I'm a long time Cathay customer and will continue to be but that doesn't mean I like the way they treat customers. The airline is changing and this is about that and due to that the bad experience I experienced with Cathay's customer service manager.
However, other than my specific my present specific complaint I've noticed a general decline in customer service over the past few years. This might be caused by the corporations demands for improved profitability. To this end it seems as though their is a decrease in support staff which might explain the sometimes curt actions by their staff. Though, in fact my flying experience is that the friendly sky's are a thing of the past not only with Cathay and most airlines.
The deteriorating service is something I passed off until a year ago when the hip I damaged while visiting Sai Gon had me in needing a little special attention on my flights back to the states. Oh ya, they gave me priority boarding and arranged for a wheelchair to get through Hong Kong airport but it was a mechanical thing with no compassion. I grumbled quietly to myself about poor me but didn't say anything. Maybe if I had spoken up all would have been different. I was thinking old school air travel when you were treated special even if you weren't a sad half crippled person such as myself but it takes more than a subtle expression to get what you want.
Last month on my latest return from Saigon it all came to a head, not on the plane but at their ticketing office in Sa Gon, over the phone and ended with e-mail with Racheal Barretto, "Customer Relations Executive". This was all over my attempt to change my return city from Bangkok to Sai Gon. I had done this many times in the past, though it required a penalty charge, which I was OK with but this time it seemed the only way was to toss my return ticket and buy a new one but nodody acually suggested that. From my start in person at Cathay's ticket office in Sai Gon to ending in terse e-mails from the Customer Relations Executive. Guess all this would have been easier to stomach if I would have been given a solid reason or some options. For this ticket I had used my miles to upgrade to economy deluxe but what difference should that make. Anyway, It was the same flight from the Hong Kong to SFO but just a different departing city from the original ticket.
The reason I wanted to change was that I was having trouble getting around on my recently rebuilt leg but all I got was changing a ticket was against Cathay policy and not in so many words, now please go away.
Just wanted to share this as I still believe Cathay is good to fly with but wanted to get the warning out that you need to make sure you're up on their policy's before hopping aboard. Kinda like the motorbike or tuk-tuk guy where you need to discuss everything and agree before you pillion.
