Cathay Pacific open to considering first class for Sydney

[NoName]

Surprised they don't do it already to be honest. Surely they could get enough bums on seats to The biggest city in Australia to make it viable.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Surprised they don't do it already to be honest. Surely they could get enough bums on seats to The biggest city in Australia to make it viable.

CX simply doesn't have spare 777s with First class, and the ones they do have they use on ultra high yield routes.

Looking at HKG-JFK departing this sunday, and returning a week later, the only first class seats available are full fare - at a cost of $37,000 Australian dollars. Even booking one month out, the fare is the same (searching exHKG on a Sunday, arriving JFK same day, and departing the following Saturday - so peak business timings to maximise work time in New York).

CX wouldn't list those fares unless they could sell them at that price. (Also goes to show why CX probably doesn't really care if they only sell one seat! one passenger is paying the equivalent of 30 economy passengers!)

CX quite simply can't command that type of money from Australia. So they put the plane where they make the most money.

 

[NoName]

If they don't have the spare planes then understandable. How many seats are they actually selling for cash on those routes though? I regularly see last minute F award seats pop up for JFK-HKG. Even see 2 seats on the same flight bookable less than a week out sometimes.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

If they don't have the spare planes then understandable. How many seats are they actually selling for cash on those routes though? I regularly see last minute F award seats pop up for JFK-HKG. Even see 2 seats on the same flight bookable less than a week out sometimes.

Traditionally CX would release almost all remaining F seats for awards in the couple of days prior to departure (holding one or two for last minute bookings). I believe they may be looking to restrict that slightly.

As for how many seats they actually sell... they must sell them in sufficient quantity, at the asking price, or they'd reduce the cost (although I suppose there might be cases of corporate discount?), or remove the cabin (as they have for EWR flights)

Cx may determine that even just one or two passengers per flight make it worth their while, or that even one or two passengers per day at the full price make it worth their while over selling more seats at a discount.