CX virgin no longer
 

I flew CX for the first time in my life last week (SIN-BKK in J; BKK-HKG-YVR-JFK in F), and absolutely loved it. Those of you who find fault with their product offering should spend more time on U.S. carriers, on which most of my time is spent!

My SIN-BKK flight was in NBC on a 777. As it was a short flight, I can't attest to how the seats would be for a long-haul flight, but both the seat and the service was head-and-shoulders above what one could expect on any U.S. domestic flight, even the premium NY-LA flights.

The BKK-HKG and HKG-YVR-JFK flights were fabulous as well. My only complaint has to do with CX's operations in YVR (which I suspect they contract out, rather than operate themselves). What should have been a scheduled 80 minute layover lasted for two hours. The gate agents claimed that it took them that long to service the plane. (Since this flight operates every day in two directions, I would have thought that they would be experienced in servicing the plane in the allotted time.) Worse, when I expressed concern to the gate agents at YVR about missing my connection at JFK (I was connecting to an AA JFK-BOS flight), they just fed me the same misinformation that I would expect from the U.S. carriers: we'll be leaving in five minutes (impossible since the plane hadn't even been boarded); you will land by 9:00 (again, impossible once the boarding process and flight time is factored in). It was clear to me that their only interest was getting us out of there; they didn't really care if I made my connection or not. Once I was back on board the plane, I informed the FAs of my concern about my connection, and they did everything they possible could, including sending a telex to the ground personnel in NY alerting them to my situation. (As one might expect, the NY ground personnel did nothing special for me; by the time we landed, I still had over an hour to make my connection. I did make it, but only because my bag was one of the first off the plane, there was no line at customs, and I ran to the Airtrane and from the Airtrane to AA.)

Although I would love to see CX dedicate more resources to their North American operations, it still was a fabulous experience. It's going to be awfully hard going back to AA's crummy F offerings.

Glad that you enjoyed CX service!

However, I don't think the equipment exist for SIN-BKK... IIRC, all the NBC are equipped on certain variants of 744's, 330's and 340's....

CX's 777's are equipped with the regional seats with two class only.

CX options from HKG (or points beyond) to BOS are sure tough. YYZ would be a natural gateway for us BOS folks, and it's OK outbound, but on the return the connection doesn't work, requiring an overnight stop in YYZ. JFK has the problem you experienced -- risk of a missed last connection -- as well as lousy one-class Eagle service. LAX and SFO timing don't work either, last time I checked, though once I managed to fly HKG-SFO-BOS with a reasonable ~120 minute connection at SFO.

I may be wrong, as I don't know the differences between old and new. However, these seats had the IFE controller on the armrest and seatbacks that went all the way to the floor, which I know are two of the NBC features that people have complained about. Do these features exist on old business class, too?

There is 120 minutes between the 8:30p scheduled arrival time of the CX HKG-YVR-JFK flight and the 10:30p scheduled departure time of the AA JFK-BOS flight, which should be more than enough time. Unfortunately, my CX flight was about 45 minutes late, and I made the mistake of checking luggage. And you're right, the AA flight is a lousy Eagle flight; in addition to the comfort issues, I'd hate to hazard a guess about its on-time performance.

[This message has been edited by Blumie (edited Jan 12, 2004).]

I think CX has its own dedicated staff at Vancouver, due to its large operation there. But I guess CX 888 always suffers the same problem with connections at Vancouver... it is also due to the new security check too. I think CX should somehow adjust the connection time in the future, so passengers do not have unrealistic expectation on connection time.

JFK is a hell for connecting flights and the staffs at JFK are the most unfriendly at its network.

Another common problem faced at JFK is the crowded INS/custom situation. Sometimes the last BA flight from LHR arrives around the same time with CX... that results on a really crowded INS area... sometimes they hold CX passengers on board because of the INS/custom situation.

Anyway, I am happy that you enjoy the CX service. It is an amazing carrier.

Carfield

NBC is CX's long-haul J class product and is fitted on 744s, 340s and long-haul 330 aircraft. The recently delivered short-haul A330s and 777-300s have fitted what is termed as New Regional Business Class or NRBC, which is the seat that goes all the way down to the floor and has a larger PTV size.

Since NRBC is only on CX's regional aircraft you wouldn't find these seats on long-haul sectors which are operated by NBC or soon-to-feature NBC aircraft. NBC is a vastly different seat to NRBC.

The OBC seats don't go all the way to the floor but some have had the new retractable remote controls installed in Business Class.



[This message has been edited by B-HXB (edited Jan 13, 2004).]

I know the new JFK Airtrain is controversial (as evidenced by the discussions on this board), but I have found that it does make connections far easier than in the past. In the pre-airtrain days, I often would walk between terminals, rather than rely on the bus. Now, the airtrain makes it fairly easy.

The SIN-BKK flight is served daily by a 777-200 aircraft and these offer the current blue (old) Business Class seats.

CX only has the NRBC seats on a few of their B777-300 aircraft.

For what it's worth, the current (old) Business Class seat is fine. People have been complaining about the new seats which you didn't take.. so that's ok.

I'm pretty sure that I was on a 777-300 and that the seats were green, so I'm guessing that it was NRBC.

I did some research on sabre (via virginflyer) -- http://www.virginflyer.com/sabre.asp -- which shows CX operating a 777-300 on five of the next seven days on the SIN-BKK route (CX712). (CX's own website lists the aircraft for CX712 as EQV, indicating that different aircraft are used on the flight.) On Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday, sabre lists the aircraft as a 773, and on Monday and Wednesday, it is listed as a 777 (without distinguising 200 vs. 300). Since I traveled on a Thursday, I must have been in the 300.

Sounds like NRBC to me - the seatback to the floor is the giveaway.

Blumie - glad you enjoyed the CX experience!