Originally Posted by
AlwaysOnTheRoad
I did not think I would come to say this but I am find the food on BA and QF better than that on CX. I fly F long haul on all three of these airlines. CX serves up a dollop of caviar but other than that I have been surprised by the lack of variety of late.
On BA and QF I almost always see a selection of three or four mains. One of these will include a fish dish. On CX I recently flew SFO-HKG, HKG-MEL, MEL-HKG, and HKG-LHR and there was not a single fish course offered on any of these sectors. On all of these flights there was a choice of three mains one of which was Asian, another was always beef and the final choice was pasta.
All of these airlines usually offer a selection of "snacks" between the main meal and a pre-landing service. BA and QF offer a much better selection than CX. On the recent HKG-LHR sector the snacks were a choice of noodles.
Finally, a non-food item. BA and QF both provide a "mattress" for their seats. Maybe I am losing it but this is not true for CX. Certainly not on my recent sectors.
Hi, AOTR. This is a topic which particularly interests me, as 1) sleep and food are the two most important things to me on a long haul F flight, and 2) I fly long haul F on routes mostly serviced by these three carriers. Having said that, I disagree with your perspective.
First, take a look at the menu I just posted on the CX F Menus thread. (I don't know how to insert the link.) Of the two non-Asian main courses for lunch (CX 252, LHR-HKG on August 25), one was vegetarian (stuffed mushrooms with risotto) and the other was fish (pan fried, herb marinated cod). Chinese mains included beef and chicken. (I had the chicken, and it was excellent.) Snacks were also varied, including sandwich assortment, noodle soup and ice cream. This is plenty of variety for me.
That said, QF does have excellent food. The only reason I don't take QF is that I don't care for the hard product, -- no privacy at all to the F seats, as with BA and even more so with new CX suites.
Mattresses? BA has the mattress pad, which, IMO, is just fine. Additionally, of course, BA F will be updated starting at the end of this year, apparently both hard and soft products. Old CX does not, though I use an extra duvet for some additional padding over the seat. I have no particular recollection of QF on this point, although the ISM on my last flight assured me that the 744 hard F product would be updated once all the A380s were online. The new CX suites, of course, have a great bed setup, including a mattress pad.
All told, then, I'm using CX suites for first choice at this point. Any way you look at it, though, all three are pretty good products, and personal preference has much to do with one's perspective.