I have a plane ticket for Feb-5 from Taipei through Hong Kong to London issued by British Airways. The first part of the flight (TPE > HKG) is operated by Cathay Pacific.
I would like to change the date of the flight to Hong Kong so that I could enjoy HK for a couple of days instead of just two-hour-change at the airport. I called CP where they told me I have to check directly with BA. The BA told me all flights during the Chinese New Year are completely booked by now.
I looked at the CP web page and found out that there are still seats available in their aircrafts even during this particular period.
So I’m asking: Why the BA rejected to change the date? And is there anything like a ‘waiting list’ or ‘notification’ (in case someone would cancel his/her flight)?
Waitin’ lists, sure, but you probably have to go through your travel agent. Only when you buy directly form the airline they will help you.
Travel agents hold the seats probably … no control by the airline, very common …
In my experience, by this time of year basically every flight around Chinese New Year is booked. However, many of those tickets haven’t actually been bought yet - in another couple of weeks there will be a massive wave of cancellations, as people choose the one flight to take, out of the ten they may have booked. That is the time that waiting lists may or may not clear.
But getting yourself on a waiting list? I’ve always had to do that through a travel agent - as far as I’m aware you can’t do it with an airline’s website. Also, often the waiting lists are full and you can’t get on it anyway.
BA probably won’t/ can’t help you because only a limited number of those HKG/TPE seats are allocated to BA, and those seats are full. They can’t use the other available seats.
It’s a royal pain is what it is. I wish getting tickets here were more straightforward - I think every time I’ve flown out of Taiwan, I’ve been on the waiting list at some point, even booking months in advance.
(Note: I was once trying to do something similar to you, staying in Hong Kong for a few days en route to Vancouver on Cathay Pacific. Oddly, I could do this without any hassle when COMING BACK to Taiwan, but if I wanted to do it on the way to Vancouver, it would cost extra. A lot extra.)
There are so many reasons why they can’t do what you wish … code sharing, different priced seats in the same class … etc.
On route you can stop-over, mostly once, sometimes more … but it’s reasonable for CP to have the free stop-over on return flights as they have more control. More flights going to Taiwan as to the States.
Thank you guys. There is one more thing… I didn’t buy the ticket directly from BA but from a travel agent (ebookers.com). So you suggest contact the TA instead of trying to hande this with BA?
Travel agents block book all the flights prior to new year, they lock it up so you have to go through them. The airlines won’t be much help as the tickets are already booked through TAs. Contact one or two TAs, no problem. You don’t have to pay for the ticket until it opens up usually.
I was planing to go to Europe in mid-January.
Had to cancel everything, because it was impossible to return in late January, as from 01/27 to 02/02 everything was full between Hkg and whatever airport in Taiwan. I couldn’t believe it, and I don’t think it is fair, that everything is just blind-booked by travel-agencies - but ok, I just have to accept it …
And besides:
Why are flights from Taiwan always 1/3 higher in price compare to flights departing from Hongkong ?
It seems Taiwan is just a high-price travel destination
[quote=“MoTi”]I was planing to go to Europe in mid-January.
Had to cancel everything, because it was impossible to return in late January, as from 01/27 to 02/02 everything was full between Hkg and whatever airport in Taiwan. I couldn’t believe it, and I don’t think it is fair, that everything is just blind-booked by travel-agencies - but ok, I just have to accept it …
And besides:
Why are flights from Taiwan always 1/3 higher in price compare to flights departing from Hongkong ?
It seems Taiwan is just a high-price travel destination[/quote]
Huge demand from China based Taiwanese …
Taiwan is indeed special … it’s an island, you can’t just drive to a nearby airport as in Europe … you need to take a plane to get off, and greed, gouging … and low competition
[quote=“MoTi”]I was planing to go to Europe in mid-January.
Had to cancel everything, because it was impossible to return in late January, as from 01/27 to 02/02 everything was full between Hkg and whatever airport in Taiwan. I couldn’t believe it, and I don’t think it is fair, that everything is just blind-booked by travel-agencies - but ok, I just have to accept it …[/quote]
Did you have to buy the tickets NOW, and is that why you cancelled? Usually the flights do clear eventually.
Another annoying thing is that I’m half-heartedly looking to book summer vacation flights, and you can’t even do it yet through ezTravel or ezFly. Buying tickets is certainly annoying in this country.
Yeah it’s one area that never really opened up compared to most other countries. There’s a few reasons for this…political, that the two major airlines (EVA/China Air) lock up a lot of the routes, people’s fear of low-cost carriers , acceptance of the status quo through travel agents and group ticket buying, families buying and often older people in charge et. It’s something that’s bugged me for many years but you just have to roll with it. Taiwan is not very open, somethings are cheaper here like electricity, gas, water, services, public services, food, pretty low tax…other things a bit more expensive like air travel. I estimate that living in HK is close to twice as expensive as Taiwan!
As for high prices for air travel until the public at large suddenly wake up to this fact there is nothing to be done…plus Taiwanes don’t get enough holidays at present so the average working Taiwanese and families don’t actually travel a lot overseas.
Tickets are available if you check around, it is definitely possible to get them, it’s usual to wait for a little bit for seats to open up. Now if you wanted to fly around Chinese New Year that’s a different story. There are also plenty of flights through Bankkok with AirAsia/KLM for example.
One experience (End 2009 or start of 2010) with China Airlines: When I had a similar situation (online showed free seats, telephone hot line said everything booked) I was told that some tickets (a certain contingent?) can be booked only online, not through the phone hot line. Not sure about travel agents, though. So if you see the flight you want available online, maybe just buy it and once you have it reserved / approved cancel the old flight that you don’t want?
Airline tickets/classes are a very complex issue … as posted before, lots of tickets are bought by travel agents, some are only sold online, some are sold at air line offices/counters … and kept available accordingly … another link
… and some seats are kept open/not sold because someone booked from let’s say HK or BKK to end destination and airlines don’t like to screw-up your flight, so are actually looking for passengers that go to BKK or HK …