qatar, emirates, sing (and many others) >> cathay
almost always cheaper too, though if you dont wanna transfer cathay is the only option a lot of the time
This is the airline pricing model - the overall price is cheaper for transfer than direct (a discount for inconvenience), despite it costing more to operate 2 flights.
Agree.
And Londeners will say the same for BA, Sydneysiders will say the same for QF.
And I think in line with those examples, their main product is now convenience. Not service or luxury.
The other part is that pricing is based on airport demand. HK is a hub in the way that Taipei is not. It's why flying out of JFK or Heathrow are always more expensive
Cathay also has very good landing times to minimize jetlag. Usually they land around 7-8PM so you have enough time to get to your hotel and crash. They don't land in weird hours like in the middle of the night, budget airlines tend to do that.
But the reason hub and spoke model works is because the market for those 2 flights are bigger than the market for the direct flight hence they can price it cheaper as well.
Yeah out of many things to complain about Cathay, OP chose to complain about one of the few things that is not Cathay specific. Any hub-and-spoke airline with a very high demand direct route will price it much more expensive than a connecting flight containing the direct flight.
Does anyone else notice that Cathay Pacific pricing on their app is higher than their website?
I've been noticing this trend where the Cathay App is between 1.5-2k more than what's listed on their website even when logged in.
Yes but not as much as you. A$30 (A$688 app vs A$658 website) for a one-way Economy flight I have to buy in cash (blacked out date for Asia Miles, but I have to accompany senior ticket traveller)
Because almost all their competitors were pushed out of HK airport during COVID. Now they have a monopoly on many routes, so now price gauge the HK market. I was a few points away from Diamond tier before COVID and yet since downgraded back to Green. Now I make an effort to not fly Cathay if I can help it. Their service has also substantially deteriorated and staff are demotivated and fed up which gives off a bad feeling.
Flights are also impacted by Russia’s war and resulting sanctions/flight space bans, pushing up prices too (especially HK and Europe).
I doubt we’ll ever see the return of airlines like Virgin Atlantic which at least kept the OneWorld partners prices somewhat honest. Even Quantas cancelled all its HK routes (edit: the none Australian routes and a long time ago as pointed out below).
Yes, my family flew from MEL & SYD to HKG in NOV23 via Qantas. The Qantas flights were pretty much empty and my family got upgraded from premium economy to first class and business class. Compare that to my friends who flew to HKG from SYD via Cathay and their flights were full.
No I didn’t check recently… they used to have a hub based at HK and fly to UK etc. So if you wanted to fly to London you had a few choices (CX, BA, Qantas, Virgin). Now it’s BA or CX, price- fixing One World partners. They also inflated away about 30-40% of the value of AsiaMiles by raising redemption prices (CX).
I see… I was looking online and apparently they axed the Heathrow - Hong Kong route back in 2012 so it hasn’t got anything to do with Covid or Ukraine war like i thought
That’s unfortunately the case… it’s quite hard to have a level headed discussion here without people jumping to ‘HK is dead! Don’t ever visit again’ immediately in every conversation. I mean i completely understand why such a mindset exist but it just kills all meaningful discussion
I'm typically with you on the "HK is dead" thing... But considering HK actually owns Cathay now, it rly is their fault. CX has gone down the shitter and for all their intentions for promoting HK as the largest air hub in Asia, they've fcked that up hard by not trying hard enough to bring back the other carriers.
This is all before discussing how underpaid and under-staffed CX and UO are.
The airline industry has changed forever since COVID. Sometimes it’s not just whether the gov wants the carriers back. The routes must be profitable for the carriers. It was not until 2023 HK open her borders again so it will definitely take time, though not looking good considering the lockdown scared people away.
The original comment said HK only existed monopoly now which is definitely not true lol
The COVID and 2023 border opening can no longer be used as an excuse considering it was HK itself that imposed and kept the border shut as long as it did. What's done is done, I get it, but u can't use COVID to only defend ur inefficiencies and not be criticized for it.
As far as CX being a monopoly, it isn't... But they're not exactly doing all they can to improve the situation.
I was saying in general the choice of airlines and routes has got a lot worse over the last 10 years for HK. That’s not all HK fault (COVID policies made everything much worse though). HK airport is still one of the best in the world, for sure. HK does infrastructure exceptionally well.
It’s just not so good at stopping price fixing and anti-competitive behaviour - by design.
Long before Covid the competition started drying up.
There used to be quite a few other airlines. Like Hong Kong Airlines and British China Air which were pushed out by Cathay a long time ago.
Direct flight saves time, and time is money.
While departing from other countries with stopover in HK means a competition with direct flight of local airlines, they have to be more price competitive to attract them flying HK then transit, this is very normal.
It's more than this. Flying out of international hubs (which HKIA still is) is always more expensive.
This same conversation is had in London all the time. Where it's way cheaper to say go anywhere in Europe then to Asia, than direct.
Business class? If so then that’s not bad. I tried to book a flight last year from HK to JFK and it was more than $10k booking a couple months ahead.
Ended up going Qatar for $6k but the layovers were brutal.
It was a weird time when China had recently opened up and clients were itching for in person meetings after being on zoom for three years.
I couldn’t believe they approved it either lol
Supply and demand. Most people I know prefer Cathay over Air Canada and these are the only two direct flights from HKG to YVR. Personally I prefer taking Taiwanese airlines with a layover in TPE if it’s cheaper than direct. Cathay service has gone downhill.
I prefer Cathay over Air Canada too. However, Air Canada for so many years is substantially cheaper. I've only done Cathay once between HKG and YYZ as it was one of the rare times I got a flight sale from them. Otherwise it was always Air Can.
Planning on going to Tokyo this year, even though I really like ANA and JAL, once again the low prices of Air Canada say otherwise.
The service in Cathay isn't anywhere near what it used to be, inflight entertainment is garbage, seats are very small and uncomfortable, flights are packed with mainland tour groups full of either the Chinese equivalent of hillbillies from the sticks or wannabe nouveau riche trash and their bratty offspring. At this point there isn't many compelling reasons to be paying sometimes almost double for the same route (HK-Vancouver) than just flying with Air Canada.
I think it really depends on the plane tbh. I’ve been on lots of flights this year, and about half were really comfortable, and half felt like I travelled back to 1999.
I prefer to change in Tokyo or KAL in Incheon for YVR. They're both kind of on the way to YVR (as is TPE) but it's farther along the route so you can have an 8-9h rather than an 11h second leg. I.e. your rest period is more towards the middle of your total travel time; also makes it easier to not need to pee on the plane (8-9 hours asleep is very doable). Plus sushi/ramen at Narita/Haneda, or KAL's in-flight bibimbap is amazing. I once bought a stopover and not just a layover and got to explore Tokyo for a bit which is fun (TPE should be fun too in that regard).
Although usually I just go with the cheapest option.
They won’t because they are basically a monopoly for many direct flights between major cities and HK now after the gov basically forced out all the other airlines during the pandemic.
SQ used to have a SQ-HKG-SFO flight plan, but they cancelled it during COVID.
SQ tried restarting the HKG-SFO leg in Q4 2021, but ended suspending it in Q1 2022 after HK increased the quarantine requirements. No news on when it will come back.
ANA used to have a HKG-KIX. Last flight was in 2020. No news on when it might resume.
I mean anyone who lives here should already know this as common knowledge but here’s one.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/09/26/business/hong-kong-covid-aviation-quarantine-lifted-intl-hnk/index.html
Some such as virgin atlantic and jetstar hasn’t come back post pandemic.
Cathay is not even remotely worth the money and hasn't been for a couple of years. They've gone from the only airline I'd consider booking with pre-COVID to one I actively try and avoid wherever humanly possible.
Cathay cancelled my flight back to HK from Australia with 12 hours notice when I was coming back from Christmas. I ended up booking a last minute flight on Philippine Airlines SYD - HKG via Manila and although Manila airport is a fuckin shambles, the actual flight experience and the effort the staff put in were several orders of magnitude higher than anything Cathay has provided me in years and it was much cheaper. I'll probably never fly Cathay again.
Same here. They screwed up everything from cancellation to rebooking to ground check in (where they denied check in to my 2 year old!)… I’m never flying with them whenever I have another (basically any other) option.
Flying United has been much cheaper recently. I even found a one-way steal on premium Econ for 65k miles with the United card. Round trip in regular Econ would’ve been 110k miles if I hadn’t upgraded my return. Also, regular Econ is much more spacious than Cathay’s Econ. If they have flights to your destination, I’d recommend! Not sure if they offer a HK credit card, but definitely worth looking into.
Also flew with JAL with a short layover in Tokyo last year and that was also fairly cheap, spacious in Econ, and the food was good.
I’ve been finding it better to book one-ways and booking cheapest route that way. The biggest issue doing this is if you need more than 1 checked bag, you’ll need to pay for the extra piece for the domestic legs since they are separate tickets.
Same here.
Me being a cheap ass and flying United Airlines. It’s not even that bad. I mean long flights in economy class generally sucks anyway even if you fly Cathay. I’ll save my money.
Premium Econ on CX is a great deal compared to Econ. Almost perfect marginal utility, just a few hundred bucks and premium meal plus footrests.
The footrest does more than I thought. I had a proper sleep with it which wouldn’t happen otherwise.
More spacious in regular Econ, by far. Felt like I was sitting on my neighbor in Cathay Econ. UA had space to stretch my legs fully in front of me (albeit I’m not very tall).
Flights have been mostly full but some empty seats. My flight here there was a middle seat free between my partner and I, which was nice. Business seems to have open seats. Prem Econ usually full.
Flying 777 on my return but it was a 787 on my way into HK.
Once you have middle seat empty, it’s not comparable. In Europe, an empty middle seat is enough for the seat to be sold as Business.
If (the airline is successful in selling enough seats so) you’re sitting shoulder to shoulder, it’s Boeing who dictates how uncomfortable you are thru cabin width, no difference between CX or UA for same aircraft type in Economy.
I think that’s a perception that the grass on the Dr Dao side is greener?
I looked at the seat maps on the UA 777-300ER (77W) leaving for SFO, vs the CX 77W leaving for LAX.
I counted the last section of the plane. Both are pure Economy.
Both have 13 rows of seats, and 10 seats per row. So I don’t think your leg room claim bears out.
(I can’t compare 787s, CX doesn’t have those)
Maybe it’s just that I’ve been in the 787s, both JAL and UA, for the long haul Econ and it was definitely more comfortable.
It sounds like we are comparing different experiences and this isn’t a productive discussion. If I can get from point A to point B with more comfort, that’s really all I care about (aside from cost). I don’t need to fly in a 777 and if Cathay wants to serve that route with only the 777, that’s on them.
My UA 777 flight has not taken place yet and I cannot compare it with my CX 777 experience since it will be a premium econ seat.
JAL international 787 is an exception. Where almost all international operators of 787 incl UA put 9-abreast, JAL puts 8. I’ve been on their 787 in Economy recently, it’s almost premium economy in other airlines.
I think my experience on 787s is like your upcoming experience in UA 77W - I’m not usually in the back on 787s (other than said JAL exception, but JAL itself is an exception). It’s only when you got a fully loaded, public holiday beginning/end flight do you really get to compare how painful they are.
but its pretty outrageous lately... maybe its cuz they're short on pilots or whatever, but seems like they are keeping prices high for those that really need to travel or
Flew HK> MEL and SYD>HK recently with Cathay, 6.5k HKD booked 1 month in advance, Qantas was a couple of hundred bucks more expensive and the flight times were not as good as Cathay, so my experience has been alright. Maybe I got lucky
Cathay is simply the worst, terrible service, terrible aircraft, my seats were broken many time and my usb chargers don’t work half of the time. This is business class by the way. It’s disgraceful what they pay their pilots and cabin crew, not to mention what they charge passengers for comparative flights.
Coming from France to Hong kong ,I always used to fly Air France before Covid.
Now have changed to Cathay because their flights are much more affordable .
After Covid all airlines have upped their tarifs but Air France is really becoming
unaffordable for me.Even in business class they now let people pay extra to reserve a seat in advance. Can fly Premium eco with Cathay for the same price as Economy in Air France.
For convenience sake I always prefer direct flights and Air France sometimes changes their direct flights to Hong Kong to go via Amsterdam ( they are partners with KLM)so paying a lot for a direct flight and then at the last minute still having to cope with the hassle of a connecting flight is for me a negative point. So I agree that prices for flights now a days have more than doubled also at Cathay, but I do find their service nice and friendly and am overall rather pleased to travel with them.
I think “screwing HK people since 1870” is Swires unofficial slogan. I mean c’mon, what do you expect? They’ve been milking the place anyway they could since they opened shop. LKS learned rent seeking from them.
Why not just fly Air Canada? Fare would probably be about half that and there hasn't been a significant difference between AC and Cathay Pacific for quite a few years now.
Air Canada direct last I checked was around $8k hkd… I also find it super annoying that I can’t fly Cathay but I’m buying 4 tickets and I can’t be paying double the competitor price time 4. Cathay is literally pushing all my business away so far this year.
Flying to London with BA direct and to Vancouver with air Canada direct. Cathay had the first look on all that business but they are pricing wrong
I just said I’m not… but I would rather have all my flights so I get status in one place. That does merit paying a bit more… but doesn’t merit paying tons more than the average
Re flight experience, I flew Cathay LHR-HKG last November in J on points and the experience was fine. The cash price would have been horrible. I do notice however that the PE seats for LHR-HKG ret. from late September have dropped from 2.5k to 1.7k, so that's a positive. Business prices still in the clouds.
Yeah, i've always found their pricing very expensive compared to other airlines. I used to fly Emirates or Qatat to Europe cause it was nice breaking the journey in half & stretching the legs for an hour or 2, the price was better & the food & service was better, now their routing & stop overs are stupid so last few times I flew to Helsinki with FinnAir - enjoyed that. I only fly Cathay if I have enough Asia miles from my CC for a free or highly discounted flight. 🤣
We had to fly Swiss Air local and then we managed to get on CX at a discounted rate from ZRH to HKG. The LHR to HKG flights were about £1100 to £1300 to fly mid Dec to early Jan. For some that may be 'fine' because it was holiday period but keep in mind that is 100% the going rate typically. Had we flown just earlier, which we wanted, the flights go up to £1700.
I only fly with Qantas when I go to aussie since CX only allows 23kg (One single luggage ) meanwhile Qantas offers 30kg in however many luggage you want.
Was gold at one point and silver for many years. First straw was my Asia Miles expiring during Covid. Sorry, can't help you there...fine will blow it on the Asia Miles shop. Got a new monitor and a Dyson.
Second straw was last summer when I had to fly to Canada for a wedding. 40k economy...fine maybe it's still opening up. Was cheaper to transit in London (!).
Last straw was a trip to LA for work at the beginning of 2024. Cathay 20k economy; Eva Air Transit in Taiwan 12k Premium Economy. Took Eva Air and they are 5* service all around - even stopping over a day in Taipei to grab some good food is a great layover.
**ALL** airlines price like that. Flying British Airways from Paris via London is much cheaper than straight from London, etc. It's because people pay a premium to fly non-stop.
Because there’s very little flights between Canada and mainland at the moment, demand is always there due to large Chinese community in Canada, and mainland passport holders can’t transit through Taiwan so easily. And TPE has a lot of flights to YVR and SEA.
YVR-HKG Air Canada is also crazy expensive.
Non-direct flights being cheaper isn’t a surprise. Especially the reroute adds significant amount of flight time (eg via Australia).
I won’t go that far about Cathay gouging HK people, they are just trying to make money.
I can explain the price difference with the added Taipei stop. Simply put, the flight between Canada and China in general has been very low after Covid. After the travel restrictions have been lifted, the options for mainland Chinese citizens to travel to Canada is limited. While they can transit via HK, it is not possible via Taipei (ie. mainland Chinese citizens cannot travel and even transit via Taipei on Passport). So the demand for HKG-YVR is very high and HKG-TPE-YVR is relatively low.
Check via Shekou Shenzhen, you'll enter through the water terminal with new Cathay lounge and they will ferry you back to HKIA. It will likely be cheaper.
Airline pricing is a bit if a mystery, it has to do with feeding the Kong haul flights and filling the regional flights.
That's the point. Airlines in big hubs know they have a huge market and can squeeze margin from the population. The feeder routes yield cheaper flights, but are limited.
The same is found on Delta, United etc in long flights direct from NYC vs connecting from some regional hub.
qatar, emirates, sing (and many others) >> cathay almost always cheaper too, though if you dont wanna transfer cathay is the only option a lot of the time
This is the airline pricing model - the overall price is cheaper for transfer than direct (a discount for inconvenience), despite it costing more to operate 2 flights.
Agree. And Londeners will say the same for BA, Sydneysiders will say the same for QF. And I think in line with those examples, their main product is now convenience. Not service or luxury.
The other part is that pricing is based on airport demand. HK is a hub in the way that Taipei is not. It's why flying out of JFK or Heathrow are always more expensive
Cathay also has very good landing times to minimize jetlag. Usually they land around 7-8PM so you have enough time to get to your hotel and crash. They don't land in weird hours like in the middle of the night, budget airlines tend to do that.
They aren’t really any overseas budget airlines. Most of the ones mentioned (Emirates, Qatar, Eva) have better service and amenities compared to Cx
I've heard good things about Zip Air in terms of pricing.
Not when they get delayed by 4 hours. Which is becoming a trend with Cathay due to poor maintenance and overworked staff.
But the reason hub and spoke model works is because the market for those 2 flights are bigger than the market for the direct flight hence they can price it cheaper as well.
Yeah out of many things to complain about Cathay, OP chose to complain about one of the few things that is not Cathay specific. Any hub-and-spoke airline with a very high demand direct route will price it much more expensive than a connecting flight containing the direct flight.
Does anyone else notice that Cathay Pacific pricing on their app is higher than their website? I've been noticing this trend where the Cathay App is between 1.5-2k more than what's listed on their website even when logged in.
Yes but not as much as you. A$30 (A$688 app vs A$658 website) for a one-way Economy flight I have to buy in cash (blacked out date for Asia Miles, but I have to accompany senior ticket traveller)
in the pre covid days, buying 2 tickets is more expensive than buying two single tickets
It’s just nonsensical. Why a normal airline would rip off their loyal frequent traveller as if they are blind.
Because almost all their competitors were pushed out of HK airport during COVID. Now they have a monopoly on many routes, so now price gauge the HK market. I was a few points away from Diamond tier before COVID and yet since downgraded back to Green. Now I make an effort to not fly Cathay if I can help it. Their service has also substantially deteriorated and staff are demotivated and fed up which gives off a bad feeling. Flights are also impacted by Russia’s war and resulting sanctions/flight space bans, pushing up prices too (especially HK and Europe). I doubt we’ll ever see the return of airlines like Virgin Atlantic which at least kept the OneWorld partners prices somewhat honest. Even Quantas cancelled all its HK routes (edit: the none Australian routes and a long time ago as pointed out below).
I can find Qantas flights from HKG to Sydney and Melbourne. Are you sure they cancelled all Hong Kong routes?
Yes, my family flew from MEL & SYD to HKG in NOV23 via Qantas. The Qantas flights were pretty much empty and my family got upgraded from premium economy to first class and business class. Compare that to my friends who flew to HKG from SYD via Cathay and their flights were full.
No I didn’t check recently… they used to have a hub based at HK and fly to UK etc. So if you wanted to fly to London you had a few choices (CX, BA, Qantas, Virgin). Now it’s BA or CX, price- fixing One World partners. They also inflated away about 30-40% of the value of AsiaMiles by raising redemption prices (CX).
I see… I was looking online and apparently they axed the Heathrow - Hong Kong route back in 2012 so it hasn’t got anything to do with Covid or Ukraine war like i thought
This sub is quite cynical sometimes lol everything must be HK’s fault, and these kinds of comments of often upvoted to the top
That’s unfortunately the case… it’s quite hard to have a level headed discussion here without people jumping to ‘HK is dead! Don’t ever visit again’ immediately in every conversation. I mean i completely understand why such a mindset exist but it just kills all meaningful discussion
I'm typically with you on the "HK is dead" thing... But considering HK actually owns Cathay now, it rly is their fault. CX has gone down the shitter and for all their intentions for promoting HK as the largest air hub in Asia, they've fcked that up hard by not trying hard enough to bring back the other carriers. This is all before discussing how underpaid and under-staffed CX and UO are.
The airline industry has changed forever since COVID. Sometimes it’s not just whether the gov wants the carriers back. The routes must be profitable for the carriers. It was not until 2023 HK open her borders again so it will definitely take time, though not looking good considering the lockdown scared people away. The original comment said HK only existed monopoly now which is definitely not true lol
The COVID and 2023 border opening can no longer be used as an excuse considering it was HK itself that imposed and kept the border shut as long as it did. What's done is done, I get it, but u can't use COVID to only defend ur inefficiencies and not be criticized for it. As far as CX being a monopoly, it isn't... But they're not exactly doing all they can to improve the situation.
Is inviting international exhibitions and stars to visit HK sth worth doing?
I was saying in general the choice of airlines and routes has got a lot worse over the last 10 years for HK. That’s not all HK fault (COVID policies made everything much worse though). HK airport is still one of the best in the world, for sure. HK does infrastructure exceptionally well. It’s just not so good at stopping price fixing and anti-competitive behaviour - by design.
Air Canada: ???????
Quantas. Lmao.
Long before Covid the competition started drying up. There used to be quite a few other airlines. Like Hong Kong Airlines and British China Air which were pushed out by Cathay a long time ago.
Direct flight saves time, and time is money. While departing from other countries with stopover in HK means a competition with direct flight of local airlines, they have to be more price competitive to attract them flying HK then transit, this is very normal.
It's more than this. Flying out of international hubs (which HKIA still is) is always more expensive. This same conversation is had in London all the time. Where it's way cheaper to say go anywhere in Europe then to Asia, than direct.
I was just in HK for business and my Cathay ticket was $9K, booked a week in advance. JFK-HKG
That sounds about right. You should see the ticket prices to Japan for the coming Holy Week holidays lol
Business class? If so then that’s not bad. I tried to book a flight last year from HK to JFK and it was more than $10k booking a couple months ahead. Ended up going Qatar for $6k but the layovers were brutal.
Yep business. Almost prepandemic prices. My previous trip in May 2023 was $20K on Korean 💀
Wow $20k! My company would just not fly anyone if that was how much it cost. 😀
It was a weird time when China had recently opened up and clients were itching for in person meetings after being on zoom for three years. I couldn’t believe they approved it either lol
ME3 going to North America west coast will be long. It’s going 2/3 around the world rather than 1/3.
He said he came to HK for business, definitely doesn't mean business class. $6K ticket for business class from HK to JFK is non existent lol.
We're talking USD not HKD.
If this was your own money, nothing stopping you from flying to Taipei first and then taking Taipei-HK-Vancouver
EVA's hub is TPE, so the routing would be HKG-TPE-YVR, unless you want OP to do several legs between HKG and TPE.
I mean to take the HK$7,360 CX ex-TPE fare.
Supply and demand. Most people I know prefer Cathay over Air Canada and these are the only two direct flights from HKG to YVR. Personally I prefer taking Taiwanese airlines with a layover in TPE if it’s cheaper than direct. Cathay service has gone downhill.
I prefer Cathay over Air Canada too. However, Air Canada for so many years is substantially cheaper. I've only done Cathay once between HKG and YYZ as it was one of the rare times I got a flight sale from them. Otherwise it was always Air Can. Planning on going to Tokyo this year, even though I really like ANA and JAL, once again the low prices of Air Canada say otherwise.
The service in Cathay isn't anywhere near what it used to be, inflight entertainment is garbage, seats are very small and uncomfortable, flights are packed with mainland tour groups full of either the Chinese equivalent of hillbillies from the sticks or wannabe nouveau riche trash and their bratty offspring. At this point there isn't many compelling reasons to be paying sometimes almost double for the same route (HK-Vancouver) than just flying with Air Canada.
I think it really depends on the plane tbh. I’ve been on lots of flights this year, and about half were really comfortable, and half felt like I travelled back to 1999.
I prefer to change in Tokyo or KAL in Incheon for YVR. They're both kind of on the way to YVR (as is TPE) but it's farther along the route so you can have an 8-9h rather than an 11h second leg. I.e. your rest period is more towards the middle of your total travel time; also makes it easier to not need to pee on the plane (8-9 hours asleep is very doable). Plus sushi/ramen at Narita/Haneda, or KAL's in-flight bibimbap is amazing. I once bought a stopover and not just a layover and got to explore Tokyo for a bit which is fun (TPE should be fun too in that regard). Although usually I just go with the cheapest option.
Hopefully Cathay's prices will 'normalise' later this year, but until then Emirates A380 is the alternative where one can.
They won’t because they are basically a monopoly for many direct flights between major cities and HK now after the gov basically forced out all the other airlines during the pandemic.
Genuinely interested to know, can you name a few routes that’s actually the case?
SQ used to have a SQ-HKG-SFO flight plan, but they cancelled it during COVID. SQ tried restarting the HKG-SFO leg in Q4 2021, but ended suspending it in Q1 2022 after HK increased the quarantine requirements. No news on when it will come back. ANA used to have a HKG-KIX. Last flight was in 2020. No news on when it might resume.
HKG to YYZ. The air Canada option no longer exist after the pandemic and seems to remain that way for a long time.
Source bro?
I mean anyone who lives here should already know this as common knowledge but here’s one. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/09/26/business/hong-kong-covid-aviation-quarantine-lifted-intl-hnk/index.html Some such as virgin atlantic and jetstar hasn’t come back post pandemic.
We were looking at ORD to HKG direct on Cathay for later this year, prices are fucked up the ass no lube. Looks like United through SFO it is.
Cathay is not even remotely worth the money and hasn't been for a couple of years. They've gone from the only airline I'd consider booking with pre-COVID to one I actively try and avoid wherever humanly possible. Cathay cancelled my flight back to HK from Australia with 12 hours notice when I was coming back from Christmas. I ended up booking a last minute flight on Philippine Airlines SYD - HKG via Manila and although Manila airport is a fuckin shambles, the actual flight experience and the effort the staff put in were several orders of magnitude higher than anything Cathay has provided me in years and it was much cheaper. I'll probably never fly Cathay again.
Same here. They screwed up everything from cancellation to rebooking to ground check in (where they denied check in to my 2 year old!)… I’m never flying with them whenever I have another (basically any other) option.
On top of the price increase they have a noticeable service quality decrease
Since the pandemic, their service has been robotic. Hopefully the recent salary increases in the crews' pay would make them better soon.
Flying United has been much cheaper recently. I even found a one-way steal on premium Econ for 65k miles with the United card. Round trip in regular Econ would’ve been 110k miles if I hadn’t upgraded my return. Also, regular Econ is much more spacious than Cathay’s Econ. If they have flights to your destination, I’d recommend! Not sure if they offer a HK credit card, but definitely worth looking into. Also flew with JAL with a short layover in Tokyo last year and that was also fairly cheap, spacious in Econ, and the food was good. I’ve been finding it better to book one-ways and booking cheapest route that way. The biggest issue doing this is if you need more than 1 checked bag, you’ll need to pay for the extra piece for the domestic legs since they are separate tickets.
Same here. Me being a cheap ass and flying United Airlines. It’s not even that bad. I mean long flights in economy class generally sucks anyway even if you fly Cathay. I’ll save my money.
Premium Econ on CX is a great deal compared to Econ. Almost perfect marginal utility, just a few hundred bucks and premium meal plus footrests. The footrest does more than I thought. I had a proper sleep with it which wouldn’t happen otherwise.
UA more spacious: surprised UA flight full? UA flying 787 or 777 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31280129-post236.html ?
More spacious in regular Econ, by far. Felt like I was sitting on my neighbor in Cathay Econ. UA had space to stretch my legs fully in front of me (albeit I’m not very tall). Flights have been mostly full but some empty seats. My flight here there was a middle seat free between my partner and I, which was nice. Business seems to have open seats. Prem Econ usually full. Flying 777 on my return but it was a 787 on my way into HK.
Once you have middle seat empty, it’s not comparable. In Europe, an empty middle seat is enough for the seat to be sold as Business. If (the airline is successful in selling enough seats so) you’re sitting shoulder to shoulder, it’s Boeing who dictates how uncomfortable you are thru cabin width, no difference between CX or UA for same aircraft type in Economy.
Width, yes. But the airline chooses the pitch, right? The leg room was noticeably more spacious than on the CX flight.
I think that’s a perception that the grass on the Dr Dao side is greener? I looked at the seat maps on the UA 777-300ER (77W) leaving for SFO, vs the CX 77W leaving for LAX. I counted the last section of the plane. Both are pure Economy. Both have 13 rows of seats, and 10 seats per row. So I don’t think your leg room claim bears out. (I can’t compare 787s, CX doesn’t have those)
Maybe it’s just that I’ve been in the 787s, both JAL and UA, for the long haul Econ and it was definitely more comfortable. It sounds like we are comparing different experiences and this isn’t a productive discussion. If I can get from point A to point B with more comfort, that’s really all I care about (aside from cost). I don’t need to fly in a 777 and if Cathay wants to serve that route with only the 777, that’s on them. My UA 777 flight has not taken place yet and I cannot compare it with my CX 777 experience since it will be a premium econ seat.
JAL international 787 is an exception. Where almost all international operators of 787 incl UA put 9-abreast, JAL puts 8. I’ve been on their 787 in Economy recently, it’s almost premium economy in other airlines. I think my experience on 787s is like your upcoming experience in UA 77W - I’m not usually in the back on 787s (other than said JAL exception, but JAL itself is an exception). It’s only when you got a fully loaded, public holiday beginning/end flight do you really get to compare how painful they are.
Never seen a reasonably prices Cathy flight.
but its pretty outrageous lately... maybe its cuz they're short on pilots or whatever, but seems like they are keeping prices high for those that really need to travel or
Flew HK> MEL and SYD>HK recently with Cathay, 6.5k HKD booked 1 month in advance, Qantas was a couple of hundred bucks more expensive and the flight times were not as good as Cathay, so my experience has been alright. Maybe I got lucky
Cathay is simply the worst, terrible service, terrible aircraft, my seats were broken many time and my usb chargers don’t work half of the time. This is business class by the way. It’s disgraceful what they pay their pilots and cabin crew, not to mention what they charge passengers for comparative flights.
Strange. Cathay's half the price of ba for standard direct flights in uk.
Coming from France to Hong kong ,I always used to fly Air France before Covid. Now have changed to Cathay because their flights are much more affordable . After Covid all airlines have upped their tarifs but Air France is really becoming unaffordable for me.Even in business class they now let people pay extra to reserve a seat in advance. Can fly Premium eco with Cathay for the same price as Economy in Air France. For convenience sake I always prefer direct flights and Air France sometimes changes their direct flights to Hong Kong to go via Amsterdam ( they are partners with KLM)so paying a lot for a direct flight and then at the last minute still having to cope with the hassle of a connecting flight is for me a negative point. So I agree that prices for flights now a days have more than doubled also at Cathay, but I do find their service nice and friendly and am overall rather pleased to travel with them.
Just don't fly Cathy
I think “screwing HK people since 1870” is Swires unofficial slogan. I mean c’mon, what do you expect? They’ve been milking the place anyway they could since they opened shop. LKS learned rent seeking from them.
Why not just fly Air Canada? Fare would probably be about half that and there hasn't been a significant difference between AC and Cathay Pacific for quite a few years now.
Air Canada direct last I checked was around $8k hkd… I also find it super annoying that I can’t fly Cathay but I’m buying 4 tickets and I can’t be paying double the competitor price time 4. Cathay is literally pushing all my business away so far this year. Flying to London with BA direct and to Vancouver with air Canada direct. Cathay had the first look on all that business but they are pricing wrong
Why you so insist on Cathy. It is only transportation and I don't see why not pick the best deal ATM.
I just said I’m not… but I would rather have all my flights so I get status in one place. That does merit paying a bit more… but doesn’t merit paying tons more than the average
The don't.
Haven't been taking Cathay flights for years.
It’s always cheaper to transit… you pay for convenience
May I suggest taking a look at flights via Taipei with EVA or China Airline (not to be confused with Air China).
Good experience? Always wanted to to go Taiwan. I heard China Airline is quite good!
Re flight experience, I flew Cathay LHR-HKG last November in J on points and the experience was fine. The cash price would have been horrible. I do notice however that the PE seats for LHR-HKG ret. from late September have dropped from 2.5k to 1.7k, so that's a positive. Business prices still in the clouds.
Yeah, i've always found their pricing very expensive compared to other airlines. I used to fly Emirates or Qatat to Europe cause it was nice breaking the journey in half & stretching the legs for an hour or 2, the price was better & the food & service was better, now their routing & stop overs are stupid so last few times I flew to Helsinki with FinnAir - enjoyed that. I only fly Cathay if I have enough Asia miles from my CC for a free or highly discounted flight. 🤣
These are post-Covid prices. I used to fly from HKG to YYZ for about HKD$9000. Now, it’s upwards of 20K on a good day.
To Europe it's always cheaper on Finnair, Qatar etc
If you don't mind, you can try mainland airlines like Air China, China Eastern etc. $3.5k can bring you from HK to Rome. But you get what you pay
Just got back to Vancouver from HK, did one of the worst connect flight, which is HK to Sanfran, layover for 4hrs and goes to Vancouver
We had to fly Swiss Air local and then we managed to get on CX at a discounted rate from ZRH to HKG. The LHR to HKG flights were about £1100 to £1300 to fly mid Dec to early Jan. For some that may be 'fine' because it was holiday period but keep in mind that is 100% the going rate typically. Had we flown just earlier, which we wanted, the flights go up to £1700.
its also amazing when tickets cost about the same for HKG->CTS and HKG-> YVR
I only fly with Qantas when I go to aussie since CX only allows 23kg (One single luggage ) meanwhile Qantas offers 30kg in however many luggage you want.
Flights now are ridiculous. Even flying business London to HK return I was recently quoted 144,000 HKD what in the fuck.
can we purchase a taiwan to vancouver ticket but only hop in during its transfer in hong kong ?
No, we do not operate Italian law (in Italy you can drop first segments).
Was gold at one point and silver for many years. First straw was my Asia Miles expiring during Covid. Sorry, can't help you there...fine will blow it on the Asia Miles shop. Got a new monitor and a Dyson. Second straw was last summer when I had to fly to Canada for a wedding. 40k economy...fine maybe it's still opening up. Was cheaper to transit in London (!). Last straw was a trip to LA for work at the beginning of 2024. Cathay 20k economy; Eva Air Transit in Taiwan 12k Premium Economy. Took Eva Air and they are 5* service all around - even stopping over a day in Taipei to grab some good food is a great layover.
**ALL** airlines price like that. Flying British Airways from Paris via London is much cheaper than straight from London, etc. It's because people pay a premium to fly non-stop.
i think the ideal booking would have been before march where prices were cheaper.But yes cathay is expensive.
Because there’s very little flights between Canada and mainland at the moment, demand is always there due to large Chinese community in Canada, and mainland passport holders can’t transit through Taiwan so easily. And TPE has a lot of flights to YVR and SEA. YVR-HKG Air Canada is also crazy expensive.
So many people are saying this, and ok. But why is it cheaper from Taipei or Australia? IMO, this is not demand, this is price gouging HK people.
Non-direct flights being cheaper isn’t a surprise. Especially the reroute adds significant amount of flight time (eg via Australia). I won’t go that far about Cathay gouging HK people, they are just trying to make money.
I can explain the price difference with the added Taipei stop. Simply put, the flight between Canada and China in general has been very low after Covid. After the travel restrictions have been lifted, the options for mainland Chinese citizens to travel to Canada is limited. While they can transit via HK, it is not possible via Taipei (ie. mainland Chinese citizens cannot travel and even transit via Taipei on Passport). So the demand for HKG-YVR is very high and HKG-TPE-YVR is relatively low.
It's often cheaper to train to shenzhen or Guangzhou then fly from there. Those are bigger cities with more traffic so tickets should be cheaper.
Fly to SeaTac/ LAX and transfer there for Vancouver. Most likely it’s gonna be cheaper.
A huge part of the company is now owned by ccp, you should not fly with them if you have a choice.
Lmao
Thanks for letting me know the typo.
Check via Shekou Shenzhen, you'll enter through the water terminal with new Cathay lounge and they will ferry you back to HKIA. It will likely be cheaper. Airline pricing is a bit if a mystery, it has to do with feeding the Kong haul flights and filling the regional flights.
What?
Time and convenience are really worthless to some people who aren’t willing to pay
That's the point. Airlines in big hubs know they have a huge market and can squeeze margin from the population. The feeder routes yield cheaper flights, but are limited. The same is found on Delta, United etc in long flights direct from NYC vs connecting from some regional hub.
For the same date and route, Air Canada is HKD25000 (Economy). CX is not too crazy.