New Business class service - from July 2018 - Experiences and Discussion
 

Following the DoD trial last year, CX will modify and revamp its JCL service flow.

The new service concept retains most of the meritorious bits of the 2017 trial, but it won't be 'on-demand'. Two key aspects of focus will be 1) wider variety of higher quality, better-looking plated food options (expect them to be very similar to the 2017 trial options), and 2) increased personalization in service delivery (which honestly, felt like a joke to me on the trial, wonder what they will roll out this time.)

Here is the twist. Training is mandatory and will be based on seniority. And...it's now two instead of ten days of training.

The popular mattress which was re-trialled didn't make it.

The timeline of the rollout is subject to change but ORD and LGW will be the launch ports in July and August respectively. IAD will begin with the new service.
By December, they hope to roll it out to FRA, MAN, AMS, CDG, JNB, MAD, BRU, BCN and LHR, subject to changes.

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CX new business class service rollout

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CX new business class service breakfast menu card

I'm hoping this new service will improve the current dining experience, but I'm pessimistic and doubt that CX will make the necessary quality changes. I'm somewhat afraid that CX will try to put lipstick on the "pig" that CX F&B has downgraded to.

The ABT article noted that new menus will include a "most loved main course" flagged for each route...hmmm, I'm not quite sure what that means but if it means a most loved CX main course, I'm struggling to think of ever having enjoyed a most loved main course served in CX F or J.

What I'm afraid about is that what has happened at The Dining Room in The Pier F with Sodexo, will in a way be replicated in flight. New crockery and trays and service delivery won't make poor tasting food taste better and cheaper champagne and wines taste better. I certainly hope the grissini and dips will disappear as well as the berries in syrup.

I get the sense that there is more focus on style of service and not enough details about improving the actual taste and quality of the food. CX cost cutting continues to negatively impact the customer experience and Boss Hogg and the folks at Swire should look at how Alan Joyce successfully turned Qantas around.

I've had a look at how the new menu looks like. The 'most loved' stuff is just essentially allowing for you to order the current hot snacks as the 1st meal entree. Please, realistically, don't expect much, although I'm glad to see the tableware largely resemblant of those used in the trials last year.

Has anyone here flown in Business Class on the HKG-ORD vv. route in July yet?

Please share any menus / pictures of your dining experience.

that looks real neat! looking forward to these

They are still doing the crew training now...I saw photos of the training conducted in classrooms so I am not even sure how it translates to the galley at this stage. I would have thought they would have done it in the galley mock ups.

To be frank, TK's long haul breakfast card is "neater" and more exciting.

In the mean time, I would suggest taking the long way ORD-DOH-HKG on QR where you get restaurant style meals in business class without the use of trays and casserole dishes.

Failing that, I would bring my own plate, some fresh herbs and a pair of heat proof rubber gloves when flying CX Business Class. When the first part of the meal comes, remove everything from the tray and put directly onto the table. Set the tray aside so that it can be used to collect the stuff on the table after meal service. Once their main course is served, put on your rubber gloves and transfer the food from the casserole dish onto your plate. Make it look nice by adding the fresh herbs and carefully spooning the sauce from the casserole onto your plate. Enjoy! When the main part of the meal service is over, put everything back onto the tray and give to flight attendant. Then have your cheese/fruit and dessert as usual. Remember to clean your plate in the lavatory, and keep for use on your next CX J flight (until that flight has the new dining concept).

Just a thought...perhaps if CX got rid of their First Class product, then their Business Class product would start to improve?

I know everybody raves about qr business food. I flew them last sept. iad/doh.cpt. First leg entre was lamb loin. So over cooked it was inedible. Second leg I had the filet sandwich. It had so much grisle it also was inedible. When I complained to the fa she said"i'll let catering know"' Sorry, I think CX is better than Qr.

YMMV

Honestly I prefer Asian flavors and from my experience with QR, they mostly serve South Asian or Middle eastern dishes plus Western options, while I wouldn't say its inedible, it wasn't really great. However I like how their dishes are presented. I want my meals plated properly and I want them on the table instead of getting it my meal served on a tray like in the cafeteria or the hospital.

If you prefer Asian flavors, then EVA Air would be a good. They plate their meals (on their long haul flights at least) just like QR and don't use trays.

If only they could switch to OW lol

No need to chase status if you will be flying paid business class anyway. Redeemable miles aren't much use these days as availability and award charts are getting ridiculous these days.

You'll be much happier by choosing whichever airline has the best service.

Sounds like you had a bad example. But....I feel fairly confident saying with at least 40+ longhaul CX J sectors (and scores more shorthaul and mid haul) and another 15-20 QR J sectors in the last 5 or so years, there is simply zero comparison. Not even close not a debate....like black and white. One bad situation doesn't tell a story of airlines that serve tens of thousands of seats a day.

QR J catering destroys CX!

Do you mean the rollout was delayed?

However, one area of concern is whether the flight attendants remember to change their rubber gloves between cleaning the lavatory and plating meals!

In a plating scenario, the meals are heated in aluminum containers (with separate compartments for sauces, garnishing/sides and the main piece of meat) and each component is carefully transferred by hand (rubber gloved) to the plate as per the plating guide provided by the caterer and dressed with additional unheated items such as fresh herbs etc.

I suppose it would be too much to ask CX to improve wine in J. it literally is garbage perhaps second only to Air China serving great wall red. but then who would bottle the tanker car left over plonk from chablis or who cares district of left over declassified garbage wine from france for CX...

Having watched this video ( ) it's no surprise that the rollout has been delayed. CX's catering division is simply too used to handling those casserole dishes in business class. It looks like their whole internal process is built around it. Even though the flight attendants may have already been trained, it would probably take longer for their catering division (and their contractors in the outports) to get used to the new process.

As per the video, it took them 3 months to come up with a way to properly serve the business class hamburger on board. Three months just to come up with the idea to heat the bun/patty separately and them assemble the burger using lettuce/tomato/pickle from a separate unheated container is just hilarious.

The first part of the video ( ) is here. You can see them making omelets and dishing them onto those ugly casserole dishes.

Thanks for posting those videos.

Meanwhile 100km away in Guangzhou (CAN), China Southern Airlines has already rolled out their new business class dining. Not exactly sure what their roll out schedule is like (perhaps it's already fully rolled out?).

Here is a video I just watched on youtube showing their new business class service from AMS-CAN.


The food is well presented and no trays/casseroles are used. They even serve soup in business class.

With the way things are going now, it seems like that Hong Kong will pretty soon just be another (Mainland) Chinese city and Cathay Pacific will just be another (Mainland) Chinese airline. The glory days for Hong Kong and Cathay Pacific are over.

I had several starters served casserole style from a cart on Austrian TATL J, and the items tasted better than some meals I've had in international F!

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i said before and say again now. i dont need fancy 5* plating or presentation done by FAs who had no gastronomy training. equally i dont expect them to know which vintage was poorly affected by weather... one plate or carrosole or not as long as food is tasty i dont care how they pesent it

just as comparison my recent virgin AY flight in J served smoked trout ex HEL. it was just a carrosole dish but it was extremely superbly done... i feel like they smoked it in cabin (donno how) as during preparation i can smell aroma of nice wood smoke. it didnt have a Michelin star presentation but boy trust me the fish was perfect mediumish with lots of texture and moisture needless to say ntg like dried cod CX serve (my dog will refuse to eat it) and they had proper seasoning not like CX's over usuage of salt and MSG

point is this: i dont need DoD nor fancy plating... just serve propert tasty meal on a carrosole if need be... i cud care less if this was one plate as long as food is good

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+1!

Dine on Demand is somewhat overrated in my opinion, and sometimes are downright confusing. We all only need tasty food.

I have deleted some off topic posts not related to the new business class service.

sxc
Cathay Pacific Moderator

Spoke with an FA who went to the 2 day training recently. More variety including some SEA options. She said she tried them and taste only slightly improved if any. As already mentioned above it was mostly presentational, plating, "more interaction", full vs express breakfast (2 vs 1 hr prep). Slight warning to 77H pax on service speed during initial rollout given long cabin of 50+ seats

I think this will become harder once they use the 35G and 35J because of the limited space at the Dr1 service center.

haha try DR2 galley with the window ledge width counter tops

I can already picture plate drops, glassware shattering, crew coming out saying 'sorry, we've dropped your dish, would you like to try xyz instead'

then some pax decides to cross the crowded galley or asking where their food is...more butts touching, more plates shattering

Then the cockpit calls out 'we want our meals now if you don't mind'

no one's getting anything before half the crew is off to their mandatory rest (~2.5 hrs post departure)

then there's 2/3 crew left (if ISM decides to actually be useful) serving the whole JCL cabin, unless the 3 YCL crew volunteer to help, which they are not meant to, and some new recruits aren't JCL trained. but then the question becomes who's watching YCL?

welcome aboard Cathay Pacific...where our bottom line and managements' bonus comes first

But JCL only uses Dr1 galley...

You make very good points and I had exactly the experiences you outline above in the J galley on a short haul last night; its just too crowded. As QRC3288 has also pointed out in detail elsewhere, the 350 layout leaves a lot to be desired. I really hope CX can learn and improve instead of doubling down, particularly as it seems the 350 is going to be the backbone of the fleet going forward.