Cathay Pacific Airways Reviews 734

Poor and disorganized service throughout, I prebooked a meal and paid for a ticket that would allow me to do that only to be told it's out of stock. Why are you even bothering to go through all of that trouble if youre not going to come through?

Stay away if you don’t want to ruin your holiday.
Cathay Pacific made a registration mistake on my flight and because of this, I was stopped by immigration and had to solve everything on my own.

During the whole process, there was no support at all from Cathay Pacific. The live chat kept disconnecting, and no representative offered help at the airport. I had to spend extra money and deal with all the consequences myself.

Later, after my formal complaint, the airline replied claiming that “thanks to the assistance of their staff” the issue was resolved - which is completely untrue, as no Cathay Pacific staff were present or helped me in any way.

Because of their mistake, I couldn’t use the next two tickets on my itinerary, and they didn’t even refund the taxes for the unused flights - not to mention any compensation or acknowledgment of their fault.

For an airline that positions itself as premium, this level of service and customer care is unacceptable. Even low-cost carriers take more responsibility and show more honesty.

Well Cathay Pacific. 554th review, you haven’t checked one. Tells me a lot. Obviously you’ve had so many great experiences. I’m an emerald member, for many many years. I’ve flown you once before, was a good experience and your lounges are fantastic. However….. the cancellation of our flight due to upcoming typhoon ragasa, you didn’t have a clue what the hell you were doing. Not only do I have proof and screenshots of how bad you are, and proof your phone lines shut down so you cannot get through to anyone. You then hang up on people on the only known way of contact - the online chat. The watsapp is useless, still not response some 9 days later (on two phone contacts). Yes typhoons happen sadly. Yes, it means flights cancelled and you have to deal with it but… that is your job. To not be able to contact anyone for 12 hours after not only manage my booking didn’t work, no phone line, watsapp not working, your email saying cancellation and what to do telling me how everything was fine ‘definitely wasn’t as didn’t work.
Karen and Madhura (all screenshots of the chat taken) utterly useless, so bad, what is the point of you employing them. Jason, the only person who assisted, and managed to refund me. Honestly, I think you need to look at yourselves. I work for a major insurance company, and will joyfully share the pathetic, hopeless, careless assistance you showed, who should realise, maybe being an airline is not what you should be. I for one will never even garner looking at flying with you even if the only alternative. I will send a complaint, with all proof. I will also send to one world, with all screenshots too. The stress and the anxiety you caused me and my partner was unacceptable beyond comprehension. As I say, I’m sure there have been many more good experiences than bad, I’m not blind, but this was horrific, and be ashamed. Pathetic.

Warning: Avoid Flying with Cathay Pacific
This airline served me moldy, expired food. When I complained, they dismissed it, saying their caterer followed “stringent hygiene standards,” essentially implying the customer was lying. I ended up traveling with stomach pain and no food OR drink for 20 hours.

Inflight Experience Case #04610518

Absolute garbage airline and lying customer service. There are so many instances to list I'll just pick a few: all within the same return flight:
- Flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong was delayed over an hour due to a broken coffee machine. Yes, that was the actual reason given. This resulted in a very nearly missed connection, only saved from my family's athleticism in the airport sprint in Hong Kong.
- Flight returning from Hong Kong to Vancouver - incoming flight was delayed by 3 hours. No reason given. We inevitably missed our connection in Vancouver. The way they handled it was atrocious. They split us up (a family of 3 with a young child and my wife that doesn't speak English) so that one "batch" would fly on a later flight that same evening, and the other "batch" would stay overnight in Vancouver and fly onwards the next day. They booked us a hotel and said, and I quote, "all of your additional expenses will be covered; just contact Customer Service after your flight". That's good, because due to extra taxi rides and food and lost time at work, that's hundreds of dollars of compensation. But guess what? Low and behold, they rejected our compensation claim and said it was "because of weather delays and therefore outside of their control and not covered in their compensation policy". That's an interesting lie, but I guess that means their compensation policy is very inconsistent - I mean, they paid for our hotel, right? So I guess it's more like "everything is up to our discretion, and our discretion is that we will never compensate you except in instances where we are legally obligated to". And that weather story was an absolute fabrication - I checked that flight and there were no weather-related issues at along the route of the incoming flight. They are liars from start to finish.
- They also damaged one of our bags. We didn't realize this until about 10 days after arriving, and guess how long you have to claim baggage damage? 7 days. That's fantastic. I'm not that bothered because I'm sure they would have just found another lie to get out of compensating us anyway. Maybe the fake weather disruption damaged the bag?

The worst flight and travel experience of my life - DO NOT book with Cathay or have a layover in Hong Kong. Booked what was supposed to be a 14 hour flight total including a 2 hour layover and then Cathay cancelling and rebooking my flight for one that had a 13 hour layover! This turned into an over 24 hour flight!!!! I did not approve this booking and was notified the day of; I tried to change this since the reschedule stated a free flight change option that was supposed to be included. I was traveling abroad so phone calls could not be made directly with my US number - I tried to request a different booking but was told in person at the airport and online that this alternative was the ONLY option I had. To make matters worse, the layover didn't arrive in Hong Kong until 1 am so all lounges were closed; our next best option was to try and get a hotel (which Cathay also didn't try to offer) but all hotels are over a 30 min taxi ride from the airport. The one that was attached was completely full. We had no choice but to sleep on the airport floor with hundreds of others. Hong Kong is also NOT overnight layover friendly; extremely rude and unhelpful staff plus literally no comfortable options to set up camp other than maybe the floor. HKG airport also makes it a point to announce things almost every hour so you literally can't try to sleep. Cathay didn't even attempt to offer alternatives (not even food vouchers) to make up for the extreme layover delay. I had to request a food voucher only for it to be denied at a restaurant because they said they've never seen food vouchers before. Boarding process for both flights were EXTREMELY disorganized. They didn't go by boarding group even though people were assigned one and they even set up signs based on boarding group BUT STILL did not go in order, it was like a huge free for all line. They also changed my PREPAID seat reservations to seats that I specifically tried to avoid (they sat me directly next to the bathroom and a seat with a wall behind it) - cherry on top, my seat was broken so I couldn't even recline it a little. Mind you this is a 11.5 hour flight after I just had a 5 hour flight PLUS the 13 hour airport delay until the connecting flight. I originally paid for extra leg room as well! Cathay doesn't offer free wifi no matter how long your flight is so be prepared to pay for that too. In flight service was also horrible, staff doesn't even try to put passengers in check who are out of line or rude. Overall, the experience was the worst I have ever had - I felt like they intentionally make things difficult or hard to find so they can avoid any accountability. DO NOT fly with them or book with them EVER. Heads up that customer service is also horrible, I get a response back every 5-6 hours from their chat via WhatsApp and if you get someone on the phone they will try to deny you a refund for anything (literally anything small like even a prepaid seat reservation even though they ended up cancelling my flight and picking one for me so the reservation was essentially pointless. Refund exceptions are clearly stated on their website and they still refused to refund me and acknowledge they were clearly at fault).

We were cramped into very tight Seats for a 10,5 hour flight. Even Ryanair had better Seats in a 2 hour flight. After departure we were served not so nice food. After that we were forced to put the blinds down alltough it was ONLY 14.30. Afterwards I realiseerde that they asked it bedause the crew didn’t want to be bothered during the flight. I did’nt see them anymore untill breakfast An hour before landing… rush rush…. I never was so thirsty and hungry on a flight. My body ached for three days afterwards due to the bad seats… for me never again….

Cathay Pacific will abandon you if they cancel your flight. My wife and I were scheduled to fly from Hong Kong to Rome in business class on September 25, 2025. Unfortunately, our flight was canceled due to adverse weather, and we were rebooked for October 4, 2025—nine days later—despite my repeated discussions with customer service about needing to reach Rome by September 29 for an Iceland trip.
This situation was further exacerbated by several factors:
• I proactively contacted customer service right after learning about the weather forecast, hoping to reschedule. They assured me I would be "protected" by a "protect flight" that would be the nearest available option, even if it involved transferring or flying with another airline. I was shocked when they rescheduled me for October 4; apparently, nine days is considered a short timeframe for Cathay Pacific.
• Given our numerous prepaid hotels and activities in Italy and Iceland, the new flight simply didn’t work for us. I made about ten calls over 48 hours leading up to our departure, but they completely ignored my needs, repeatedly stating that all flights were full and there was nothing they could do. I inquired about other airlines, reasoning that as a global aviation hub, Hong Kong should have available flights, especially after spending HK$88,370 (US$11,330) for our tickets. I even researched 3-4 alternative routes with airlines like Singapore Airlines, Air France, Lufthansa, Sichuan Airlines, China Airlines etc. that could get us to Rome before September 29. I was willing to cover any additional transfer costs for these alternatives, but Cathay Pacific rejected all my suggestions, claiming they lacked commercial agreements with those airlines. Ironically, they could not clarify what agreements they did have for flights to Europe.
• Ultimately, they suggested I cancel my entire ticket and rebook, which was a huge, costly inconvenience: flights booked within 24 hours of departure are extremely expensive, and I also had to cancel my return leg from Amsterdam, which is absolutely absurd given that it was Cathay whom canceled my first leg.
• This experience highlighted two critical issues: first, their customer service seems to provide half-truths to get you off the line, passing you to another agent as the situation spirals out of control. Second, the term “protect flight” is a misnomer; I felt anything but protected.
As a result, I had to spend approximately HK$120,000 (US$15,380) to secure new flights to Rome on September 25, 2025, while waiting for a refund from Cathay Pacific. This amount is 36% more than our original ticket price, a burden we unnecessarily incurred due to their gross negligence and poor management. This adds to the time and emotional toll of countless stressful calls, each one feeling like I was pleading my case to a brick wall. As a Marco Polo Gold member (OneWorld Sapphire), I expected much better. The behavior of this flagship airline in a world city is truly shameful.

Absolutely miserable customer service, who after an extremely long wait time on phone redirected to another person, where I had to wait again. When reached, I was told it would take 7 days to resolve an extremely simple request, which is to change the phone number on my account. Reading online afterwards it is due to 2FA and hackers gives me some sympathy, but no context on the call only leads to intense frustration from their uselessness.

scam company. i m not able to unlock my acocunt since ages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Booked services not provided:
Paid for a higher class extra legroom and forced to fly in a lower class standard seat without compensation. Even the service desk isn,t very helpfull and telephone number didn,t work. They sad contact booking.com but booking.com sad Cathey Pacific is responsible. Never again with this company.

If I could give -10 for Customer Care, I would. Flight to UK from Shanghai delayed 4hours, no water, no coffee, no food, no info/reassurance that all will be rearranged. Connection flight unavailable because of the delay, slept at the airport hotel for 5 hours, no water, no food, no breakfast in the morning. Walking half of Hong Kong airport to redeem a$ HK75 for a coffee and a croissant... appalling . Was given flights home via London, no other choices, you take it or you go without. The Cathay crew has limited English language, so you can't ask much because the crew is unable to answer... arrived home after 20 hours later and what they compensate me? 5000 Asia Miles, you can't even buy a coffee with them.... appalling

We arrived SYD to fly to LHR and were informed our flight cancelled no comment or apology. Two hours later we were given taxi vouchers and instructed to attend the Novotel CBD. We arrived at Novotel who had no rooms. Then at 11pm we started searching for a hotel. The Sofitel was great and managed to feed us at close to midnight. That was two months ago. No repayment of hotel costs, no compensation for inconvenience of a 24hr delay. Over a 100 messages and verbal and written assurances. Nothing.

Let me be clear this airline is an utter travesty never again.

Do not fly Cathay 💥💥💥💥💥 next stop CEO of Swire Group then the pin gets pulled.

Reggie in the Philippines Customer Service team was incredible - really patient with us and helped me find the appropriate seats for our infant. Thanks Reggie!

Booked a 7 night package holiday to Hong Kong in September 2025. Thought I would use Cathy Pacific because I could book my hotel and flight in one go to make my holiday go smoothly. I chose my hotel 7 nights Monday night to Monday night check out on the Tuesday morning no problem, then moved on to booking my flight based on checking out on the Tuesday morning Cathy offered me one flight just after midnight on Tuesday 00.35 the early hours of Wednesday morning 👍 booked it. That was my error 😕 I automatically assumed that because I was checking out on the Tuesday morning Cathy would do the maths and offer me a flight on the Tuesday night.... No.... the flight was actually booked for the Monday night just after midnight which means that to catch the flight I need to check out on the Monday morning loosing a day's holiday and one nights accomodation. Cathy have told me that it is clearly my fault as I booked the holiday my argument is that why would you automatically offer me a flight home a day before I had checked out 🤯 after several telephone calls talking to Cathy Pacific and Expedia it seems that the computer that books your hotel doesn't talk to the computer that books your flight even though it would appear that you never leave the Cathy web site so the Cathy flight computer doesn't know when you are checking out 😔. I lost £200 for the missed nights accomodation and learned a lesson on booking package holidays. Never expected your dealing with a person who knows what you want and understands that you can't fly whilst still asleep in your hotel bedroom.... 😡🤬 P.s I would recommend Cathy Pacific follow Jet2 booking process they seem to be able to synchronise hotels and flights 🙂

We flew from NZ to Manchester UK, we went for the premium Economic seats ,due to their advert of bigger seats ,being such a along flight we both needed comfort well never again Will I pay for those seats ,The seat width feels narrower because of chunky, immovable armrests/seat dividers that store a TV screen and food tray and no underseat storage in front, we felt cramped, dont do it save your money!

What the. #%### is wrong with this company. My first and LAST TIME EVER TRAVELLING WITH THEM, I GOT STUCK IN CHINA BECAUSE OF THEM.... ARE YOU KIDDING ME.... 1300 to change a ticket when I was 3 hours early to the flight. TERRIBLE SERVICE THE GUY DOESNT CARE, THIS IS GOING ON YOUTUBE TOMORROW.

I am writing this review to warn potential customers about Cathay Pacific's complete operational failure, shocking lack of integrity, and contempt for passenger rights.

My ordeal began with a 7.5+ hour delay on flight CX805 from Toronto to Hong Kong, initially blamed on weather but later admitted in their correspondence to involve "aircraft rotations" (an operational issue). This delay caused a missed connection and turned a routine trip into a 44-hour journey.

The service failures were egregious:

· 11 Hours Without Food: On a long-haul flight, there was an 11-hour period where no meal service was provided.
· Forced Downgrade: I was downgraded from Premium Economy to Economy due to an aircraft change.
· Refusal to Refund: Cathay Pacific has repeatedly refused to refund the significant fare difference for the service I paid for but did not receive.

However, the most damning evidence of their bad faith is their customer "service." After 9 hours of being passed around on WhatsApp, I received the message shown in the screenshot. An agent finally wrote: "I apologize - I overlooked. We can get you a refund for your delayed flight."

Crucially, this admission and offer came only after I had already been forced to check in and was waiting at the boarding gate for the severely delayed flight. They offered a solution they knew was impossible to accept.

This proves two things:

1. They knew a refund was owed.
2. Their operational incompetence ("I overlooked") is matched only by their lack of integrity, offering help only when it was too late to be useful.

Cathay Pacific's official position is to hide behind "weather" to avoid all accountability. Their actual practice, as evidenced here, is to ignore passengers until they have no choice left.

This is not just poor service; it is a calculated strategy to avoid its contractual and legal obligations. Do not trust this airline with your money or your travel plans. There is zero accountability and a complete absence of integrity at every level of customer interaction.

Booking Reference: FTNJ2F Case

No consideration whatsoever given to people traveling with kids. No boarding announcement and no seating area at the gate. The inflight meal for kids is saltier than the adult meals. Absolutely vile. Horrible airline and won’t be using again.

Terrible policy. I am an emerald member and while they offer to seat me, my family on the same PNR was not accommodated. Customer service was terrible and even the supervisor would not adhere to what is common practice for One World airlines.