CX economy flights: Ridiculous pricing

[sydsam]

So I tried to book a flight on CX to Sydney, and for a one way economy ticket in Aug, it is showing up on skyscanner as 38k HKD ONE WAY! Tried again for December and its $26k one way, and around 25k return. Does anyone know what is going on or have inside tips as such prices are astronomical.

[Khoisan-X]

Use a travel agent based in Hong Kong, they need the business and will be most competent in supplying you with proper solutions.

And if things go awry with flight cancellations/amendments prior to your departure (and they will, especially to Aus which has a quota per flight - hence the high prices) then you have some actual informed assistance instead of having to talk to a tin voice on the airline support line whom does not care about your misfortune.

[etienne43]

The fare is very expensive as first there are very limited flights to go in Australia so the demand is very high and second as every flight is limited in number of passengers due to the Australian government limits for the daily numbers or returned citizens.

[sydsam]

there are no other airlines flying to Australia it seems except CX, however $5k AUD for an economy ticket is extortion. I wasnt sure if it was a pricing error or if CX have not finalised their schedule as yet for the remainder of the year etc.

[sydsam]

do you know of particular agents? I usually book everything myself online.

[shri]

Check via Malaysia - no clue how it works in reality and if the google matrix thingy is using current "covid" fares, schedules and routing.

[sydsam]

Would absolutely avoid booking with Malaysian. My experience: I booked a biz ticket, they cancelled the first leg HKG - KLIA, had no alternative flights, cancelled my ticket and refused to refund the fare even though they promised they would (without giving any time indication). 7 mo later, best to consider the money stolen

[shri]

Then wait for schedules to normalize. I don't remember when quantas said that they'd start flying internationally etc ...

[er2]

Use a travel agent based in Hong Kong, they need the business and will be most competent in supplying you with proper solutions.

And if things go awry with flight cancellations/amendments prior to your departure (and they will, especially to Aus which has a quota per flight - hence the high prices) then you have some actual informed assistance instead of having to talk to a tin voice on the airline support line whom does not care about your misfortune.

Lol. As if any travel agent actually did more these days than typing your request into an airline form.

I’ve traveled for seven years for work and I have yet to find a single instance where a corporate agent actually saved me time or money. Best of the pack was Amex who at least did not get into my way. Ludicrous advise.

OP - Right now, people flying to Oz aren’t price sensitive but sensitive to whether or not the Australian government actually lets them in. As a result, CX had blocked any but their highest far buckets. Sucks, but was there ever a period in history where Swire had the opportunity to extort money from someone and didn’t take it?

[bdw]

Skyscanner et al have always shown ridiculous pricing even way before COVID, they just sorted the options nicely and put all the reasonable options on the first page, then when you scroll down a bit you saw all the crazy "fuck off" options underneath. Now there are no good options, or rather they are very scarce, there is no demand, there is no supply. So now when you jump onto a website and do a search, all you see are the crazy fuck off options. You'll have to work much harder now than you did before to arrange your flight.