Some year-end reflections as it was a strange travel year for me.

JANUARY: Flew CX to DXB for the first time since 2019. Annoyed that I wasn’t able to use the bookable upgrade for my brother; mea culpa for not reading the instructions/ terms and conditions carefully, but left a bad taste regardless. Onboard, service and food was barely adequate. Oh no, has CX lost it, I thought.


APRIL: Flew QR Business Class to the U.S., but one sector was flown by AA (QR code share number). Took several calls to CX to explain and over a month to get credit. Very frustrating! The only plus was as a DM, calls were answered within a minute. But still — had to explain what a codeshare was! Swore to take my business elsewhere, which I did.


MAY: Turkish Airlines. Great food. Liked the bedding. Seats on A350 a bit tight, but alright. But found the FAs odd — disappeared after meal service. Hated the toilet location — right next to Economy class curtain so of course the folks in the front part of Y used it. Had to queue every time. FAs indifferent, chatting away.


JUNE: Etihad. Very good in general, but again, service was inconsistent. Cabin was half-empty GVA-AUH, and it still took over an hour after take off to get the appetizer. The hyped Armani casa bedding was just a blanket. Huh? No mattress pad? Extra pillow? Inflight entertainment not as extensive.


JULY: SQ. Generally very good, as always. Still not a fan of the “get up and flip over to sleep” seats. And why is the Lobster Thermidor more cheese than lobster nowadays?


AUG/OCT: More QR x 2. Generally quite good food and service. Liked the new Al Mourjan garden lounge. But no real recognition for Emerald on QR. Concluded that I don’t really like the Q suite in spite of the better privacy — kept bumping my knees on the tray/TV console. Slept better on the ancient 777s they use on DOH-MNL. Fully flat, no impediment from above! (A minority opinion, YMMV of course.)


Last Quarter 2023. Realized I was close to 1400 SPs and decided to go for 1600 SPs. I have travel with family next year and the lounge passes and upgrades would be handy.

Decided to take multiple regional trips on CX, combo of Y + J. HKG, BKK, HND.

PROS: Wow, things have improved. Better food than I remembered. Meal with rice, even in Y MNL-HKG! (It used to be a sausage roll or similar, and a juice box.) For one J flight HND-HKG, I even kept the menu for the first time in years! Excellent appetizer, soba and steak (main course). The inflight managers came by and two of them (really nice older ladies), WITHOUT an iPad, said, Why, how lovely to see you again, Mr Felix! I was so astonished I was tongue tied for a second or two!

CONS: Lots of younger FAs struggling/newly trained, forget simple requests like water, or my main meal. (What’s the point of the iPad, then?) Some of those planes are really old. And/or small. Why do they bother with the A321 on MNL-HKG? It’s ALWAYS full. A crowded (Air)bus! Surprised that all flights I took, about 4 roundtrips within 6 weeks late Oct to early Dec, were all full in all classes in all sectors. Even F (HKG) and J lounges (outport) were busy/ full. I was able to get a dining table without waiting, but always had someone next to me. Good for CX, I guess?


Conclusion: Maybe stick with CX another year? DM life is just a tad better, in my experience, esp with IRROPS. Missed a connecting flight to Tokyo due to delayed MNL-HKG; refused their first option of red-eye flight to NRT i/o HND. Got on next morning’s HND flight, plus Regal hotel and dinner voucher for the night. All arranged within 30 mins from landing! Not bad, IMO.


Let’s see how 2024 goes. Wishing everyone happy travels over the holidays!