For my most recent CX F flight, I noticed some differences (HKG-YVR)

When I boarded, I was not escorted to my seat and during meal service, I was not presented with a meal card.

Also, when I saw the pilot by the lavatory and wanted to initiate a small conversation later in the flight, he seemed quite offended.

The crew said they are YVR based. Is this typical service or is this a new internal policy to not escort to seat and no note?

It seems meal cards are not optional...I've had some in F without it...there are sometimes I get one in J (as a DM I think) but sometimes I don't.

Often times I don't chat with the flight crew, although there are times that they do join in when I chat with the crew at the galley....just wasn't his day I guess.

1.) Getting escorted to your seat doesn't happen all the time. The route you're flying is irrelevant. I think it'd feel classier if they made a point to do it, but for whatever reason this is more like a 50% occurrence not close to 100%.

FWIW, anecdotally it *seems* to me like being escorted to my seat happened a lot more on the B747 vs. the B777. However, admittedly it could be my memory playing tricks - since CX took the 747 off SFO in 2014, I have flown F class on that bird precisely twice. Aka not very much. Versus heaps on B777.

Layout wise, it is easier for FAs to escort F pax to their seat on a bird like the 747 or A380. Everyone trucks through the same two aisles when boarding 777, and CX usually uses both L1 and L2 for boarding.

2.) There are two different style cards. The "Diamond" (or separate Diamond +) card and a slightly larger "F" card. I'm certain that Diamond passengers are supposed to get the DM card when traveling in either J or F. As to the F card, I am not 100% sure if all F pax are *supposed* to get it or not, although in reality it seems they usually do.

3.) It is certainly not the entitlement of any pax - F or not - to be able to strike up a conversation with the pilot. IME they are usually quite friendly, but perhaps he was having a bad day, you came across the wrong way, whatever, no matter what the F pax don't have the right to schmooze with the cockpit crew if the latter don't want to.

As to the YVR-based crew, FWIW the last time I flew F on YVR-JFK the YVR-based captain made a point of coming to each seat in F pax and thanking the passengers. Classy move that happens rarely, but just pointing out that a single anecdote doesn't tell a story.

Thanks for the replies!

Thought CX had changed its service policy in accordance to its cost cuttings

Escort to seat: I don't know what the official policy is, but I'd be perfectly happy without it. I know where my seat is, and I always feel a bit uncomfortable when cabin crew stands there after we've arrived at the seat. It takes me a bit of time before I'm ready to surrender my jacket. That said, I find nothing objectionable about it, either.

Note card on meal tray: Again, I have no idea what the official policy is, but I like it. It's a nice touch. On the few times when it has not been there, i have noticed and missed it.

Chat with pilot: While it's nice, I don't really expect it. His/her job is the highly skilled and technical job of flying the plane. It's cabin crew's job to be friendly and make me feel welcome. Flight crew should concentrate on their jobs, -- presumably that's the reason for the increased adoption of sterile cockpit rules. That said, if s/he wants to come out and be friendly, it's nice and invariably interesting.

Just to clarify, I'm not saying the service was poor on this particular flight, in fact quite the opposite.

Other than the missing elements, the service was possibly one of the best F flight crews I've experienced on CX

I agree with you on this one...I normally just tell the SP that I can take care of things myself, and they could see to other passengers first.

ha mate...your three issues...

*Nobody led you to your seat
*No (tiny) paper card
*Pilot didn't want to talk with you

...aren't my definition of cost cutting!

Now if CX were to severely downgrade their white wine selection so that good Burgundy isn't always on offer, or cut out one of their quality red wines, or kill the availability of olives in addition to nuts, or reduce the # of main courses + appetizers by 2-3, or decided they'd be okay reducing the # of snacks, or if somehow Balik salmon were to get the axe, or if the Chinese offerings were to be reduced to simply a single appetizer, soup and main....that's how I would define cost cutting. Oh wait....

Just flew to LAX and back in F last week. Both ways got escorted to my seat, both ways got the DM card. I never really like to talk to the pilot myself so YMMW.

Interesting and slightly off topic but since you mentioned about reduce meal choices I'll chip in. on my ex-HKG flight (CX898) they are featuring the Grand Hyatt menu (Chinese food) and as a result, they have axed the regular Chinese option. So basically, one would still have the International favourites (3 mains to pick) OR the Grand Hyatt menu as their Chinese option.

If anyone remembers, when they featured the MO menu last year (Western food), they have also kept the regular International favourites and regular Chinese option. However this time, they axed out the regular Chinese. To cut the long story short, the Grand Hyatt collaboration doesn't bring additional choices to F pax. Just a data point to share - to me this is another evident of cost cutting in the F cabin.

this is precisely the situation I experienced in J to SFO 2 weeks ago. Slightly different variation, but same idea...

Hyatt menu on my flight = +1 additional dessert (Chinese option), - 1 western dessert (cake/tart service). Net neutral. Definitely not a win. And given all the marketing baloney in the menu, I notch it up as a negative.

You gotta wonder if CX mgmt really has never flown their competition. I have receipts this year in J/F class on SQ, JL, QR and BR, and late last year on EK. Catering on all of those guys beats CX hands down, in many cases the J class is superior or on par with CX F. I am not familiar with folks in CX catering, nor have I brought it up with folks at CX I interact with professionally, but I have a few datapoints with heads of lateral departments who will happily admit catering on CX is shambolic. I'm not sure if senior mgmt is aware though.

To keep on topic with F, indeed I recall the MO menu - although it was somewhat panned in here, I loved it. I think what I really liked about the MO menu was there existed more food choices! Paging CX we do notice these things!

Having spoken with a few senior management sitting in CX city in recent months, it seems that most of these top guys sitting in the office have absolutely no clues how far behind they are in the competition re: catering. The Grand Hyatt collaboration to me is a big bleh! and hence a huge disappointment.

actually, they asked me for a competitor's J class menu recently.... I was shocked this individual at CX hadn't seen it. He already had QR's, but not this carrier's. I happily obliged.

At least we can say CX is safe! And I mean that seriously. My impression of the safety culture at CX goes beyond its regional competitors, standing at the top tier globally.

And F class hard product is indeed fantastic - I still prefer it to most others' carriers hard product. Unfortunately soft product is another story.

What management can do is simply fly on a competitor airline and take notes from there.

why would they? they are too proud to fly their own metal and it's free. but first problem to solving a problem, is admitting that you have a problem. The very fact they refuse to acknowledge their competition's quality means CX management refuse to acknowledge client complaints.

Now that you bring up the topic of wine selection, this particular flight they only catered one selection of red on the flight, and it was none of the ones listed on the flight.