Tips For Those Traveling On Cathay Pacific's Special New Year's Fares

Btw in mamage your booking on CX website its extremely easy to input a different FFN from diff programs for each individual flight so u can add this to the post to save a lot of time

I know many people took advantage of this deal, but I still find it really shocking that a LOT of CX flights to/from JFK are showing as F0 throughout the whole year.
I'd be curious to learn how many first class tickets were purchased on Jan 1.

If you are transfering in Da Nang, you have to call KA office in Da Nang to arrange the transfer. DAD airport does not maintain transfer counter actively so it is better for KA to prepare everything for you. Or else you need to wai on the spot for security officers to arrive to screen you for transfer in DAD.

re crediting to different airlines: If you use the "edit information" link once you pull up your reservation, there is the option to enter a different FF# for each flight.

Fare rules allow changes without a reprice, both before and after travel has started. Most of the fares I saw booked were $100 change fees.

The inventory bucket these fares were booked in are not currently available ex-Vietnam (A,I,D,C I believe), thus would be repriced to higher fare class currently.

If Cathay doesn’t intend to honor fare rules it should disclose that in advance. I would understand given the fact they are honoring a clear fare mistake, but nevertheless they have to disclose that fare rules will not be honored.

Thanks guys - I've flown Cathay premium more times than I can remember but every single time has been on miles redemptions so I've never entered a loyalty number!

That's a great feature.

Cheers.

I'm flying in on a KE F award same day and have a 7 hour layover. I'll get a visa just in case as well. I'm hoping all goes well.

I have overight layovers in HKG both ways. It's a bummer I can't access the F lounge. However they close at 12:30am anyway.

Congrats to people who got in on this and great article for FAQ's for this mistake fare. Good job!

ARRARGH. I saw this when it was going on and thought, "we've been to VN and we already have plans for 2019. Also, they won't honor it."

Now I am in full FOMO, or whatever FOMO becomes when your fear is realized. Just "MO"?

Also, it didn't occur to me to do it as one trip to VN, then on the return, get off at HKG and go somewhere else on another ticket, or train.

I dont agree with the logic that award inventory on airlines hasn't changed. Of course it has. People bought all the F seats which means no award redemptions on CX for a year. All those people with miles who would have booked an award on CX will now need to go to other airlines for their award bookings. End result is that award bookings to the region will be much more difficult to come by.

Great post, James!

>>Of course you can use miles on other carriers that were not part of this mistake fare, as their inventory shouldn’t have changed.

I believe this will most certainly change for the worse given the sheer number of people needing to position themselves for these flights.

Flights from HAN and SGN in J can be credited to Aeroplan for 125% miles flown.

https://www.aeroplan.com/earn_miles/our_partners/partner_details.do?Partner=CathayDragon

Generally speaking you wouldn't be able to credit a Vietnam Airlines-operated flight to a SkyTeam frequent flyer program if it has a Cathay flight number. Delta specifically does not allow credit for SkyTeam-marketed flights if operated by a non-SkyTeam airline, and I believe Flying Blue is the same way.

I booked to SGN because I wanted all CX metal portions to credit to Alaska.

The cathay dragon, and Vietnam codeshares aren’t suppose to credit to AS MileagePlan.

Actually, the fare rules clearly state you can make changes before or during the trip for $100 priced at the historical fare as long as the booking code is available and the routing does not change, so changing dates should be no problem....if CX releases A 😉

I booked HAN-HKG-YVR-HKG-HAN.
HAN-HKG is on Vietnam Airlines. Cathay's site allows you to enter different Frequent Flier numbers for each segment, but none of the SkyTeam options show up. Any ideas where to credit that sector or how to get skyteam added on that?

Now the most important question, can we drop the last leg and stop in Hong Kong without any consequences?

Do we still get for instance the miles and/or do we have to pay a fine if we drop the last leg back to Vietnam?

Great post and great tip from commenters about having different FF numbers on different legs. I had written off the DAD to HKG portion as a cost of crediting to Alaska.

Any thoughts on what to do with the return part of the ticket and when to do it if we are not going to use it?

@James-
You referenced:
Note that if you’re arriving in Cathay Pacific first class and connecting same day to a Cathay Pacific or Cathay Dragon flight to Vietnam, you could access the first class lounge. You couldn’t do this, however, if your connection isn’t the same day, or if you’re flying Vietnam Airlines.

My return is SFO-HKG-HANOI. The short haul is on Vietnam Airlines in BIZ, but the long haul is First. Not sure I understand the lounge situation at HKG based on your post. Would we have access?

Geez, I thought the Iberia 90K and the Hong Kong Airlines $600 were great. This is a level above.

I hope this thing does not become some sort of tipping point where Alaska asks if their program is really working for them. I don't know how the economics of these point transfers happen... but hopefully Alaska is not getting burned.

I imagine there is some sort of netting out process, but in the end I would think these points need to be valued. Maybe it is great for them and Cathay just is on the hook for buying a bunch of miles.

People asked if this fare would cover the cost of caviar and champagne... my question has been whether it will cover the cost of the miles.

I got two of them!

P.S. - don't just turn around and come home, Vietnam is a beautiful and affordable country, stay a while. The Visa process is easy.

In my case I am not looking for positioning flights... I am canceling three existing award bookings to Asia. Basically this is going to refill my points balances beyond the miles I earn; I went from getting a little thin to having all the points I need for a while.

I think the most interesting question still out there is the implications of dropping legs. What happens to your points earning and stuff? I think I will use all of mine, but could drop my last HKG-HAN leg on one of them.

@lucky @james Is HAN-DOH-JFK using AA miles considered a married segment? In biz class, would this be 70k miles or 110k miles? Got screwed by the cathay mistake fare so have to use QR

@DaKine this question has been asked numerous times, the answer is no. If you drop the final leg from Hong Kong to Vietnam, Cathay Pacific can re-price the ticket and charge you the real price for a first/business class fare from Hong Kong to USA, which of course is significantly higher than what you paid. If you read on various forums, this question gets raised a lot given for example ex EU premium travel is often much cheaper than if originating in the UK. BA has chased after customers who have dropped final legs and terminated in London.

I'm sorry, but I really wish CX cancelled these tickets. Those of us who travel for work (i.e. the real reason business class exists) need access to seats, often at the last minute. If this truly will have a negative impact on availability of paid seats at the last minute, CX is not only hurting their finances by honoring these fares, but is also hurting the exact type of customer they need in order to be profitable.

@ James -- I cannot believe that no one has recommended crediting to American. Nowadays it is all about EQDs not RDMs, and the JFK-HKG legs earn 2,422 EQD per segment. That is HUGE, and I am pretty certain most American elite flyers will be crediting these flights to AA.

@ BobA -- That itinerary transits through a third region, which generally requires separate AA awards (there are some very limited exceptions, and this isn't one of them). Anyway, to answer your question, that will cost 110k (70k + 40k) each way.

@Ivan

I don't get this, I booked a ticket for 988$, I drop the last leg and suddenly I am charged 20K$.

Goodluck with that in court.

BA chased after customers? Is this like an email with: "You have been a bad boy by not showing up on our flight".

Or did they actually charge money to the creditcards? And what happens when you pay with paypal, like I did. My bank details are unknown to Cathay, so I wish them good luck charging 20K$ through my paypal account.

We hear these scary stories, yet I can't find anyone who actually got charged after dropping a leg. Does someone have proof/link of where this happened?

Why can’t you book a ticket to Vietnam, go through the customs to enter the country, and then get on your next flight same day? I have about 4 hours from the time I arrive to Vietnam to the next flight.

I was expecting advice of the nature of how to spoon the caviar onto the blini using a mother of pearl spoon. Stuff us slobs would not know shit from clay about.

@Ryan I would read the numerous threads on this subject on Flyer Talk and make up your own mind as to what to do in your case. Remember airlines do have other punitive options at their disposal besides legal action or charging credit cards for the fare difference.

Thanks for the guide, you wrote " Vietnam law does not allow immediate turns."
Would the following be a violation: I take a vietnam airlines flight from Hong kong arriving at 3:50 pm, i then go out of the terminal (with a visa) and then check in for my cathay dragon flight scheduled for 7:50 pm back to hkg and then onward to Jfk. Is that allowed. And also do you think that 4 hours is enough time. (I have a back up from hkg, so if the vietnam airlines flight is delayed from hkg-han, I wont go on it and sadly cancel my "mistake fare" fare ticket at the last minute.

@ Zak - you can provided you satisfy any visa requirements.
People attempting direct turns were doing so to avoid a visa I believe.

Any more info on dropping the last leg HKG-DAD? How about the luggage which is in transit from JFK-HKG-DAD. Would Cathay allow you to retrieve your luggage at HKG?

@James and others. Nice article. I have not heard about countries not allowing immediate turns. What other countries do not allow this?

What about direct turn if you do have a visa (or not requiring one)?

With long layover at HKG on the way back to DAD, do you think CX will let you retrieve your baggage at HKG? In case you don’t want to fly the final leg? James?

Cathay can be very strict about dropping segment/s on return, especially if the fare is higher otherwise. My customer who booked return but only used one-way with Cathay was later found out and asked to pay the difference after the expiry - the reason being the cheapest one-way was only available at normal Y fare, which was x3+ more than discounted return fares.

@Hiro what happens if the customer is not feeling well to travel? Would Cathay still would have forced your customer to travel. Max they can do is forfeit the total ticket and won’t issue any refund on the sector which you are no show and that is the reason sometimes airlines overbook flights.

@Debit The reason some on us would like to drop Da Nang or HAN on the way back is 1) Connecting flights are from Hong Kong 2) There would be no reason to visit Vietnam twice over say 2-3 week period, one at the start of the journey where I am spending 2-3 days and judging from the comments, one must have to start the journey from Vietnam so it is necessary.

@Dear Ivan,

We would like to skip the last flight. We did do a quick search for threads on FlyerTalk and did find only one from 2016. Is Cathay really that hard on people skipping flights?

Care to please share a link?

What am I missing, I didn't think CX flights were listed on expertfllyer?

My CX filght departs 6:25AM from SGN to ORD.
I just book a JL flight from NRT to SGN one day before CX departure. The arrival time is 10PM.
I will have 8 hrs over night lay over at SGN.
Do you think I can get all my BP at NRT JAL counter, and will JAL allow my luggage directly to ORD? If they do so, I would avoid applying a vietnam visa...

James, can't believe you didn't write about lounge policy? Flyertalk is all abuzz at the moment if on the inbound transit for those who are transiting by vietnam air under a CX ticket, if access will be allowed into the First class cathay lounges in HKG or relegated to skyteam lounges.

Flying HAN - HKG- SFO on J/A. Tried to change my connecting flight (10PM) from HAN to HKG to early morning flights (10AM) in order to have more time to fully experience the first class lounge. This only required a $100 change fee so long as the destination and origin routing is the same and its made on the same date. To my surprise, there was space available to make the reservation.

Unfortunately, the manage flights featured errored out. I contacted their customer service to find out that both the connecting flights managed by both Cathay Dragon and Vietnam Airlines have no space available. Looks like CX zeroed out all available business seats for the entire year leaving only flexible fares.

@Nick It'll be up to the agent to decide. In my customer case it was a corporate client, who booked on 3 months-valid discounted return and intended to come back in time. But because of his business trip being extended, he decided to let it go the return, and soon after the airline billed the company. Not sure if they tempted to argue, so may be with some excuses things can get away, but I wouldn't risk being barred from flying CX in future.

I'm just curious, for the people that jumped on this fare how many are using it for a journey they would have taken anyway, how many are basing a new vacation around it and how many people are spending a lot of time and money positioning to somewhere they weren't really wanting to be, just for the experience?

I mean as nice as first class is, my bed at home is bigger and comfier and there's a lot else you can do with a couple thousand bucks.

Not making judgments, just genuinely curious who is using these tickets and how.

Thanks for the great write-up James! In terms of crediting the miles, I believe a First class fare should be enough to earn AA Gold elite status on it's own (in terms of both the EQM and EQD requirements), so it might be worth crediting to AA if you place value in this status.

@Sam

I was actually planning on visiting Vietnam this year. I originally planned to book RT SFO-NRT-SGN through United/ANA to try the new premium plus seats recently installed on the 777-300ER. This special fare just happened to coincide with my planned trip. For the departure leg, i'll just be booking a one-way flight using the same routing.

@ Ryan - re the BA case for skipping the last legs - BA went after the TA who made the reservation and paid on behalf of their client and the TA passed the cost onto the client - yes you can made excuses for dropping the last leg, but be prepared to have evidence to justify if you are asked toproduce it.

for passengers who check in at JFK and ask at the counter to have your bags off loaded in HKG, then this will raise a red flag with CX checkin staff who have been instructed to be aware of passengers asking for this. Lastly, CX will have evidence to show the courts(if it gets to that stage) that the passenger had pre arranged to skip the last leg.

Once you purchase the ticket, you have entered into a contract, and likewise, CX has entered into a contract with you, they have honoured this "mistake fare". and expect all passengers to fulfill the contract.

Note this case is be viewed slightly differently as the difference between the mistake fare and actual fare is substantial, rather than dropping "positioning" flights where the difference is alot less.

Anyway - enjoy your flights.

Smell like the perfect opportunity for the Vietnamnese authorities to do something to promote their country so people aren't just transiting or positioning to enjoy these great "specials" fares.

Please bear in mind leaving a 24 hours turn around safety gap won't be enough if you happened to come across a typhoon in the area during your date of travel.

This mistake fare makes me quite angry..redeemed a lot of Marriott Rewards points before the travel package devaluation for hotel certificates and AS miles. Planned on using the points for CX F

@Whoever said:

'this question has been asked numerous times, the answer is no. If you drop the final leg from Hong Kong to Vietnam, Cathay Pacific can re-price the ticket and charge you the real price for a first/business class fare from Hong Kong to USA, which of course is significantly higher than what you paid.'

You are dead WRONG. No one can force anyone to go on a plane. That’s absurd. I’ve taken EK, HU, and AA MR’s and dropped the last segment many a time. Things happen. They don’t change the price, and they cannot force you to travel. Give me a break. This is the silliest thing I have ever heard. If people are dumb enough to check bags on this trip, then yes you could have a problem on your hands. But as long as you carry on, it’s not a problem.

Whoever brought up the BA case is a ridiculous comparison. First off the fare would not have been honored if we were dealing with BA because BA is the worst, most unfriendly airline to customers in the world. They would’ve cancelled these tickets so fast your head would spin. They are not a good reference as they are vindictive towards travelers who score good deals. I hope BA goes out of business...

The bottom line is nobody can force you to do anything. And seeing as CX is being lax and honoring all of this stuff, and really having a happy go lucky attitude about this and being friendly toward customers, I really doubt they’re gonna go after or do anything to anyone who chooses to not take whatever segment with these tickets. For CX they got this huge influx of cash in one day, and got rid of all their award inventory as a trade off. They’re obviously not upset if they’re honoring everything so people having these dire warnings, lighten up a little.

Great. Why not just call it hillbilly class for the next year. Don't forget to take your shoes and socks off.

Something odd did happen. I can't edit the frequent flyer information on CX website any more. Very strange.

Oh sorry, I just need to enter the ticket number. Peace out!

CX has been having some website bugs. I’ve also have found what looks like they’re switching websites so don’t let anything you see wrong on the website worry you. Shortly after the tickets were issued, the website couldn’t find my ticket for 20 minutes and I thought CX had cancelled them.

@ Abe
+1
you're absolutely right. I did it many times as well. I would allow at least 4 hours layover in HKG, that gives you enough time to get the suit out of your luggage to get changed for your business meeting 😉 No check-in agent will deny to short-check your luggage, IF there's sufficient time (to tetermine "sufficient" varies from airline to airline and from airport to airport as well) to collect it, cleare customs and re-check it again. Especially not, when travelling in C or F.

@Abe I hope your not a lawyer because you give rubbish advice! It's a small thing called breach of contract. Every person that buys a ticket from Cathay Pacific agrees to their conditions of carriage. It clearly says within those that if not all segments of a ticket are taken, they can re-price the ticket. Obviously a ticket that terminates in Hong Kong was probably 20 times more expensive than the mistake fare return to Vietnam. Whilst CX may do nothing if you don't take the final leg to Vietnam, I'm sure given they have honoured the tickets sold, they would expect the purchasers to do the same and fly all sectors.

For Lucky and others, I have a couple of these booked through Expedia. I did not cancel either one before the free cancellation period on Expedia. I am thinking of canceling one and potentially trying to reschedule the other one once they start releasing the proper fair class (A and J). Anyone have any advice on getting CX to waive the $300 cancellation fee? I am wanting to present this as a “win win“ that by canceling my ticket they will be able to resell it at their normal fees. I have three tickets booked on this reservation.

Hello everyone! I'm looking for advice on my reservation through Expedia. I got this deal for $1,224 from HAN to JFK but Business Class ( I didn't select the First Class in the first place, stupid me tried to get this deal on my phone quickly without looking). My relative said it's not worth it since upgrading from E to B sometimes takes only a couple hundred dollars. What would you suggest for my case? Thank you!

I just called to try and change the flight, same date just different flight. It’s a first class ticket from Danang to NYC with a 100 USD change fee in the conditions and repricing with the historical fare. However the eager beaver agent said that they only honour the ticket as booked, not the T&C of the tickets and if I want to change the flight I need to pay the fare difference of 19,000 USD. I didn’t have time to argue with her or HUCA. Anyone heard a different feedback?

Peter,

Any luck with HUCA? I am curious how they are going to honor the fare, but not the Terms and Conditions. IF they are not going to honor the T&C, whey should the customer? I would probably cancel and demand a full refund if they are not going to honor the T&C. Probably dispute the charge with my credit card company if they did not want to capitulate.

Still so many things to clarify:

1. After the last leg, for example HKG-HAN, if I book a HAN-PEK on VN, would they go fetch my checked in luggage?

2. If the HAN-HKG is operated by VN, can I credit the miles on Asia Miles?

I booked 3 of these for my family through Expedia and have tried multiple times to change the date of the flight, keeping the origin and destination the same with same fare class (A and J) without luck. When I quote the terms and conditions back the agent about how the shouldn't change I am still not able to have any success. The T&C is from Expedia. Can anyone share a link or a copy of the T&C that are Cathay Pacific's so that I can have something in writing to show that this is indeed allowed?

Can you expand on what happened to Dominicus? I have a similarly booked trip and trying to figure out what to do.

@flyer12 - basically you need to have a Visa to "transit" through Vietnam. I just did this trip as well. I got a multiple entry Visa from the Vietnamese consulate in SFO. Getting their Visa was super easy - send an email with the details; pay online; get Visa shipped to home without sending your passport in. They send you a separate paper Visa which you just fold and keep in your passport.
They do have a Visa on arrival options for which you have to start the process ahead of time. I want sure of the time limitations etc, so did not venture that route. I'm sure other people must have.
1 month multiple entry Visa was about $135 + $20 for Visa overnight shipping. Hope that helps!

I have 3 trips that I want to drop the last legs. Wonder if there's a chance that I'm being black listed by CX and not crediting the miles?

The HKG-JFK miles were credited to Alaska with no problem, however, the HAN-HKG leg flown on VN with a CX flight number didn't credit to AA.

I'm trying to change my FF to DL for the HKG-HAN flight but since I have flown 2 segments the website is not letting me do it.

Any ideas?

Thanks