Yup, LHR and SIN (CX739/734) will most probably be next as mentioned.

I agree SIN should be the next but it really depends on how the retrofit work goes. Seems the second aircraft is not ready yet. Booked a trip to SIN late Dec and it is still showing the 77K config.

Did CX opened up award space when it debut Aria suite? Will they open these seats for redemption last minute or they would rather fly them empty?
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5f1893c353.png

New seats are pretty bad.
 

Much less space to navigate through the aircraft. You might be able to get through the back and forth with your shoulders sliding towards the inner space of the aisle seats but you can't do that anymore with the new seats.

The biggest advantage is the sliding door which I don't care too much about, but when they have it, they have it.
Padding: This is what I care the most after the seat pitch. Aria J padding may be comparable to the current J herringbone seats, but it's way worse in PEY/Y. You really don't wanna stay there too long for long hauls. I could get by the current CX PEY at times for long haul, but I really don't like the new ones. The seat underneath the padding as hard plastic. Similar to all the new seats in US big 3.

Overall a bad downgrade.


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...95c05e328e.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e9b1482cc.jpeg

It's way worse.
I tried the JL A350 new seat in July. It's far superior.

If you look at all the new seats in comparison (Y/PEY/J), it's 1 step forward 3 steps back.

Did anyone notice the forward camera seems to be higher now, and maybe even sitting on the nose somewhere? The old one felt like it was on the forward landing gear...
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f9c93e52e1.jpg

Oh no. Does that mean I can't check if the push back tug is in position and ready to go when it's already 20 minutes past scheduled ETD? :)

Agree.

I've done twice now. On one Aria flight it was off. The other one it was on, as your pic shows. I don't mind the change, this is amazing!!! Resolution wonderful, same for the down facing camera. Could see planes in the air as we descended, made out Macau Cotai Jet very clearly one the downwards one turning onto final. Landing was great, like playing a flying game with wonderful resolution.

Yes, even at night I was able to make out the runway lights and and the planes at the airport.. huge upgrade compared to before..

With PEK, they didn't open award space, but the flights did have some (as would be the case on an intra-China route on random dates) when the route was launched. That was however, along with cash seats, fairly quickly snapped up during the launch period. On my early flights a week after the suite was launched, they still weren't selling all the seats to make it easier on the crew as far as I could tell - at least PEY was blocked (perhaps they wanted fewer seats in case they had to swap out for the older planes that have 12 fewer seats).

As such, if keen to fly, I'd just keep an eye on it or do a speculative booking or two. However, I would be surprised if CX is going to be releasing many Japan fares in award business though, they can sell them for cash most likely.

Thank you. I already have plans to go to Tokyo next month so hoping I could snag one. What are the chances of upgrading/rebooking (economy award redemption) at check in using Asiamiles?

You may as well try, I would observe on HKG-TYO:

1. I have upgraded from cash Business to First on the day with Asiamiles with 3 seats, though I am OWE. So it is possible and seems to be closer to "last seat availability". It needed someone to release the seats and approve though via a phone call
2. However, I have often observed that these flights (like many of Cathay's) are going out nearly completely full going to Japan, even without the Aria suite, so I feel that as a non-CX Sapphire your priority would be pretty low here. Watch ExpertFlyer availability (or equivalent) and arrive early at the airport to ask

Finally, I'm not sure if Asiamiles will let you do a double upgrade from Y-PEY-Biz (I doubt but haven't tried). However, having tried the PEY seats (And not the suite yet!) that does give you the improved camera at least.

I looked into the availability of CX520 on multiple days early Dec, the zero availability is not because the seats are sold out but rather they are not selling any PEY. The seat map shows the whole PEY is empty.

CX500/501 and CX524/509 would have much more award seats than CX520/521.

Thank you. Will try that. The improved camera is not available on Y? I thought its the same for any class since they have the same IFE.

I assumed the same but no award space available even for non Aria Suite flights. CX must be confident to sell most seats.