OK, I'm back from yet another AONE4. Over the past couple of weeks, I had occasion to fly two CX long hauls, LHR-HKG on the 74A, and HKG-JFK in the 77A.

Let me start by saying this up front, so I only have to say it once. Everything I write here is IMO. YMMV.

As I said in my earlier post, there is no question that the 74A is noticeably quieter than the 77A. I have no idea why, but it is. There is also no question that I prefer the 74A. Because there is no walk-through traffic in F, it's simply impossibly to duplicate the feeling of privacy one gets here. The F cabin feels much more like a room than a plane. You also have that nice countertop and magazine rack in front of 4D, which does not exist in any form on the 77A. The countertop is used by the FAs for multiple purposes, -- spread of newspapers on boarding, then display of wines during early flight, followed by chocolates and water later in flight. There's also a pretty good magazine selection underneath. There were no magazines on my 77A flight, the only rack being the individual one in each suite. In mine and the one behind, the racks were empty.

I find that the suites, themselves, are identical. The video screen movement limitations in seats 1A and 1K on the 74A do not exist on the 77A. As far as I can tell, the interior of each suite on the 77A is identical.

On the 77A, I find the seats on the left side much more private than those on the right. Seats 1D and 2D open to the right aisle, thus facing 1K and 2K. On the left aisle, 1A and 2A have privacy, as the D seats have a wall on the left side, with the opening on the right.

The 74A has it all over the 77A for lavatories. 77A has two for the F cabin, both at the front. The one on the left (the outside wall) is the slightly larger of the two, and is, perhaps, 2/3 the size of the ones on the 74A. Definitely larger than a standard airplane lav, but not up to the excellence of the 74A. The one opposite it is an interior lav, and is even smaller, only marginally larger than the standard airplane lav. This was a big disappointment. The generous size of lavs on the 74A makes it much easier to change into one's sleep suit, plenty of room to move around. I'm not sure what the layout problem on the 77A was, but this should have been done better.

There have been some comments about noise from the galley. On my flight, all three seats in row 1 were occupied, as well as 2D. 2A and 2K were empty, for 4/6. I sat in 1A. I noticed absolutely no noise from the galley. The divider curtain, which the FAs religiously kept closed tight, seemed to be made of a fairly heavy material, and I'm sure that this helped. Perhaps I had a more considerate crew than other posters, but, as I said, no noise. In fact, the only impediment to sleep was the customary temperature problem. I did get about five hours of sleep, which was fine.

FA service was excellent on both flights, not a negative comment to make, -- pretty much perfect service. Glass kept filled without asking (which resulted in my drinking far too much Krug far too early in the long HKG-JFK flight). Once the FAs found out that I love caviar and Balik salmon (I once had an entire meal of it on a LAX-HKG flight when I was the only F pax), they just kept bringing me fresh plates of the stuff (three) until I said no more. No one ever hovered, but there seemed to be a FA there whenever I looked up to see if I would have to press the call button because I wanted something. My call button went unused.

Food. Here's an item which most posters seem to agree has gone downhill. I've only been flying CX for a bit over two years, and, on the long hauls, always in F. Comes to between six and eight long hauls/year. The food has been fine. OK, I don't really know that much about Asian food generally, so perhaps I'm not in a position to judge. But from a perspective of do I enjoy it? Yes, I do. It always tastes good. On other, related issues, table setup always perfect, hot food served hot, cold food served cold. While I usually eat only Chinese foods when on CX, on this last flight, I did break down and try the chocolate mousse. Then I had another. They were quite good, better than many restaurants on the ground.

So, back to the original topic? While I do prefer the 74A to the 77A, it's not really by all that much, and I would hardly say that F in the 77A is worthy of "hate." Both of my recent F experiences were actually quite nice.