Yes, there is reasonable chance F will be swapped out. Equipment swaps are pretty much standard operating procedure for CX on short-haul (<5 hour) flights. Whilst I suspect they endeavor to keep their schedules in tact, plenty of changes happen between scheduling and the day of departure, and the way CX manages their equipment is that regional flights are absolute first to get subbed in and subbed out. CX is excellent about hard-product integrity on mid and long-haul routes, which somewhat comes at the expense of short-haul swaps. Very common.

The major complaints tend to be from pax hoping for long-haul biz downgraded to regional biz, and F pax where services is changed to planes without F (which usually means down to regional J).

There are a lot of threads about this, you can read through the anger and explanations on these pages. I'm using advanced search - what I've posted just scratches the surface of all the threads out there related to and tangential to this topic - but this can gives you the gist.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...bkk-hkg-f.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...p-hkg-cgk.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...equipment.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...or-travel.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...quip-swap.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...f-bkk-hkg.html

Are you being cheeky my friend? .

No, there aren't. From time to time, certain flights seem to become more "regular". BKK had that for a while with 744, PEK with 77W, right now TPE with 77W for an early morning departure. But unlike Japan, where those flights have stayed okay for years, the other regional destinations tend to be more consistent some quarters and less consistent other quarters, and once you think you've identified "consistency" due to months of regularity the route can change on a dime and suddenly 773 makes a regular appearance instead of 77W. I think it has to do with CX's fleet management inc. new deliveries, new route launches, maintenance schedules, etc. The only conclusion I really can draw is that unless you're flying to HND regionally (formerly KIX, but apparently this is ending), you should not bank on F unless you're cool with disappointment.

there are some patterns I suspect to be distilled....morning to TPE is less likely to get subbed out than BKK recently, MNL and CEB have been fairly regular morning 77W departures recently after falling off for a while...but over the years it just seems patterns can change on a dime. Except for KIX and HND, which were basically as reliable as long-haul dispatches.