We just completed four segments on CX and here are some comments and questions.

We flew:

LAX-HKG (747-400) Seat 4D/G
HKG-KUL (A340-300) Seat 1A/2A
KUL-HKG (A340-300) Seat 11H/K
HKG-SFO (747-400) Seat 3D/G

Luckily, our intra-Asia flights were on A340 with 3 class service. Both flights had new business class and Audio/Viedo on Demand (AVOD).

Also, our return flight (HKG-SFO) on the 744 also had the new business class seats and AVOD.

Comments

1) First time trying out the AVOD and had no problems. It is a great system except for one thing. If you stop the movie and restart it later you have to start from the beginning. Fast forwarding was very slow.

2) Now that business and first have the same AVOD, it narrows the difference between the two classes a little. I love the video 8s where I can watch the movie anytime and pause it as needed (like when I am about to dose off). That was one reason I pay more for First.

3) We were in the new business class seats from KUL-HKG and I tried the flat position (at an incline). I have to agree with people who say they slide down the seat. I just couldn't find a comfortable position without having my feet stopping me from sliding. In the end, I raised the seat a little which helped. When I got on my HKG-SFO flight I discussed this with the first class purser and she agreed with the problem. Apparently, engineering is trying to work on a solution to make the incline less so you won't slide down. Not sure how that will be done though. I didn't think there was any room to make the incline less.

4) Both long-haul flights had caviar. They offered us seconds both times which I took but my gf didn't. They served our favorite Krug and also gave one to my gf as a gift as it was her birthday. They also created a birthday card for her which was really cute!

5) As a side note, we visited an island resort called Pangkor Laut in Malaysia. The resort is very nice with great views and two great pools. However, service was poor and food wasn't very good. I was there with a bunch of friends (part of an after wedding gathering) and they had trouble serving 25 of us at the same time.

6) Stayed at the Mandarin Oriental in KL. Service was poor. Below expectation for a Mandarin. The one good thing was that we paid for an executive room and they had high-speed internet connection in the room for free. Also, the lounge food was pretty good especially the breakfast selection. Only real reason to stay was because of location. Next time we are going back to the Ritz or staying at the Sheraton for points.

7) We normally reserve 4D/G on the 747 as I felt that gave us the most space when compared to 3D/G. However, on our return flight the TV didn't work on 4G. So we moved to 3D/G. Upon looking at the amount of space between the window seats and the middle seats, I noticed there was actually more room between 3A/K and 3D/G vs. 4A/K and 4D/G. That is because of the basinet space on 4A/K, it makes 4A/K stick out more. The only thing I didn't like about 3D/G was the FAs always looking over to us when they were in the area between 2A and K. A little too much attention.

8) All-in-all, we had a great trip. A big let down when coming back to the States and flying domestic planes again.

Question

1) Our HKG-KUL flight was in the first class seats (with business class service). My gf commented that she felt the seats were a little narrower than the 747 first class. Is that true? We just came off the 747 and had a 3 hour layover before the A340 flight. So it was easier to compare. Was her observation correct? I personally didn't feel the difference in seat width.

[This message has been edited by bagold (edited 09-25-2002).]

All the flat "betsy" beds on CX are the same width.

Perhaps one ate a little too much dimsum in HongKong at the Wing prior to takeoff?



[This message has been edited by Guy Betsy (edited 09-25-2002).]

Tip du jour: that's what the "Pause" button was invented for.

On the CX system the Pause is reset after some amount of time (hours). You can pause the video and resume it 30 minutes later with no loss of continuity, but if you pause it and try to resume 10 hours later the program is gone and you are back to program selection. It appears that the resets happen often enough to annoy some passengers.
This isn't unique to CX, all the other video on demand systems behave the same way.

I have never had this problem. Fast forward works pretty well and so does pause, stop and other functions. Maybe your unit was malfunctioning?

That is true! We did have a heavy breakfast in the Wing before our continuing flight!

Does this work after the screen goes off? For example, I want to pause and go to sleep but with the screen off (since it is dark and the screen is bright). Can I still resume at the same place a few hours later?

I am also comparing this to the Video 8 tapes where we could pause anytime and resume. However, I do like the AVOD more.

In terms of forwarding, I was trying to forward 90 minutes and it took a long time (over 15 minutes) to get there. I found that it forwards faster if you stop and play it for one second once in a while. If you leave it on continuous forwarding it gets to be slow.

No-one has mentioned the sound quality on the AVOD system. I just flew HKG-AKL in F and was appalled that the supplied headphones were so poor. The aircraft noise drowned out the soundtrack at times. Why doesn't CX supply the Bose noise reducing headsets to complement a terrific system? I was also disappointed by the F seats (Airbus) compared to AA's Flagship swivelling ones.

[This message has been edited by Full Score (edited 10-06-2002).]

You got one of the early planes to have the new-F, before they introduced the noise cancelling phones. It seems a big oversight to me that they have not retro-fitted them by now on all Studio-CX at least.