Cathay Price Promise - Anyone Used It Successfully?

I want to fly Cathay to Toronto (return), and Skyscanner tells me that the price is about $200 cheaper if I buy from Skiddoo.com.au than if I buy direct from Cathay (exact same flights). I would rather buy direct from the airline itself as they seem to be more inclined to be accommodating (regarding delays, cancellations, re-ticketing etc) if they issued the ticket.

Cathay has a "Price Promise" whereby they will refund the difference if you buy a trip from them and subsequently see it cheaper elsewhere. The trouble is that the Price Promise has about six conditions including a few things that seem impossible for me to check in advance - yes I can make sure that the dates, flights and travellers are the same, but the flights also have to have the same "booking sub-class". I don't want to buy from Cathay, send all the details in only for them to say "Aha, this is booking-sub-class Y which doesn't match our booking sub-class Q and so you can't get a refund".

Ideally I would just like Cathay to match the price (after I've pointed it out to them) and let me buy the ticket at the lower price, which would save everyone a whole lot of work. I sort of feel that if I overpay and then seek the Price Promise refund, then it is in their interest to delay, confuse, obfuscate and generally make it difficult.

But has any OZB person successfully Price Promised with Cathay?

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Comments

  • +1

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they would be different sub-classes. Skiddoo.com.au might be a travel agent and has different sub-class to ones offered on the Cathay website.

    From experience it's sometimes cheaper through travel agents as they usually get 'bulk discounts/pricing' on a particular ticket.

    Hence any changes, cancellations are usually made with the travel agent and not Cathay.

  • I haven't but it seems like they could always argue the point on:

    Booking sub-class
    Booking, fare and cancellation conditions

    … if purchased through a third-party website. I ended up booking my Cathay flights through STA Travel online. They weren't quite the cheapest (though much cheaper than Cathay direct), but they do have physical offices so I figured I could speak to someone face-to-face if there was a serious issue.

  • +2

    I have found Flight Center will price match dodgy online travel agents found through skyscanner etc etc

    • Great idea, hadn't thought of that!

      • FC will price beat by $1 whereas CX will only price match.

        However, the fees are higher if you end up needing to change or cancel your booking if you book via FC rather than directly with CX.

  • Well The Good Guys have a similar price guarantee where they will refund 120% of the difference and I have seen them try to delay, confuse, obfuscate and generally make it difficult.

  • Not sure about Skiddoo.com.au but I seem to remember some travel booking site would show the fare subclass when you get to three confirmation page (or it might be in a pop up / mouse over dialogue box).

    In any case, if all the terms & conditions are the same, then they're likely to be in the same fare subclass.

    If in doubt, you can always ask skiddoo (under tee disguise of trying to work out how many FF points you can get or whether it's eligible for upgrade before you book) or contact CX.

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