BENLEE

Hello. Need some help here.

My company booked an airticket for a colleague to attend a trade fair in Shangai. A CGK <> Shanghai round trip ticket with transit in Hong Kong in mid June 2019. The ticket was booked via a local travel agent ( since it's company expenses ) and the ticket already issued. However, due to some personal reasons, this colleague of mine has to resign from our company by end of this month and she is no longer able to make the trip. Thus we have to replace her with another colleague for this trip to Shanghai. However, when contacted, CX was adamant that they cannot change the passenger name citing "security concerns". The only way is to cancel the ticket with a penalty fee and re-booked a new ticket. However, it means there is much higher cost as the original cost of the ticket is about USD300/=, the cancellation fee is USD200/= and to re-book a new ticket is USD700/=.

I will like to know if this is true and is there a way to appeal this? And whether anyone has done so before. It seems very unreasonable to me that the airline will refuse to change the passenger name before a flight if there is a valid reason to do so. I suppose our case is not the first time this happen.

Any advise from experienced CX flyers will be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

FlyPointyEnd

Unfortunately this is normally the case, if the person is unable to travel, you need to cancel the ticket and book a new one.

orbitmic

MADPhil

Have you checked with the travel agent? It's a long short but they can sometimes have more flexibility and it would certainly make sense to have that flexibility in a case like this.

peasant

Plus commercial reasons. If you could freely transfer names, you would get the return of the calo. Bulk buy tickets as soon as the flight is for sale, then offer as last minute walk up fare at the airport. Used to happen with Garuda on trunk routes...

BENLEE

Thank you for your replies. Yes, we have approached the airline again and our travel agent as well but they absolutely will not bulge citing "rules".

Anyway, we have cancelled and re-booked a new ticket.

Often1

First, as this is a TA ticket, any changes would have needed to be made through the TA. CX would not have made the change even if it generally would do so. If the TA will not or cannot change the ticket, that is the end of the issue.

Second, while it appears that in this case there is nothing to be done, many corporate contracts do provide for the substitution of employees because those changes do occur. Apparently not for OP's company.

Your employer should nonetheless track the scheduled flight and not cancel until just prior to the deadline for such a cancellation, in the event that CX cancels or substantially delays the flight. In that instance, the ticket could be cancelled for a refund. Check the COC and fare rules as well as the TA's contract for the specifics. As you have already cancelled, this is extraneous, but useful for the future.

As a caution for the future, unless there are significant reasons to do so, book directly with the carrier. While it might not have helped here, there are many situations where a carrier will be more flexible than a TA.

ricktoronto

It could be to prevent you from buying a bunch of tickets months ahead on popular routes in the name of John Smith then you sell each of them for more than you paid but less than the going price to Jane Jones. By not permitting your Cathay should change any ticket to any name rule.

flyingislove

Cathay is often strict even about middle names appearing/not appearing versus what is present on a passport. Sadly, I don't imagine they'll allow for it. Agreed with the comment above about the irony of allowing name changes for LCCs.

fairhsa

A good travel agent would not have issued a ticket so far in advance. Most will "hold" seats and keep rebooking them if the airline releases the seat until some time closer to the date of travel. My agent holds all mine until 3pm day prior to travel (the Diamond status helps with this). Saves a lot of problems when trips are changed or cancelled at the last minute.

cxfan1960

That was indeed a hidden DM benefit. At least in the past, a DM booking "never" expires. That is not the same in OP's case. All other passengers have ticketing deadlines.

garykung

Although most posts cover the issue, I would still like to offer my 2 cents to OP:

When airlines started allowing name change (i.e. not correction), it would allow a black market of second-hand airline tickets, which would virtually allow speculation of airfares.

There is a reason why airlines are not so keen in this.

No. But at the same time, everything is bound with the airline's terms and conditions once the ticket was issued. And airlines are businesses.

You can't really blame airlines are being unreasonable.