When did you hear this? It's quite outdated information that might have been appropriate in 1995 but now things are remarkably different.

CA on the 748, 788 and 773 are excellent. Food is good, staff attitude on board is MILES better than on the US carriers and if you go via Beijing the connections are there like few other places can offer. I'm also a fan of what Hainan is doing. Nobody is smoking on board. The biggest issue you have is that everyone starts trying to get up and storm to the doors as soon as you're off the runway but tell me an airline where cabin crew doesn't have to content with that. I'm a bit sad that CA doesn't have Wifi but hey, that's something I can overcome. They use the LH lounge in JFK.

My favorite airline in Asia is ANA. Hainan is good. China Eastern is kinda so-so, I don't actively dislike them but also don't seek them out. Singaporean is of course amazing but expensive. Cathay is going down and no longer IMHO deserves the stellar reputation it once had.