Forced out of overbooked Cathay Pacific business class

Hi all,

Did you get your points back?

I was about to be kicked out of QR business on an award ticket once. I arrived at the airport to be told I was being downgraded. The flight which was always an A330 had been downgraded to an A321 that day and there was a reduced number of J seats.

I had an experience with Qantas out of San Francisco offering me a downgrade form PE with $500 partial refund and a whole row of 4 seats in economy. I declined since the refund would go to my employer and someone would undoubtedly have tried to take one of the other 4 seats after take off and I am not the kind of guy who’d put up a fight to keep the 4. Qantas then offered me a upgrade for the following day and to pay the hotel. I declined that too. I presume they kept offering until someone accepted. That seemed to me to be a good way to manage a downgrade situation.

I'd say $300 for a 90min flight is generous.

Its a reason why I don't fly on award bookings for work. I prefer to pay for J and then use the points for family trips or for surprises trips for friends.

lucky you didnt get dragged off the plane like our american companions

A relative of mine booked for his family 5 business class tickets with Cathay HKG - MEL, they downgraded 3 of them to economy as they overbooked the flight. When he arrived in Melbourne they offered him 6000 AUD in cash and he refused as they wanted him to sign a waiver. He ended up receiving a full refund on the 3 downgraded seats a few weeks later,

There are times when your operating aircraft becomes un

-serviceable and no replacement available . ( it happens) Then i take what i i can get to get home, however if the flight is still operating well, Ive heard of full fares being of loaded depending on the fare , yes they all overbook 5-10% hoping for no shows etc

Cathay have done it to me for F down to J on regional flights on numerous occasions. I've always been given the one way fare difference in cash, you can then refund the actual fare difference on your ticket in $ or points which will get you back anything from something to nothing depending on the fare basis to start!

CX overbook J quite a lot. When you make your booking, ensure you have seat allocated even if it's not your preferred seat as they bump passengers with no seat allocation first. US airlines do the same but make sure you have a seat allocated for all flights where possible.

Was downgraded from J to Y on a silk air flight SIN to Chennai some years back. Initially only offered the fare difference. I pushed a bit and got that, 500 sgd cash, and hotel/transport/meal because I was willing to fly the next morning in back in J. Thought that was quite a win.

Some time ago, I was asked on check-in if I would be willing to downgrade on a CX HKG-CGK flight. I politely declined, collected my J class boarding pass, and proceeded to the lounge. When I arrived at the lounge, they again asked if I would be willing to downgrade, and I said no, saying that there's probably only middle seats in the last row left. They replied I would be have the seat next to me blocked (window seat on an A330, 2-4-2 configuration), and they would still give me the J class meal. The compensation for the downgrade was $7,600 HKD (~$1,000 USD / $1,300 AUD) cash. I happily accepted that offer.

Since you mentioned the story, I was once asked to move away from my window bulkhead seat so that two off-duty pilots of KA can sit together.