Originally Posted by
GGLwannabe
Lots of useful info in your post, but did you overlook my point that it was paid flight in F from HKG to Taipei that appear to be reducing from daily until end-October, then down to 3-4 per week until end March, and after that none? I can see paid economy and business class availability well beyond April, so was wondering why I couldn't see any First class seats beyond the end of March.
I know from experience that Cathay have a habit of making last-minute equipment changes (I have had flights in F downgraded to J before). My strategy would be to book First on a flight that also had Premium economy on the basis that such flights were less likely to get changed at short notice having 2 cabins needing to be rebooked.
I wouldn't read into it.
There are rumors from credible posters and I've heard myself from CX employees, saying they're giving back some of the 77H (F equipped birds) to lessors in the next few years. But even then, it's impossible to say what impact this has on the TPE flights being served by 77H.
Just the way the rotations work, CX has a ton of 77Hs on the ground from about 7am, and they reduce throughout the day but the biggest crunch for 77H still happens at midnight - 6am. Even if they return some to the lessors, it wouldn't really explain or make sense of what's precisely happening to TPE. CX is selling TPE those dates on CX metal, just not F, so the theory of KA doesn't make sense.
TPE routes change constantly. Just a few months ago they had 35G regularly booked through the end of the year....and now they've been swapped out for A333. It can go the other way. I wouldn't be surprised to see CX selling F again on the dates you're looking for once they know their spring rotations.
I think what it means is perhaps they don't know exactly what their rotations will look like next year. If anything it definitely points to changes, which are alluded to in other posts (particularly new routes). No point for them to sell F short-haul they don't take it seriously anyway. But one thing seems certain there is no getting around the fact CX has a bunch of F equipped birds on the ground during the daytime and available to deploy regionally. That ain't changing.