible reason why things cascaded.

As to why this flight and not that one for rebooking, who knows but I know CX ground agents and team responsible for reaccomodating everyone on different flights have been at battle stations the last 48 hours. Sounded like hell for the CX staff, but they seem to have done a fairly good job overall. They might have more than a thousand misconnects or cancellations the last 2 days so my guess is they're just doing their best, follow up might help your case.

I'm sitting on board a CX flight delayed "only" an hour into Hong Kong. We landed a few minutes ago. We have since been advised we don't have a gate and will experience further delays. A group of angry connecting (I assume) passengers were apparently raising their voices at the flight attendants about misconnects, the captain has since come on the intercom and asked everyone to chill out and explained the weather has been a big problem the last few days. Lol and he asked everyone not to take out their anger on the flight attendants, because all flights here at HKG in and out are affected.

christep

Kudos to that captain!

For those that weren't here, there were over 1500 lightning strikes on Lantau Island between 2 and 3pm today. (Over 2500 in HK Island and Kowloon - it was rather spectacular, and dark as night!)

(Source: http://www.weather.gov.hk/wxinfo/lli...rea_counts.htm)

Chromie25

It was definitely not spectacular - says someone who couldn't see anything beyond 2 feet while driving on Connaught Road Central Actually took shelter at IFC to wait things out.

percysmith

garykung

Always assume what you are told by any airline is basically a lie unless you can independently verify it.

Case in point:

1. It does not seem there was a NOTAM affecting HKG for the duration of this flight.

2. SYD-HKG is a 10-hour flight. So unless an airport can anticipate some major issues for the next 10 hours, why would a hold be placed on the flight? Beside, if such issue is major enough to know in advance, then why no NOTAMs? Or the airlines given head-ups to make alternative arrangements.

Not with a court summons.

But how could you know this at least 10 hours in advance?

Also - didn't it more logically to re-position short-haul instead?

The weather, I admit, was serious. But it is not as severe as a No. 8.

QRC3288

AMuch easier said than done in reality. I called a friend at CX just to verify this...apparently half the fleet was delayed or out of position the last 72 hours.

In practice, CX uses almost all their longhaul fleet on shorthauls during the day. It's the only way they can provide the capacity. Us speculating here about their fleet management during irrops is...rather irrelevant. They know what they're doing.

Your point about assume they're lying is definitely correct. But the last few days have been a serious operational event regardless if it makes front page news, it seems they've handled it well. Runways were operating at half capacity (240 second intervals) for part of the day, ground staff was prevented from servicing planes on many occasions due to weather (including my own, incidentally a long haul bird servicing a short haul route, leading to the 2+ hour delay of the following JFK flight), etc. Incidentally, after I posted above, we finally got a gate after 20 minutes parked on the tarmac. But when we got to our gate, there were no attendants available to bring the jetbridge to us. We had another 15 minute delay parked at the gate but without the jetbridge attached.

I'm just grateful we werent diverted. Tons of circling. We had three separate holds before being cleared.

percysmith

garykung

I absolutely disagree that CX knows what they are doing. But again - it may not be relevant in this case.

I am surprised you actually agree with this...

I am not contending the severe weather. But the weather impacted Hong Kong the most beginning the afternoon of April 20. OP's friend's flight was scheduled for arrival during the early morning of April 20. I checked the HKG's arrival situation. While it is true that short-haul were affected, with 2 CX/KA flights delayed for 2+ hours during 4-6 am, CX 138 was the only long-haul flight that was delayed significantly (the another delayed long-haul was CX 845 for 38 minutes).

So yes - it does raise some questions when CX claimed HKG ATC.

OT - the idea of the 3rd runway is so stupid that when the existing runways are only ILS Cat. I/II.

percysmith

DeepUnderground

Bizarrely enough, CX put me up in a hotel for Volcanic eruption related cancel a few years ago.