Originally Posted by
zrs70
Dear CX sages,
I'm traveling on a Friday night/ Sat morning in July.
1) Is this often a busy time?
If by "busy" do you mean is LAX busy, there are a number of ex-LAX midnight departures. I don't know when you're traveling but I assume you're on CX881, which is the later of two departures. Right now it's departing at 12:30am, not 1:30am, but perhaps that's the timing in July? Anyway, TBIT security can suck and it doesn't matter if you're in F or not.
If by "busy" do you mean will your flight be full in F, impossible to say. All flights can be full or not. LAX loads are generally pretty strong.
Originally Posted by
zrs70
2) I take it most will want to sleep once settled in. When is the main meal service?
As other posters have commented. F is a la carte. Although they do kinda make it feel like you should eat something after takeoff that's not required.
On that flight, the cabin usually sleeps the whole way and has breakfast upon arrival.
Have a search around, read the FAQ, search for "first" etc. There is tons of information about this if you're willing to spend 20 minutes searching on here. Inevitably you won't get the same amount of answers in a single thread. (When I say this has been discussed a lot, I'm talking about thousands and thousands of posts about F class food and service across different threads). So if you're serious about digging in, use the "Advanced Search" function.
Originally Posted by
zrs70
3) For those who have flown the route this time of year, does it tend to arrive on time, or is it often early?
Also impossible to say. CX flight times are already based on the time of year (adjusted shorter/longer in summer for ex-LAX/ex-HKG, and adjusted longer/shorter in winter for ex-LAX/ex-HKG). This time of year is the shortest predicted flying time for LAX-HKG. But if winds are unexpectedly strong, something happens, etc. then it could be late.
In general, I'd say the MO of long-haul flights is to be early.
The real reason you'd be delayed would have nothing to do with weather / winds / etc., usually, but if the inbound aircraft has an issue or there is some problem on departure at LAX.