NWPlatHouston

Could not easily find anything on this. But am trying to compare the business class in B777-300 to JFK vs the A350-900 to BOS or A350-1000 to IAD.

Any recent experiences on this?

How are the seats, experience?

winnipegrev

BOS is 77H/A not 359. On the eastern USA only IAD/EWR are A350.

With that said take the routing most convenient to you. But I don't think you'll find anyone to argue against the A350 having better J seats, quieter cabin, lower cabin altitude etc.

QRC3288

Also, fyi there is no A350-1000 to anywhere in the USA except SFO for now. IAD had it briefly at launch but it was quickly downsized. For US East Coast: A359 serves EWR amd IAD. 77A/H flies to BOS and JFK. There is presently no easy coast 77G/77K service, nor A350-1000 service.

A few resources: check our FAQ. Also check the wiki in there with a link to CXs fleet information and which routes get what and when. Here Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon Fleet Route and Configuration Guide

Although it is a pain in the butt to search on FT, if you can afford 15 minutes you'll get more info than you ever wantB and definitely more than will come here inia single thr ad. n Business class seats and longhaul flights are very popular threads.

Tonseof threads on the different biz seats and biz service, probably most posted topic. Although searching sucks on FT, use the advanced search when possible.

Also fwiw IAD is just a typical late night CX departure ex-North America. Discussions on most the other flights will be relevant too if you're looking for service timing / style related questions. The destinations themselves don't make much difference. The plane type and time of day of departure do.

cyster2007

langleyoaker

Schedules currently show the A350-1000 to IAD starting on 13 June, perhaps OP is looking to travel after it switches.

QRC3288

Intetesting, I didn't realize it had been penciled back in. Thanks for the update.

That seems like good news in principle...was concerned the downgauge meant load factors were bad.

NWPlatHouston

Thanks for all the responses.

Yes - was looking later in the year and was showing A350-1000 to IAD.

craig44485

When will they start using the A350 to SEA, CX858?

etkuo

Wow that's surprising. The last few times I have looked the IAD flights were generally pretty "empty". If they put the A351 to IAD, why won't they put it on EWR instead where load factors and premium traffic are both higher.

aznichiro115

April 1st

synthkeys

Agreed, since they rolled out the A359 to EWR and after June 22, seems very hard to get redemption upgrade out of EWR on the Fri-Sun flights. J class frequently filled. I've been using some of the JFK flights because the increased capacity (77W + 4 daily flights) makes it easier to score U class redemption.

kaka

avm2806

I think there isn't a massive difference between the 777 and 350 seats, but flying J I would pick the 350 if all other aspects were the same (i.e. destination etc). When flying J for example, I prefer HKG-EWR on the 359 vs a similar times HKG-JFK (unless F is light and I am likely to be able to use AM for upgrade to F).
The 350 seats have more sleeping surface around the knees, the inflight entertainment selection is better and in general the aircraft is a better experience. One warning thought is I do find galley noise travels more on the 350 (maybe because its quieter), so I prefer being in the middle of the first cabin in terms of seating - 16 A/K etc).

glennaa11

It seems like the IAD flight schedule shows the A350-1000 but keeps getting changed to A359 for flights within a few months of departure. I have a flight booked for Nov that is currently 351 but I won't be shocked if it gets downsized later. I guess it sounds like the IAD route isn't doing great, but I think the non-daily schedule really hurts with any route. And the IAD-HKG departure time seems less than ideal as well.

QRC3288

Agree on your other points, but this is a misnomer. The flight is timed perfectly, to maximize load factor. Landing is early morning, hitting Hong Kong at CXs largest transit bank time. Connections are feasible to virtually everywhere in the CX/KA network, with a few exceptions (CMB, MLE, India) being half day to full day layovers. But everywhere else connecting flights are timed perfectly. Same situation for the ex-HKG departure; departure time in the evening is well timed to receive transit pax from all over Asia.

With IAD as a *A hub, this plane is not getting filled up for connecting pax in the US. CX sends connecting pax through ORD (daytime arrival, OW hub), LAX or JFK (3-4x daily frequencies each, OW hubs). Instead, this flight services passengers out of Washington DC going to HK and all over Asia, and all over Asia to Washington DC.

The late night arrival to the US doesn't matter since there are no US presumed connections.

Fwiw, daytime flights only happen to CX longhaul destinations with higher capacity demand. SFO, YVR, LAX, YYZ, CDG, FRA, LHR are the ones wihlth multiple dailies...and it's the extra frewuency that is the daytime flights, not the other way around. (The sole exception, ORD once daily and only midday, is timed as such due to AA connections). SEA, EWR, BOS, IAD and all other Europe destinations are all single daily, midnight flights of the exact same variety.

When CX cuts frequencies, they slash daytime flights fyi. They are lower load factor. A major factor is the transit bank. For example pretend IAD was daytime, not nighttime:
*Ex-HKG departs morning. Due to morning departure, cannot fill with Asia connecting pax. Must be HK originating only. (Result: huge demand cut).
*Morning HKG departure means midday/early afternoon IAD arrival.
*2 hour turnaround means early/mid afternoon ex-IAD departure.
*Afternoon IAD departure means early evening HKG arrival. (Result: misses almost the entire evening transit bank. Must be HK terminating or stopover pax only.)

The O&D demand just can't support it. Other options, like having the plane sit on the ground longer or overnight to accomodate, is bad business. CX only does that rarely, and when they do it's at its higher yielding, multi-frequency ports, where you can justify a bird being out of action for 6, 8, 10 hours to accommodate a better timing.