MEL_Traveller
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2005
- Posts
- 28,989
Had the opportunity to fly CX this week to HKG and back. The 'new' business class seats are good - certainly the longest bed I have experienced in any class of travel on any airline (they appear to be a good four windows long). The downside is they are fairly hard and if you use the blanket/quilt thingy as a mattress cover you have nothing for on top. Luckily our flights weren't too heavily loaded and there were spare pillows and blankets. In terms of privacy - these seats are hard to beat.
The striking thing about CX service is the speed in which they deliver a meal. The post take-off service was rolled out almost immediately after the seat-belt sign was extinguished, and was completed in 50 minutes. The second service (all five courses) was completed in 55 minutes.
The quality of the food is not as good as Qantas (it's not as good as QF premium economy), and the choice is not as great (3 mains, no choice of starter), but the trade-off is two hot main meals and six solid hours of uninterrupted sleep - at least one full hour more than Qantas can offer on the same sectors. If you wanted more sleep you could eat in the lounge and skip the first offering on board, safe in the knowledge you'll get a full meal before landing.
Cabin crew have the edge over QF by a fair margin - mostly due to the number of them and consistency, but also just much more pleasant to interact with. There is certainly no pretension that this is anything more than what it is: a cabin where you have paid for bed rather than a seat with a few miserable inches of recline (economy). It's not trying to be a First class in disguise with special service jackets and sommelier training for the crew etc.
Meal services were conducted with 4 crew working the 28-seat cabin at the same time - two serving meals from the trolley and two others offering breads, clearing plates, and bringing special drink requests not on the cart.
Lounges? CX wins for business class lounges. The food is more varied and doesn't have the 'cheap' feel of big bowls of low-cost salads as padding for the one hot offering. And of course with proper bars you can get a full selection of drinks including champagne.
I am sure Qantas will be more competitive with their new business class seats from later this year - but unless the service element matches, for short regional flights such as HKG, a 50 minute meal service with so much more sleeping time is going to be hard to beat.
If this was a once-in-a-life-time special trip and you want the full premium cabin experience with coughtails and Neil Perry 'cuisine' I'd probably recommend QF (until you get a card-board box for the refreshment that is!). If you want a good solid product with plenty of privacy and sleep, I'd go for CX without hesitation.
The striking thing about CX service is the speed in which they deliver a meal. The post take-off service was rolled out almost immediately after the seat-belt sign was extinguished, and was completed in 50 minutes. The second service (all five courses) was completed in 55 minutes.
The quality of the food is not as good as Qantas (it's not as good as QF premium economy), and the choice is not as great (3 mains, no choice of starter), but the trade-off is two hot main meals and six solid hours of uninterrupted sleep - at least one full hour more than Qantas can offer on the same sectors. If you wanted more sleep you could eat in the lounge and skip the first offering on board, safe in the knowledge you'll get a full meal before landing.
Cabin crew have the edge over QF by a fair margin - mostly due to the number of them and consistency, but also just much more pleasant to interact with. There is certainly no pretension that this is anything more than what it is: a cabin where you have paid for bed rather than a seat with a few miserable inches of recline (economy). It's not trying to be a First class in disguise with special service jackets and sommelier training for the crew etc.
Meal services were conducted with 4 crew working the 28-seat cabin at the same time - two serving meals from the trolley and two others offering breads, clearing plates, and bringing special drink requests not on the cart.
Lounges? CX wins for business class lounges. The food is more varied and doesn't have the 'cheap' feel of big bowls of low-cost salads as padding for the one hot offering. And of course with proper bars you can get a full selection of drinks including champagne.
I am sure Qantas will be more competitive with their new business class seats from later this year - but unless the service element matches, for short regional flights such as HKG, a 50 minute meal service with so much more sleeping time is going to be hard to beat.
If this was a once-in-a-life-time special trip and you want the full premium cabin experience with coughtails and Neil Perry 'cuisine' I'd probably recommend QF (until you get a card-board box for the refreshment that is!). If you want a good solid product with plenty of privacy and sleep, I'd go for CX without hesitation.
