After many years of loyally supporting SQ I finally gave up due to:

1. An ability to get confirmed F seats with constant waitlists as contract fares are considered and treated by SQ not as volume discounts but as distressed inventory sales. If they can get $5 more from somone off the street rather than a loyal customer they will. Ok, not my idea of good business but it sure is their perogative.

2. Inability to get F seats on A380's for less than Double the fare of a 747 F seat. As the London flights have switched to A380 they have insisted on a huge fare premium of 200% or so whilst allowing an extra 6% or so miles. Time will tell whether its worth 6% more or 100% more. I suspect by the time they capitulate it will have cost them a lot of customers!

3. Constant devaluation of the Frequent flyer program. Funny how its never degraded only changed! The current sales are a step in the right direction so some kudos but still no recognition of loyalty from their loyalty program!

So I gave up and afetr much consideration finally changed to Cathay and yesterday did my first CX flight in over 20 years, a Business class sector AKL-HKG.

Overall impression (admittedly after a sample of only one flight and as the head flight attendant welcomed me on my first flight I must assume that care was taken with the first sector to get things right) very good.

To be fair SQ is a great airline in the air, but so is Cathay and I would rate some aspects such as business class Food, Amenity kits and Beverage selections as significantly better. I'll wait to see how F compares, but I would expect just fine.

However what turned it for me was what happens on the ground.

With CX more flexibility, no more waitlists, two late evening departures out of London instead of the mad dash to make SQ's one 747 (soon to be 777) departure at 6pm. As a bonus also the fares are lower than my SQ contract rates.

I would also have to say the CX ground staff I dealt with were very good to deal with. SQ's local people were also very good but had their hands tied with rigid head office rules. The CX people seemed to have more flexibility locally.

Its not all perfection. CX's people have warned me getting availability of frequent flyer seats with them is a pain. But so far I'm impressed.

They have done what they said they would without exception including confirming a lot of forward booking seats, including a few last minute changes on this trip with no availability issues.

The service has been as good overall if not better than SQ's.

So here is the final rub. If SQ matched everything CX have done would I now switch back. No, I don't think I would.

I enjoyed my time with SQ, if it hadn't been for their rigidity causing me endless hassles I would not have looked around.

But having done so I'm glad I did.

I wish SQ well, its a great airline. But I feel its lost its customer focus, which is a real shame. I hope it finds it again soon!