Cathay Pacific pre flight upgrade

[Pug1]

We are booked on Cathay Pacific from Delhi to Sydney via HK on 1st & 2nd April. CX has done the sneaky trick of changing our seats on the HK SYD leg and put us in the middle four seat row in premium economy and didn't let us know. They have advised that all of our preferred window/aisle seats are booked. Swapping our two pre-requested and confirmed seats for inferior ones suggests someone more important than us wanted our seats! Does anyone know if CX offers a business class upgrade close to the flight date by the passenger offering a price to upgrade? It would be nice to upgrade for that last 9 hour leg if we could do so at a reasonable cost.

 

[AIRwin]

It was only a trial:
http://www.cathaypacific.com/enhance/

 

[Pug1]

It was only a trial:
http://www.cathaypacific.com/enhance/

Thanks for the quick reply AIRwin, thought I had seen it somewhere. I've just logged a mild complaint on their website, not that it will do any good. CX changed seats on us in the same way last trip. Airlines don't seem to realise that for some of us the flight is an important part of a holiday experience and seating is important.

 

[yohy?!]

I've never had this experience and would be annoyed also, you weren't booked in a bassinet row by any chance?

India to Hk flights are usually chokkas so keep your fingers crossed for an op up.

 

[Pug1]

I've never had this experience and would be annoyed also, you weren't booked in a bassinet row by any chance?

India to Hk flights are usually chokkas so keep your fingers crossed for an op up.

thanks for the tip Yohy. I won't hold my breath for an upgrade but at least Premium Economy has a little more leg room. We were in the middle of the PE section so no bassinet issue. All of our sectors had window/aisle seats requested and confirmed (so I thought), and all booked many months ago. Last time on CX if they don't fix this for us. Back to reliable old Qantas for us. Unfortunately when taking a tour, as this is, the tour operator obviously has deals with one airline so, as you know, it's expensive to choose and switch to your preferred airline.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

We are booked on Cathay Pacific from Delhi to Sydney via HK on 1st & 2nd April. CX has done the sneaky trick of changing our seats on the HK SYD leg and put us in the middle four seat row in premium economy and didn't let us know. They have advised that all of our preferred window/aisle seats are booked. Swapping our two pre-requested and confirmed seats for inferior ones suggests someone more important than us wanted our seats! Does anyone know if CX offers a business class upgrade close to the flight date by the passenger offering a price to upgrade? It would be nice to upgrade for that last 9 hour leg if we could do so at a reasonable cost.

Just out of interest, did you select the seats directly on through CX (website or call centre) or via an external site such as QF?

I've done 100 or so CX/KA flights and never had a seat change.

 

[Pug1]

Just out of interest, did you select the seats directly on through CX (website or call centre) or via an external site such as QF?

I've done 100 or so CX/KA flights and never had a seat change.

Hi Mel_traveller,
we booked through APT and they requested the seating for us and it shows as confirmed on our e-ticket. Cathay has now responded to our complaint by saying the travel agent (APT) made a change and the preferred seats were not available on the changed flight. That's rubbish has we have not made any changes. I've told Cathay that I'm going to refer this to NSW Office of Fair Trading and asked APT what's going on? The seating is not an issue for us its the principle of being stuffed around/

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi Mel_traveller,
we booked through APT and they requested the seating for us and it shows as confirmed on our e-ticket. Cathay has now responded to our complaint by saying the travel agent (APT) made a change and the preferred seats were not available on the changed flight. That's rubbish has we have not made any changes. I've told Cathay that I'm going to refer this to NSW Office of Fair Trading and asked APT what's going on? The seating is not an issue for us its the principle of being stuffed around/

I might suggest you save your time with the office of fair trading... seat assignments are not guaranteed, and form no part of the contract you have with cathay pacific.

As such, there is no legal, fair trading, or advertising issue.

To stop this happening again, it might be worth going to the CX website as soon as your ticket is confirmed. You can then select your own seats which won't be moved!

 

[mannej]

Realistically, what is the NSW office of fair trading going to do over a seat change?

Somehow I think the best advice is to move on if you have completed the booking IMHO.

 

[legroom]

.... Cathay has now responded to our complaint by saying the travel agent (APT) made a change and the preferred seats were not available on the changed flight....

So, correct me if I'm wrong: the plane was changed (by someone other than you) and as a result, you had lost your preselected seats.

That's a risk for nearly all bookings and many has resorted to creating seat / flight 'alerts' to monitor for this eventuality.

Also, with most, if not every, booking nowadays there is always the rider that states something along the line "... Seat selection is not guaranteed.... Subject to change for operational reasons..."

Adding to the suggestion that you should have some 'ownership' by selecting the seats directly on CX site, I'd suggest you subscribe to EF and then create a flight & seat alerts for each and every of your bookings.

That's more productive and less angst-producing than the Fair Trading route which will guarantee to lead to nowhere.

 

[yohy?!]

Off topic but I'd suggest that a QF routing would be no help on Australia to India sectors as these would have you connecting from Singapore to narrow body 737 aircraft operated by Jet Airways (even the Sing to Australia sectors would likely be unrefurbished QF jets presently that are also inferior to CX). I hope the trip is pleasant regardless.

Even in the middle in PE you have one of the best inflight products you could possibly have on such a routing - Singapore airlines is the one to beat on this route with a380 services all the way to India, obviously no PE though

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'm wondering if the seat change is because the aircraft now has a smaller premium economy cabin? In that case I wonder if there are blocked seats somewhere (for bassinet) that could be released through calling HKG.

 

[Pug1]

I'm wondering if the seat change is because the aircraft now has a smaller premium economy cabin? In that case I wonder if there are blocked seats somewhere (for bassinet) that could be released through calling HKG.

Hi Mel,
worked out what the problem is. APT who booked all of this for us, changed our flight out of Delhi to the next day without asking or telling us. I assume because we paid an extra day in our Delhi hotel to get a late check-out they thought we wanted to fly out the following day. Their E-ticket (received by us yesterday), shows departing Delhi on 31 March but the actual booking was for 1 April. APT is going to change it back but you can bet there won't be any AC or HK seats left on the A330 or 777! The PE cabins have about the same number of seats on each plane but frankly I don't see the additional value if you are stuck in the middle. I've apologised to CX for blaming them!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi Mel,
worked out what the problem is. APT who booked all of this for us, changed our flight out of Delhi to the next day without asking or telling us. I assume because we paid an extra day in our Delhi hotel to get a late check-out they thought we wanted to fly out the following day. Their E-ticket (received by us yesterday), shows departing Delhi on 31 March but the actual booking was for 1 April. APT is going to change it back but you can bet there won't be any AC or HK seats left on the A330 or 777! The PE cabins have about the same number of seats on each plane but frankly I don't see the additional value if you are stuck in the middle. I've apologised to CX for blaming them!

Ah well that makes sense now and thanks for the update!

I can assure you PE is worth it even in the middle seats! I would however check closer to departure time (for example at on-line check-in time or even at the airport) to see if there are any pairs that have opened up.

I wasn't sure which aircraft you were flying HKG-SYD. Their A330s have been reducing their PE cabins, which might have been an explanation for the seat change.