thanks for figuring out the exact info guys.
Indeed, across the board I'm seeing positive "moves" from CX. It remains to be seen if they'll be permanent and/or sticky, but if I can think of major things I'm aware of since Hogg took over just recently:
*A la carte dining indefinitely postponed: a negative to irregular CX fliers, but definitely a positive if you're a frequent CX flier, as low staffing levels would've made this a nightmare. Great idea but just incomplete and siloed implementation and I suspect it would've been a well intentioned catastrophe. Note to CX: Qatar has higher staff: passenger ratio, and frankly is the sweatshop of airlines. JAL to North America is a better model to follow: first meal after takeoff by cart and standardized, and then a la carte the rest of the flight.
*...but the duvet that came out of the J class upgrade is being introduced across long-haul. Yes!
*Hot meals back on some TPE flights (subject of this thread). Great!
*Crew ID ticket fees reduced - in some cases, significantly - for many of the ID ticket buckets. Crew I've talked to are....confused / pleased. (Confused simply because they've been Pavlovian trained over the past 3-5 years that on-the-job things just get worse at CX, not better). This is simply fantastic. Anything to boost crew morale.
*Own-goal idiocy giving the middle finger to high-yield Y and PEY passengers being reversed. Damage is done, but finger is being stuck in the hole in the dam (someone else made that quote, not me, but I thought it was fitting)...instead of bashing at the dam with a sledge hammer as was the case the last 3+ years. I give this a +1. Serious damage has been done but you have to start clawing back somewhere, and this is the most obvious way to start.
*QR now owns 10% of CX. Granted, I *suspect* this wasn't related to current management.