[sharadhonavar]

Nightmare. I purchased a ticket from the Cathay Pacific website from Chicago to Bangkok via San Francisco - HKG for 23rd Dec, (the US leg Chicago to SFO was American Airlines, thier One world Partner)

my CX7685 flt operated by AA from Chicago got delayed and missed ther noon connection CX879 to Hong Kong from San Francisco. There was no one at the airport counter which was closed or anywhere, the info desk said they would reopen at 10.pm, I called Cathay, they just denied any responsibility since it was American who delayed the flight although I had bought the whole ticket on thier web site. and said they should reroute me. Called American they said it was not thier ticket stock and could not touch the ticket. Called Cathay back, they again refused to take reponsibility. Called the duty manager at the SFO International terminal. He asked that I go tot e AA ticketing counter.

Now the real fun started, The AA ticketing agent started haing a fight on the phone with the Cathay person, since she had no authority to change the Cathay Ticket stock. finally she got some kind of permission to change my ticket and gave me a "confirmed" connection to Hong Kong thru LA for that evening. (My compliments to the AA ticketing agent who graciously tried hard for me)

I was happy untill I reached LA, there Cathay says the reservation got deleted and unconfirmed due to some reason I did not understand. And put me on standby, I just happened to be first on the standby and get on the flight by good luck.

Never buy a ticket from Cathay if they connect you thru thier one World partner, they refuse to help if you miss the connection due to ANY delay on the part of thier partner. and the partner cannot help becos it is a Cathy Ticket stock. You might very well end up going home with no refund after waiting 10 hours for the next flt.

Sharad Honavar