HK$109 surcharge for Cathay and Dragonair passengers
 

You gotta love it. A few rogue incompetents cost the airline billions and the entire passenger network gets to pay the price. Great PR. Another question: will this be added to our staff travel costs ? (which we all know are one of the best deals in the industry :ugh:

But I thought betting the wrong way of a fuel hedge was a good thing?

In CX bizzaro world it is....

In all honesty you could not make this sh��t up. Do they not realise punters vote with their feet ? Frankly surprised the Swires ( not known for the avuncular approach -witness DT's overnight departure ) have tolerated this level of incompetence for so long.

Don't worry it will come back to us in our profit share! :ok:

Unbelievable incompetence . This will drive previously loyal passengers to sample other airlines , who knows, they may well find that the opposition is as good and probably better than the very average product they are currently getting .
Management screw up and your customers get to pay . This is how not to run a business

At the end of the day, the fare paid by the "open-market" normal passenger who can shop around but still decides to fly with CX will hardly change as normal competitive pressure will reduce the base fare to match the fuel surcharge increase. Their variable surcharge amount depending on location seems to have (mostly) considered this already.

Where, however, the passenger does not have the ability to shop around, then the cost will increase - a few groups come to mind: A) the pax who may be locked in by some existing/overarching corporate arrangement/deal (and even here, this will get resolved at the next round of negotiations), B) pax using Asia Miles to redeem tickets, and C) CX staff travelers

There would also appear to be some tax/accounting driver in only applying the fuel surhcarge to incoming flight sectors (not only that perhaps HKCAD would not approve it ex-HKG) - the labyrinth art of tax minimization used by all international airlines.

Wow..is this for real ?

Fuel prices have gone down so we are going to charge you more for fuel ?!!?

There's got to be a better way of presenting this (i.e. due to inbound delays, blah blah blah--which is kind of true). Or simply slowly hike prices.

Has anyone told the powers that be that the passengers do not work for them ?

Embarrassingly Pathetic. Pure incompetence from our wanna be airline manager monkeys. As a passenger, I would boycott CX on principle regardless of the ticket price difference. Notice how the surcharge only affects inbound traffic from unsuspecting foreigners. Pure price gouging! And racism? I sure hope this doesn't make the press elsewhere. Passengers will vote with their feet. It's not like they don't have options on other airlines for travel to HK.

Well, if I was the competition, I know exactly what my new media message to the public would be. I cannot believe how far this airline has fallen. But they still think they are geniuses :ugh:

Pathetic... It's one thing to make such a monumental mistake with the hedge, but to make the pax pay for it so blatantly. Total PR failure.
Can someone please fire our management?
Just nuke it from orbit.

A literal passing of the buck :ugh:

Might be great for staff travel , loads of seats available

This is just embarrassing...I'm cringing at the incompetence shown recently. OMG will someone please just stand up and say...

'We f&*%ed up!'

it's no-ones fault accept our own and we will wear the consequences without shafting you - our loyal customers and most importantly our valuable staff members.

I'm surprised (not) the CAD allowed the surcharge.

Other airlines should simply do the same they might at well profit of CXs incompetence.

Speechless. We cause a monumental blow-up of our own balance sheet, then we wheel out a clueless CEO to explain that the reason why is actually a "good thing", then to put the cherry on top of the sundae, we institute an arbitrary passenger surcharge, just to show how much we respect and value our loyal customers. Do any of these people understand just how ridiculous and lacking in credibility they appear? We risk the inevitable downfall of this airline if there are not serious changes made to the management, and their philosophies. What a sad state of affairs.

I agree with Bubba. We should be opening CX World magazine reading a lengthy apology from Ivan. He should go on to say how management has voted unanimously to forego any bonus for 2 years and that one or two of them have been ceremoniously tossed off a cliff up by the big buddha.

Instead, we see every excuse they can think of, without a single mention of that annoying fuel hedge problem.

CAD haven't approved it, it is 'only' for journeys starting outside HK.

So HKG-LON-HKG, no surcharge, LON-HKG-LON surcharge.

God knows what that means for staff travel tickets, as they are one way. I guess HKG-LON, no charge. LON-HKG, charge

It's one thing to be highbrow and arrogant to your own staff because your refuse to admit your own incompetence, but to do it to your customers...

...A tale of unbelievable egos. As Adam Savage put it: "I reject your reality and substitute my own".