Cathay Pacific Airlines

I cancelled my ticket ($1,250) well in advance on Dec. 13th. However, since my departure city was a foreign city, they said that my refund would take 4-6 weeks as opposed to the usual 48 hours or so for regular domestic departure tickets. I didn't have a choice so I waited patiently. 4 weeks passed and there is no sign of any refund. I called the EService no. just to make sure they had at least started the refund process. But I got told that the accounts department handles refunds and that there is no way to get a hold of them, so to wait patiently till the 6th week. I was a little mad but again, I had no choice, so I waited patiently for another couple of weeks. 6th week came and I still have no refund.

By now, I'm starting to wonder if they forgot about my refund. So, I called them. It's always so difficult to get a hold of an E-service rep. The wait time is a minimum of 30 minutes. It is absolutely ridiculous. In any case I managed to get a hold of someone and to my dismay, I was told that the refund "looks" like it is in process, but to continue to wait a couple of more weeks. Can you believe it? They have the nerve to tell me to step back and wait some more as if 6 weeks wasn't bad enough of a wait. This is now the 8th week and I am extremely frustrated. I don't know who to call but I am pondering calling my lawyer friend to resolve this matter. I mean this is complete day light robbery!

Today, January 31, 2012, I booked 2 round trip tickets from Cathay Pacific's official website: **. But the thing is I can't receive any confirmation email after successfully paying via credit card. I tried to dial their local hotline **, and the agent there only offered me another number (**) for further query. I tried to dial this number over and over again, just busy and busy. I even tried more than 4 hours.

I fully understand Cathay Pacific have different departments to focus on various business, but I'm just a consumer who plans to take off 3 days later. If I can not receive a confirmation email within 3 days and it's impossible to dial in their all-time busy hotline, who will take care of me to make me arrive at my destination on time? I hope someone in-charge can give me a helping hand. Much appreciated.

On 19 Dec at 1825H, I should have traveled to Hongkong on CX507. I have completed the check-in procedure three hours before the flight's departure time and kept waiting at the Kansai Airport. However as I was not feeling well and I keep vomiting, I could not arrive at the gate on time. When I finished the security check at the custom at 1815H, the custom official stopped us from passing through the custom and called CX staff. A lady from CX came to us and told us we could not get onto the flight as we were too late.

I understand this is my fault that I could not get to the gate earlier before the departure time. I have tried my best to get there by the departure time but as I was feeling unwell all in a sudden, I was still late for the flight. My friend told the lady from CX about our situation and she led us to the CX counter. We asked whether we can take another flight to Hongkong and she said that was already the last flight to Hongkong on that day. Then we explained to her the situation (I was not feeling well and keep vomiting in the toilet so that I missed the flight) again and asked whether we can get onto the flight tomorrow. The lady replied that she cannot provide other arrangement as we were holding a discount ticket and we missed the flight for personal reasons.

She suggested us to buy a new ticket to Hongkong which was around HK$19,000 per ticket. We found it unaffordable and asked her for other arrangement such as adding some surcharges and change to another flight on the coming day (20 Dec 2011). She refused to provide such arrangement and said she cannot contact Hongkong CX staff and so she did not know whether we can add some surcharges and get back to Hongkong on the coming day. She added that even if HK CX allowed us to add surcharges for a new ticket on the coming day, the amount of surcharge would still be very expensive. She once again suggested us to buy another new ticket and stated it should be the most feasible option for us.

We kept asking (maybe I should say begging) her to contact Hongkong CX for more information regarding the surcharge issue or other possible arrangement. She once again refused us and stated that she could not contact Hongkong CX in Japan and she was not sure whether there was a surcharge arrangement or not. We were hopeless and we asked her what we could do. She asked us to seek help from other airline like ANA which also provides flight services to Hongkong. Then I went to seek help from ANA and my friend stayed at the CX counter and waited until the CX staff returned the luggage to us.

My friend asked the CX lady for the CX's emergency contact if we need further assistance. The lady replied, "We don't have it and if you need help, I will be here again tomorrow." At the moment, my friend was speechless. How can your staff be so irresponsible? Should I sleep over at the CX counter and wait for the lady to show up again tomorrow? That really doesn't make any sense.

The ANA staff said the one-way ticket provided at the airport would not be affordable for us. She strongly recommended us to seek help again from CX staff as we were holding CX flight tickets. However, it was just around 10 minutes after my friend got back our luggage, the CX staff were all gone. Luckily, the ANA ladies really helped us a lot (though we were not their customers!). They checked whether there were other airlines which also provide Kansai to HK flight services. They also searched for CX hotline (+800 xxxx xxxx) on the CX website and made call for us.

Unluckily though, my friend and the ANA lady tried their very best to call the hotline (they spent 30 minutes on calling CX hotline! ), we still cannot be connected to the CX staff for help. That is really ridiculous. What's the point of setting up an emergency hotline if it can never be connected? How could an international airline perform like this? I can provide the contact details of the ANA ladies if you need evidence on it. The lady even contacted the Jetstar airline for us in order to purchase a more affordable ticket to Hongkong.

With the assistance from the ANA ladies, we were able to contact our family members in Hongkong. Luckily, my family member bought another flight ticket (CX567 at Kansai Airport, 20/12/2011, 9:30am, HK$6,000) through travel agency for us. And the ANA ladies further assisted us by providing information on clinic, hospital and accommodation near the airport. We slept over at the airport and checked-in again on 20/12/2011 at around 7 am. We could not see the lady who liaised with us yesterday. Then we walked to the ANA counter to show our compliment to the ANA ladies and got to the custom gate. Suddenly, the CX lady who liaised with us yesterday showed up and told us we can add HK$2,000 surcharge per ticket for the earliest flight at 9:30 am. Both of us were speechless. If she tried to contact CX HK for help yesterday and let us know the details of the surcharge arrangement, we would not be so hopeless. We would not need to spend so much time on seeking help from ANA, calling CX hotline, seeking help from friends and family members in Hongkong, etc.

We really found CX staff incredibly unreliable. On 19 December 2011 around 7pm, she told me a thousand times that there may not be a surcharge arrangement and even if there is a surcharge, it will still be expensive and unaffordable. But just 12 hours later, she told us she contacted CX HK and she can offer us the earliest flight with HK$2,000 surcharge. How could they treat us like that?

When I get onto the plane, I thought everything would be all right and I can finally take a rest. However, I still experienced poor services on the plane. My friend and I sat at 62A and 62C near the back of the plane. The crew kept playing, laughing and talking loudly at the back of the plane during the whole journey. Not only me but other passengers turned around and had a look when they made loud noise. However, they did not attempt to stop playing. One of the FA even sat on the passengers seats at the last row for a while when they were playing loudly.

I sent/faxed/e-mailed the complaint letter to Cathay on 21 Dec 2011. I still got no reply from them.

I arrived the counter 40 minutes before the departure of CX825 on Jan.03, 2012 and there were still passengers on the counter but I was told by a clerk that there was not a seat for me because I was late by five minutes. I was asking why my seat was assigned to someone else and then I was told another clerk that I could not get on the plane because I was late not because my seat was re-assigned. I felt that I was cheated.

I traveled to India from USA in Dec, 2010. I was not able to get my baggage at Delhi Airport. Then they send my baggage after 3 days to my home with open locks and missing stuff.

I proceeded with the claim process. Here is the detail of my pending baggage claim. Nobody is listening. I lost my baggage and filed a claim for $530. Upon reviewing, they decided to send me a $250 US check. I am still waiting. That is a poor performance of their customer service. Please investigate and take disciplinary action for the harassment and send me a check for agreed amount $250.

I traveled on Cathay Pacific from NYC to Manila, Philippines on May 25th, 2011, Flight 831 for the purpose of returning home due to the death of my mother on May 24th. As you can imagine, this was a traumatic time for me and this flight was unexpected and rushed. When I checked-in at JFK with Cathay, I had my passport and Permanent Resident Card. Although the permanent resident card in my possession had expired, it had been extended by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) under the Department of Homeland Security via a letter from them, which I did not have with me. I was concerned that I would not be able to return to the US without the original letter, so I asked the Cathay Pacific employee at the check-in whether I would need the original extension letter, as opposed to a copy.

I was assured by the Cathay Pacific employee that an original letter was not necessary and that I could return with a copy. However, when I attempted to board CX 906 on June 13th from Manila, I was refused, despite the fact that I had a copy of the extension letter. Contrary to the statement of the Cathay NY employee, I was not permitted to board because I did not have an original extension letter. My sister, who was traveling with me, went home without me. I was told I could not get on a Cathay Pacific plane until I presented the original extension letter. As you can imagine, it is not a simple thing to send a letter from NY to the Philippines. It is neither fast nor cheap. In fact, it cost me the sum of $570 to use FedEx International Next Flight special service, which took 3 days before I obtained the original letter.

I left on Friday, June 17 under CX 904. When I arrived at JFK International Airport, I went through US Immigrations thinking that they would also ask for the original document. However, they didn't even ask to see the letter at all! US Immigrations just swiped my expired card and confirmed my fingerprint and eye imprint and was permitted entry, with no problems or issues. In fact, I consulted with an immigration attorney, who assured me that most airlines routinely allow travelers to board with only copies of such letter.

We, two kids ages 14 and 12, travelled by Cathay from Osaka to Karachi in business class. My father specially booked unaccompanied minor service for us. The flight from Bangkok to Karachi returned back to Bangkok because of bad weather. We were told that we will be taken care of during our stay at Bangkok, as this was our first experience to travel alone and we already had some special service paid for.

But we were shocked when, at Bangkok airport, we were thrown in the worst hotel we ever stayed. Cathay staff was nowhere visible and the hotel room had neither a telephone nor internet so that we could contact our parents.

Horrified and shocked, exhausted after almost 24 hours and we spent 6 hours in complete horror, we made several attempts to contact the Cathay staff but no response was received. At noon, the hotel asked us to vacate the room as the airline has booked it only for 6 hours.

We waited in the lobby for 90 minutes before Cathay ladies appeared and asked us that they are putting us on a Thai flight to Karachi, but one has to sit in economy class. When we refused to sit separately, they threatened to leave us behind and then we are at our own. They also forced us to sign some paper and take a small amount of money for accepting their terms.

When we refused, they put us both in economy class and threw our passports at our faces to be responsible for them from now on. It was the most horrible treatment to young kids by this horrific Cathay staff at Bangkok. Never send your kids on this horrible airline please.

I made a purchase of three economy class tickets from Johannesburg to Hong Kong via the Cathay Pacific internet site. While I was busy, the site bombed out and it instructed me to restart the booking process which I then did, only to discover that Cathay Pacific charged the payment from my credit card twice. They took three days to confirm that they acknowledged the double payment, and since then three weeks has passed, they still have not refunded me.

The South African office says that their hands are chopped off, and it is the Hong Kong office that is not doing their job. They, however, do not want to put me through to speak to anyone directly at Hong Kong.

My problem is not being attended to by Cathay and I am suffering financial losses due to the interest on my credit card for the double payment.

I was on flight AA 1812 - CX 881 - CX 777 and the destination was Miami to Los Angeles to Jakarta on January 19, 2011. My complaint is that I lost everything I have got. TSA or somebody in LAX took them from my luggage. Please, I need to know if they checked my luggage and just failed to put my things back. This is my baggage claim number: **.

I join the endless multitude in complaining about the service of Cathay Airlines. It seems that predominantly, it is their attitude in treating passengers, like they do not have any consumer rights. We were connecting from Taipei to Manila through Hong Kong, and had a fantastic flight and service from Eva Air. However, when we checked in Cathay Pacific, that was when our troubles started. They gave us the third degree red tape, wanting to know the history of how we were booked on Cathay Pacific. The agent of Eva Air was with us, and assisted us all the way. Eva Air staff were very courteous, as compared to the rude treatment we got from Cathay Pacific.

After the booking was cleared, and boarding passes were issued, we spent a day in HK. Then upon our return to check in again with Cathay, we had to repeat the whole red tape nightmare all over again. I was losing my patience, and I had to explain to the dumb Cathay Pacific agent, that it was Cathay Pacific that issued our boarding passes, and not Eva Air, so they should take responsibility. Never in my life will I take this brainless airline again. I almost got high blood pressure trying to explain to low IQ Cathay Pacific ground agents their own mistakes.

The Cathay Pacific flight 750 from Bangkok to Hong Kong was late on the 19th of December 2010 and although we landed with 30 minutes left to connect our flight to Nagoya, we were told by the Cathay staff that the decision had been made to ground a few passengers in Hong Kong in order to avoid further delays! We had tried to alert the flight attendants during the first segment of our flight, but we were told not to worry--that we would be taken care of once we land in Hong Kong. The connection counter was poorly managed with overwhelmed staff.

They handed us delay/cancellation certificates and vouchers for the nearest Novotel and kindly asked us to take care of ourselves. Every time you want to lodge an official complaint or ask to speak to a manager or supervisor, you are asked to send a writing complaint to the company. It seems that the staff on the ground doesn't want to deal with customer assistance whatsoever. The general attitude says: "Well, too bad you chose flying with us, be more careful the next time." Of course, getting our luggage back from transit in Hong Kong, one of the busiest airports in the world, took forever! We were booked on the next morning flight via Taipei after a short night in Hong Kong.

The last segment of our return flight (CX 709) between Hong Kong and Bangkok on Christmas Day was total chaos with meals served too shortly before landing. My wife had ordered two common duty-free items but the order form kept going from hand to hand to no avail. The flight attendants were running all around the cabin to collect the meal trays minutes before landing. I seldom attended such a level of disorganization in a commercial airplane despite my extensive traveling.

When we inquired, the stewardess apparently in charge of the duty-free on our way out simply dismissed the question with a laconic "out of stock." How easy! The funny thing is that I had been given a $5 discount voucher on the Nagoya-Hong Kong flight segment (CX 535) for filling out a satisfaction questionnaire. I must say that I am surprised that at no point were we offered any type of commercial gesture or compensation to make up for the recurrent mishaps. This is really a shame for this once prestigious company and a disgrace for the head of its human resources. If I can describe this terrible traveling experience with one word: Pathetic!

I have to take a flight from Vancouver to Hongkong and make connection flight to Bangkok. Due to the delayed flight to VC, it made the return flight to HK three hours late and I then missed the connection flight to BKK. The VC ground staff was very good. He assisted me to check for new flight the morning after and told me that the ground staff in HK will assist for hotel accommodation. When I arrive HK at 11 pm, the ground staff told me to wait for half an hour to make the hotel arrangement. I had waited until 1:30 am and I was still at the airport where the same ground staff never showed up. I decided to stay at the airport in the ferry waiting area because I needed to catch the early flight to BKK.

I was tired to death. I needed to go through the immigration process, take another 45 mins transport to the hotel, sleep for couple hours, then need to reverse the process to come back to the gate again.The Cathay Pacific system of assisting the delayed passenger is very bad. I do travel out of my country every month and this is my first time that I took the Cathay Pacific. It will be my first and my last time to take this airline service. It is the first time of my colleague to go abroad and it gave her bad experience as well. Good bye forever.

I flew from Bangkok back home to Vancouver. The flight was a bad situation made worse by the unbelievably thoughtless staff. For starters, I had an terminally ill passenger flying back to the states for urgent surgery, on my aisle side. On speaking with him, the surgery only offered at best a few more years. As he was ill and in great pain when in motion, he literally had us jammed in. The staff had never once come to see how he was. In fact, we were given less attention than the rest of the passengers. It seemed as though the attendant was avoiding him and as a result our row. I had missed the first meal as I was not well and napping.

After some time with no service, and the attendant oblivious to my calls, I climbed on the seat in front in order to exit my row. Upon arriving to the food prep, the attendant in charge of my row was standing with some snacks. I asked if I might be able to get a sandwich. She responded there were none with no further suggestion. After which I asked for anything, she gestured at some cookies, with some attitude but did not attempt to extend the basket so I walked over and picked one out.

On my exit, I noticed cups and asked if they were juice. To a nod, I helped myself. Having worked in customer service, there were a million opportunities for the service to have been better. The last straw was after the last meal call when our trays were not picked up with the rest, I gestured thinking it was an oversight but was ignored. So I had to call, only to be told she'd get it on her way back when she was within reach of our trays. Needless to say, she did not return so I had to have a passing attendant pick up our trays.

My aisle side passenger was severely distended and the tray posed some discomfort to him so to be neglected instead of being given special care was appalling. I feel the attendants need to take a serious lesson in compassion and perhaps have it drummed into their heads that this is not a flying catwalk and some human emotions are required.

I along with my wife traveled through your flight no cx751 on Jan 7, 2010 at 1735 hours from Bangkok to New Delhi. While going through screening at Bangkok airport, I placed all of my belongings on x ray platform. After going through the process, I forgot to take up my camera with me. We boarded the plane on seat number 57E and 36E. After reaching the I.G airport, New Delhi we came to know about our lost camera and we reported immediately the matter to captain of the flight and he suggested to go to Cathay Pacific counter to report the whole matter and we did the same thing and the man at counter as such told that you will get your camera within 48 hours but it's already been time up now.

Booked a trip from San Francisco to Bali on Cathay connecting via Hong Kong. Was not allowed entry into Bali because my valid passport expires in 6 months.

Was taken into custody and held under guard for 26 hours in a small restricted area of the departure level of the airport. My passport was taken away from me. No food or water was provided to me, had to buy what was available at one store/ restraunt when open. Payphone out of order, bathroom unserviced with no toilet paper/paper towel/or soap.

Was told by Cathay that I would be taken back to Hong Kong. I was escorted by guard to my seat on the plane. Before landing in a cyclone, was taken without explaination to a seat in the front of the plane. I was taken by Cathay staff after landing off the plane, not allowing me to speak with my travel companion. I was taken to immigration in Hong Kong where I was questioned and released, finally receiving my passport back.

We stayed in Hong Kong over night, then tried to plan our return home. When we called Cathay the next day we learned that someone from Cathay had already changed our return to SFO to that day, and that we had missed it. No one told us of the change, and they refused to credit my account or offer to credit another ticket.

Next morning. I called Cathay Pacific and they told me that there was no seats available and I was advised to buy a new ticket from another airlines.

I told them to put me on the urgent waiting list and I am prepared to top up some monies if there was a need.
Cathay Pacific staffs asked me to call everyday morning to check whether there was any seats available.
I called for a couple of days and the staff kept telling me there was nothing for me.
I doubted what they had told me and I checked up with a friend who works in the travel agency in Singapore.
After checking, my friend told me that on certain days, there were some seats available and she told me to call Cathay Pacific directly.
I did that and once again, they told me that there was nothing for me.
My friend was shocked after hearing that and she even gave me the flight numbers and details.
Once again, I quickly called Cathay Pacific and they replied that the seats were just taken up.
I got so upset and mad after hearing that, so I made a trip to Cathay Pacific head office in Singapore immediately.
I demanded to see their manager but the staff offered to help me.
She checked the system and told me the result was still negative; but I questioned her why everytime I checked with other travel agencies, it seems to have seats available and Cathay Pacific system showed negative.

After a while, the staff told me that YES travel in Toronto had reserved a seat for me but I need to confirm it with Cathay Pacific.

I found it ridiculous and I was made to pay one thousand dollars to secure the seat.
I paid the monies and returned to Canada.
I went to Cathay Pacific website to file a complaint.
After one month, I received a reply from the Public relation manager.
His name is Monisha (Customer Relations) and he insincerely apologised and defended that their staffs in Cathay Pacific were simply doing their jobs.
I told him that just because they overlooked, I had to pay another one thousand dollar (Singapore dollars) for their mistakes.

I thinked Cathay Pacific airlines simply does not show any sincerity.

I travelled from Philippines to Honkong Via Cathay Pacific then Hongkong to London, Heathrow via British Airways then London to Madrid via British Airways then finally from Madrid to Las Palmas via Iberia. Upon claiming my luggage on our final destination ,my luggage cannot be found. I have no idea where my baggage got lost. Up to this date I have no information about my luggage whereabouts.Until now, no financial assistance was extended from which ever airlines is responsibled.

I came in on Cathay Pacific flight CX 750 BOM-HKG. The 5.20 flight at Mumbai was delayed to 6.45 due to the late arrival of incoming cathay flight from Dubai. We were informed of this only after passing through security. I had a connection to San Francisco on CX 872 at 1630 hrs which I missed as our flight reached at 1704. The ordeal started from then onwards. We were offered no options. I had been put on the 2340 flight to LA CX 880, a halt of 21/2 hours and immigration check at LA and then a United airways flight out to SFO at 2230. At HKG airport,we were asked to wait for 6 hours.

Only after the passengers demanded for phone cards/hotel stay/lounge facility/dinner, were they provided with them. No Supervisor came forward with any information initially. The ground staff that was there either pretended to not speak English or the ones who did speak were plain rude. Inefficiency could be seen from the moment I boarded the flight. None of the attendent caller buttons seemed to be working. The light would come on but there was no sound to it, finally most of us after waiting for 20-25 mins found ourselves getting out of our seats and proceeding to help ourselves.

For some reason, the crew seemed to concentrate in the kitchen alley. I have been unwell and had requested that the seat next to mine be kept empty. The staff at BOM airport had done the needful but after the rerouting, the staff at HKG refused to do it for me. When I went onboard, I saw a lot of seats empty..Inspite of requesting them for an upgrade or a transfer to another carrier, or a seat on the next day's flight, they did not attend to my request. Thanks to Cathay, I had to travel for an extra 12 hours (waiting time included)with a fever and cold.

In addition to this, the food, the seats were also horrible. But it doesnt end here. After arriving in LA, we were asked to collect our luggage and recheck it in with United airways after clearing immigration. I waited for eternity at the baggage claim area only to find one of my 2 bags missing. The CX staff at the baggage claim area refused to take down a report saying I still had another flight out of LA and that Cathay had their Headquarters at SFO and were better equipped to take a lost baggage report there. (None of the staffs' name tags were visible).

After I travelled to SFO, I was informed that since United was the last carrier to bring me in to SFO, I would have to file a report for delayed baggage with them. I did that on the midnight of Feb 7th and 8th and have been calling them in twice a day everyday. Their site doesnt seem to be updated and their call centre in India keeps on giving me stories. At one point, they gave me another tag no on the bag and said it was due to arrive on the american airlines flight AA1954 from LA to SFO at 1535 on feb 9th.

After calling them on Feb 11th, they put me on hold for 30 mins, contacted the AA staff at LA and SFO airports and said the bag wasnt with them. Today is FEb 12th and I have now be told to fill a baggage tracing/claim form and post it to their Head quarters in Chicago. I do feel that Cathay should be blamed for all this. The last I saw my bag was in Mumbai, India when I checked it in and saw it go on the conveyor belt..

I had high expectations from an airline of such magnitude which is apparantly also considering expanding its fleet of flights. I am sorely disappointed and very very upset . I will never travel on this airline again and am definitely contemplating action against the airline for all the economic, physical and mental trauma I have had to go through.

After requesting and receiving a window seat, immediatly after the plane took off I was I asked to close the blinds. I don't think this is fair since I paid for a window seat so I could look out the window.

April web site deal of the month was advertising in LA Times promoting $599 roundtrip LAX/Bali on Cathay Pacific. Valid to book through 30 April, according to fine print in ad. Went online to book on evening of 30 April and offer was no longer there. Cathay offices close at 5:30 p.m. so no support/assistance available. Reached someone at Cathay reservations the following morning, and was informed that the offer expired at 11:59 p.m. EASTERN TIME on 30 April.

The ad ran in Los Angeles and it did not specify Eastern Time as deadline. This is very misleading, as most individuals will assume the time zone applicable is the one in which the publication is located, unless otherwise stated. I will now have to purchase a fare that is nearly twice the advertised special.

Instead of two adults paying $599 each, we will need to pay about $1,200 each for air transportation.

In October 1998, I purchased a ticket with Cathay Pacific in India (where I was staying for social services in rural areas) for travels between Bangalore-LA. My travel agent had scheduled an 'estimated' return date for December 3, as the date could not be left open, and informed me this could be changed without additional fees. Since I was in process of passport renewal in the U.S., it became clear to me that I would not make it back to India by December 3rd, but needed an additional week in the U.S.

I called the airline to reschedule. Cathay Pacific was using one 800-number for the whole U.S. region, with all airline inquires and services, with consequence that it was even more horrendous than in India to get through on the phone. In most cases I was put on hold by auto-response and often waited more than 30-40 minutes until I have up.

When I finally reached an airline rep a few days later and requested to schedule a new departure date, she confirmed that seats were available on flights plus connectin flights at dates I had requested, but would suddenly refuse to book me for the open flight, as, according to her, my ticket was not endorsed for travels to Bangalore. I told her, the ticket was indeed endorsed and valid for travels to Bangalore, but the operator would not accept my statement. I then offered to fax a copy of my ticket which she was not interested in.

Consequently, it took me until January 8 to get a booking from Cathay Pacific, with return date to India the earliest on January 18, with a one-week stay-over in Singapore. This was nearly 1 1/2 months later, after the airline admitted to have committed a mistake and arranged a booking for me. These delays, however, cost me an estimated $ 3500 in additional expenses, not to mention the huge amounts of expenses I faced in India several months later in property paymnets and penalties I had to pay, for being delayed in my return to pay dues.

Cathay Pacific airlines never offered to put me on another airline to speed my return, nor to pay for accommodation for the overstay, neither in the U.S. nor Singapore. When I contacted Cathay to make a claim, they waited for weeks at times to even respond. First, they would deny any faults of theirs for refusing to book my valid ticket, but some one year later they admitted that the fault was theirs due to their inability to read an endorsement issued in India. However, the airline felt that this did not make them liable to reimburse me for any of my expenses and offered me a travel voucher valued $500 as compensation, which I rejected.

I felt this airline intentionally kept slow contact with me, because I was situated in a poor country with little access to faxes and email from the rural district I was placed. I also feel that the airline very much intentionally extended their investigation to almost one year for the same reasons, knowing that it would be hard for me to do anything from here.