Doing some brainstorming about the "why" of the mixed experiences of the new J class service, let me give some thoughts:
- The whole organization of the service is not automated (starting with the lack of handheld devices to "take your order"), which makes it error prone, slow and very labor intensive.
- Because the whole handling is very labor intensive, the cabin crew simply does not have time for one of the major goals of the new service: More interaction with the passengers. Think about the ISM and SP going through the cabin, right after or maybe just before take-off, chatting with the passengers and registering their wishes on a Pad. Including first drink service, etc.
- And the Pad does transmit the passengers' choices to the galley, where the drinks + appetizers are prepared and served right away.
- A lack of automation makes it nearly impossible and very labor intensive to have "multiple" choices. There is no way, the crew does know if and when they will run out of a choice. So crew (and passengers) do complain towards CX and CX does reduces the choices to avoid disappointing passengers with their choice no longer available.
- There does not seem to be much alignment between the origin of the passengers and the availability of choices. Why have a lot of congee, when the passengers are mostly western nationality ?
- The cabin crew seems to be extremely busy in the galley, just to prepare a drinks round, etc. This suggests, the storage of all the items to be served seems to be highly optimized for space, but not for being readily available for serving. When all bottles, glassware and other items are brought on the airplane organized in such a way, it can be used right away, that would save a lot of time for the cabin crew.
- The higher FF passengers get disappointed with the lack of choices available for them.
- The extra text on the menu does not seem to have much relation with the effective menu on offer, which disappoints the passengers.
- The available choices do seem to be (sometimes ?) focused around one major option, for example largely only beef related, instead of a spread like the standard Y choices "beef, chicken, fish, vegetarian".
- The hot parts of the meal are served on cold plating, with the consequence that, if it's not JIT delivery, the meal gets cold and even with JIT, you have to eat "fast" to avoid cold food. Hot food becoming cold, is a major distraction on taste perception. The JIT again gives time pressure towards the cabin crew.
- The meals are considered bland. Yep, it is. What is lacking is sauces. Every chef will tell you "give me sauce". Sauce takes care a meal gets a flavor on top of the basic taste of the solid ingredients. A flavor not mixed throughout the whole food portion, but varying with the solid parts of the meal in varying quantities. Maybe HKG locals can tell, whether this is due to the Asian habit to have all meal parts served at the same time, and soup is becoming the sauce for the other meal parts.
- And a major flaw I think, is the absent for advanced meal selection. When properly implemented, this would be a major cost saving for CX and would give passengers the option to choose upfront a "light" meal, or even skip the whole meal because they want to sleep right away. It also gives another option for positive passenger interaction.
Feel free to "add"
