SQ -- 40 long haul segments per year in F

Overall the best product, but I agree on the terrible caviar! Plus, the don't serve blinis. Really amazingly bad. However, it is almost made up for with the Book the Cook meal options - I really like the Lobster Thermador

CX -- 30 long haul segments per year in F

Second best seats and service 75% as good as SQ - Very good caviar with the smoked salmon and new potatoes. Decent meal service, so many 330's and 340's, too many flights with no F cabin - generally VERY good product. THE BEST lounge in the business

BA -- 15 long haul segments per year in F

Clearly inferior in ALL respects to SQ and CX, but FAR better to QF, AA or UA - about the same as LH, (better seats, worse service)

Bottom line, CX is your choice vs.. BA

B Watson, I hope you don't mind me asking, I'm purely interested in knowing what type of travelling is that? Are there a lot of people out there who travels like that? I mean, no offense, but travelling 85 long-hauls per year (plus, I assume some short hauls thrown in) rounds up to about one long-haul flight every 4.29 days! Please don't take me wrongly, I'm not challenging you or anything, I'm just wondering if this sort of travelling is the "norm" for you FTers out there....

CX seats are smaller in comparison, the food is by far more superior in quality and freshness oalso in choice.

The only drawback to CX first is the staff are sometimes a little too available, they hover allot which is great if you need something but when you are trying to sleep there are certain seats which can be easily interrupted by these hard working wanting to please crew.

BA's first class service is ordinary and just doesn't compare unless you are lucky to be served by their best.

For those of you who haven't looked at the same thread over on BA take a look. It is a hot topic on that forum.

The lobster thermador is a good SQ meal; last week I had it on CX for the first time and it is better! The first hint is when the plate arrives, and the lobster tail is twice the size as what SQ serves (they serve a normal portion). The rest of the meal is also 50% better than SQ. This is a recent development, CX food has made a concerted effort to improve food service while SQ has dropped.

No offense taken -

Basically, I fly ORD-LAX-SFO-HKG-TPE-SIN-MEL-SYD-SIN-DXB-JNB-LHR-JFK-ORD on a once per month schedule

I fly with RTW for usually 2 weeks with generally one business day in each city - I have or am opening offices in each of these markets, so face time is important. I usually have 2-3 open RTW tickets, one with One World and two with Star.

Crazy life - yes!! But interesting

on second thought...

[This message has been edited by JonNYC (edited 07-10-2002).]

[quote]<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by number_6:

Quote:

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Cabin service is good on all 3 but friendlier on CX; BA is a bit variable but can be very (very) good. ....Also it has a movable armrest (a big advantage over the BA fixed design).
.....They show a passion for their work, ingenuity in solving problems and grace in performance. And this behaviour is systemic -- something that I cannot say for many other airlines.

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cdnt have put it better.

yes, the best i like about CX is the FA service attitude (i thk it is due to their training, and is reflected in their questionairre :--- look at the 5 choices of grades: good-&gt;better-&gt;excellence-&gt;totally surprise you/go out of their way to serve you...or sth like that)

and what i liked most about CX's F seat is the adjustable "armrest" which can be lower to the same level of teh 'bed' when u r sleeping...i.e. effectively extending your bed width to the corridor, and remove that coffin feeling as in all other designs. tha is ingenius! (and if you dont agree with me, u can also keep your armrest up http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif )

Note that the AA Flagship Suites have this feature too (though not most of the other deluxe features of CX F, of course!).

-Ben, who has sadly never seen CX F

Although not as much as some of the other travelers, I have flown numerous F segments on the four airlines and would rank them in this order CX, SQ, BA and UA.

Comparing between CX and BA, CX will win hands down and the only caveat is what type of plane are you getting. On CX, there are at least two type of seats and the old ones do not stretch out to become a full bed. On the new ones, the are fabulous and like BA, it is like a bed. It is wider than BA and as someone else pointed out, since the armrest can be lowered, it feels really like a bed and allow you to move your head and hands around. Entertainment is also miles better on CX. On the latest equipments, it is like SQ and do start/pause/stop the movie of your choice any time you want by simple on screen instructions. On the not as update ones, you can still do the same but this is done by getting tapes from the FAs. The food on CX is much better IMHO but probably because they serve much better chinese food since that is what i prefer.

Based upon my experiences, first class in CX is by far my most favourite. BA does try hard and delivers superior first class service to any other carriers based outside Asia, IMHO. The Concord lounge at LHR is very nice but is incomparable to the Wing or the Pier lounge by CX at HKG. Not to mention, the baggage missing or lost baggage syndrom with BA at LHR is more often than not atrocious. These days, I always check if my baggages have been loaded on the connecting flight at LHR so as to spare my anguish at my arrival gateway. ( at least I know in advance; this despite the first class tagged luggages, nonetheless)
On board, I love the wide sleeper seats on CX when the armrest is lowered and the far more spacious 744 cabins with only 12 seats in CX. But I have reservations about CX airbus F cabin with only two rows and plenty of FA traffic back and forth. On the other hand, BA 777 F cabins are quite roomy and seats laid out in a very clean straight forward style.




[This message has been edited by Kaoru Kanetaka (edited 07-10-2002).]

Neat trick, as one of these routes is not operated by either Star or Oneworld carriers. DXB-JNB is only served by EK and SA -- neither of which is in Star or Oneworld. They do offer RTW tickets, but not any that can match your routing. And trying to mix flight coupons from 2 Star and 1 OWE ticket to get this routing would be tricky (much easier with 2 OWE and 1 Star, unless you have JNB-FRA-LHR and LHR-FRA-JFK as the actual routing). Maybe you did this when Ansett was still operating (then it makes more sense)? But that was quite a while ago (almost a year now) ...
In any case, you only have *1* long-haul CX flight per trip (SFO-HKG, and this is also served by SQ), all the others are short-haul which is a completely different service level. Comparing long-haul SQ and BA to short-haul CX is a misleading comparison. No wonder you rate SQ service as better. Take HKG-LHR on CX and compare that to SQ, and you will see the difference.

I agree on the food with CX improving while SQ is declining - you mention to Lob on CX - was this a normal meal item or do they have a Book the Cook type program??

Normal meal (served on NRT-HKG dinner flight). CX has discontinued it's version of "book the cook" but the regular meals are cleverly chosen so there is a selection for every taste (even cuisine phobic). I was surprised to see thermador on the menu (it is an elaborate preparation and most restaurants don't make it any more). Usually CX has lobster/abalone stir fry (which is excellent but a chinese dish, with the thermador they went american french).

OBVIOUSLY I go offline from DXB to JNB - why would I go via FRA just to keep on the RTW - is anyone really that cheap! Plus, I get MP credit (no Q miles of course) for the EK flights - also, SA DOES NOT serve DXB-JNB - they code share with EK on that route.

Re CX, this was only a representative itinerary - I have made several CX trips since the new F product was introduced including several trips on these routes: HKG to MEL and SYD - HKG to LHR - YVR to HKG - LAX to HKG and the HKG - JNB NS. I think the CX product has improved greatly in the last couple of years, but it is not, in my opinion, in the same league as SQ other than the worlds best lounge product compared to an embarrassing F lounge for SQ in SIN.

Concerning the multiple alliance approach - I keep one Star and One OW Westbound and one Star Eastbound. I will use this to be able to change direction for the occasional backtrack.

I am not sure what is so upsetting to you about my comments - perhaps I should scan and post my mileage statements!!!!!!!!!!




[This message has been edited by B Watson (edited 07-10-2002).]