Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Great crew, shame about the seat

I've just had the pleasure of occupying 1A on CX251. AFAIK, it was a 74J rego B-xOO.

Great welcome, nice crew. The drama started with the loud clunking noises when I pushed the seat recline button. Of course it woke up the whole F cabin.

Crew reset the seat ( :confused: ). Same clunking noises. I had a cold sweat as all seats were occupied in F and J looked full too. The girls gave up and called the male FA. He got stuck into some heavy lifting and pulling and eventually with my help in brute force, we got the seat from fully up to fully flat. Many apologies. The crew manager said something about compensation. I just wanted sleep.

Just before landing, $250 in duty free vouchers appeared. I said that vouchers for future travel would be more useful. She wouldn't accept the Duty Free vouchers back. I was given a survey form which was duely filled out.

The crew did a great job and made a bad situation better for me. I am really disappointed that CX provide a sub standard hard product (I guarantee the seat has failed for others before - and they just keep selling it on every flight) and throw the crew the task of placating the passenger with useless duty free vouchers.

Oh, and to add salt to the wound, this flight was originally a 74A and it was subbed at about 3 weeks prior with the 74J. Of course the next flight that night HKG-LHR was the 74A and F was full. :mad:. Of course, I specifically chose this flight as it was the 74A when booked.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience.

Because of the bad stories I've heard with all these electrical seats, I always make a point of reclining my seat before takeoff so that I can check it works while on the ground.

Because of the bad stories I've heard with all these electrical seats, I always make a point of reclining my seat before takeoff so that I can check it works while on the ground.

Just wondering - supposing the seat is FUBARed and all F/J is full --- would you actually deplane and choose to take another flight ???

Just wondering - supposing the seat is FUBARed and all F/J is full --- would you actually deplane and choose to take another flight ???

I don't know actually. But my thought is that being on the ground at least they can try and get an engineer on board to try fix it and I would have the choice to deboatd. Once in the air my options are more limited.

I don't know actually. But my thought is that being on the ground at least they can try and get an engineer on board to try fix it and I would have the choice to deboatd. Once in the air my options are more limited.

You'd be surprised how often these faults go unattended, particularly out of HK, where there is hardly a shortage of CX ground engineers.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience.

Because of the bad stories I've heard with all these electrical seats, I always make a point of reclining my seat before takeoff so that I can check it works while on the ground.

That is excellent advice. Always always always test your seat once you board. If there's a problem, there are more options while the door is still open.

FAs always know why I'm doing this, and agree with me.

CX seems very good and ignoring or sweeping under the carpet any problems of any sort

You'd be surprised how often these faults go unattended, particularly out of HK, where there is hardly a shortage of CX ground engineers.

I'm sure this happens because of short turnarounds, and when pax don't point it before takeoff. If it was pointed out, at least I would get a chance for it to be fixed.

you wanna bet, it is easier to shove the problem under the carpet until a senior director is advised of the problem and then someone has to do somethig about it

The drama started with the loud clunking noises when I pushed the seat recline button. Of course it woke up the whole F cabin.I had almost exactly the same seat problem a few months ago, but on a 333 from MEL I think. the whole F cabin was full as well, but luckily one seat was occupied by a staff (looks like an off-duty pilot) and so they asked him to switch seat with me immediately and he agreed. they tried to fix it a bit more but I think they gave up finally, and I think the off-duty pilot ended up sitting up reading and watching IFE all the way.

It seemed that the runners that allow the back of the seat to drop down get stuck with the angle that the seat is dragged through the runner. Accordingly, the motor that drives it all makes the gears jump when the seat gets stuck.

When I was helping the FA with the process, it all freed up when I was juggling (forcing) the seat top up and down while he had the seat belt fastened and he sitting on the floor and pulling the belt (and hence the seat) as hard as possible. I think the FA also had released the seat motor drive when we were forcing the seat to move.

Hope that helps someone else if they get the dodgy seat next time.

Oh, by the way, I really dislike the practice of giving out the compensation duty free vouchers just before landing - at the time when there is a rush to close up, the good duty free items have already been sold, and the passenger is just really pissed off about about the whole thing.

too bad about the seat, agree with the others, always check before you leave the gate.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience.

Because of the bad stories I've heard with all these electrical seats, I always make a point of reclining my seat before takeoff so that I can check it works while on the ground.

That is a very good tip! ^