US HK UK flyer

There are some like this who are a hard core of people disaffected from HK or who fear arrest there. And then there are the many more who say they moved for reasons like "my children's schooling" and who are making tons and tons of trips back to visit relatives.

Reply1984

Just like what happened to the migrants after the 1989 Tiananmen protest. More HKers moved away but many of them moved back after 1997 and those not moving back have been contributing a lot to HKG-YVR/YYZ/SFO/LHR.

oldchinahand

These would probably number less than a dozen and most are wanted for criminal offences -bomb throwing, arson criminal damage etc. A couple were though prominent young primarily political activists that blatantly broke law.

ctb213ctb213

Just back from London on CX252 on Econ cabin. Found the service flow a bit awkward, want to check is this a standard flow:

Flight depart London at 11am, lunch was served around 1.5 hour after take off which was normal. After lunch, lights were turned off.

Around 6 hours after take off, cabin lights are on, and crew started the breakfast service. It is still near 5.5 hours before landing. Breakfast complete in around 1 hour time, and after breakfast crew distributed landing cards.....Lights off again, and 45 mins before landing the cabin lights up again.

Seemingly passengers were not happy as a lot of them got woke up in mid flight, either by the meal service, distribution of landing cards or collecting trash......Most of the flights i had before would only serve breakfast around 2 hours before landing, which makes more sense......

US HK UK flyer

I've had flows like this; I can't remember if on Cathay or other airlines too. Definitely weird to wake everyone up but sometimes it's the right time for food given after another four hours some people are hungry again and given there's better food on the ground usually upon landing (which has always made me question food just before landing.)

:D!

Completely the wrong time to serve food as it's the middle of the night in Hong Kong/Asia. That's what the snacks are meant to be for.

I took that flight in November and it wasn't like that. We woke up early in London ~4-5am (noon-2pm HK time), flight departs 11am (6-7pm HK time) and have first meal "dinner" on board. Get to sleep 10-11pm HK time and get up at 5am HK time for the second meal "breakfast". Land at 7am.

It worked well for our 4yo child who skipped the breakfast on board, woke up around 6.30am to prepare for landing and then had a normal full day in HK (the previous day in London is completely wasted, unlike with the afternoon LHR departure which still gives you the evening in HK). I wouldn't have been happy if my son got woken up at 1am HK time for a meal he wouldn't want to eat.

I have to say the whole experience of CX Y has really gone downhill, only 1 out of my 7 HKG/LHR flights in Y since late 2022 felt in any way similar to the pre-covid CX

JW95

Being reported elsewhere that Cathay are going to be returning to London Gatwick from the end of October this year, and that the airline is likely to announce plans to resume LGW before June this year. To be 5 weekly. This is the first I've heard of this, but it would be amazing seeing them back at Gatwick, presumably with the same aircraft as pre-covid (A359).

US HK UK flyer

Fantastic news but do you have a source?

JW95

Being reported by staff at LGW on PPRUNE. Suggesting that the airline will resume LGW-HKG from 28th October. That's all I have for now, but an official announcement and confirmation of the route returning is expected soon.

Isochronous

LGW and BHX please

JW95

I hope so, at the very least for LGW returning. Always loved flying out of the South Terminal with CX versus LHR. Plus, come March, there will no longer be an opportunity to fly on the A350 from London-Hong Kong, as it'll be reverting to the 77W only. Fingers crossed we will hear more soon

JW95

Wow, just checked the timetables for LHR, and it looks like the A350 is being taken off the route much sooner than originally planned (March). LHR will see its last CX A350 service on 1st Feb as CX257/238. From then on, only the 77W will be deployed to London. S24 schedules for Heathrow are still yet TBC, but I suspect it'll continue to be a 77W-only route. A shame that the A350 will no longer be used, much prefer this a/c for long haul.

Reply1984

As one friend mentioned previously in this thread, new business class and premium economy class seats will be installed on 77W and LHR will be the top priority for these new 77W. I think it is not bad.

CarefreeBA

LHR is not necessarily going to be the first route that the new 77Ws will be deployed on. Lots of arguments for but the highest yielding premium cabin flight(s) (i.e. the 255/250 rotation since the 251/252 will likely remain 4-class) has a very long sit time at LHR, making it perhaps not the best rotation for it to be deployed on. The other flights are fuller down the back and from recent experience, rely on op-ups from Y to fill the aircraft. It'll most likely be on a selection of routes as none of the LHR rotations lead well into one another.

(For example: CX250 gets back to HK in the afternoon, after all LHR flights have left for the day ex-HKG. From a commercial point of view, I would imagine they would like to get the plane moving about).

US HK UK flyer

Just booked for March and every flight in my range seemed to be 777 (cries)...waiting on Aria is no good if you're flying economy.

FWIW in terms of gauging demand there were only four seats left in economy for this weekday flight (other times that day seemed to have more availability though).