sxc

At the moment there is a limit of 350 passengers a day landing in Sydney. This is across all airlines landing that day. There are reports of airlines cancelling passengers’ bookings because of these limitations. And also some airlines only allowing those with premium cabin bookings to fly.

Has anyone had experience of this happening with Cathay? Any indication of what criteria they are using to choose which passengers can proceed?

Mwenenzi

When trying to book what have you found?
The daily limits have been in place for a time now, so would not be expecting new bookings from any airline to be above the limits. For bookings made before announcement of limits airline may need to adjust the numbers who can board.

Verifiable reports of "airlines cancelling passengers’' and "only allowing those with premium cabin bookings to fly" are hard (impossible?) to find.
Have seen reports that Qatar QR only offering business class and/or high priced economy for sale, which is not the same as "cancelling" or "allowing"

Australia is limiting who can arrive: citizens, permanent residents and limited others
https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/

From (08 Aug 2020) https://www.news.com.au/travel/trave...1df9664f6b7264

sxc

This is a report that says there have been people getting their bookings cancelled but the flights are still operating.

I don’t dispute that airlines are having to cancel bookings due to the landing restrictions, I’m wondering if there is any insight into what CX is doing if it had happened.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/07/unethical-australians-trying-to-fly-home-claim-airlines-cancelling-economy-tickets-to-sell-more-first-class-seats

Also, as of now, CX is still selling four flights a day to SYD in November and December, so it doesn’t appear that CX is limiting bookings to their quota right now.

sxc

CX is also strangely selling flights to SYD with connections via other australian cities (eg MEL). Current immigration rules require you to quarantine in your city of entry and you can’t transit to another city before quarantining.

sbs2716g

the quota is up till 24/Oct.. so nothing wrong with CX selling 4 flights in nov/dec. nobody know what will happen by then.
if people choose to book Nov/Dec flight now, they have to anticipate that their flight might be cancel since CX is only cancelling flights up to Sept or Oct.

and for Aug/Sept, seem to be very difficult to find any space to Sydney.. seem like that they have set a lower quota and stop selling once the quota is reach.

sxc

That's true, but odds on that the current quarantine arrangements will still be in place. The Australian government has already signalled this:

https://www.executivetraveller.com/n...ain-until-2021

Given that a lot of people have made bookings coming up to Christmas and they have also factored in their quarantine period before Christmas, I expect there's going to be a lot of unhappy people when CX has to impose the quotas.

Mwenenzi

Unless some has inside information or maybe a TA the number of seats for sale (vs seats on the aircraft) is unknown. Can you book 50 seats on the 1 flight?
The dates of the booking & of the flights for the EK (Guardian) pax flights are important information. And depends on how much faith you put in Guardian journalism.
There is no limitation on non AU citizens or non permanent residents leaving. Many thousands of non AU citizens or non permanent residents still in the country. The AU government would like them to leave (same as with other governments) And air freight is a good earner for airlines. .

If those AU domestic flights (on the same day) are now or next few months they should not doing that. No date has been given when the 14 day quarantine will end, but we expect it to be all of 2020, if not into next year as well

Here is Aust we expect that will get extended. Not sure of how these are proclaimed, but in State of Victoria, the declared "state of emergency" is for a defined period. When that ends a new state of emergency is declared. The state of emergency allows the government to do certain things that normally they lawfully cannot do

sxc

Yes this was for bookings I looked at in October (before October 24).

sbs2716g

who booked trips during Xmas to australia ? U mean those Australians who are staying outside of australia

sxc

Correct (not me though).

Often1

Cargo, cargo & cargo.

Huge demand for air cargo these days and thus, passenger loads -- whether as the result of simple demand or government rules -- are often irrelevant.

CPMaverick

I suspect that some airlines are happy to take risky bookings at this point, they are so cash-strapped that it is a zero interest loan at worst.

Cambo

Yep, they do happily take the cash now and pay back after the flight is canceled, with the money they got from the bookings around that time. Kind of Ponzi scheme, without the large multiplier.

sbs2716g

but no one forced the paxes to make booking. The paxes know that the current situation is dynamic n yet they choose to book.

sxc

Those who get cancelled will be angry as to why they weren’t the ones chosen to travel.