I really think CX isn't using SQ as a benchmark for competition anymore. CX is happy to be a great East Asian airline.

Was CX really happy to allow MH in?

Why not? There's not much representation within ASEAN and they could all feed ultimately to CX's North American destinations cos MH only flies to LAX. Besides CX already cooperates with MH on some routes.

How about segment runs like PVG - HKG - KUL - CGK and back?

Best CX-related news all year for MNL-based pax

I do MNL-KUL & MNL-SIN frequently -- means I'll get Asiamiles for this now.

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Segment run on MH domestic flight should be interesting

Good point.

To me, the seat is the most important part of the product. I know others have different priorities.

It plugs the OW hole in S.E. Asia. But impact on CX should be minimal as all KUL HKG flights are codeshared anyway. IT'll also offer an alternative on Europe/Australia routes by flying via KUL instead of SIN or BKK, but CX doesn't really compete there either.

I suspect other N.E. Asian airlines do not do significantly better than CX on regional seats. That's because most regional flights for CX are not much more than 4 hours, with the exception of flights to India. So the business case for putting in wonderful seats is probably limited.

SQ needs good regional seats as a lot of its regional flights are 6 hours long - you need that much time to get to Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing and New Delhi, and many of these flights are red eyes. It often makes me wonder why on earth so many companies choose to have their Asia Pacific HQ's here.

I agree in Y and regional J but am one of those who prefer the CX long haul coffins to the square SQ J seats, which I dislike as they are too hard and my legs keep bumping into the cutouts when I sleep. SQ's F&B is easily superior too. But when on the ground and/or in distress, there is absolutely no contest - I can rely on the CX front line to help me out effectively and SQ's to refer me to the supervisor's supervisor whilst telling me about their processes and problems (but not solving mine).

Wait till something goes wrong and you need the front line to step up and fix it - I think that's the acid test.

Any examples, KACommuter? @:-)

Sure. Was on PVG/HKG/SIN with 1 hr connection in HKG to the same flight as my wife and kids to SIN. Inbound flight delayed, arrived as the SIN flight took off with wife + kids on board. Was handed new CX boarding pass as I came off the jetway for next CX flight in 3 hours 45 mins. Went to MPC lounge and asked the girls for help. They said:
- No interline agreement with SQ, which had a flight leaving in 1 hr 45 mins.
- Would I mind buying another ticket (no). I said no.
- Oops, SQ flight sold out.

So I resigned myself to a 3 hrs + wait. Was having a drink, and they came back 15 mins later with a seat on the SQ flight I had hoped for:
- No charge.
- Sorry. no aisle seat.
- Please come with us to SQ check-in as there wasn't much time left.

Wrote to CX to compliment them, never received an acknowlegement. Have other cases like this.

Have recounted this and other stories to super SQ PPS diehards. All agree it is as pointless for one to expect this of SQ as it is to expect CX to match SQ's hardware.

Have to fly to MAA often and it's red eye as well - wouldn't mind them having better seats there.

Off-topic: The SIN government offers special deals to multi-national companies like tax rebates, etc. There are many companies who are relocating from HKG to SIN.