Originally Posted by
HKMatt_S
So I had to make a relatively late notice trip to Jakarta. CX was HK$6.3k (ex HKG) in economy while Garuda was HK$7k in business. Why not, I said, let's give Garuda a whirl ....(CX business was HK$15k or so)
Well, with the exception of the lounge (the Skyteam lounge in HKG is not great) I would have to say Garuda outshone CX business by quite a margin. Wine was better (at least twice the retail price of what CX serves, and Billecart Rose as the champagne), real/full size wine glasses, better food, actual plates/crockery, a decent amuse bouche and excellent, attentive service ....
Seat was not as good as CX long haul but substantially better than CX REgional and perfectly fine for a 5 hour flight
Was a very eye-opening experience for this CX Diamond. Without wanting to put the boot in, CX seems to have some catching up to do ...
Extremely thoughtful post, IMO. Although I agree with
1010101 sadly because of the safety issue.
Originally Posted by
G-CIVC
Same reason why I generally don't look at SIA
Ha mate, in this regard the example doesn't quite hold water with what I've seen. I've been (fortunately or unfortunately) familiar with the likes of Garuda, China Airlines, MH and both Korean carriers for going on two decades. I have generally refused to fly any of those carriers my entire life, and only taken them out of absolute and total necessity. Odds are indeed verrrry low. But, still far higher (IMO) than other regional carriers, and that includes JAL and SQ, which I lump roughly into the same category (I fly both without concern). SQ is far above the bad ones and has made very admirable strides, but indeed SQ is still below the likes of CX, which I consider probably in the top handful of carriers globally when it comes to safety. Of course, I don't think I'm the norm here. Plenty of folks still fly MH. And obviously they seem to be handing points away like candy if I'm reading these posts correctly. But no amount of points are convincing me the culture changed in 2 quick years. I also am aware that this is probably a bit too extreme in the abundance of caution category....but it's what you grow up with and see.
It's true China Airlines poached the maintenance/safety fellow from CX. But the culture there was polluted for too long (same with Garuda and the others). And no kow-towing silly Blogger posts are going to convince me otherwise. I can fly comfortably generally where I want to go, I don't need to go out of my way to fly Garuda F. I've seen a little bit too much of the sausage factory at most of these places.
One of CX's hidden edges to me is the safety. Which the Bloggers are totally clueless to. But I still really like the OP's post, and 100% agree with his spirit...even though I won't be flying Garuda any time soon. The same logic can easily hold true for other carriers where CX is competing and the point is excellent!