jacklee

Things learned (summary):
1. CX ground staff everywhere are terrible (on two of my outbound cx890 flights hkg-ewr, there was no priority boarding for PE/Green members, even when showing them an email from their customer service saying that they'd look into it/re-train ground staff so it doesn't happen again).
2. They seem confused.
3. Do not trust an elderly family member/friend to travel alone with CX, especially if it's only one flight a day out of there.
4. Both ground staff AND phone operators CAN re-book you if the flight is cancelled and you're at the airport. Stand your ground and fight for your rights
5. TWA hotel = great service, great hotel.


So, there I was super excited that I was bringing my mother to Asia for a few weeks and managed to get good pricing on Premium Econ tickets for the both of us. We get there early as I'd requested a wheelchair for her and she was worried about security and checking in her bags. We get to the gate and wait for boarding announcements. By around 1 AM, an announcement was made about a maintenance check that had to be done, and the flight was delayed but there was no time (that should've been the biggest clue).

I asked my mother if she was doing ok, and she said no worries, let's wait (mainly cause she doesn't think we have any options). I see the crew arrive around 1.05AM, only to have the cabin staff sit down and wait, while pilots board. Every 15-30 minutes the same announcement is heard (i.e. delayed, no ETA), and we see little scurries of activities by the ground crew. By about 2.30, I saw my mother wasn't looking to so good, and there were no stores open, so I went over to ask- at first they kept saying no idea, just maintenance check- then I pressed them and asked about crew limits/timing, and also that my mother is doing fine now, but if the flight is going to get cancelled, then perhaps they can let me know now so I can just rebook asap/leave. They stated that they're not sure but 4am was the limit for the crew. As luck would have it, 3.30AM an announcement was made that it was indeed cancelled...here comes the fun part.

The person pushing my mother's wheelchair told me to rush and get the luggage and we would meet upstairs as directed. When we got upstairs, the lines were long, and they listed the hk and American numbers to call, but the American numbers weren't working til 6 AM. One of the staff stated that if you stay in line, it's to get a hotel and car vouchers, no re-booking. I found this ridiculous, and even more so, worried as my mother was now slumped over in her wheelchair (luckily it was just her being tired).

I decided to stand in line while I phoned hong kong, and by the time I got to the front, both the phone operator and the ground staff now said they'd be able to re-book me into a flight leaving JFK at 10 AM. He suggested we go now, and they'd cover the taxi over (I ubered), but when asked about a room so my mother could lay down even for a few hours, they said no- you should go straight to JFK. I didn't argue at this point as my mother was my main concern, and I could see she wasn't in the best shape. Ended up calling TWA hotel, who, after hearing my predicament, offered me a non-overnight rate checking in early- great customer service!

So I'm finally at the hotel, my mother had some issues getting into bed since her back is now painful, and she's deciding if she wants to take the 10 am flight. I'm glad I am with her, otherwise, she'd be left alone at EWR with the groundstaff barely helping her, let alone being able to get another flight and essentially be stranded at EWR for a few more hours, until another family member could be found/be able to pick her up.

christep

So, to be clear, within an hour (?) of the flight being cancelled you had been rebooked out of JFK and had a free taxi/Uber over there. You're in PE with no status (?), so there were probably 100 people on that plane who would feel they should be processed first (J and MPC/OW status people).

That seems like a reasonable outcome to me.

If you want first class service then pay for first class.

fakecd

sounds like normal IRROPS that happens anywhere on any airline.... when xxxx hit the fan u r on ur own...

hahaton2

PEY and GR don’t get priority boarding at all ports. They just have another line for them, not priority. Only First , business and elite gets priority boarding. Sometimes at outports PEY line board the same time as J line if there are two boarding pass scan machines.

Often1

CX did a great job by any standards. This is simply another thread demonstrating that no good deed goes unpunished:

1. Flight delays - These happen. Aircraft does not fly until it is cleared by maintenance engineers, the Captain, and dispatch. How long does that take? As long as it takes. Rolling delays are common as no competent person can predict how long it will take to fix something until the problems are all identified, the parts and personnel located, and the work in progress.
2. Flight Cancellation - These happen too. Crews time out and when it became apparent that the aircraft would not push by 04:00, it was cancelled.
3. Rebooking - CX apparently handled all of this within an hour. That is pretty good time when one considers that there are many people and not all of them have simple tickets (some will connect at HKG and require onwards rerouting).
4. Hotel - As I calculate this, the rebooking took place between 04:30 and 05:00 with the new flight departing JFK at 10:00 and a 90-minute ground transfer with a recommendation that one be at JFK 3 hours prior to scheduled departure (whether that is reasonable is irrelevant). Thus, OP was projected into JFK no earlier than 06:30 for a 10:00 flight for which CX recommends a 07:00 arrival. I do not see that providing a hotel room for 30 minutes is necessary or reasonable. Needless to say, it is within OP's discretion to pay for one and claim it against travel insurance, but that has nothing to do with CX.

Bottom line, this appears to have been handled quite well under trying circumstances.

percysmith

christep

I don't have much data to go on. My only similar experience was when I was trying to do a same plane mileage run turnround in CGK in F on a AONEx ticket and the plane went tech, It appeared to me that it was the F BP that caught their eye (I was the only one in the cabin inbound), but I was DM at the time too, so who knows. In any case I got a limo straight to the Sheraton and a decent room for my short overnight while they fixed it.

nightkhan

Pretty run of the mill maintenance issue/cancellation, they were quick to re-book you. Not sure what you're complaining about here with CX. PE/Green have their own line, but you still have everyone with actual status/higher class boarding before you. PE/Green is nothing special for boarding.

synthkeys

To the OP, sorry to hear about your troubles. Similar thing happened a few weeks back on CX899 right around 8/11 when the airport was closed for the demonstrations. But CX899 around that date also had mechanical problems as I had a colleague on that flight that got cancelled. It can be frustrating at EWR when an IRROP occurs as the GA aren't really CX staff, just airport contracted staff. Sometimes they don't even mark the flight as canceled and the staff there handle the delay themselves.

This happened to me 2 years ago on CX899, snow storm that day but things were clear in the evening and no delays or cancellations from CX. I got the airport and gate agent said no CX899 today, there was issue with the inbound which was diverted to YYZ, CX did not know about cancellation, EWR ground agents told me the flight will go off but not at that time and I should either take a hotel voucher or just go home. They said it would probably depart next day, possibly late afternoon. They took my contact info, calling CX was useless as they showed regular departure. The flight ended up being delayed until the next evening as notified by EWR staff.

I think another thing you could learn is maybe not to fly CX out of EWR with your elderly mother. Booking one of the daytime departures from JFK might have given you some more flexibility and less drama going from EWR to JFK in the middle of the night. If it's just me, I can roll with the punches, but it's a tough call.

I fly out of EWR often since it's easier for me and the airport is so deserted at that time. But I don't think the CX contracted ground staff are as plugged in. I have no qualms with them and I know a lot of them and they've been helpful with me, but after CX899 takes off they're putting on some other airlines uniform.

BTW, FlightAware is showing CX899 Sep 9 as departed at 3:48 AM, FlightRadar24 shows as not departed yet.

wyskevin

Sorry to hear that, OP.
You look after your mom very well and I respect that.. blessing...

jacklee

to be clear. The o my reason I was processed fast was because

1. I was closely watching what was going on. And once we saw all ground staff walk away from gate, we knew something was up. The wheelchair lady pushing my mother also asked her supervisor and I was lucky to know ahead of a general announcement. I was also “lucky” that my mother and the wheelchair lady went down to get luggage while I went directly to the front of the line (I was prob #8) to rebook/talk to them.

2. I know pe doesn’t get “priority” but it’s advertised and cx customer service also agrees that I get to board above econ. No where do they state it’s not available. So please take your elitism out of here mr diamond, thanks.

3. If it were just me traveling, no worries, but I’m simply asking that cx staff be more transparent and offer at that late hour the ability for someone who is old to rebook ahead of time if they choose to, knowing what the odds are (yes, easier said than done)

etkuo

As someone mentioned, CX uses contract staff at EWR. My guess is until the flight is officially cancelled or posted a huge delay, their hands are tied and can't really start rebooking passengers.

Richard Yu

as a diamond I think I couldn't really have asked for much better service in handling this. maybe they could've cancelled the flight earlier than 3am, but given they had to deal with so many rebookings and hotel vouchers at once they did pretty good. you don't have status, so the only people you're higher priority than are economy class ticketholders (and even then some of them have status, which puts them ahead of you in importance to CX).

to piggy back on the advice of others here: I would not recommend a 1am departure for an elderly individual. it's rough enough for us young and healthy folks to do, and delays / cancellations are unfortunately pretty normal. I used to fly SIN <> HKG overnight a lot, and my 1:45am departure routinely got pushed to 2-3am. can't imagine my parents doing that at their age.

percysmith

Still already a better performance than this https://esg.theasset.com/ESG/34827/f...34827&subm=esg

jacklee

The weird thing here is that the few passengers that did have status or were lying in business weren’t given any preferential treatment. Being based in HK, I see them get treated very well, but at the rebooking lines they just moved everyone into the same line.

Definitely lesson learned, and I’m just glad I was able to be there to assist my mother. I felt bad for the other elderly folks who didn’t have any assistance- to the point that I had to ask the staff to try to help them.