Finally boarded a plane with the new Y, here's my take on it.

Seat Comfort - very good cushion and the seat is definitely comfortable sitting on it. Seat does recline surprisingly steep, which is good for sleeping but no good to the person behind you (more on this later.)

Tray table - folded table that you have to unfold if you want to put a tray on it. When folded there's a drop down ring for your cup to rests in without opening the tray.

IFE - touchscreen and it does take a little bit to get used to if you are used to the old system. For me everything makes sense and it does make things easier once you figured everything out. One thing is the Playlist, you have to actually click Music --> CD --> select a particular CD before you are able to see the "Playlist" button. Would think once you created a playlist you shouldn't have to go through all that trouble to want to play it, but it's a minor thing.

Other Bells the Whistles - an USB plug for your iPod, there is a row of insert about an inch deep that lets you put in small things. But there are holes for the insert so in my flight experience whatever I put in, due to turbulence, usually pops out through the holes, why the holes are needed I don't know because they are not big enough for you to reach in and grab something, but big enough for whatever things you put in to manage to skip out. Bottom of your seat has an electric plug.

My whole experience: very excited at first, especially when I sat down. However, the excitement is quickly over when the person in front of me did a full recline, which cost the IFE monitor to be very close to my face. The IFE doesn't really tilt that much so if you want to watch IFE if the person in front of you reclines, there's really only one choice, recline fully yourself so your eye-coordination can see the screen. Needless to say, you can't do any work on the laptop when the person before you reclines, which is bad for me as I usually crank in 3-4 hours of laptop work on flight, this time, zero.

However, once you are in the recline position your chin awkwardly is force against your chest if you want to watch IFE, so you're not in the best of position to enjoy the show. But for those that wants to sleep, the new Y will be a god-sent as it is great for sleeping.

Because the new Y reclines so steep, the person behind you, if inconsiderate, will hold down your seat when he/she gets out, had that happened to me all freaking flight.... Touchscreen makes the pax behind you keep pushing it. I notice the touchscreen is really sensitive, a very very light tap on it and they respond. However, most pax thinks you have to pound on it, so if you have a pax like that behind you, you can kiss a good night sleep goodbye....

Quality is another concern. My IFE sound is literally going crazy. First at full volume I can barely hear it, then from time to time it will be very loud, and then back to barely audible, and finally half-way through the flight it simply died, no sound whatsoever. After 4 different headsets and two resets the sound won't come back, so the Cabin head puts me into another seat in the back of the cabin with a working IFE. Pretty awkward because the lady sitting there had a whole row to herself, and you can guess she was not please at all when I arrived....

The poor fellow next to me is worst, his IFE is stuck in map mode, and after repeated resets it's the same, only map mode. When he clicks on the button he gets a different sets of selections (call crew member, screen off, etc.) different buttons but not one that says exit like other people's IFE, you have to exit the map mode to get the IFE main page. But I guess he isn't an elite member because the crew simply gave up and pretty much said too bad and left him be (well, they didn't do it that way, but might as well, after a few attempts they told him it can't be fixed and stopped. The pax took it, I would have never....)

Anyway, overall, I would say it's an improvement and very good seat. Finally able to sleep well again in Y. Good job CX!

I guess it's more important now in new Y to secure extra legroom or bulky and seats so no one will recline into your space.

My experience with Cradle Y to Sydney (night flight outbound/day fligth return) was similar http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...seat-2.html#24

Actually I didn't notice the pounding IFE. Or that it goes in my face in recline. No IFE quality issues on mine. But maybe I was merely lucky that flight.

I used to watch episodes on my laptop before but I don't carry my laptop around any more.

I had more concerns about the service.

I've been back on a 74K hard shell seat this hol. After a few rides on Cradle and some other airline's 77W the hard shell was horrible in comparison....

Actually is the old hard shell seat better so that the space is protected ? I travelled on it before, if you add a few cushions it is fine and I actually like it and rally
Hate the traditional recline when 50% of the pax always reclines into ur face

I think in general the new Y is great. The IFE is the only problem at the moment. On my flight, I had a problem with my TV too. Audio was barely working and the blue button (controls audio/brightness/crew call) wasnt working. It took me ages to get someone to reset it because I couldnt call the crew!

The ISM said CX were having problems with audio on this new system. Hopefully they get it fixed.

I had a chance to try the new Y on a 77H last week, albeit on a regional 3+ hour flight. I felt the seat was a lot more comfortable than the old sliders. I enjoyed the recline. I enjoyed the touchscreen. I like the little things like the USB and cup holder.

Fortunately for me, the pax in front of me didn't use his recline button all flight. But from the looks of others, it's not something I really need to experience.

i flew in on regional flight. Agree seat itself is very comfy particularly the lumber support they finally got it right. Miles apart from old fixed seat. The recline thing is pro/con, but for a overnight flight to/from SYD I guess I won't be watching much of a movie... it's different if you got a day flight from North america, i guess...

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P.S. on the USB charger and new under-leg power socket - better placing than hard shell. In hard shell you have to have your tray table down to use power.

What does being an elite member or not has to do with the fact that they couldn't solve the problem

After years of grumbling that the seat did not recline, now passengers grumble about the recline and TV in your face!!!


Some people on this forum are hilarious!

I miss the old seats

Well let me tell you - as a Gold pax, the same happened to me and the response of the cabin crew was pretty similar. They were not terribly interested in fixing the problem and said that I could change my seat if I liked. I said fine, give me another set of 4 contiguous seats where my family can sit and where the IFE works on all 4 of those seats. They didn't.

At the end of an excruciatingly long HKG-JFK flight, I got a $50 duty free coupon for my trouble, which to me is worth less than the paper it's printed on.

The cabin crew attitude is that "it's a new plane, it's bound to have teething issues, you should expect that things will not work 100% properly. We have more important things to do than fix your IFE."

I had 2 long haul flights in Y in the 77H and I thoroughly enjoyed both flights. I'll repeat myself a little from what I wrote in the Y+ experience:

Seat: I loved it. One of the most comfortable Y seats out there - good to see that CX finally listened and brought this new product out. The padding and back support beats the old product by so much that I'd go out of my way to get the new seat.

IFE: the touchscreen is very responsive and the quality of the video is superb - better than that of the Y+ seat. Far clearer. It just takes a little while to get used to - the blue button that lights up when motion is detected in front of the screen is for the FA call button, brightness, volume and the reading light. To 'wake' the system up again, you touch anywhere on the screen and not that blue light..

Storage - I couldn't see any IFE boxes.. Either that or they were small enough to not even be detected. I could fit my biggish laptop bag under the seat in front of me upright yet I couldn't even put the same bag under the Y+ seat in any way I tried. The little storage places are quite handy too.

I didn't encounter any of those issues mentioned above - I had B-KPD when it was the latest to be refurbished and on the return, I had B-KPR.

I can confirm no IFE boxes where they used to be (at least in A/K seats on the A330s where I sit).

I guess I'm lucky then (or being DM really helps.) Everytime I had IFE trouble (my memory is 3 times, but probably more in reality, shows you the quality issue of IFEs) I had the cabin head personally come over to apologize, try their best to fix, and if not they will actively find another aisle seat with working IFE for me, and if no aisle seat can be found, they usually give me $200 USD on-board purchase voucher (which, like many said, is pretty useless...) and continue the apology. This last time the ISM personally came over to asked me if I was taken care of with the issue.

Why is 200usd useless? There are a lot of options to purchase ?