Cathay Boy

The current 77G plane type doesn't work well for EWR. For the last 3 EWR flights I flew the J cabin = FULL, PE = 85%, Y = 30% (seriously, almost everyone had their own row to sleep in), all 3 flights this happened.

With such super high volume of premium fliers CX should change plane type for EWR. JFK is the volume Y fliers based in NYC (also premium fliers because it's NYC), EWR attracts more higher fare fliers because it serves in higher income area (surprise CX doesn't know this?)

kaka

have they got enough 77H tho?

freakinflyer001

Should do.. Only ZRH and BOS coming up that needs a 77H, the other new 77W services (MAN, AMS, CDG, FCO, SYD) are all 77G.

The 77H:77G ratio currently stands at 30:14, and KQS/KQT should be 77G

CuiDawei

Pretty much same observation from me at the start of the month. J completely full, I think PE was pretty much full as well and econ around the 40%/50% mark. Need to move to 77H ASAP in my opinion. I also had a hard time moving from Sat departure to Fri departure as J completely full. Finally got wait list confirmed a couple of days before departure.

sxc

When I have checked (not recently) J redemption is much easier ex-EWR vs JFK. I wonder if CX is releasing a lot more premium redemption on EWR hence full premium cabins?

jona970318

I think there was a short discussion on the initial EWR launch thread about77G and 77H. One claimed that EWR does not have a premium enough market to support F and 77G. It is also a factor that CX is currently short on 77H to support some markets (SFO, for example)

ieuan1

I think everyone tries to upgrade on the long flights. I flew QF DFW-BNE a few months ago and tried to upgrade from economy. I couldn't-the premium cabins were full but there was a lot of space in economy to spread out.

wrldtrav2013

I think there's not enough of a market for F for an equipment switch, if you want to take F you'll most likely go to JFK, which isn't too much of a trek. Having flown this route 4 times this year from JFK and 2 from EWR, I found that J and PEY are full, but economy is about 50% at EWR. Mind you this is during a Sunday where its business traveler heavy. My mom took the flight on a Friday and it was back heavy where as PEY was full but J was only 60% full, from EWR. F at JFK is about half full at best, keep in mind these are my observations. Not to mention CX has 30 only 77H and 15 77G. Many routes have F, so there aren't enough aircrafts to go around. It could be possible that EWR wants to clear as many mileage upgrades as possible to fill the front, wonder what percentage actually pays for J.

jamienbaker

Still true today, absolutely. I see 5 available in J on most days.

QRC3288

Fwiw, on my 2 ex-ewr flights J was empty once and 75pct another time. But the second time was deceptive as a bunch of ID pax were processed to fill out J at the end. It probably would've gone out 50pct without the ID pax.

Heard from a few crew who flew last week with 80 pax in Y. That's about 30pct. Seems consistent eith the observations.

Given BOS, ZRH rollout and SFO switching a 77G to 77H I am not sure if there are spare frames to 77H?

Personally i can see my own behavior skewing back to JFK. I've already changed my flying patterns back to JFK... the whole operation there just is more professional. Plus 4x dailies means if a plane goes tech i wont be screwed. JFK is catered better in J class and all the flights have F. Had two substandard experiences at EWR and I don't see why I should keep trying for trying sake. I think I've done 5 trips to NY this year fwiw. At this stage I will only take EWR if I'm doing a DC, Baltimore, Philly meeting and need to depart afterwards. Otherwise for me, my Newark experiment is over.

My strong suspicion is premium yields ex EWR aren't as high as JFK. It is easier to score award availability on EWR IME. I think J loads could look fuller due to considerably fewer J seats. I don't have the figures but my judgement was on my only two ex EWR flights (in J) this year, the crowd was significantly less business atmosphere than an ex-JFK flight or midnight ex-SFO departure. In my mind I prefer traveling with fellow businessmen who are usually alone, quiet, and sleep a bit. Now as to how accurate this ACTUALLY is....I have no idea

My other suspicion is EWR is underperforming expectations. Lack of AA traffic matters. The lack of Y traffic is also a problem considering that flight was expecting to have significant Y demand. On premium side It could be made better for guys like me (aka, willing to try both NY airports) with more dailies and a more professional operation, but that seems like a significant gamble given little OW presence at EWR and the no-so-great load factors already plaguing the route. If CX has the slots i cant see why not commit more traffic to JFK instead. Seems like a tough situation.

GE90-115B

EWR may remain as a YYZ kind of destination where pax mostly belong to the "visiting friends & family crowd", while on the other hand it may have a slightly more premium loads than YYZ due to the fact that it's in New York after all. This flight won't make as much money as JFK for sure, but I don't really foresee CX cutting capacity in the future. In some ways YYZ and EWR are similar, both have a rather insignificant amount of Oneworld presence, both have light premium demand and both use a 77G. If YYZ can sustain a 10x daily frequency (which might even become 2x daily by 2016 depending on 77G delivery rate according to CX), EWR capacity is likely to stay this way for some time yet.

QRC3288

I had initially written the EWR flight vibe felt similar to me as YYZ does! Somehow got deleted as I was posting from a mobile phone but I totally agree. The in-flight vibe YYZ and EWR feels similar

cx826

YYZ used to have double daily before, but cut together with 884 and 845 before, now both 884 and 845 back to daily but 828 remain three weekly till now. may be cx can use 359 for 828 and 77g for 826 double daily.

wrldtrav2013

I've found that YYZ premium traffic is crazy now a days. Flew in May of 2013, 2014 as well as September of 2014 and J was packed. I was actually offered to downgrade for 23XX but declined, PEY on all flights ended up being full and so was Y. I find that YYZ is very much like EWR but packed like sardines, but my experience was on the red-eye flight leaving YYZ at 1:40 am. This could be that red eye flights have more premium passengers due to a good connecting time in HKG.

maortega15

I doubt we will see the A359 in the eastern US let alone ultra longhaul despite the manufacturer saying its capable of doing so.

I haven't done any EWR flights yet, but from what I've heard they were looking to add a second daily flight.