Cathay Pacific has been adding Premium Economy seats since early 2012 to its planes over the past months, and has steadily introduced it on the Indian flights as well. To promote the Premium Economy product, they are offering double miles for travel in Premium Economy, wherever the service is available. From India, this was available on the Delhi – Hong Kong route and will be made available on the Mumbai – Hong Kong Route from March 2, 2013 onwards. The Hyderabad &  Chennai flights are also being upgraded.

If you are a new member to the Asia Miles product, you will additionally earn 500 miles to sign on. For this promotion, you need to register, and then book tickets in the Premium Economy classes (ticket fare classes W, R and E). Have a look at the video on Frequently Flying for Cathay Premium Economy.

Premium Economy is available on flights from Hong Kong to and Australia (Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth), Europe (London, Frankfurt, Milan and Paris), India (Delhi), the Middle East (Bahrain, Dubai, and Jeddah), South Africa (Johannesburg), Canada (Toronto and Vancouver) and the US (Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco). This offer will only be available on flights to Milan, Chennai, Abu Dhabi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chicago from the first quarter of 2013.

Free Flights from Mumbai to Asia, if you book Premium Economy by March 10, 2013

Additionally, to celebrate the launch of Premium Economy from Mumbai to Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific is offering a combination fare, where you could book a ticket with Cathay Pacific on their Premium Economy product to go to Hong Kong, and get a further ticket free from Hong Kong to China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, Philippines & Vietnam in Economy, free of cost.

Basically, if you booked on Premium Economy, you’d get the Mumbai-Hong Kong segment in Premium Economy (which also will earn double miles till April 30, 2013), but will include a short haul economy segment later. Take this example to Hanoi, Vietnam below, and the selected flight:

Interesting promotion, since you are, potentially getting a free upgrade to Premium Economy on the BOM-HKG-BOM segment. I checked the prices for BOM-NRT-BOM in Economy and Premium Economy for various dates, and that is how I arrived at this theory, since the prices were the same, and if I checked Premium Economy, I got Premium Economy on BOM-HKG-BOM and Economy on HKG-NRT-HKG.

Here are the salient details:

• Sales period :Till 10 March 2013
• Travel period : 02 March 2013 to 31 December 2013.
• Asian Destinations include online destinations in China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.
• This offer is applicable for travel from Mumbai in Premium Economy class only. Travel between Hong Kong and final destination will be in economy class.
• Under this offer, the FARE or Base Fare will be the same as Mumbai to Hong Kong in Premium Economy class. Passenger will have to pay Taxes, Fees, surcharges and any other airport fees if applicable under this promotion for the selected itinerary.
• The fares detailed in the offer/promotion are subject to availability and offered on a first come, first served basis.
• The limited number of seats for the subject fare allocated to a particular flight may be fully booked although seats are still available in other fare types in the same class of travel.

Related Posts:

• Cathay Pacific to introduce Premium Economy on long haul routes from Q1 2012

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Like we know, Qatar Airways is getting ready to be inducted into the oneworld alliance somewhere late 2013 or early 2014. As a part of this induction, they will be individually cooperating with each member airline to work on a synchronised flight plan to offer connections around the world.

Seems like the work with American is done, and American and Qatar Airways will be good to go live with a Codeshare agreement as of 26 February 2013. As per American Airlines,

The agreement with Qatar will include codesharing on nonstop flights between the U.S. and Doha, flights connecting at the carriers’ European gateways such as Paris and London, and flights to cities in the U.S. and beyond Doha.  Additionally, members of the American Airlines AAdvantage^® program will be able to earn miles on the codeshare flights operated by Qatar Airways, providing another valuable benefit of the relationship.  Customers can begin booking travel on codeshare flights as early as Feb. 10, 2013 for travel beginning Feb. 26, 2013.

As per American Airlines announcement on this, further, non-stop flights will be available between New York JFK, Chicago, Houston, Washington D.C. (IAD) and Qatar Airways’ Doha hub.

A quick peep into the reservation system shows flights were still to be loaded. All searches even to Doha showed up with flights on AA, BA, or EY. I will update the post if things change.

However, this is good news to be able to travel without having to sign up for one more mileage program! AAdvantage members can now earn miles, including qualifying miles for travel on Qatar Airways booked with the AA codeshare. They already have similar arrangements with Etihad, which is one of the other big airlines of the Middle-East.

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First & foremost, let me take the opportunity to wish you all a very happy, healthy and successful 2013.

Now, over to business. Like I mentioned here, I was out trying to make sure I wrap up 2012 on Executive Platinum status on American Airlines. Here was my entire routing, and I started to find my way back on December 30, only to land into Mumbai a shade after midnight on January 1 with the stiff upper-lipped British Airways.

Going to the cold zone for a week, I thought it was prudent to check-in a bag, with some clothes for various circumstances (snow included!). The bag held up pretty well with my pace till it was time for to come back to Mumbai, and last I saw it was when I checked it all the way through on American Airlines at SeaTac airport.

The labyrinth called London Heathrow meant I had to be crossing over from Terminal 3 where American Airlines arrives at, and go all the way to Terminal 5 where only British Airways operates from. My incoming flight, which was going to land 1 hour early, was made to go in circles and eventually arrived 30 minutes in advance. But that was all the time eaten up by the ‘fast-track’ security queue at Heathrow, where almost everyone was there and took me over 30 minutes to clear. My flight was going to take off from some remote gates of Terminal 5, which meant I did not even have time to pop into the British Airways lounges to grab a Shepherd Pie or 2, it was a rush to the gates. I did enquire with a BA agent, who told me my bags had arrived from Dallas Fort Worth, and will be on their way to Mumbai.

Now, the stiff upper-lipped BA, did not bother to put my bag on the flight to Mumbai however. Even though it had a bright flashing Priority tag which sort of sounds useless now. The best part is, the flight from London departed over 20 minutes late, so they had a full extra hour to sort bags and get them going on the plane.

My first time in years of travel that my bag did not arrive with me. But the way British Airways handled it was my complaint area more than anything else. So, there is already a message they received that mine, and several other bags (at least 15 passengers) were not loaded on the plane. They did nothing to announce the names of these passengers at the arrivals hall to tell them. So I waited patiently for over 1 hour for the belt to clean up, and then they start the process. They already had the information, and they did not share it proactively.

They then asked me to fill up a lengthy form, and told me my bags were in London because they were not able to get them on the plane. Further, they had passengers waiting for another 45 minutes while they could engage with the Customs authorities to get us a clearance for BA to deliver the bags to us. As a result, I only got out of the airport at 03:00 AM and went home, while I was supposed to drive to friends’ straight after landing to join them in celebrating the new year.

So much for integration with oneworld. On my way out of LHR, American Airlines held the plane for 45 minutes to ensure that passengers AND their bags which were checked-in with Finnair were on board. And looks like they were more interested in making sure oneworld worked rather than just their airline.

10 hours out, this is what the status on WorldTracer shows up as…no status!

British Airways’ handling of the situation was totally tacky, and just please remind me again that I should not think of using LHR as a transit airport again, and maybe keep off British Airways as much as I can!

Here is hoping you don’t lose a bag this year or ever!

Update: The bag did arrive on Jan 1 into India, and was delivered to me early on 2 Jan. For my troubles, Bloody Awful threw a few miles at me, that is what they felt my time was worth!

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