So the additional 19 seats on a long-haul aircraft being sold to London at probably $4k each totals around $80k. Will they lose the 8+ people who were willing to pay $10k/seat now since everyone suffers regardless of the fare they paid?
I certainly would try to avoid CX in future and I usually don't buy the bargain basement Y fares.
I'm not sure why "invisible" IFE boxes are a selling point. I thought they were already removed from under the seats. And increased IFE screen size doesn't really matter when it is 1 foot away from your face, and a bigger screen doesn't help you sleep better.
Having flown EK Y and compared to CX Y IFE screen size, bigger is definitely better. 10-abreast, not so much.
But time and time again it is shown that price wins. 10 is the standard 777 width and CX needs to get with the times whether we like it or not. You and 7 others may choose other airlines instead of 10K Y fares, but it isn't like the seat would be going out empty either.
I'd bet going slimline seats like AC Y at the same time will net CX around 30 total extra on the 77H, and 50 on the 77G. Depending on how J heavy the A350-1000 goes, I could also see CX removing a few J seats across the 77Ws to drive up yields and place in extra rows of Y instead.
The timing of the seat retrofit, once CX already has many A350-1000s on property taking over 77W routes, could also signal moving of some older 77Ws to a regional config to flog around Asia.
EDIT: I see the article mentions 19/29 extra specifically. That's far fewer than I expected.