it's just a place holder, lax will be 777 however may or may not have F. I'm sure one of the services will but until the schedule is finalised we will have to wait and see.

Again I don't know where he gets this, but at least he's right on both being 77A :p

Upcoming in Dec B-KPF (I guess any day now before 31Dec? lol), and in Jan B-KQH

Why are all of these 77As? They said they would convert 77Ks first

Because they need to reduce the first class flights due to lack of demand until when there are enough planes to maintain the core network of first class seats.

I actually think it's about capacity, they realise they are in a pickle due to no new long haul aircraft arriving for quite sometime. So they can increase capacity by adding extra seats. Fairly large ASK increase going from a 77A to 77J configuration, 294 to 361. This will help with the statistics at the next annual report to show a return to pre covid capacity along with the now longer flying times to avoid Russia which conveniently increases the ASKs as well, and makes the bean counters/investors happy as the CASM (cost to fly the aircraft per passenger per mile/km ) will also fall as a result of more seats.

Does anyone have any input as to why Cathay seems to prioritize LHR over its key US destinations? Many other asian carriers in the area (EVA, China Airlines, JL, NH, KE, OZ) all see US destinations, specifically LAX/JFK as flagship routes. What makes Cathay prioritize London? It's annoying because I'm in the U.S. and thought LAX/SFO/JFK were early shoe-ins for long-haul aria

Demand and premium demand. There are up to 5 LHR flights daily.

It’s 5 daily, most of any long haul route.

As to why LHR needs 5 daily, I have no idea but the flights are always full.

When Cathay Pacific started, Hong Kong was a British colony. Flying in and out of London was bread and butter, given the large movement of English business, tourist and government flyers plus mail/cargo. Hence the historical high capacity links to LHR. Old habits die hard...

Would it help your feeling if I tell you CX is a British company? Compare to the airlines you mentioned, JL/NH are from Japan [Moderator edit], BR/CI are from Taiwan [Moderator edit], naturally they prioritize US routes.
That being said, out of the 3 long haul ports with First Class, 2 of them are in the US (JFK, LAX), so I would say CX still valued its US routes.

The term "flagship" has to be one of the most bizarre, meaningless, overused words in the mileage community!

Airlines fly the planes that make financial sense to each destination within the context of the broader network, fleet considerations, cargo, crew, distance, fleet mix, seasonality, and all sorts of other factors. The idea that certain planes are perhaps flown for prestige reasons (which I'm aware is not always what people mean by "flagship", this vague term that it is, but it often is related I think), is far more grand myth than reality. The airline industry is brutally tough as it stands without flying the wrong plane to the wrong market.

My bold. That's a pretty good reason right there!

I will add one other point: Virgin Atlantic no longer serves HKG, BA reduced capacity already (a388 + 77W/2 to either b772 +b789 or b788 + b789), and BA has further reduced capacity in the schedule to just one daily frequency.

Now compare to SFO and LAX, for example. United flies both routes 2x daily (SFO gets double daily 77W, LAX B789), and Cathay is soon returning to 3x daily for both markets. So each of LAX and SFO will be going from 3-4x daily to 5x daily. (And LAX and SFO aren't too far apart, travelers commonly fly into one and out of the other, meaning 10x dailies to HKG alone to the California West Coast). Meanwhile, LHR is going from 7x daily to 6x daily as BA cuts their second daily. To reiterate, capacity is actually decreasing in the LHR market! If I were a bean counter at CX that's be a route I'd take a hard look at for further capturing yield and maybe adding capacity.

It's just not crazy to think CX would be wise, if the numbers hold up, to press on with premium services to LHR and perhaps even add premium capacity considering the decline of the British airlines servicing HKG lately. And dare I say CX could do it with, drumroll, swapping some flights to 77J (the Aria product!). They could add capacity without worrying about LHR slots or returning to LGW, which is a more complex consideration than LHR given the lower yields.

As another point, not the biggest but one nonetheless, EK did a reasonable business sending passengers to London and from HKG as a connecting carrier and they're still not back to pre-Covid capacity in HKG. LH is still behind pre covid, and AF downsized their plane to a smaller a350 which regrettably doesn't carry F class. CX is in a great position flying to LHR and I can't fault them for trying to max it out here.

I agree that CX is quite cautious in resumption and tends to prioritize maximizing the dominant market.
As far as I know seats at LAX/SFO provide by JP carriers actually shrinking at this moment. NH no long sent their 77W to LAX and JL1/2 pair is often replaced by 788/789.

In addition KR / JP has a strong O/D requirement to N.A than transfers. I suppose it’s quite different from the market factor compared to HK.

Just saw on Aeroroutes that the 77J will still be operating CX520/521 until at least Jan 21. Was hoping it would be used to LHR in January as either CX255 or CX237 but I guess not.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/241223-cxjan2577w

Cathay Pacific Aria Suite long-haul debut is quietly delayed until at least March/April 2025 due to slow rollout of aircrafts, you have to get at least 3x 77Js to debut long-haul Aria flights, 2nd Aria plane B-KQH won't leave the hangar at XMN until at least January 2025, SIN will deploy 77Js at least on February and LHR will deploy 77Js at least on March, B-KPE once said ''Seating reconfiguration at XMN'' but the plane left XMN without any seating reconfiguration, and then flew to BKK with the existing 77A cabins.

Whatever they’ve been doing, it’s safe to say that it’s disappointing. 3+ months and we still only have 1 aircraft with many seat issues. :)