Cathay Pacific Has Cut Several Flight Routes Due to Decreased Demand Given the Ongoing Protests in Hong Kong. Passenger traffic declined over 11% in August 2019, over August 2018, and there was a 38% drop in inbound passengers to Hong Kong.
Here are changes the airline is making. There are some schedule changes around Christmas and New Year's, so double check any existing Cathay Pacific flight reservations.
From/To Hong Kong
- New York JFK: Effective 10/29/19, 3 of 7 weekly CX846 HKG-JFK and CX845 JFK-HKG flights cut. CX846 flights on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and CX845 flights on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays are the ones cancelled.
- Dublin (4x weekly): Suspended from October 27, 2019; will return in summer 2020
- Paris CDG: Effective 10/27/19, CX279 12:35pm HKG-CDG and CX279 9:10pm CDG-HKG flights cut
- Vancouver YVR: Effective 10/29/19, all 3 weekly CX856 HKG-YVR and CX855 flights cut
- Frankfurt FRA: Effective 11/1/19, all 3 weekly CX283 HKG-FRA and CX282 FRA-HKG flights cut
Even apart from the above, other Cathay routes may be cancelled on select dates during the winter. Cathay Dragon is also cutting some routes between Hong and Beijing, Hong Kong and Medan Kuala Namu, and Hong Kong and Tokyo Haneda.
Also note that Cathay Pacific's YVR-JFK route is being cut effective March 29, 2020.
What to Do if Your Flight is Cancelled
Everyone traveling on Cathay Pacific this winter and spring should monitor their flight(s), in case of cancellation. If you booked directly with Cathay Pacific or used Asia Miles, you can contact Cathay or Asia Miles directly.
But if you booked an award ticket with a partner, such as American AAdvantage, British Airways Executive Club, or Alaska Mileage Plan, you'll need to contact the mileage program you booked with.
For a TravelSort Award Booking Client who was on a flight that was cancelled, their HKG-JFK Cathay Pacific First Class flight was moved to HKG-EWR in Business Class–obviously not what the client wanted. I contacted British Airways Executive Club, where the first agent I spoke with took a cursory glance and claimed “Oh, it's just a few minutes later,” while failing to notice the change in both the destination airport and the class of service.
I then spoke with a supervisor, who was able to change the client to an earlier first class flight, even though there was no award space showing. If the first agent you speak with doesn't seem to know what they're doing, either politely ask to speak to a supervisor or excuse yourself from the call and call back, until you get a more competent agent. Each airline mileage program generally has a liaison with a partner airline, and that liaison can open up award space on another flight, even if there are no longer award seats, in cases such as this where the airline has unilaterally cancelled certain flights.
The above was with British Airways Executive Club, which was able to take care of this over the weekend in real time. In another case, a client had a Cathay Pacific Business Class award flight booked with Alaska Mileage Plan miles, and we're still awaiting resolution on that one, since those at Alaska who liaise with Cathay only work on weekdays, so the request only got sent out Monday morning Pacific time. Be prepared to wait longer for a resolution if your ticket is booked using Alaska miles.
Have you been affected by Cathay Pacific's route cuts and cancellations?
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