Hong Kong Cathay Pacific flight disruptions: are customers satisfied with new arrangements and how are they coping with the aftermath?

The Post sums up what fliers are upset about, whether Cathay flight prices have changed and if passengers have ways to navigate disruptions.

1. Are affected passengers satisfied with Cathay’s arrangements?

Passengers flooded social media with furious complaints despite Cathay pledging to rebook fliers onto alternative flights or offer a refund.

On a Facebook page where flights were discussed, some customers lamented difficulties in changing their bookings on the carrier’s website.

Tze Jing Kao posted a picture of a disconnected Cathay webpage with a message that read “An invalid response was received from the upstream server”, and asked if others encountered the same problem when entering a “redeem page” on the site.

Others demanded further updates under a post showing the airline’s flight schedule this week. “Please release your schedule as soon as possible, I’m waiting to see whether you’ll cancel my flight,” user Step Kong wrote.

CEO of Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific apologises for wave of flight cancellations

Passengers also had differing accounts of whether Cathay would consult them before booking them onto new flights, with some saying the airline contacted them to discuss options and at least one passenger telling the Post that he had been automatically rebooked onto a flight which did not suit his schedule.

Cathay said on Wednesday that 93 per cent of affected passengers were moved onto other flights under the carrier, and the rest to ones with its airline partners, adding that 96 per cent had received an alternative flight within 24 hours of their original one.

The carrier’s Conditions of Carriage states that if a passenger is booked onto a flight that costs lower than what they initially paid, they will refund the difference.

But it is unclear, for example, whether it will offer compensation to passengers with connecting or onwards flights that have been affected, if passengers will be booked onto seats in the same cabin class, or how long it will take to process refunds.

The Post has reached out to the airline to clarify.

2. How do airlines elsewhere compensate fliers affected by cancellations?

In the European Union, regulations on air passenger rights apply to all flights that depart from or arrive in the EU, as long as the carrier is an EU one, and in certain circumstances even to non-EU airlines.

Carriers have to compensate passengers if they cancel flights within 14 days of the original departure date, in addition to offering rebooking or a refund, unless the cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstances. This applies to all passengers, even if they are not from the EU.

Compensation amounts vary depending on the distance and the extent of the final delay, but can range from €250 (US$274) to €600 as a starting point.

Let’s be patient with Cathay Pacific

Conversely, in the US, compensation for cancelled flights is generally left up to carriers’ policies, though a new federal rule requiring airlines to compensate passengers for cancelled or delayed flights has been proposed.

No such regulations appear to exist in Hong Kong, and passenger entitlements are set by individual carriers. On its website, the Civil Aviation Department advises passengers to read all terms and conditions carefully before purchasing flight tickets.

Amid Cathay’s wave of cancellations, city leader John Lee Ka-chiu ordered the airline to resolve its capacity issues as quickly as possible, while Secretary for Transport and Logistics Lam Sai-hung told a radio show that Cathay’s “communication and follow-up measures have been poorly executed”.

The airline pledged an internal working group would be set up to investigate the episode.

3. Which Cathay routes have been most affected?

Data compiled by the Post showed Cathay cancelled an average of 19.5 flights per day between January 8 to 11, with short-haul flights being the most affected.

In the four-day window, Cathay had scrapped 10 flights to or from Taipei, nine flights to or from Singapore, and eight flights to or from Bangkok, Beijing and Kaohsiung, respectively.

Other affected destinations include Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Tokyo, Vancouver and several mainland Chinese cities such as Qingdao and Xiamen.

Cancellations earlier peaked on January 7, when 27 flights were cancelled.

4. What do Cathay’s flight prices look like for the coming Lunar New Year?

A Google Flights search for a round-trip journey from Hong Kong to Tokyo from February 8 to 14 found Cathay flights starting from HK$7,596 (US$971).

This is significantly lower than its competitor Singapore Airlines, whose tickets are priced from HK$15,392 for the same period.

Reputation of Cathay and Hong Kong at risk after holiday flights fiasco

Round-trip flights from Hong Kong to Singapore for Lunar New Year were also slightly cheaper on Cathay, at about HK$4,245, compared with HK$4,613 to over HK$6,000 on Singapore Airlines.

Prices for a Cathay one-way direct flight from Hong Kong to London (from HKD$4,768) were roughly on par with British Airways for the same period.

5. What can passengers travelling in the next few weeks do to minimise disruptions?

Passengers are advised to minimise disruptions by buying travel insurance or booking accommodation with flexible policies.

As of Wednesday, Cathay said that all planned cancellations had been made and affected passengers contacted.

The notice given to passengers on cancelled flights has varied so far, with some being informed a few days ahead and others only finding out when they reached the airport.

The carrier suggests that passengers monitor their bookings using their Manage Booking tool on their website. The airline’s Flight Status portal also shows flight information for up to six days after the search date.

Additional reporting by Jess Ma