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

[UP4014]

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.

I stopped trusting Cathy, which I had put up there as one of the best, when the Chinese govt started going after employees re free speech.

Disclosure: Back in the 1980s I worked for Swire and was proud to be part of the same group.

 

[Oubline]

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.

I hope you have luck with CX releasing the award seats. They must be getting a lot of those requests right now with all the schedule changes they’re causing. Fingers crossed for you.

 

[Pushka]

I hope you have luck with CX releasing the award seats. They must be getting a lot of those requests right now with all the schedule changes they’re causing. Fingers crossed for you.

Thankyou. I’m now concerned for flight back on CX a month later. There is nothing showing as available or I’d rebook the award.

 

[mrsterryn]

Husband is actually booked on the other Frankfurt flight from Hong Kong
He has a few reward and cash flights.
Decisions decisions whether to leave and take a chance or rebook on another carrier

 

[OZDUCK]

When are your flights Ozduck?

We are leaving Perth around 20 August and my wife and I will leave Frankfurt around 18 September. The other 2 will fly out with us but it looks like they will now be leaving from Budapest around 10 September after doing a group train/bus tour from Berlin - not my personal idea of fun.

The CX operators were pretty easy to deal with. I got the feeling that the flight cancellations have kept them pretty busy with refunds. The CX flights are now cancelled and the money is due back onto my card in 7 - 14 days.

We have not yet booked the 'new' flights as the other 2 are still organising cancellations of their tickets.

 

[Pushka]

We are leaving Perth around 20 August and my wife and I will leave Frankfurt around 18 September. The other 2 will fly out with us but it looks like they will now be leaving from Budapest around 10 September after doing a group train/bus tour from Berlin - not my personal idea of fun.

The CX operators were pretty easy to deal with. I got the feeling that the flight cancellations have kept them pretty busy with refunds. The CX flights are now cancelled and the money is due back onto my card in 7 - 14 days.

We have not yet booked the 'new' flights as the other 2 are still organising cancellations of their tickets.

Interesting. Our return flight is August but have placed a hold on an excellent Qatar flight. Curious - CX in J has always priced more expensive that Qatar and which I’ve found to be the cheapest compared with Qantas, CX and EK. With our situation it’s hard to go from an award flight to a paid fare one!

CX have wiped their hands now and flicked us to Qantas. I’ll summon up and call them. I can’t seem to cancel the flights online!

 

[Oubline]

Husband is actually booked on the other Frankfurt flight from Hong Kong
He has a few reward and cash flights.
Decisions decisions whether to leave and take a chance or rebook on another carrier

The cancelled flights to Frankfurt so far are those that were recently 'added' in more optimistic times(CX 282 and CX 283):

Cathay Pacific boosting Frankfurt service with additional A350 flights – Business Traveller

The Hong Kong carrier will introduce a new thrice-weekly flight operated by its Airbus A350-900 aircraft next year, bringing its total frequency on the route to 10 flights a week

www.businesstraveller.com

Hopefully (although completely speculatively) CX won't completely abandon service to Frankfurt by cancelling the other flights as well. I guess it will depend on how dire things get.

I feel your uncertainty since I also have a booking for the same HKG-FRA flight as your husband.

 

[OZDUCK]

Interesting. Our return flight is August but have placed a hold on an excellent Qatar flight. Curious - CX in J has always priced more expensive that Qatar and which I’ve found to be the cheapest compared with Qantas, CX and EK. With our situation it’s hard to go from an award flight to a paid fare one!

CX have wiped their hands now and flicked us to Qantas. I’ll summon up and call them. I can’t seem to cancel the flights online!

Normally I have also found CX dearer than QR as well but their 'Early Bird Sale' price was just under a $1,000 better than QR. It is obviously easier to offer special prices if you have no intention of actually operating those flights Normally we do the hop up to Singapore to pick up cheap fares but this year QR has not, to my knowledge, really offered any extra low fares ex Sin and Scoot seem to have put up the prices for ScootPlus.

 

[Pushka]

Normally I have also found CX dearer than QR as well but their 'Early Bird Sale' price was just under a $1,000 better than QR. It is obviously easier to offer special prices if you have no intention of actually operating those flights Normally we do the hop up to Singapore to pick up cheap fares but this year QR has not, to my knowledge, really offered any extra low fares ex Sin and Scoot seem to have put up the prices for ScootPlus.

Gosh, that does sound a tad shonky then!

 

[get me outta here]

Normally I have also found CX dearer than QR as well but their 'Early Bird Sale' price was just under a $1,000 better than QR. It is obviously easier to offer special prices if you have no intention of actually operating those flights Normally we do the hop up to Singapore to pick up cheap fares but this year QR has not, to my knowledge, really offered any extra low fares ex Sin and Scoot seem to have put up the prices for ScootPlus.

I suppose with the troubles in Hong Kong, flights through SIN don’t really need to be discounted very much.

 

[jase05]

Normally I have also found CX dearer than QR as well but their 'Early Bird Sale' price was just under a $1,000 better than QR. It is obviously easier to offer special prices if you have no intention of actually operating those flights Normally we do the hop up to Singapore to pick up cheap fares but this year QR has not, to my knowledge, really offered any extra low fares ex Sin and Scoot seem to have put up the prices for ScootPlus.

Haven’t seen any really great QR fares ex SIN for awhile. VN are currently offering fares to Europe ex SIN for about $2600 return. Not up to QR’s lofty standards though but I don’t mind them

 

[Pushka]

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.

Are you happy to do a flight in Y for say Doha to Europe - around a four hour trip but the Long haul in J? There is a sale of mixed fares on the Qatar site currently. We saved $2000 simply by being happy to fly DOHA to Athens in Y. Long haul to Doha/ADL in J in Q suite.

 

[OZDUCK]

Are you happy to do a flight in Y for say Doha to Europe - around a four hour trip but the Long haul in J? There is a sale of mixed fares on the Qatar site currently. We saved $2000 simply by being happy to fly DOHA to Athens in Y. Long haul to Doha/ADL in J in Q suite.

Yes that is not a bad idea but not really for us - I am tall and large (fat some would say) and my wife is one of those people who having flown up the front will not drop back to Y except for 1 or 2 hour flights. Scootplus was fine because the seats are bigger than most PE.

 

[Pushka]

Yes that is not a bad idea but not really for us - I am tall and large (fat some would say) and my wife is one of those people who having flown up the front will not drop back to Y except for 1 or 2 hour flights. Scootplus was fine because the seats are bigger than most PE.

I’ve yet to break the news to the other half. The best I can say is that there are only two Y seats on each side with a bank of four in the middle.

 

[Port Power]

I’m having the same problem with CX from HKG to PER in March. However I didn’t even receive an email advising of the cancelled flight, just an e-ticket in my in box. I didn’t look at it until a week later. To make matters worse, CX had booked me to depart HKG before the connecting flight left Japan! I had booked through Qantas, so rang them and the helpful guy on the phone changed CX171 to the next day. That now means something like an 18 hour layover, so Qantas will have to provide a hotel for the night.

As a side note, I tried the message app as it was a Sunday when I discovered the change. Useless! Over half an hour texting someone who replied with bad grammar (is this service off shore?) and who could not see the problem with leaving before I arrived. SO frustrating.

 

[Pushka]

I’m having the same problem with CX from HKG to PER in March. However I didn’t even receive an email advising of the cancelled flight, just an e-ticket in my in box. I didn’t look at it until a week later. To make matters worse, CX had booked me to depart HKG before the connecting flight left Japan! I had booked through Qantas, so rang them and the helpful guy on the phone changed CX171 to the next day. That now means something like an 18 hour layover, so Qantas will have to provide a hotel for the night.

As a side note, I tried the message app as it was a Sunday when I discovered the change. Useless! Over half an hour texting someone who replied with bad grammar (is this service off shore?) and who could not see the problem with leaving before I arrived. SO frustrating.

That message app was useless for me too. Qantas never offered a hotel but rather change the flight. I’ve cancelled all the Cathay flights now.

 

[Port Power]

That message app was useless for me too. Qantas never offered a hotel but rather change the flight. I’ve cancelled all the Cathay flights now.

I have to claim on the Customer Care form. And what would you know.......”this site cannot be reached”!!!

 

[get me outta here]

You are probably already aware or it is maybe too late, but ANA is introducing flights to FRA in February I think it is.

 

[mrsterryn]

Is there a duty of care form Qantas if Cathay changes and the new times /flights don't suit ?

 

[Pushka]

Is there a duty of care form Qantas if Cathay changes and the new times /flights don't suit ?

With our booking there was a message on the top of the booking alerting us to compensation and ability to cancel without penalty if the changes were substantial (which they were) and actual compensation and they provided links.