unclpaully

What type of business class is currently running on CX684 BOM-HKG? I searched through the threads and couldn't tell whether to expect the new regional business or the long haul business. CX and flightaware are saying A333, but I'm not familiar with the equipment types.

midlevels

I know the answer, but will instead tell you to read the sticky FAQ: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...-about-cx.html

unclpaully

fair enough - thanks for the direction.

mayodave

Just make a dummy booking and you should get to see the seat plans which will show you what type of seat is being used.

midlevels

I hope that OP has now read the FAQs and got the answer. In case it wasn't clear from the FAQ, the answer to the question is that it's the latest (Cirrus) version of the longhaul business class on CX684/685 and CX696/699.

mayodave

Also very often aircraft switched at last minute on these routes

midlevels

No - on BOM route aircraft swap is very uncommon. Only for tech reasons and that happens rarely.

unclpaully

I did. My bad - I should have known better.

mayodave

CX tried to make sure they were consistent with new C class product but the plane that is used on this route is also capable of flying much further distances and can be used as a substitute for other long haul routes. The key complaint being received was that people were paying for and expecting new style business class and were getting old style regional business class.This was a major complaint on the KUL route also. I should have made it clear when I stated the aircraft gets swapped, I am talking about the business class seats. As I understand it as of today the aircraft should almost always have new style 33G business class except when aircraft is needed for other routes when they would use 330 style which is the awful 2 x 2 x 2 seating. They will not guarantee the new style but are fully aware of getting the right product in place and getting rid of the horrible 2x2x2 seating.

midlevels

How do we swap the business class seats only leaving the rest of the plane unaffected?

Really to BOM these days 99% of the time you are going to get a long haul business class product. Yes, maybe 1% of the time you might find yourself disappointed but even that is very unlikely because this is also a route where Y+ is sold as a separate class on all flights and there are no regional aircraft that have Y+.

In recent memory I can only think of an incident a few years ago when a 33B was downgraded to a 333 on this route for tech reasons. I probably organise at least 30 round trips a year to BOM for myself and various others and I can tell you that in the last 24 months (at least) there have been no regional aircraft operating on any of the sample of 120 flights that I am aware of.

I personally fly this route very often also, and in the last 12 months I have taken various flights to BOM, sampling F, J, Y+, and Y.

Too much travel

I've never experienced a long-haul plane being swapped out for a regional plane on the BOM route.