Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Those A340-300s

CX have just pulled a last-minute aircraft switch on me AGAIN. This makes it the eighth time in two years that they've pulled the 34C from the AKL route and subbed it with a 343 (old First Class).

Which makes me wonder... just how reliable are these Airbus 340-300s of theirs? It seems like every time there's an aircraft switch, it's because the original aircraft went technical. Am I just extremely lucky that 25% of the time I fly CX decide to give me a shot at flying the old seats before they become extinct or are the A340s constantly plagued with problems?

Oh, and with 12 A340s fitted with the new cabins, you'd think there'd be one lying around somewhere spare... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Yeah, a bit of a moaning thread! While I'm at it, anyone know if CX are resuming Project-Get-Rid-of-343-and-74B now that their passenger traffic's picking up?

I think this has nothing to do with the airbus 340. On the last 6 flights on 747 I ended up with unscheduled old J 4 times. Very disappointing, even though I found out that I actually sleep better in the old seats.
I think it's just a flexible aircraft schedule, that's it. CX's airbus fleet doesn't have a high number of maintenance incidents.

When they've done it to me it has always been because they are heavily over-booked in J. The old 343 has 40 J seats (and 12 F) vs 30 and 8 for the 34C.

more bad news (from their staff website)....CX is considering to convert 3 A34C from 3 Class to 2 Class service ie only Biz and EY.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by agmhkg:
more bad news (from their staff website)....CX is considering to convert 3 A34C from 3 Class to 2 Class service ie only Biz and EY.</font>

Would those 340s then be used on regional routes only or are CX planning on eliminating F from some long-haul routes a la Qantas?

[This message has been edited by B-HXB (edited 08-03-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by agmhkg:
more bad news (from their staff website)....CX is considering to convert 3 A34C from 3 Class to 2 Class service ie only Biz and EY.</font>

But wouldn't they be converting the A340 with the OLD first class seats into 2 class?

It would be a waste if they took out the new first class seats they installed on the 34C.

i would be soooo pi$$ed if i expected cx f and got old cx f!!!