Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Cabin Crews in Y

I've been hearing many reports and feedbacks that these days the attitudes of some cabin crews serving economy, in particular the HK Chinese Crews, can be as bad as the ones on US-based airlines. Is that true?

I am not particularly sure on this situation but has CX ceased recruitment of flight attendants from Thailand, Taiwan, Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan over the past year or so and the majority of the remaining crews of these nationalities are in senior positions that perform in the premium cabins as oppose to the back? So in the back, you are mostly getting these HK Chinese Crews in which some still have a poor grasp of customer service?

The problem is that maybe those premium crews are somehow "required" to serve passenger more politely, since those passengers pay significantly more than those in Y. Well this obviously doesn't happen in all cases, but that's how most of them work.

In short, I think the crew service is determined more by which cabin the crew is serving, instead of his/her nationality.

cmiiw

I've been hearing many reports and feedbacks that these days the attitudes of some cabin crews serving economy, in particular the HK Chinese Crews, can be as bad as the ones on US-based airlines. Is that true?

I am not particularly sure on this situation but has CX ceased recruitment of flight attendants from Thailand, Taiwan, Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan over the past year or so and the majority of the remaining crews of these nationalities are in senior positions that perform in the premium cabins as oppose to the back? So in the back, you are mostly getting these HK Chinese Crews in which some still have a poor grasp of customer service?

For awhile, there was some discontent voiced on forums as to the service attitude of CX's Y cabin crew. Some time later CX announced that they were recruiting from a wider source of Asian nations and the comments seemed to have become less frequent. Im not sure if there's a link, this is just an observation.

I understand your point, the problem was also apparant in J class as well. For me the problem wasn't so much where people came from but more their confidence and experience.

My understanding is that it was several years ago that they stopped recruiting outside HK (with a few exceptions - Japan, LHR, YVR) but that it was about a year ago that they saw the error of their ways and restarted recruiting in South and SE Asia.

As others have said, the frequency of bad reports seems to have declined, but I have little first hand experience since I fly very little these days, and almost never in CX Y.

Bear in mind they lost a big bunch of crew to Oasis

They seem to be quite OK, at least in the cabin sections I have been in lately. Many - not just SPs (I saw them once a while in Y) and FPs, but also the BCs - are very friendly.

For my recent experience on CX, I found that those in purple/violet jackets are having the worst attitude in serving Y class passengers. However, the junior (in red jacket) and seniors (in black jacket) are more professional and very cheerful no matter how long the flight is.

...has CX ceased recruitment of flight attendants from Thailand, Taiwan, Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan over the past year... HK Chinese Crews still have a poor grasp of customer service?

CX still continues to recruit crews from Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and bases them in a huge campus in Gold Coast, HK. CX also has crew bases in London, Los Angeles, Singapore, Bangkok, Toronto and Vancouver with those crew usually serving their home city - HKG and vice versa only. HK makes up about half the total cabin crew whose sometimes poor attitude has not gone unnoticed, and has led to the opening of so many outside bases.

For my recent experience on CX, I found that those in purple/violet jackets are having the worst attitude in serving Y class passengers. However, the junior (in red jacket) and seniors (in black jacket) are more professional and very cheerful no matter how long the flight is.

The ones in purple are SPs. The ones in red are FPs (with black skirt) and BCs (in red skirt). The ones in black are the ISMs.

Most SPs are in the front. You can occasionally see a SP in Y. They may not be as cheerful as the FPs and BCs but they do take care of passengers (even in Y) very well. SPs remember your orders while BCs sometimes forget.

OK cut the jargon and explain what all these codes mean

In order of seniority:

ISM - Inflight Service Manager (as the title suggests)
SP - Senior Purser (F/J)
FP - Flight Purser (F/J/Y)
BC - Bar and Cabin (J/Y)

My apologies - I read my post and found that it was indeed full of acronyms, which were not useful unless the reader is already aware of the ranks. But those aware of the ranks probably know the uniforms already.

(kchika - Thanks)

CX also has crew bases in London, Los Angeles, Singapore, Bangkok, Toronto and Vancouver with those crew usually serving their home city - HKG and vice versa only.
They also have SFO based crews which was developed and started way before the LAX one.

Most SPs are in the front. You can occasionally see a SP in Y. They may not be as cheerful as the FPs and BCs but they do take care of passengers (even in Y) very well. SPs remember your orders while BCs sometimes forget.
To be honest, I have had more cheerful SPs than FPs on my flights.

I've flown in Y quite often LAX-HKG-BOM and back and I've always had very friendly and helpful cabin crew. All my memories of poor cabin crew service involve U.S. airlines.

i must add... that after so many TPE<->HKG flights, i would definitely recommend you guys booking the flights that are bound for Japan after connecting in TPE, their flight numbers begin with CX 5**, I've had awesome Japanese crew taking care of me. ^

i must add... that after so many TPE<->HKG flights, i would definitely recommend you guys booking the flights that are bound for Japan after connecting in TPE, their flight numbers begin with CX 5**, I've had awesome Japanese crew taking care of me. ^
How about 450/451 that continues to/from NRT?