I fully agree. The toilets on the 747 were a disgrace, both ex HKG and HND. Perhaps the Mainland issue relates to the competition that exists on some routes. What Shenzhen Airlines did on those flights would have cost very little, eg, Pepsi poured from a common bottle. But at least they did it.

From the virgin group the only real match to Cathay is probably virgin Atlantic's business class , al other cabins and airlines under that group are not up to the Cathay Standard.

Chinese airline have a lot of money to through around yes but most of them do not even have TV in all their seats and if they do its only in Chinese!!!-

I mean if Cathay was more expensive and had worse service then chinese airlines in spite of for some strange reason having better hard and soft products than the chinese airlines, why are people still flying Cathay , why is it that Air China China southern and China eastern constantly need money and not Cathay!!!!!!!

Or are you saying people in China are so stupid they fly Cathay or dragonair to china at a higher prices and a lower service

If anything the service standard has to be higher!!!!!!

And yes Hong Kong is a CX hub but the chinese airlines also have their own hubs that cover more international longhaul destinations than cathay.

Also Cathay seems to among full service airlines be doing the best in southeast asia , Singapore airlines in the last four years has just lost market share in its home market and is struggling to fight against it competitiors!!!

I haven't tried Cathay PE but Virgin's is outstanding http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...m-economy.html .

Their new UC ("Dream Suite") is a reincarnation of CX's coffin class with "opaque panels" http://www.ausbt.com.au/photo-tour-v...am-suite-seats . It already has negative TR http://v-flyer.com/forum/index.php?f...rb_v=viewtopic

Home-turf advantage I guess - prejudices (HK people against Mainland airlines), language problems (Canto/Mando both ways) etc.

And the goodwill factor that makes some HK people always fly CX (like my parents) no matter what the objective evidence is. Same reason my boss always banks at HSBC I guess (even tho the fees are so high).

Maybe true for PRC as a whole but not for PRC as individual ports.

Also, MCT for some PRC ports are atrocious (e.g. PEK http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-time-pek.html). Might be more convenient to simply pass through HK.

PRC-International fares have more discounts but aren't that much lower than CX for peak travel.

SQ's being toasted by a traveller on Bloomberg http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/singa...-arrogant.html

I guess CX is still a top airline overall but the advantage it has over other airlines is shrinking, and other airlines can offer better service on individual routes.

Disagree. Check out Virgin America's Y class with free WiFi access and I personally it's better than CX's Y class.

Multiple exclamation marks are unnecessary in a Forum discussions. :D:D:D I can't see anyone saying Chinese airlines are having better soft/hard products from this thread? I think people's point in the previous comments are CX's toilets sometimes are even worse than the Chinese airlines' ones. It's talking about CX's standard of cleanness dropped rather than saying CX's service standard is worse than Chinese airlines.

I don't see the logical linkage between CX's fare and service and the demand of fund injection of Chinese airlines in your comment. Mind to clarify what you try to say?

Who is "you" and who are saying people in China are stupid? Mind to quote the source? I can't find it in this thread.

Really? Where do you learn that CX has the best full service in SEA? Does CX takes the market loss that SQ made? Sorry correct me if I am wrong but I thought CX's network in SEA is pretty weak. I thought SQ has to face a stronger challenge from MAS or AirAsia rather than what CX presents to them in SEA... it might be a stronger one when talking about broader international market like to Europe/North America.

Oh... check out Y fares SYD-LAX by CX, CA and MU... CX's fare is at soar high $2800+AUD while some fares that MU offers via Shanghai/CA via Beijing is at $1200+AUD.

How many Mainlanders will fly SYD-LAX? It's for Yanks and Aussies. What dates are you searching for anyway?

Sample peak season fares 14 Jul-29 Jul direct to SYD (all fares exclude tax and surcharges):
priceline.com.hk QF ex HKG: HK$6,380
priceline.com.hk CX ex HKG: HK$9,690
ctrip.com CA ex PEK (13 Jul dep): RMB8,410
ctrip.com MU ex PVG: RMB8,490
ctrip.com CZ ex CAN: RMB8,020

Anything's cheaper once you're not involving the home port anyway. TPE-SYD on CX J for those dates costs HK$16.4K whereas HKG-SYD direct costs HK$30K for those dates.

See your point. Thanks.

Anything's cheaper once you are not involving the home port? Ummm... SYD-LAX certainly doesn't start from home port of CX... why it's so expensive? It almost 1.5x the fare QF offers...which involves it home port.

I randomly picked up the below fare:

ex SYD-LAX: 18July2012/27July2012 QF:AUD2227, CX:AUD3347.

Also ex SYD-JFK: same date, QF:AUD2532, CX:AUD 3740.

Compared to buying seperate tickets from SYD-HKG, HKG-LAX.

QF is going on a fire sale on its international routes...so much so I'm starting to feel bad ticketing my Sep trip to Syd on CX with AM (but I have to burn my miles somehow). But the PRC carriers and Cathay are not following suit - suggests they think they have some staying power with their home-base customers.

CX is just ridiculous on ex SYD-US fares...

It's not only 1.5x more expensive than QF... it's also 1.5x more expensive than AA, which runs SYD-NRT-LAX-NRT-SYD while SYD-NRT is JL... QF's fare to US is sold at a consistent price throughout the year.

If you are bored with CX, you can try a trip to Syd by QF on its A380 with AM. Impressive according to colleagues.

At the Pier now, and I saw someone walk up to the bar and ask for bottled water. The attendant gave him a small bottle of Bonaqua. :D

A small bottle? oh you mean the 500ml... come on that's not a small bottle... you should visit the amazing Qantas business lounge at Sydney International Airport and check out the size of bottle water there...

I bet that's the direction CX heads to.

go ask for "a bottle of evian"
and see if they have it :)

In the Wing now and there are bottles of bonaqua 500 ml