It looks to me that the airline has not noticeably changed the stipulated times that meals should be served.
However there are unavoidably a lot of new cabin crew and some new ISM's and this poor performance will not go unnoticed as the various forums are monitored by airline managements
The personnel will undoubtedly be spoken to and disciplined as is necessary and hopefully this poor service will not continue. .

Well, that could exactly be the issue. "Spoken to and disciplined" is an old-fashioned management style, largely employed in the CCP area and era, though is Westernly known to not motivate personnel. On the contrary, it's the reason why Mainland Airlines are lagging so far behind CX and SQ.

I’m on CX198 AKL-HKG.
Missus and I were originally in PE, but Y was overbooked so elites got moved to PE, and I and even my statusless missus on separate booking got moved to J. We’re not in a position to complain much about the flight.

Total flight time 10 hrs 45 mins.
Lunch was served 1 hr after departure and was fine.
However FAs just came over to take our Light Dinner “Served prior to landing” orders. They said they will serve it in 40 mins, so it’s 6 hours after departure. Not exactly “prior to landing”.

(2 hours before landing) We still ordered snacks at the time the light dinner was supposed to be served, so it is the same amount of food.

Is this an attempt to opt-out passengers out of the third meal?


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At least on your flight there are snacks available. On the SYD flights there are no snacks.

Not sure about SYD but for MEL-HKG CX104 we had a relatively normal 2 hour before arrival dinner time.

Snacks is always loaded only for flights longer than Australia (8 hours) (“medium haul”)

I think most CX crews preferred serving the second meal mid-flight, as they prefer to arranging their rest period in that method.
The first set of crews would just have came out from their resting period and changed back to uniform or did a quick clean up. The second crew would then serve the meal together and then go to rest. Maybe less congestions in the bathrooms mid-flight. Anyway, I think most CX crews really like that style of rest period.

It is also dinner time at the origin so crews think that they will have less work to do if they serve the second meal mid-flight. However the pre-arrival meals are so "tiny" now that if it is just hard not to order a snack prior to arrival. Most Hong Kong folks also tend to stay up late too so they will request a third meal anyway. At the same time, I presume heating up a burger or preparing a noodle soup is easier than preparing a full meal.

Carfield

North America Early AM Departure Mealtimes
 

I have an upcoming flight, leaving around 2 am from the east coast, and was wondering if anyone had any advice on what to expect for meal times. Will dinner be served at what will essentially be 3:30 am Eastern? Or will we be given time to sleep and then served later in the flight?

This is I suspect the flight ex JFK ?

Usually, meals are served within the first 2-3 hours after take off and in this case I believe it would be a supper service -lighter than a main meal service
A main 8-9 hours in

Early morning landing in HK a out 05.15 - Breakfast about 2 hours prior landing

Good snacks available between meal times including burgers that most seem to be fond of

Others may well have better more up to date info as it is a long while since I flew the route

Supper (main only, salad on request) right after takeoff.

Then on demand snacks (Chinese noodle soup or burger plus other galley snacks) throughout flight.

Breakfast served 2hours prior to landing. Order via order card which will be collected before you go to sleep.

Yes ex-JFK and forgot to add this will be in Economy (since it seems like answers above are for business).

For premium economy and economy cabin, there will be a supper service after takeoff (there is no difference between dinner and supper in PE/EY in CX, so you will get the full tray - starter, bread, main course, and dessert - ice cream usually), and then a hot breakfast will be served two to three hours prior to arrival. Instant noodles will be offered on demand, and there will be various packaged snacks available in galley.

Carfield

CX828 (1025/1215, 14:30), in J. Mid flight meal or at the beginning and end of the flight, like any other airline in the world?

On Nov 30/24, it was beginning, and then 2.5 hrs before the YYZ wheels down

I pre-ordered the stuffed crab shell and had two burgers during the flight. I slept through the "breakfast" service.

Very good news if that is the new service standards. I haven't taken the East Coast morning flights since pre covid, but remmeber that they always did the "dinner" mid way through the flight, waking up the entire cabin, etc. on both JFK and YYZ.