I don't think it's mostly a cost cutting thing from CX's standpoint. Case in point : I travelled mostly from the US westcoast to HKG and onward. From LA, I mostly take the late nite flights, CX881 or CX883. And for the last 6 months, they did not even bother with the caviar/salmon cart service. They would just ask you when they take your meal order.
Now, I just got back on CX872, HKG SFO, a 430PM departure. There were 5 of us on the 744, they would not roll out the cart ( and from a conversation with a male senior FA, I can surely deduce that he did not want to chip in to help the other 2 female less senior FAs, thus they did not do the cart service ).
Can someone here share in their experience on other longhaul CX service, about this cart service issue ?
And when the whole 744 fleet is converted to the 74A configuration, we can all forget about cart/seat side service, both in F and J.
We all know that in F, because of the seat configuration, it does not make sense to do cart service, besides the point of having only 2 FAs for 9 pax max. And that same male senior FA told me, in the 74A, the FAs in C can only run meal tray one at the time, versus their ability to run 2 meal trays at once on the 744s. Thus, more work for the FAs, and slower service for us.
To me, the trade of, for all the rants above is well worth it : better F seats, and fully flat J seats.