Lesson Learned from CX ORD-HKG $100 "Promotion"...

My very first blog...and my very first post...

As a way to celebrating the grand opening of my blog...I will share my perspective that I have learned (hardly) from the $100 ORD-HKG Promotion conducted by Cathay Pacific.

This promotion was discussed in my one of my favorite forum - FlyerTalk:

CX cheap fares draw: ORD-HKG $ 100 rt ++

$100 ord-hkg sweepstakes

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-asia-miles/1233508-100-ord-hkg-sweepstakes.html

In a summary, the promotion is CX will sell up to 100 economy seats for the new ORD-HKG on each Thursday (7/7, 7/14, 7/21, 7/28) on July, 25 each at 3:25:00 CST, in first come first serve, for $100. Travel must be done between September to December 2011.

Although I am the very first lucky flyer to get this promotion...no kidding...I got the deal by accident (as I ever expected that I would have gotten it), I still felt that CX North America does not know what they are doing at all...

Here were what I have learned and experienced in that last 4 weeks:

1. The most confusing promotion ever

Even CX pulled all the literature from their official site, but if you check out the FT links, you can easily realize that there was used to have a term and condition posted.

However, the T&Cs was never related to the promotion at all (and it was not posted in error). The T&Cs basically talked about the sweepstake running currently with the promotion.

Then you know the rest - people (including me before discovering all the details) were guessing at all time...

2. The worst promotion ever known

No offense - AFAIK...the worst promotion ever...

The reason is simple - based on Facebook, the link to the promotion was only shared less than 600 times...

3. Inconsistent ways to score the ticket

It was pretty simple to score the ticket.

Basically, at the right moment and click the right button - and you would see if you were a lucky one.

However, CX did an change for the week of 7/14, which required a refresh before you can click anything.

Anyone who know networking good enough would know what's going on...basically, CX asked all the people to initiate a DDoS attack against CX servers...

And then, CX changed it again for the rest of the weeks...

4. No contact information

Surprisingly, CX did not offer any ways for winners (or anyone else) to inquire about this promotion.

So basically, even I were lucky in scoring this deal...I was kind of in doubt that when would they contact me (For the record, it was faster than I thought - CX Vancouver called my 2 days later to book the ticket).+

5. Traditional CX value - cheap

This promotion, in airline industry terms, was subject to inventory control. In other words, CX in fact had the final say if they would allow you to fly on the date you want to.

Even I am personally from Hong Kong, I never ride with CX again - to be honest, I don't like CX at all - I thought that the 5-star rating that they are getting does not reflect the truth.

Since now I have the chance, I will definitely do a trip report and see how worse can CX be and see if it was my bias or the truth.