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MISTAKEN IDENTITY

I flew business class on CX117 from Hong Kong to Auckland on December 15, 2014. The flight was sold as an Air New Zealand (NZ) codeshare, flight NZ4992. I input my Marco Polo Club (MPC) membership number while I made the reservation, and had it printed on my boarding pass when I checked in. However, six weeks later, nothing was credited to my account.

I went to the Cathay Pacific website to put in a claim for my missing miles, but a few weeks later my claim was rejected. The official reason was: “Incorrect flight details provided. Details rectified and flight credited”.

The weird thing is, my account was credited with 1,424 miles for a discounted economy fare on CX117 December 13 – not the 7,121 miles in business class I actually flew on December 15.

When I called the MPC hotline, they said they couldn’t find my boarding information in their system, possibly because my flight was sold as an NZ ticket.

My Chinese name is very simple and common. It sounds like some careless service rep didn’t find my information on December 15, but found someone with the same name who flew CX117 on December 13 in economy, and automatically assumed that person would be me. It was cold and blunt to send me a message saying I gave them the wrong details, but they had rectified things and the flight had been credited.

Since when were customers always wrong in a competitive service industry?

After numerous interactions with MPC the issue was finally resolved, more than two months after the flight. But I’m surprised this happened at an esteemed airline. It seems there is a lot to be done with Cathay Pacific’s back-end IT system to keep up with the modern world.

CATHAY PACIFIC RESPONDS:

We would like to thank Mr Chen for taking the time to share his comments and we are very sorry to hear about his unhappy experience.

We sincerely apologise for the service failure Mr Chen experienced when he contacted our service centre, and for the inconvenience this must have caused.

We are taking the comments raised by Mr Chen very seriously. Please rest assured that the matter has been addressed.

Once again, we are sorry about Mr Chen’s experience with us. There is always room for improvement and we will continue to ensure the delivery of our best customer service.