In my experience bottled water is given if you ask for it (on shorter flights). On longer regional flights (like CGK, particularly on red eyes), they'd usually distribute it...

There was this one time when Himalayan bottled water was given out, which took me by surprise... must have been a leftover from a flight from India.

Yeah, I've never gotten bottled water in my handful of times flying regional J to/from KUL.

No sir. You get it long haul, but not short haul. Never been the case for short haul where they protectively give it to everyone. You may have gotten it by asking for it regionally, or in an extremely streaky set of luck got it every single time you flew regionally, but doubtful. (Unless you didn't fly much regionally, then maybe you just got super lucky and got water a few times in a row without asking, and assumed it was the norm).

Longhaul, definitely yes. Although it's not Evian about half the time fyi....Evian is stocked ex-HKG and for some return sectors. Many longhaul outports stock their own local brand, e.g. Crystal Geyser from most US ports.

The only time I consistently get Evian is on CX753 the red eye from HKG to CGK... the crew distributed it to everyone as they were all drifting to sleep...

This may have changed as they seemed to have started doing a supper service inflight on these short red-eyes, at least that was the case on my last 753 flight (APR 2018)

That was for NRT, which is longish but not the longest.

I've checked older photos for CTS and DPS - none either. I can't confirm CGK as I've never been.

This isn't just limited to CX.
This is more the whole city's culture generally - the first forum I actively read and commented on was icered and whinging about HK Big4 accounting firm working hours anonymously, negatively but not taking positive steps to resolve their grievenaces (like organize) was a recurrent theme.

Crew's criticism here is justified though. It's making no-one but management happy.
Not even customers appreciate the better service - I for one would not object if my J meal was served on one tray Economy-style if it meant my meal is served faster, preparation was better (what should be hot is hot and what should be cold is cold), crew have more time to do refills and clear up quicker. I don't even aspire that their food quality will improve given that is not a USP for them https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...l#post30129653

Does anyone know if the new services have been rolled out on other routes yet? FRA? MAN?

There's a planning for the roll-out, FRA/MAN in Sept 2018. See the second post in this thread.
With this screen capture:
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6a5fa9d61f.jpg

Someone posted a video of the new JCL service. its a bit long.

It looks like CX is imitating Air Canada by using the tray while plating the main course.

Too bad they didn't do what BR and SQ does by setting each table individually. I guess it's too much work for those over entitled CX FA.

I think you overestimate how much cathay management is willing to listen to their crew. I'd rather guess it's because they don't want to add extra crew to work on the flight but they know it will literally take hours to complete the meal service under such manpower if they need to also set up the tables. Imagine how long would it take before you can finish eating and sleep/work if service with trays needs around 3 hours already.

Why do you assume the CX FAs are entitled? Do you know the crew-to-pax ratio for BR vs CX J?