Cathay have cancelled one of their two daily Frankfurt flight - and we were booked on it!

[OZDUCK]

We were booked on CX 283 which left HK at 12:25 and arrived in Frankfurt at 18:40. One of our travelling companions was advised by their TA that this flight has been cancelled - it was still bookable about 3 days ago. We booked directly with CX and have heard nothing yet but it is shown as cancelled when I sign into my itinerary. This cancellation leaves about a 17 hour stopover in HK instead of four hours. The second daily Perth flight leaving at about 06:30 has also seems to have been cancelled but even that would have left about a 8 hour stopover.

The remaining Frankfurt flight leaves HK at 00:35 and arrives at 06:20- much less desirable times even without the excessive connection time. There is no easy connection with Perth now there is only one daily flight.

I very much think that I will be cancelling these flights and trying my luck elsewhere. According to my reading of CX's "Conditions of Carriage" this change must be a significant change and thus cancellation should be free.

CX must really be struggling but if they make ongoing connections more difficult there is little future for them.

 

[dajop]

Might be worth asking if they could spring for a connection via LHR? If it’s a day CX 257 operates to LHR (depending on day of week and time of year) you could reach FRA only 25 mins later than original schedule.

 

[OZDUCK]

Might be worth asking if they could spring for a connection via LHR? If it’s a day CX 257 operates to LHR (depending on day of week and time of year) you could reach FRA only 25 mins later than original schedule.

Thanks for the suggestion. We are meeting with the other 2 people who are travelling with us today to discuss options. It will be interesting to see how CX wants to handle this. Three of us are in J both ways and one in PE their there and J back.

I assume the LHR to Frankfurt leg would probably be in a Euro Business class. My wife would be happy to just drop CX and fly QR instead - about a $1,000 dearer per pax.

 

[Pushka]

We were booked on CX 283 which left HK at 12:25 and arrived in Frankfurt at 18:40. One of our travelling companions was advised by their TA that this flight has been cancelled - it was still bookable about 3 days ago. We booked directly with CX and have heard nothing yet but it is shown as cancelled when I sign into my itinerary. This cancellation leaves about a 17 hour stopover in HK instead of four hours. The second daily Perth flight leaving at about 06:30 has also seems to have been cancelled but even that would have left about a 8 hour stopover.

The remaining Frankfurt flight leaves HK at 00:35 and arrives at 06:20- much less desirable times even without the excessive connection time. There is no easy connection with Perth now there is only one daily flight.

I very much think that I will be cancelling these flights and trying my luck elsewhere. According to my reading of CX's "Conditions of Carriage" this change must be a significant change and thus cancellation should be free.

CX must really be struggling but if they make ongoing connections more difficult there is little future for them.

We were advised yesterday that our flight from HK to Paris was cancelled and they “kindly” put us on the next flight, 18 hours later! The F lounge is nice but with no interest in going in to HK, plus an arrival into HK at 5am and a departure at after midnight means no chance of sleep and would require us to book 2 nights and only being there in total of maybe 12 hours!

We were supposed to fly back with Cathay and am waiting to see what happens there!

 

[kamchatsky]

We were advised yesterday that our flight from HK to Paris was cancelled and they “kindly” put us on the next flight, 18 hours later! The F lounge is nice but with no interest in going in to HK, plus an arrival into HK at 5am and a departure at after midnight means no chance of sleep and would require us to book 2 nights and only being there in total of maybe 12 hours!

We were supposed to fly back with Cathay and am waiting to see what happens there!

Whilst not ideal, you can book day room at Regal HKG if required.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I very much think that I will be cancelling these flights and trying my luck elsewhere. According to my reading of CX's "Conditions of Carriage" this change must be a significant change and thus cancellation should be free.

No issues with a free cancellation. But as mentioned by others, they may offer you alternatives via any of their Euro ports. One of those might be suitable for you.

 

[OZDUCK]

No issues with a free cancellation. But as mentioned by others, they may offer you alternatives via any of their Euro ports. One of those might be suitable for you.

I am going to check out the possibility of being put onto Finnair - they do codeshare with CX. It all depends on how flexible/pragmatic CX are.

 

[OZDUCK]

We have just received the 'official' notification of the cancellation direct from CX - just under 24 hours after Flight Centre advised our friend.

 

[jase05]

Not ideal at all. I love CX and HKG but I’d be a bit wary of booking with them currently. Think there will be plenty of services cut in the coming months. Hopefully things get better soon and I feel for people who have had bookings cancelled

 

[Pushka]

Not ideal at all. I love CX and HKG but I’d be a bit wary of booking with them currently. Think there will be plenty of services cut in the coming months. Hopefully things get better soon and I feel for people who have had bookings cancelled

I think I’m going to stump up and rebook with Qatar. Although they did cancel our flight to Europe in Adelaide just as we were about to board but they did look after us.

 

[mrsterryn]

Getting a bit concerned as we have CX in our rewards points flights for Nov Dec 2020

 

[OZDUCK]

I think I’m going to stump up and rebook with Qatar. Although they did cancel our flight to Europe in Adelaide just as we were about to board but they did look after us.

My wife is inclined to do that as well. However, there are two other people going to her family re-union in Berlin and we need to get an agreement to accept the extra costs - about $1,000 each in J.

 

[Pushka]

Getting a bit concerned as we have CX in our rewards points flights for Nov Dec 2020

Yes, our whole trip in July and August is underpinned by CX Awards. One Qantas rep I dealt with yesterday said I could simply cancel for free and rebook. I suggested to him that as the fares were booked immediately CX released them then could he kindly direct me to availability just five months out.

 

[Oubline]

Yes, our whole trip in July and August is underpinned by CX Awards. One Qantas rep I dealt with yesterday said I could simply cancel for free and rebook. I suggested to him that as the fares were booked immediately CX released them then could he kindly direct me to availability just five months out.

In roughly the same boat. Is it naive to assume that either Qantas or CX would have to sort out other options for such a situation (whether or not award availability was there)? In the case of Europe for example, I’m hoping there are enough alternative options for rerouting that inconvenience is the worst case scenario and not that we miss out completely?

 

[OZDUCK]

We can do it about $1,000 cheaper on a Finnair fare - CX to HK - then AY to Helsinki and onto Berlin. Of course the 2 hours Helsinki/Berlin legs are in Euro Business. Also, some of the connections are very short at under 90 minutes in HK.

 

[Oubline]

We have just received the 'official' notification of the cancellation direct from CX - just under 24 hours after Flight Centre advised our friend.

I thought I had heard about this before, and yes it seems Cathay had already announced this, as early as September. It’s disappointing they didn’t tell you earlier!

Uh Oh: Cathay Pacific Cutting Flights Due To Weak Demand

Cathay Pacific will be cutting flights to Frankfurt, New York, Paris, Vancouver, and more, following a couple of very challenging months.

onemileatatime.com

 

[OZDUCK]

I thought I had heard about this before, and yes it seems Cathay had already announced this, as early as September. It’s disappointing they didn’t tell you earlier!

Uh Oh: Cathay Pacific Cutting Flights Due To Weak Demand

Cathay Pacific will be cutting flights to Frankfurt, New York, Paris, Vancouver, and more, following a couple of very challenging months.

onemileatatime.com

Yes, that was a month before we booked the flight! Seems a bit odd/shifty/underhand to advertise "Early Bird
Specials" for flights that they were already preparing to cancel. We booked 1 day before the booking cutout date shown in a link contained in the article you posted.

I normally try to keep an eye on the news but missed this. Apparently I was stupid enough to believe that an advertised flight was actually intended to be flown.

 

[OZDUCK]

I rang Cathay and initially they had nothing much to offer. On my prompting they did say we could do the AY option via Helsinki. However, that would have been awkward as one of the other people on our trip had booked a mixed fare - PE to Frankfurt and J back and AY currently has no PE. In the end it appears that we have convinced everyone to fly QR in J. The other two are going to come back via Budapest after a train/bus trip and we will happily wander around by ourselves in Prague and southern Germany.

So we will cancel the CX fares and book with QR in a few days.

 

[Pushka]

In roughly the same boat. Is it naive to assume that either Qantas or CX would have to sort out other options for such a situation (whether or not award availability was there)? In the case of Europe for example, I’m hoping there are enough alternative options for rerouting that inconvenience is the worst case scenario and not that we miss out completely?

Ours were booked through Qantas and Cathay have just wiped their hands yesterday saying we have to go through Qantas. Qantas have asked Cathay to release two award fares the next day but Qantas can’t force them to do that. I no longer trust Cathay to shed more flights to be honest. But you should contact Qantas if you too have been impacted. For the record I had one Qantas Rep who was totally useless and clueless so if they waffle on just hang up and try again. But at the end of the day it’s up to Cathay to release further award seats. And hope that flight doesn’t then get cancelled.

 

[Pushka]

I rang Cathay and initially they had nothing much to offer. On my prompting they did say we could do the AY option via Helsinki. However, that would have been awkward as one of the other people on our trip had booked a mixed fare - PE to Frankfurt and J back and AY currently has no PE. In the end it appears that we have convinced everyone to fly QR in J. The other two are going to come back via Budapest after a train/bus trip and we will happily wander around by ourselves in Prague and southern Germany.

So we will cancel the CX fares and book with QR in a few days.

When are your flights Ozduck?