Cebu "meal" service CX921/920
 

Earlier this month I flew CX921/920 to/from Cebu. Cabin flown was PE both ways.

CX921 was a 4pm departure from HKG and meal is shown as refreshments on GDS.

CX920 was an 8pm depature from CEB and meal is shown as dinner on GDS.

On CX921 there was a single-pass refreshments service consisting of a rectangular box with pastry/juice/fruit and a choice of pizza/noodles in another paper box. Drinks were on the cart but not actively proffered. One had to ask. I thought it was pretty disappointing service and certainly not what I've experienced before on other CX routes. I chalked it up to it being refreshments and not lunch/dinner.

I was wrong. CX920 was the same deal, except no drinks on the trolley at all and no offering of any drinks. One had to ask and they would go to the galley and get it. Food quality was awful. Probably wouldn't have realised if I finished the meal and continued to eat the paper box.

Meals in a paper box is not what I expect on a 2 hour plus flight on CX. Not in Economy and definitely not in PE.

I was really disappointed with catering on these flights. Is this the new normal on CX??

Ah... just flew back to Hong Kong from Danang on KA (1:50 / 540 miles). Had the exact same service in the single-class A320 and I thought this paperbox meal was KA only. The dinner was Indonesian nasi goreng or beef with wine sauce over pasta, plus the box of fruits, juice and Kee Wah cookies. They only served bonaqua water but went to the galley at the back to ask for tea. The paper boxes appear to save time in food distribution, but not sure the crew has an easier time collecting the boxes and putting them in trash bins.

Had the same paper box with awful orange juice on CX765/764 to/from Ho Chi Minh City. No drinks were offered although they were all there on the trolley.

I haven't flown the route in a while but is CX still serving the baugette sandwich with "meat" on the HKG-TPE route? That's really the lowlight of CX catering IMO.

I will take the paper box meal or noodles or pizza any day of the week instead of the baugette sandwich with "meat."

I live in Cebu and this has been the normal routine for at least a couple of years.

I don't do much short haul aside from HKG-CEB. I just assumed all the CX short haul routes were the same.

Ugh. Choice between bad and worse. CX and KA flights to PVG are shorter than CEB and on the PVG flights there is a proper meal service. Guess it's just down to route discrimination and what the bean counters think they can get away with.

Nope. I think most of the short haul routes have proper catering, unless something has changed. BKK is also similar length to CEB but has proper meals unless those have been cut too.

If the "Airline of the Year" serves this kind of rubbish then air travel as a whole is really going downhill, with CX leading the way.

Again, this meal offering was in PE - it wasn't even regular Y. Even for Y the meal was bad but for pax who paid a premium to fly PE it's outright insulting to serve this kind of stuff.

Welcome to the new Cathay Pacific!

I guess Cebu is a low yield route so that is why the meal offering is poor.
Taipei is even worst with only a boxed rice/noodle with a boxed drink (Oolong Tea).

TPE is a short flight, so I can understand that beverage service is difficult to conduct, but MNL/SGN/CEB is different. Some kind of beverage service should be offered - even pre-poured juice/soft drinks/hot tea/coffee!

However, compared to other Asian airlines, CX actually often goes minimal with the crew, so that is why catering suffers. F/As are also not motivated to serve you some drinks.

Regional PE - I guess we keep on arguing the needs for CX to step up its meal offering on regional PE cabin, but with no real competitions, CX will not do anything. If SQ offers a premium economy cabin on those regional flights with upgraded meals, I am sure CX will match immediately! But for now, CX is sort of the only Asian carrier offering a PE cabin on these intra-Asian flights. So when you fly CX regional PE, don't expect better catering and you will be happier!

Carfield

KA from CCU, 4 hour flight in Y: inedible sandwich in a box, and the only drink offered is water.

I recall Indian Airlines (now Air India) used to be water-only; nowadays I believe even they do better than that. Yet CX/KA is supposed to be a top airline.

I always request the AVML Indian Vegetarian meal on the Cebu flight given the disappointing normal food service. I fly J so I´m not sure if the same meal is served in the other classes, but its a nice alternative.

I see the pattern here. On routes where customers have no choice and have to fly CX/KA, they downgrade the product. Naturally, customers like myself who frequent the more competitive parts of the network rather than these special routes find the soft product horribly lacking when we get stuck on one of these flights.

As the Airline of the Year, they should really be delivering a consistent product network-wide, rather than having this situation where customers get the worst product that CX can get away with on any particular route.

However, as I write this, I'm now thinking that perhaps consistency may not be ideal as we'll get stuck with this paper box meal on all flights then?

As far as I know KA still serves a decent meal on its TPE/RMQ-HKG flights, even RMQ! Why not CX?

That's the thing: CX competes with CI and BR on HKG-TPE but they know that they can beat both CI and BR in terms of selling much cheaper tickets on this route and yet, they downgrade the offerings like no other. Granted, they do have full beverages upon request including beer, wine and such but I would think CX could do a better job of, at least, catering on this route.

CX will not be able to downgrade the in-flight meal to/from BKK as it has TG and EK on its back, though it probably has the worst meal offering out of the 3. EK and TG meals have real appetizers (smoked fish or some protein on salad) + main (protein, fibre and starch) plus some form of cake/mousse. You can also get all sorts of drinks on EK and TG, as they are all on the cart.

The food is really not very good on that route. Im not sure why

CX Manager Catering Services responds to a question on poor Y food offering in TPE flights in this month's CX World:
(http://downloads.cathaypacific.com/c...pdf/CXW220.pdf)

Is CX finally conceding the fact that boxed meals are not premium enough for a premium airline?