Married Segments / Origin and Destination (OD) Control

One of the key objectives of Cathay Pacific (CX) is to effectively manage our inventory.

During the past few years, we have been reiterating that segments which are initially sold in bundle (including CX and interline connection), whether married or not, must not be separated or unbundled. As travel agent is acting on behalf of CX during reservations, it is vital for all travel agents to adhere to our procedural requirements.

In order to help us optimally manage CX’s inventory usage, we would like to ask for your every effort in complying with the married segments control policy.

Travel agent must not separate Married Segments for any purpose nor manipulate the central reservation system or GDS to circumvent CX Married Segment Control logic. CX’s Married Segment Control logic applies to CX and other airlines connections including their code-share flight segments.

Travel agent also must not cancel the interline segment alone if it is originally sold as connecting flight with CX. This is because immediate interline connection with CX is considered as OD bundle. Purely cancelation of the interline connecting flight is OD violation. E.g.

AA2580 D 01MAY MSYLAX HK1
CX 883 D 01MAY LAXHKG HK1
CX 785 D 03MAY HKGDPS HK1

Step 1. booked 3 segments with OD MSYDPS
Step 2. cancelled AA2580D01MAY MSYLAX
(Step 2 is considered OD violation since OD becomes different with original bundle MSYDPS)

* a reminder that even the action of above Step 1 and 2 are done before ending of the booking, it can still be detected by CX Head Office though the separation action does not reflect in PNR history.

Our recommended practice is to cancel the whole bundled booking if it is no longer required and create a new booking for the desired segment. CX considers segments that are partially cancelled from a bundle as abusive practice.

CX will cancel all non-ticketed bookings with violation. The notification in SSR will be "CANX DUE OD ABUSE".

For all ticketed abusive cases, subject to charge back to recover revenue loss associated with the violation of the policy.

For serious abuses, CX will consider to block abusive agent for accessing CX inventory without advance notice.

Charging mechanism and procedure

A. Abusive cases involving HKG booking agents and HKG ticketing agents

Charges and actions to the booking agents who created the abusive booking:

Remarks

*Bundled OD itinerary refers to the OD itinerary that is booked as bundled to create the abusive sector. For example, “LON/HKG/SIN” is booked as an unbundled itinerary but only “HKG/SIN” is ticketed at the end. Full normal published fare of LON/HKG/SIN will be applied to calculate the fare difference. i.e. LON/HKG/SIN YOW fare - ½ HKG/SIN RT market fare.

B. Abusive cases involving PRD booking agents and HKG ticketing agents

To tackle cross-border abusive cases, the following policy will be adopted so as to align with PRD Sales Team’s practice.

Charges and actions will be applied to the booking agents who created the abusive booking, and the ticketing agents who issued the tickets on behalf of the abusive Non-BSP booking agents:

Remarks

*Bundled OD itinerary refers to the OD itinerary that is booked as bundled to create the abusive sector. For example, “LON/HKG/SIN” is booked as an unbundled itinerary but only “HKG/SIN” is ticketed at the end. Full normal publish fare of LON/HKG/SIN will be applied to calculate the fare difference. i.e. LON/HKG/SIN YOW fare - ½ HKG/SIN RT market fare.

Payment procedure

ADM (Agent Debit Memo) will be issued by CX Finance Department for monthly settlement according to the normal procedure.