Originally Posted by
ermen
i think its a sensible move given the large amounts of complaints about regional aircraft swaps. i do not htink it is practical to "guarantee" a particular aircraft type for their regional route, given the LH birds are rotated into regional service before flying off the following morning.
manage expectations, and reward your J customers with that F seating once in a while.
Originally Posted by
jagmeets
Even though a part of SQ’s long haul fleet (the ULRs) is practically ‘separate’, they do a pretty good job on predictability on their regional rotations, and, the gap between their long and short haul products is a lot smaller than CX’s..
I’m certain that the operational flexibility helps the CX bottom line..but at what ‘cost’? (Customer annoyance leading to changes in purchasing behaviour- case in point: QRC3288 on a relatively higher yielding HKG-SIN).
I'm sad to see F go, but I think it's the right move for routes where CX plays equipment merry go round but has occasionally sold F. TPE, MNL, CGK, BKK, SGN, SIN, etc. CX has been dreadful for years making F predictable on those routes. And, this gives me even more confidence about PEK!
Local O&D cash demand that might exist
if F class was predictable / bankable isn't dumb enough to actually pay for it on those regional routes, knowing how CX operates. So CX ended up up with a business made entirely of a.) connecting cash F tickets, b.) connecting award F tickets, mostly partner bookers it seems, c.) short-haul award bookers. None of it is very high-yielding. "b" and "c" is not even a business on its own. "a" must've pissed so many people off I think it's probably better to set expectations straight. Meanwhile, just based on what I see here you see howls of protests and compensation demands from miffed award bookers which must've made this "business" of short-haul F an absolute nightmare. Fwiw, reading around here award bookers seem to be a very tough group of customers and, at least from the slice I read on here, prone to frequent compensation demands and are definitely more-demanding / aggressive than many of my friends who usually pay for their CX F flights in cash.
As for product predictability, the fact CX doesn't guarantee the product to SIN is precisely why I fly SQ on this route exclusively now. Fwiw. I think it's a positive step for CX to at least admit they're not offering F to SIN anymore, instead of randomly rostering it (and swapping it away) here and there. But for people like me who pay our own way, and are familiar enough with CX to know regional J is a massive step down from a pod to say nothing of CX's dreadful food, a downgrade is an insult to injury. Fortunately I have a choice and a way to express my preference...by flying SQ.
I'll add, SQ F isn't that much more expensive than full fare CX J. CX J runs between 17-24k HKD, whereas SQ F is about 26-27k. If your company is paying for you then you might be more ambivalent, but it's a joke when you're paying out of your own pocket. Worst case scenario, imagine paying 24k+ HKD, expecting 35G with the pod and wifi, and then you get swapped to 773Z J class and are sitting in a middle seat. I've never had all those happen at once but I've had a combination of them. No thank you and this doesn't happen on SQ on the HKG route. Or, you can pay a few k more HKD and fly SQ F. It's really not a question!