Originally Posted by
Happy
Her benchmark unfortunately was SQ F, OZ J and F, TG J and a mixed bag of European airlines Js. (All UA and US partner awards from what I understood so you could know mainly what airlines were involved.)
Speaking terms of hard product, SQ Suites are nicer than CA F on the 77W (I say this almost categorically), and OZ F is a toss-up, but the business class comparisons are simply ludicrous, to the extent that you should question the credibility of her opinion. Again, we're talking about the hard product in isolation here.
Also another friend whose family flew CA coach PEK-JFK last year and said it was among the worst airline service they had ever experienced. He said they forgot to serve 2nd meal or snack or whatever even they inquired midflight. Then the FAs rushed to served both a meal and a snack right after each other less than 2 hours before landing. Lucky for the family to save the snacks as their plane was diverted to BOS or PHL, I forgot the details. NO PA Announcement whatsoever. Then they did not deplane for hours.... A very poor experience overall. I suggested it was probably language barrier. He said, No, they simply did not have the concept of Service. It is a cultural thing. Well...
Yes, CA's service can suck at times, but F is honestly pretty decent (again, read the trip reports), and since your goal is to sleep, you shouldn't require much hand holding as long as the seat is good enough to facilitate this objective.
I trust Lucky's trip reports than most others. The kid basically flies every other week it so seems. Enough samples he experienced. Like the other friend said, it is more like a "cultural thing", sadly.
I will say this again: the report you quoted was about a flight on a DIFFERENT AIRLINE.