[Anonymous]

[PPSClubmember]

After sending a “complaint” letter to Cathay Pacific for more than a week, no one has come back to me with an explanation. Anyone has encounter this before with DragonAir or Cathay Pacific?

I was on a connecting flight from Beijing Capital Airport (KA907) to Taipei (CX420) via Hong Kong on January 14, 2009 when this bad experience happened to me. When I boarded KA 907, I realized that my seat 44H is so far from the main door where all will disembark and knowing that KA 907 arrives in Hong Kong at 1345hr while my flight to Taipei (CX 420) will depart at 1435hr, I became concerned since the front rows are almost filled with passenger and will almost take a while before I can make it to the door.

This is the first time I’ve encountered this type of “problem”. And I’ve experience it myself that if I’m on a connecting flight to another destination, the airline will put always you in the first few rows so that when the plane arrives at the airport, there will be sufficient time for the passengers to move to the other boarding gates.

The disappointment is that the airline staff/ ticketing system arranging me to seat at 44H despite knowing that the connecting flight in Hong Kong to Taipei is less than an hour away. I purposely make my way to the airport 3 hours before and arriving at the airport 2 hours before the flight. Thus there’s no reason for me to believe that there’re no other aisle seats available just behind the business class?

On the way from Beijing to Hong Kong, the flight was delayed for 15 minutes due to weather & visibility, what’ll happen to the connecting passengers if the delay gets longer? And upon arriving in Hong Kong airport, there was a long queen of people at the transfer area trying to make their way through. Once we passed the transfer area, we needed to clear the custom again, this time the queue was even longer. We approached one of the staffs to inform her about our departure time & she arranged us to skip the queue & let us pass first.

On top of that, I did not receive my luggage when I arrived in Taipei which caused me another upset. And I’ve to check with the baggage counter to see where my luggage was & was informed that it was on CX 400.

What a day with DragonAir/Cathay Pacific!

I think this experience will dwell in me for a long while.

[OzTraveller]

I really think you only have yourself to blame. I would never allow myself less than 1 hour to transfer anywhere these days, let alone Hong Kong which is a real hub and always busy with transferring passengers.

And you sent a complaint to Cathay a week ago and now you complain you haven’t received a response yet! You may get one in a months time.

Question is however, what were you complaining about? Because you got seat 44H ?

[asteriosozounis]

I’m sorry I have to agree with AlanGuignon. How did you manage to book this short connection flight? HKG airport is massive!!!!!! Now regarding your seat, I have never heard of an airline seating passengers next to the door because of their connecting times. I’ve heard of airlines letting passengers with short connections to disembark first but they only do that if they have large groups onboard. I will suggest you next time to book a flight with plenty of time to connect so you and your bag make it. Your experience is nothing compare to other horror stories.

[StephenLondon]

I’m echoing the above comments, you booked too short a connection. Granted, the airlines do sell this connection, but with CX flights at 15:15 and 15:55 bound from HKG to TPE, you had plenty of choice to pick slightly later connections that would have left you (and your baggage) more time. It is a good lesson, especially given these days for potential flight delays. It is better to wander around HKG airport with a bit of extra time and a whole lot less stress, and turning up with your baggage than it is making too quick a connection.
CX will reply back to you – just give them some time. They have a good customer services department.

[Author]

Posts