Cathay Pacific has just announced some special fares from Bangkok to China, Taiwan and Japan. Tickets must be purchased prior to 3 April for travel between 1 July and 30 September. Flights can be on Cathay Pacific or a combination of Cathay and Dragonair. There are blackout dates on 19/20 July and 9/10 August.

 

Sample fares are –

 

Bangkok/Beijing – Bt. 6,400

Bangkok/Chengdu – Bt. 5,900

Bangkok/Chongching – Bt. 5,900

Bangkok/Guilin – Bt. 5,900

Bangkok/Shanghai – Bt. 6,400

Bangkok Taipei – Bt. 5,900

Bangkok/Tokyo – Bt. 9,200

Bangkok/Xi’an – Bt. 5,900

 

Note that not all flights offer the special fares and seats are inevitably limited. Also, the above prices exclude taxes and surcharges. Since there is a plane change required in Hong Kong, these are higher than on non-stops. From a quick check, they are generally between Bt. 4,600 and Bt. 5,460. Even so, the total fares still seem an excellent deal.

 

The full list of destinations can be found here –

 

http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_TH/offerspromotions/offerslanding?refID=4e21f81f1c749310VgnVCM1000000ad21c39____&cm_mmc=CXPECIALS-TH-_-SALES-GS-BKKJPCN-26MAR13-_-CXLP-HS-_-GS1287606

I like Cathay Pacific. They use to do an all Asia pass for many cities that was a great deal. I have friends that did it and raved about seeing all of Asia at very reasonable rates.

CX has been one of the handful of Skytrax 5-star carriers for quite a few years. It used to be a fantastic airline, but in recent years - like many others - it has trimmed costs to the point where the service is no longer as good as before. Specifically, some years ago the decisions on the seats in economy and business class came in for huge criticism. The economy seats were a shell type with no recline. Instead, the whole seat moved forward a little. End result: if you are over 5'10" or thereabouts your knees hit the shell in front. I have rarely seen economy seating come in for such a public hammering. As a result, the airline is replacing them sooner than expected. But I have no idea when the entire fleet will be completed.

 

The herring-bone layout of its first flat-bed business class seats (like Virgin Atlantic) were criticised because they were too narrow, you could not hold any conversation with neighbours (lousy for two travelling together!) and the fact that those by the windows faced away from the window. So you had to twist your neck 90 degrees to see out. Perfectly ridiculous! These are also being replaced with what I am told is a much more comfortable seat in a friendlier layout.

 

But sooner or later CX will have to do something about its regional business class pricing. Until half a dozen or so years ago, many regional flights used the same aircraft as long haul - so there was tons of space and great seats. Now, it has planes used exclusively on regional routes with a business class that is effectively not much of an improvement on long haul premium economy. Yet it still charges extortionate prices. End result: on routes with a lot of competition, it has been forced to make major reductions through special fares.

 

I fully accept that passengers don't need acres of space on short flights, but when to a certain extent you have some competition on the BKK /HKG route, for example, with airlines like Emirates and Royal Jordanian which have flat-bed or angled-flat seating, superior menus and wines and cheaper prices, you need to fight to maintain market share. I used to do almost all my short-haul travel on CX. Now I won't even consider its business class any more as I prefer to save the cash and travel economy.

 

Who'd run an airline!!