CX I'm disappointed

[tm.smile]

CX is held in high regard not because it is the best but because it is always so consistent. The seat is the same across their long haul fleet, their crews adhere strictly to the service flow and are always pleasant (even a bad set of crew will still do their job consistently), their food isn't great but its consistent (personaly when travelling, Cantonese food agrees with me better than rich and decadent).

You always know what you're going to get with CX and thats why people like them.

 

[ajw373]

Just completed in J HKG/JFK/HKG on 777 and then HKG/CNS on A330, seat was a tad hard, little room for feet, plane was hot then cold, food very ordinary, staff Ok and no banter. And why they serve dinner at 10.30pm on the CNS sector beats me, then before arrival served up an awful small muffin and a jam pastry no taste in "J" for breakfast. The flights in and out of Cairns are full and CX are not cheap, Qantas are you listening to FNQ?, we need you back on the CNS/HKG sector.

I flew CX SYD-HKG earlier in the year in J on the late night flight out of Sydney. Like you I was surprised they served dinner when we left and then woke us up two hours before arrival to serve 'breakfast'. Sure service was quick, but would have been good to be able to sleep an hour longer rather than the abrupt wake up call. Especially as the flight is scheduled to arrive at 500am and was running an hour early.

But I thought the seat was good, the IFE was good. I didn't try the dinner and the breakfast, well apart from the hour it was ordinary.

And a few weeks back flew CX in economy BKK-SIN and that was pretty good. It was on the A350-1000, seat good, IFE good, and food for economy good too. Lounge in BKK was good, except for the coffee, as had a trainee doing it. But when I passed on the feedback it was cough the other person behind remade it showing the other person how to do it properly.

 

[ajw373]

QF are presumably happy to continue to funnel everyone through MEL/SYD/BNE and aren't close to capacity on their side of the bilateral.

I think with the right aircraft Qantas would be more than happy to service secondary ports. But for Qantas an A330/787 out of Cairns wouldn't work. Gets back to the old story about Qantas being an end of line carrier rather than hub carrier. The perfect size for Qantas would be a narrow body, but I can hear the complaints already.

 

[boomy]

CX is held in high regard not because it is the best but because it is always so consistent. The seat is the same across their long haul fleet, their crews adhere strictly to the service flow and are always pleasant (even a bad set of crew will still do their job consistently), their food isn't great but its consistent (personaly when travelling, Cantonese food agrees with me better than rich and decadent).

You always know what you're going to get with CX and thats why people like them.

Consistency is good if you have a winning product. CX had a winning J product... 10 years ago. Meanwhile many airlines improved massively, both their hard and soft products while CX remained almost the same, no innovation at all.

 

[tm.smile]

Consistency is good if you have a winning product. CX had a winning J product... 10 years ago. Meanwhile many airlines improved massively, both their hard and soft products while CX remained almost the same, no innovation at all.

So other than the Q suites (an anomaly as a seat), what would you like from Business?

 

[boomy]

So other than the Q suites (an anomaly as a seat), what would you like from Business?

Personally I prefer both VA and QF (A330/B787) hard products but it’s not only about the seat. While CX seat is ok the overall product is not as polished as other Asian carriers like the Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and Singapore. Since you mentioned QR then I find their J seat (not Qsuite) combined with soft product to be more superior.

 

[drross]

Just flew BNE to Hong Kong in business - great flight with excellent service. Totally enjoyed the lounges in Hong Kong and then First to London - only 3 of us in the first cabin - all on points and the service was amazing. Caviar and Dom never tasted better!!!

 

[JohnK]

I've flown a lot of CX regional business and some economy and service is ok but not great as some people rave. It depends on the crew.

I also flew CX long haul business a few years back and nothing stand outs over the QF flights I took at the same time.

I know QF is inconsistent at times but the same can be said for any airline I have flown.

 

[jastel]

Another aspect is the Qld Govt is throwing money at Chinese Airlines and Emirates to get them to fly to Cairns and Gold Coast etc and giving Cathay nothing.
I would be annoyed if I was Cathay as well.

 

[Isochronous]

Cairns has only grown and quite quickly in the last 25 years, so if the population supported the flights 25 years ago, the current population would more than support it, but you are right about the economics of it. Although the route is no doubt profitable, there are probably more profitable routes the plane could be used on. Money money money......sigh

I thought SilkAir was Singapore Airlines LCC. Maybe i am wrong

I know there are the couple of Chinese routes on offer, but i am quite dubious about the Chinese operators and believe their planes are not top tier. I certainly won't be flying with them and looks like travelling to Brisbane or Sydney from now on.

Silkair to SQ is more like what Qantaslink is to QF.

 

[33kft]

Silkair to SQ is more like what Qantaslink is to QF.

Yes, it was a regional arm flying narrowbody jets on less mainstream routes. I can see how it may get confused for LCC in terms of the hard product, though. The QantasLink analogy is a good one.

 

[Ekka]

Come on Qantas we need you take it back and make us Cairns travellers happy

And make us Brisbane travellers unhappy?

 

[Borisdog]

And make us Brisbane travellers unhappy?

Why not?

It'd make a nice change for NQ to do something that makes SEQ unhappy rather than vice-versa

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Consistency is good if you have a winning product. CX had a winning J product... 10 years ago. Meanwhile many airlines improved massively, both their hard and soft products while CX remained almost the same, no innovation at all.

To be fair - all the rest of the airlines are pretty much playing catch-up in terms of seat with the reverse herringbone. The likes of BA are only just introducing it! Soft product hasn't changed in years. But not much for them to improve in terms of IFE. Food maybe.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

To be fair - all the rest of the airlines are pretty much playing catch-up in terms of seat with the reverse herringbone. The likes of BA are only just introducing it! Soft product hasn't changed in years. But not much for them to improve in terms of IFE. Food maybe.

Food has been the Achilles Heel of CX J for years now. Mind you with the rapid decline of QF J food it is starting to look OK by comparison.

 

[OATEK]

While CX breakfast can be a bit ordinary, I have found the day/evening meals have been very good, and better than recent flights with QF.

 

[boomy]

To be fair - all the rest of the airlines are pretty much playing catch-up in terms of seat with the reverse herringbone. The likes of BA are only just introducing it! Soft product hasn't changed in years. But not much for them to improve in terms of IFE. Food maybe.

BA is not a great example, an airline with poor hard and soft products that basically no one apart from the Brits want to fly. Lately they finally started catching up hoping to requalify the big boys league.

While the seat and IFE are fine CX is not up there with top Asian airlines in terms of F&B and service standards.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

While the seat and IFE are fine CX is not up there with top Asian airlines in terms of F&B and service standards.

That in itself is a good question. What is a 'top Asian airline' these days? While they're all slightly different in their approach to service I'd be putting NH/JL/CX/TG/OZ in the one category. SQ perhaps a notch above (although many are starting to comment that service might not be as good as it used to be). The Chinese carriers are pretty good with service, but let down by their soft product.

I'm not sure what the benchmark is? Perhaps BR with good seats, vintage champages and PJs?

 

[boomy]

That in itself is a good question. What is a 'top Asian airline' these days? While they're all slightly different in their approach to service I'd be putting NH/JL/CX/TG/OZ in the one category. SQ perhaps a notch above (although many are starting to comment that service might not be as good as it used to be). The Chinese carriers are pretty good with service, but let down by their soft product.

I'm not sure what the benchmark is? Perhaps BR with good seats, vintage champages and PJs?

I guess rating is down to personal experience, for me the Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean, Thai and Singapore airlines are all a step above CX in terms of service standards and catering (not enough experience with Chinese airlines to rate them). In terms of hard product they all offer comfortable seats/beds maybe with the exception of SQ and their awkward J bed.

You have good point with Eva being the benchmark on their B777 Royal Laurel class. Since they don’t have F class it seems they designed a superior J++ product.