Cathay Pacific: booking check, check-in and Hong Kong transit

How to look up a booking on Cathay Pacific

1. 1Open Manage booking on cathaypacific.com (the India site uses en_IN); it passes you to Cathay’s booking app.
2. 2Enter the booking reference or the eTicket number, with the given name and family name exactly as booked.
3. 3Make sure at least one flight carries a CX flight number: Manage booking shows a booking only in that case.
4. 4Expect no result for group bookings, fully cancelled bookings or trips flown more than three days ago.
5. 5Members can add the booking to their account, though new Green members and members of other programmes may face extra verification.

Hold your fare is not sold on trips from India

Cathay Pacific’s “Hold your fare” keeps a fare for 72 hours for a holding fee charged per passenger, per booking. The fee varies with where the journey starts, is not published, and is refunded only if Cathay itself reschedules or cancels. The first flight must be at least seven days (168 hours) away, every flight must be Cathay-operated, the hold is sold only on cathaypacific.com, and a held booking cannot be changed.

The terms then exclude departures from India. An Indian applicant flying from Delhi through Hong Kong to North America or Japan has no Cathay product to hold that fare. A trip that starts outside India, say a return from Hong Kong booked by an Indian resident there, may qualify; one that starts in Bengaluru does not.

That leaves an unpaid flight reservation as the practical way to put a Cathay routing in a visa file: the planned flights in your name for the day you submit, without the seven-day rule. One quirk to expect: Cathay says flights may not appear in online check-in if the e-ticket has not been issued, so an unpaid reservation is not expected to show there, and that is normal.

Checking in with Cathay Pacific in India

Online check-in opens 24 hours before departure for most passengers. Cathay members who add their membership number when booking get priority online check-in from 48 hours; Green members who add it later still check in from 24 hours. Digital boarding passes are available from 48 hours up to 60 minutes before departure, and airport check-in outside Hong Kong closes 60 minutes before.

A flight may not appear for check-in if the e-ticket has not been issued, and a booking just made on cathaypacific.com takes a little while to show. Online check-in is not offered on partner-operated codeshares, or for groups, unaccompanied minors, medical cases and tickets needing extra payment. Passport details can be corrected in Manage booking any time before check-in but not after, and Cathay reminds passengers that valid entry and transit visas are their responsibility.

Connecting through Hong Kong as an Indian

Hong Kong Immigration says Pre-arrival Registration “is not required” for Indian nationals “in direct transit by air and not leaving the airport transit area”. A through-checked Cathay connection from Chennai or Hyderabad to a third country needs nothing from Hong Kong.

Leaving the airport needs the free online PAR, which is valid for six months and allows visits of up to 14 days each. Visitors must also hold onward or return tickets, unless they are heading to the Chinese Mainland or Macao, and have adequate funds. A self-transfer that means collecting bags puts you landside, so the PAR is needed then too; for a long layover, getting it anyway costs nothing.

Hong Kong is rarely the hard part of a Cathay itinerary. An Indian connecting to Canada needs a Canadian visa, and the US has no airside transit at all, so a C-1 or visitor visa is needed for any US stop. Match the destination visa to the itinerary before choosing Cathay as the routing.

Cathay Pacific’s India network

Cathay serves Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad, with up to 43 passenger flights a week in April 2025, and has lounges in the same five cities. Hyderabad came back on 31 March 2025 with three weekly A330-300 flights, planned to rise to five a week from 1 September 2025. Chennai–Hong Kong gained a Premium Economy cabin on the A350-900 in January 2025.

Cathay Cargo moved its Mumbai freighters to Navi Mumbai International Airport on 21 September 2026. That release concerns cargo only and does not mention passenger flights, so do not assume a Navi Mumbai departure on a Cathay passenger itinerary.

Cathay Pacific questions, answered