Cathay Pacific: No regime change, just better service

PETALING JAYA: Cathay Pacific has said it is waiving rebooking fees for flight tickets booked on the polling day of the 14th General Election (GE14) is to better serve its Malaysian customers.
The Hong Kong flag carrier was responding to Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed's tweet that the waiver is to effect "regime change" in Malaysia.
"We are aware of customers' current needs and would like to provide more value and flexibility to our passengers when they choose to fly with us," a Cathay Pacific spokesperson was quoted by Malaysiakini as saying.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Nur Jazlan said: "Wow. Good marketing move by them. Didn't know that regime change is part of their business plan," he said.
Cathay Pacific announced last week that it would offer Malaysian citizens the option to rebook and reroute their flights for free in light of the looming polls.
"If the election date falls within the passenger's inbound or outbound travel date, one change is permitted for all tickets, including those with restrictions on the date change," it said.
The waiver is for all Cathay Pacific and sister airline Cathay Dragon flight tickets issued in Malaysia. It is applicable when the travel date of the Malaysian passengers falls on the election date.
Among the terms and conditions applied are:
- the waiver is only for Malaysian citizens.
- If the election date falls within the passenger's inbound or outbound travel date, one change is permitted for all tickets including those with a restriction on the date change.
- Flight ticket changes must be done within seven days from the announcement of the election.
- Passengers are allowed to delay their travel dates up to two months from the original date of travel.
- This waiver is not applicable to fare or tax differences should the new date fall into higher subclass or seasonality.
- All fare subclass and seasonality surcharges apply as per purchased flight ticket fare rules.