Come on Cathay, it is time to bounce back...
 

Today I got a newsletter from Singapore Airlines Switzerland promoting their new PEY-Class on flights from Zürich to Singapore. What really surprised me was the fact that passengers can choose from six different main courses. While SQ is obviously making an effort to set a new standard in the industry, Cathay seems to have neglected its "fourth cabin class" over the past couple of months. I was quite irritated when on a recent flight in PEY-cabin I was served a tray with the main course from economy class. First of all I thought that it was a mistake by the catering company. Maybe they forgot to load the PEY-trays. But no: When I approached the inflight manager she explained to me that from now on this is going to be the new standard. I felt even more irritated, adding the fact that the new tray somehow reminded me of being in a hospital. Comparing to what SQ ist offering, I can only urge the managers in charge to improve the PEY-product again: Come on Cathay, you can do better - it is time to bounce back. At least for the higher fare one pays in PEY, one can expect some kind of enhancement.

....have you seen CX catering in J? It is even worse on a relative standard vs the competition.

CX is making an active, determined and conscious effort to make food worse by lowering the cost of their meals in F, J, PEY and Y.

And they're doing a very good job at it.

What makes you think they are trying to improve meals in any way?

I used to buy PEY on CX and relied on status to get into the lounges, use the shorter check in lines, etc. But then CX took away most of the status-earning ability of PEY, and made the PEY service worse, so I started buying business class fares instead.

But since I'm not concerned with status I can shop around for the best deal on business. Now I buy long hauls on another carrier (and save a ton of money doing it).

First time I took PEY was way back in 2013 (I think). Food was good and set apart from Econ. Then there was a noticeable nose-dive from then on.

Some companies offer their products at an introductory price then slowly bump up the price without compromising quality, or in some cases they even improve it. Most companies would tweak their products over time - for the better.

I think all along, PEY was a carefully planned "highway robbery." Once their patrons got used to it, they dropped quality in all aspects, but charged a bit higher later on.

There was even a time that not only food and service were better. If PEY seats were not available at time of booking, they offer you J class on the web site on the short hop (e.g., MNL or TPE). Now, even when there is a last minute aircraft swap, they discreetly force you to downgrade to Econ, even at the airport.

You are not correct. The tray and plating is (unfortunately) the same as economy now, but the entrees are definitely different. They are now largely consistent with what is served in J. (Both meals on long haul flights, a new enhancement starting this year.) Well, not like food in J is anything good however.

Yea, this is what I recall from another thread too.

CX catering J is an utter disaster.

But for PEY, I thought the point was a "civilized" version of economy? Price aside, it seems hard to argue contrary.

I am amused, however that the OP mistook J class food for Y. Shows the state of CX J class catering:D

+1

The entree casserole in PEY whilst it is the same general shape as the one used in Y, it is most definitely thicker and the food is similar to J.

Agree with the disastrous quality and decline in J food Never been on PEY myself but it seems to me that CX brought in PEY largely to make those who try to upgrade to J pay a higher fare, be it a miles upgrade or lucky op up. In this sense, there is some logic to buying this class since the differential in comfort between J which has a flat seat and PEY/Y is huge. Otherwise, I can't see why passengers wish to buy PEY.

I flew PEY from ORD on Oct 2015. The second meal was white rice on a rectangular foil tray with four one-centimeter size cut pieces of fried pork chop. The meat were so small they looked like bird poop. The sauce that leached into the rice did not even stain a quarter of the tray.

So I stand corrected, it WAS the horrible J food in an even more horrible presentation.

Ha! It comes down to one issue: competition. SQ is competing with ME3 (QR, EY and EK) in its main markets so it doesn't really have a choice but to keep improving (across the board) to remain competitive. CX doesn't have that issue (to the same degree as SQ) and until it does, there's no reason (unfortunately) for CX to do what SQ is doing. So don't hold your breath. ;)

ugh, good logic on SQ unfortunately. totally agree. SQ is just in a different geographic market being 3 hours south of HK, without (until recently) nonstops to the US. The Australia/New Zealand traffic was so important for SQ longhaul and the ME carriers just decimated it. Even when SQ's nonstops arrive in greater #s with the A359ULR, connecting will still be popular...those planes are only going to visit a limited # of destinations, and even then the time saved isn't nearly as great as for a shorter flight. 16+ hour nonstop LAX-SIN vs 19+ hours connecting in HKG/ICN/NRT/etc isn't even 20% faster.

i'd argue folks BR and CI, and to a lesser extent KL, OZ, JL and NH have become more relevant competition for CX, given the massive changes these carriers have gone through in recent years. BR in particular has massively stepped up their game and grown their North American route network since they took 77W deliveries, while JL and NH have added a bunch of new NA destinations in the last 5+ years. Personally I've put a good chunk of business to BR lately, and some to JL. It's right on the way to North America and it's nearly as easy for me to arrange business or personal things in Taiwan and Japan as it is Singapore.

To keep on the topic here which seems to be PEY + food, those guys I mention in the last paragraph have superior catering in J to CX, hands down. This includes both F&B, IMO.

as long as they manage to fill their planes with people who accept to pay higher fare and get sub standard, nothing will change or it will even keep going downhill. Now if people start to move to other airlines, they will have to something but until then...

I had two incredible meals in F two days ago LAX-HKG. Both the lunch and dinner were superb. HKG-BKK wasn't to my liking. I actually opted for the J beef stroganoff instead.