Just got the below message from Cathay. Looks like no longer any option to email them, we're down to just whatsapp and phone now while in the past emails to the MPC usually resolved questions and issues quite straightfowardly. To be fair this year they've only ever replied to one in three of my emails, telling me no availability for the dozen or so bookable upgrades I have sitting around uselessly.
I've had a diamond card (these days with all the extra perks for collecting 1,800 points) I think for 23 years as has the entire family for the last eight years. I never thought I'd say it but this is the first year I'm going to let it slide to gold. My business trips are now on BA or AA and for holidays in Europe and the US we've taken to flying on Finnair With a BA gold card and availability on other Oneworld carriers Cathay's service decline suggests they're becoming just another carrier - pretty good in the air but far less good on the ground. I can't even really highlight to them the challenges of dealing with them unless I want to whatsapp them. Of course I could just have been spoiled by the Cathay of the past and - as for so many other Hong Kong things - we're all in a different world now...

CATHAY <[email protected]Dear Customer,

We are sorry to inform you that this email address will no longer be monitored. Please contact our Customer Care Department via phone or WhatsApp.
Whatsapp: +852 2747 2747

Please refer our website for phone number : https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_HK/contact-us.html


Kind Regards,
Cathay Pacific Airways

In fairness to CX, I was able to cancel a ticket through whatsapp in just a few minutes.

That's already a couple of months, unfortunately.

I would also like the e-mail option, but re "down to whatsapp and phone" I do also sometimes send them a letter and generally they act on it. I realise that may not be ideal for changing tickets or so forth, but for simple non-urgent requests it can be fairly efficient from my side.

Good point - and to be fair I always used email to deal with non-urgent things like missing points, queries over upgrades etc, nothing too urgent, And the replies were usually very quick even though they really didn't have to be. Here I was actually only replying to emails that they had sent to me about slightly amending a name on a redemption group (dating from the days when everything had to match exactly so needed the second middle name which confused the MPC redemption group and I think I may have got that fixed by email - touch wood) but now it looks like that avenue has gone away. Whatsapp I'm sure will work but perhaps it's more of a gripe that things aren't as good as they used to be, certainly on the ground, in the air I think they're still pretty good but I think the overall experience isn't as good as it used to be and yet the fares are much higher (in my experience than BA or Finnair, the latter indirect of course). I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling this and I know the CEO has acknowledged they have some way to go in terms of rehiring staff, bringing planes back etc so hopefully things will improve in the future and this isn't "the new normal"!

Airlines (and other businesses) are getting much better at online chat/SM support than a few years ago. CX whatsapp was a breeze to use, responded within minutes. Had to be transferred to a special dept for my issue but they were very proactive and resolved it quickly. My only gripe is they are eager to end the chat if I didn't respond in ~10 minutes each time. I was out with friends and would have preferred to respond whenever, like any airline's Twitter support. Speaking of that, contacted UA and hotels.com via Twitter, each responded within minutes and rather competently. AA and Hyatt have always been good with their Twitter.

I too would prefer to have email as an addition option, but their whatsapp seems competent (based on one experience).

I did use the CX whatsapp number at the weekend. On a round the world itinerary about to start, when I tried to check in for the first flight I got a message saying that I couldn't check in to JFK but giving no reason for it - given that it was the US I thought I'd find out the reason in case it was important.
Slow process, it variously told me that they were very busy and to expect a long wait, then that I was a diamond passenger and they would prioritise me, then that it was a 2 minute hold....which went on for an hour until the system kicked me out. I did get through once early on to send a message and they replied three hours later (while I was making tea), got no reply and kicked me out. Much later in the day I tried again and did get through to a live HKT person so I asked what the reason was that I was unable to check in for my NY flight. I was told that because I had a bookable upgrade on the last flight of my itinerary I couldn't check in for any flight in my itinerary. I wasn't about to argue, happy that it was nothing important like an ESTA or Global Entry. But that explanation seems odd, I used to do ex-TPE flights very often and use an upgrade voucher on the long flights reasonably often but never had any problem checking in online, printing boarding passes etc so I wondered if anyone else had encountered a similar problem and been given the same answer?

Doesn't make sense. So if one has an open sector at the end of the ticket, the system won't allow check in for any sector of the ticket?

There is online "feedback form". https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...ggestions.html

I just used it yeaterday. After submitting feedback, there was an email sent to my email address immediately with tracking number.
It is the same as sending email to CX customer service.

Update:
After submitting feedback form yesterday, CX customer service replied by email today, less than 24 hours.
CX always replies my request within 24 hours before Covid, and they didn't fail this time either.

Despite the recent posts, this doesn't surprise me as their CS and Hong Kong as a whole doesn't really give 2 hoots about their customer service. It takes you 3-5 minutes to get through to the correct queue and then you could be on hold for anything from 30-60 minutes

I used the form to get an update for this. Have the acknowledgement. Will report what they respond:

Just to update: I found out the reason that I could not check in online to NY. The US still requires a covid vaccination confirmation so showing the certificate and signing a form at check in solved the problem (it wasn't the presence of a bookable upgrade in a later flight on the same itinerary which caused the problem as was initially claimed). I think that requirement ends in a week or so, after which the check in problem should also go away.

The link you gave, does have a page subject: "Complaints, compliments and suggestions".

Did you submit something like that, or did you submit an "operational" item ?

The vaccination requirement to enter the US should "only" stop per May 12, 2023.