Unable to Book Direct with carrier [Use OTA?]

[Robert Hung]

Hey all,

Looking for some advice for anyone that is familiar with Cathay Pacific / Asia Miles. I'm currently looking at a flight for 30th December, it's a one way from MEL > HKG. The flight that I want is scheduled for a 15:35 departure, but when searching on Cathay's website, it doesn't show me this flight as an available option to purchase.

I'm also a member of their Asia Miles program and saw that I can be on the 'waitlist' for the flight that I want, however I think this is a risky option as I won't know if I get this ticket until closer to departure date.

As I'm not super flexible on flights (trying to fly with a partner who has booked this flight already), I searched on Skyscanner and saw that Jetabroad and Trip.com are offering one-way tickets. My gut feeling is that Cathay are saving these seats for return flights, but should I have any concerns booking with the other travel agents, eg. being overbooked and cancelling my ticket?

Or is my best option to just go on the 'waitlist' for the reward seat and see how I go.

Very frustrating that I can't just book direct..

Thanks in advance!

 

[trippin_the_rift]

If you need to be on that flight then there are not many options. Book a confirmed ticket.

So long as you have a valid e-ticket# and PNR - you'll be fine.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hey all,

Looking for some advice for anyone that is familiar with Cathay Pacific / Asia Miles. I'm currently looking at a flight for 30th December, it's a one way from MEL > HKG. The flight that I want is scheduled for a 15:35 departure, but when searching on Cathay's website, it doesn't show me this flight as an available option to purchase.

I'm also a member of their Asia Miles program and saw that I can be on the 'waitlist' for the flight that I want, however I think this is a risky option as I won't know if I get this ticket until closer to departure date.

As I'm not super flexible on flights (trying to fly with a partner who has booked this flight already), I searched on Skyscanner and saw that Jetabroad and Trip.com are offering one-way tickets. My gut feeling is that Cathay are saving these seats for return flights, but should I have any concerns booking with the other travel agents, eg. being overbooked and cancelling my ticket?

Or is my best option to just go on the 'waitlist' for the reward seat and see how I go.

Very frustrating that I can't just book direct..

Thanks in advance!

The seat does exist... but it's not being held for return travel... rather it is being 'married' with onward travel from HKG. If you do a one way search MEL-LHR on 30 Dec the 1535 flight shows up. But it doesn't if terminating in HKG. I'm guessing this will hold true for other destinations onward from HKG.

CX and Expedia won't show the 1535 to HKG because it is married, but it's likely Jetabroad and a couple other agencies are somehow picking up the inventory, possibly from a cache or something.

I did a bit of research online for reviews for Jetabroad... there are the usual complaints about people wanting to cancel flights and being stung with agent change fees... that's not an uncommon complaint. But also buried in there are a couple of reports of tickets being cancelled 'due to no seats'. It's hard to really know the individual circumstances, but it could be a case where either one of these agencies is using cahed availability, which is only confirmed once you make payment. In this case the married inventory may come back as 'unavailable'.

 

[Robert Hung]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the responses so far. I figured as much with the 'married' ticket, but took the chance and booked through Jetabroad as I really needed the flight. I've been issued an e-ticket and everything seems to be going smoothly now, touch wood. I also found those reviews for Jetabroad but dismissed them as circumstantial, although I'm not holding my breath until I get on the actual flight.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the responses so far. I figured as much with the 'married' ticket, but took the chance and booked through Jetabroad as I really needed the flight. I've been issued an e-ticket and everything seems to be going smoothly now, touch wood. I also found those reviews for Jetabroad but dismissed them as circumstantial, although I'm not holding my breath until I get on the actual flight.

The most important thing at this stage is for you to have a ticket number. It may be that CX comes to collect through the agency for mis-selling the flight, but I don't know exactly what happens in that case.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Here's something from Virgin Australia with regard to agent bookings that may contravene airline ticketing rules: https://www.virginaustralia.com/cs/.../@wc/documents/webcontent/~edisp/p_056513.pdf Other airlines would similarly monitor for the same thing (and have similar policies, there is one for CX).

Even with a ticket number the agent may not be out of the woods, and it depends what they do when the airline comes to collect on the married segment (if they find it).