QRC3288

I understand your sentiment sounds practical, but in reality I think it's just wrong! I think enough crew are still on their "first few times" doing it, and it is indeed disruptive.

(Or course, I also agree with your implied sentiment I think....that it's just slower, period. That's a shame and I don't think there's anything can be done...)

I am a reasonable yardstick. Ironically, because of how little I've tried the new service in J (I am hardly an expert.) Yet I fly Cathay extensively, and entirely in premium classes. I think I've done about 7 or 8 CX longhauls this year. Yet I only had my first and only experience as a passenger with new service J in October on CX879 coming back from SFO. I highlight this example to say how it's very very possible to fly a ton and still not really be familiar with it.

Plenty of FPs and SPs are regularly rostered in F and Y class, not J. Plenty more took leave, had maternity, called sick, whatever. Others swapped out long haul for short haul flights. This is all very normal behavior, they have 10k+ flight attendants! They don't all just do the same predictable patterns. I can assure you many still haven't done this new J much, if ever. And it slows things down further when they're on board. With 13 or so cabin crew per flight and 6 or whatever it is in J class, you're almost certainly still have multiple crew members who haven't done it more than a couple times before. Over time, yes familiarity will be there. But if you just normally distribute flight patterns, it is going to take a lot longer than the peanut gallery assumes. It's a huge company, tons of staff, and they didn't make the change overnight or even for all the flights. Will take time.

actually, on my sole "new J" flight back from SFO in October I even had one in J for her first time. I have no reason to think she was lying! This corroborates just what I know from crew and other staff I'm familiar with, that it's still relatively unfamiliar territory for many of them.

I'm not really an expert at it, but in my sole experience I say I prefer the old way for the meal service. Plus the options now are still just as limited, but snacks are basically just chucked into this silly newspaper thing to make it look like there are more options. Overall hard to fool folks who fly on the competition I think. But the new bedding and pillow is a definite upgrade and they deserve kudos for a job well done there, although that's somewhat unrelated to the food.