CX Other Airline Staff Travel: Premium Economy?
 

Greetings everyone.

I was curious if anyone knows the policy at CX for handling other airline staff travel on a flight that has no available seats in Economy, but availability in Premium Economy. We are only an Economy ticketed agreement, and our agreement details mention nothing of eligibility for Premium Economy. Just curious what your experience, understanding of this scenario would be.

Cheers!

Barnoon,

l flew on CX from Sydney as l work for Qantas and was givin a Premium Economy seat after all economy seats where givin out to passengers(staff) on standby. l was the last staff member to get a ticket and it ended up being a premium ticket.
it was unexpected but l definatly didnt argue about it.

Our outports are usually friendlier than the Hong Kong port. Not sure you would get the same treatment if you were flying out of HKG. I hope I'm wrong.

So let me get this straight, CX upgraded a QF staff member whilst leaving CX staff in Y..........

Only in CX would this happen...:D

With respect to our friends at QF :ok:

Thanks for the reply's so far everyone. We had a hell of an experience last month getting in and out of BKK/HKG/TPE. I understand that CX policy is to not upgrade into premium cabins, as we were left behind on a few flights that had premium seats. But I really didn't expect getting upgraded to business class as those were the only seats that went out open. However none of those flights had premium economy. So I guess it might be worth giving NRT-HKG a shot in a few days that has according to my friend at CX has wide open Economy plus but no Economy.

As far as the comments for HKG agents goes, holy hell guys! You all are an incredibly patient bunch. I tip my hat to you guys that deal with that cluster of an operation known as Counter A in HKG. I still wake up in cold sweats thinking about our several hours spent there!

Thanks again for your help!

Apparently BA has the best staff check-in and they too will A. Upgrade non BA staff and B. Not treat staff like something you stepped in.

Barnoon - no chance of upgrade in HKG

SMOC - absolutely agree, BA in general treat non-BA staff the best

I even ended up on a crew seat in the cabin on a BA flight once as they were trying their hardest to get all staff on!

BA are great. Common sense, politeness and humour seem to be their forte.
A real shame our clowns couldn't go there for some training.:mad:

Rather than subject myself and my Family to CX and their (our) Staff Travel, I'd rather (a) not bother or (b) go with another carrier (ie BA who are simply excellent) or (c) Pay for a ticket (definitely not on CX now). Nice to feel wanted. Thanks Bob N and 'Director People'.
Mates in BA are genuinely shocked when I try to explain 'The System'

Indeed, what a sad state of affairs at CX.

I know that if/when BN and his 'department of people' were to ask me for a jumpseat or to find a reason to help them out in anyway.. they can get stuffed. I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire.

With a young child travelling you're banished to economy anyway, so I wouldn't bother with Cathay Pathetic anyway, just give EK or BA the business, and we do it full fare to boot most of the time!

I absolutely agree BA is one of the better experiences for other airline travel. I figure we will give a go at the 16:55 NRT-HKG that only has premium, hope for the best and if not the 18:00 flight supposedly is wide open.

Final question from me regarding this matter. Arriving NRT on United Terminal 1. If we took the transfer bus to Terminal 2 and showed up at the gate to check in would they snarl and tell us we need to check in at the ticket counter? We tried to do the transfer desk in HKG last month and they were furious that we even asked to try and check in there instead of clear customs/immigration and do the ticket counter song and dance. Would rather not waste any time if you all think a gate check in would result in the same response.

Thanks again everyone!

I think the Japanese would be helpful. If anything they will appologise and ask you to clear customs. They will do this with tears in their eyes and a great sense of shame. They very nice people! :ok:

Agree. Japan is the only first world nation in the region, and it has some of the most polite and hard working people in the world.

In Japan you must use the check in desk. You will not be able to short cut the normal procedure.

I am a retired BA staff member, and used a BA staff ticket on a CX flight from HKG to BKK six months ago. I did not get on the first flight that I was listed for, then assumed I would not get on the second flight as they had already called what I assume were all CX staff and given out boarding cards. Around 5 minutes later they called me and I was given a boarding card for Business Class.

Aisle A team do try hard!
 

I think you guys are putting your own team down too much. I too am retired BA and always travel LHR/HKG [BA] and HKG-JKT [CX]. the schedules are such that there is 90 mins connecting time! tight to clear customs and make the dash to aisle A with bags before the cut off [published as 120mins!].

I have always been treated courteously, sometimes abrupt, but never rudely, as always in a dash.... They have always tried to get me on - in economy - even at -39mins! Carry on the good work!

BA system is automatically geared for staff - auto sms text telling when you accepted - just values staff as an asset, and treats them accordingly.

Thanks for the info guys! Really appreciate it. I suppose we will just rally on through customs and transfer over instead of trying to take the short cut!

Cheers!

Hong kong is by far the worse place for staff travel..just a bunch of c:mad: at the counters..

A few weeks ago I gave my friend J1. He was waiting at the stby counter waiting for the boarding pass. When I arrived on the flight deck, I told the traffic guy to release the jump seats. A few minutes later he comes back telling me that there are no jump seat passengers. I then tell him that there is someone standing infront of the counter waiting for J1. The stby counter then tries to tell me that I did not release the seat! When I told them that they must stop the BS and get the Jump seat pax on, the finally sorted it out.
Im sorry but they are good at times and terrible at other times.