HawaiiO

Recently took a few short haul J on CX for the first time.

Inflight service was efficient but felt very souless and robotic.
Things got done efficiently and fast but no smiles and felt very lifeless.

The only ones smiling were the foreign FAs it seems.

Very different feel from SQ, KE, JL...
get much nicer service from these other carriers.

Quite disappointed with CX inflight service but maybe i had higher expectations.

On a side note, had a CX diamond plus(?) member seated next to me and the purser personally came to him, gave a small note of thanks, briefed him on flight time and such etc
The guy prob flew a ton on CX and didnt bother to take the small note with him after disembarkation.

jyuen

Been a mix bag for me

most flights are: bog eg standard bottle water + greeting. (Good enough honestly)

Tokyo back to hk. No bottle water or greeting

hkg to Osaka. Very nice , asked if I wanted to change to exit row with no one next to me. Checked on things a few times in that short flight.

Hkg to akl very new crew, but were polite. They tried their best but was bit of a mess at the start. It’s ok they will get there at the end.

Akl to Hkg. One of the best experience on any airline I have taken. So much so, I actually wrote to customer experience department to pass on my appreciation etc.

Funniest moment was when a pax left a teddy bear after deplane (must have been a gift for children waiting at the airport) FA ran after him like a 100m sprint final calling his name with teddy bear in hand 😂 We all had a good laugh and clapped for her effort

so yes mix bag at the moment but generally “ok”

PaulC852

It was ever thus. The thing that's changed is that in the good old days CX was "Asia's Airline" and the majority of the crew were not from Hong Kong. CX had the pick of the best Thai, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Singaporean etc in the market.

Now the majority of the crew are from Hong Kong or the Mainland and the service, by almost all reports, is on a pair with a Mongkok shopping experience.

gwang0618

Well. I agree but wouldn't phrase it exactly the same. I'd rather say its the increasing level of competition both in terms of other airlines raising standards and more suppliers in the market. On top of that, for CX employers it also means a greater difficulty to attract everybody.

And, they have barely any mainland FAs. average amount from HK (in my experience) but more are from other asian regions.

US HK UK flyer

Yeah, recruitment of mainland FAs barely just started and they're going to be used more on mainland routes, logically, where Mandarin speakers are most needed. There are still an absolute ton of Filipinos. On social media I've also noticed accounts popping up of new Japanese and Korean CX FA trainees chronicling their experiences.

As for in flight service, I recently flew from LHR in Y and it was quick and sometimes curt but fine? It helps to be used to HK style efficiency but it was better than the western carriers I normally fly. I think actually some of the HK passengers had a harder time since there were some FAs who would only speak English. Also everyone went out of their way to be very kind and welcoming when boarding and deplaning but it's hard to say much about smiles since many Cathay FAs still wear facemasks.

oldchinahand

Historically most of Cathays FAs came from around Asia rather than from HK (1970- 2005 ) and the service was fantastic.
Unfortunately the increasing militant HK union then forced Cathay to only employ HK based cabin crew and the service levels and warmth of the service declined overall. It was not that the crew were not efficient rather that the Cantonese generally are of a different and less outgoing temperament than the Thai Filipino and Japanese ladies.
The situation has again changed post pandemic with CX needing to quickly recruit at least 2500 cabin crew and few from HK being interested (although several hundred re join)
Very fortunately this has re-opened the opportunity for the airline to again employ staff from across Asia with a few from China also.
Once all of this huge influx is trained and gained a little experience I believe that we can expect service levels to rise considerable and the smiles to return.

gwang0618

Agreed. I flew PY from HKG to LAX in July/Aug 2023 and I was seated in a window seat next to a korean captain (dressed formally in CX suits and ....) and we talked a lot about CX as an airline. He mentioned the huge increase of foreign asian staff in cabin crew, alongside FAs from his own country. But still the Cockpit crew are still mostly white and HK pilots. My mother and sister were seated in the middle for seats, next to two Japanese female flight attendants, which I guess proves the point.

about mainland FAs, I'm rather satisfied they are doing this, considering the huge amounts of mainland passengers which fly with CX for transits or whatsoever. Maybe because I am mainlander so I have subjective preference, but I think they are rather more passionate and 'smily' which CX needs (efficiency is great, but more smiles would be perfect). On top of that, as long as they can speak a reasonable amount of english, I have no problem with it.

jyuen

Yes can confirm recruitment of international crew is on going. Japanese friend is re-hired by cx as crew just a week ago and plenty more coming

CX HK

CX service has declined but I would argue it is rather on point with the decline in customer service around the world. I still rank CX in the upper echelon of airlines, but more of a "1B"; "1A" would go to the airlines you mentioned, SQ, JL, and - in my opinion - NH.

What I truly appreciate about the SQ cabin crew is not just their dedication to service, but also their (polite) firmness when dealing with rowdy or trouble-making passengers. Because as much as I / we like to talk about the global decline in customer service, we must not forget the global decline in passenger behavior.

Regarding mainland crew - I haven't had much interaction with them, but I wonder if they know some or at least basic Cantonese? The government has reiterated that this should be a minimum requirement for mainland workers in Hong Kong, ranging from health care workers to minibus drivers, so I wonder if this is the same for cabin crew. A big draw of flying CX is the ability to communicate in Cantonese, especially for many in the older generation.

CX HK

I would disagree with your characterization with the word "militant"; in the aviation world, unions anywhere else are much worse. Forget the Western countries, even in nearby Taiwan the pilots union has been extremely aggressive in keeping foreign pilots out.

gwang0618

I doubt cantonese is required for recruiting mainland crew - they probably will get priority in employment if they can speak cantonese. The thing is just that it is spoken much less in mainland these days, even in guangdong (canton).

As for airline levels, post pandemic service has definitely declined in CX, but I feel its the same industry wide. For levels, CX would always stay in the '1A' for me thanks to its consistency in hard product, the cirrus or aria in future - sure, the room or JAL a35K J products are ....ing awesome, but its more likely for me to be boarded a 787 in 2-2-2 or 2-3-2 sky suites when flying with JAL out of beijing (thats why I only remembering doing it once).

flyeyetoronto

CX J service has been a massive decline to prepandemic. On a recent long haul NA->HKG J.

1. No appetizer, no warm bread (cold bread), no whole wheat option.
2. Menu mentioned cheese as one of the courses, but unless you flag a FA down, they won't serve it. Menu mentioned fruit for dessert, but unless you flag a FA down, you won't get any dessert.
3. Portions and quality for both dinner and breakfast was minuscule, definitely hungry afterwards.

Overall, still very blessed can fly CX J lie flat bed. Still much better than NA airlines, but will be routing to EVA/JAL/ANA/SQ if possible.

NZflyer777

Really.
On my recent LH flight to AKL the FA's were almost opposite.
the were almost disappointed if you did not try everything on the menu.
constantly aerving drinks and bread.

The dinner service and offer was fantastic.
The only let down was breakfast.
CX really needs to improve breakfast.

Carfield

Honestly I felt my experiences at CX were a bit different since they notice my Oneworld Emerald status and most F/As made an extra effort to chat with me and to make sure that I got my meal choices. I was treated better here in CX than on Alaska. On a recent economy flight from HKG to Taipei, the F/As were excellent and I got more tea service than a J flight on the same segment. The flight was lightly loaded but the F/As really tried his and her hardest to make sure those top tier members taken care of. Of course they may also know how bad the plane is because I saw the purser got another "complaint" in business class about these subpar seats. I genuinely felt bad for her.

The problem with CX now are 1. Those pathetic A321Neo are really uncomfortable in both cabins. They are not meant for mainline carriers and CX needs to remove at least one or two rows of economy seats. Or just transfer them to Hong Kong Express, or just reconfigured a small number of A321N into a premium configuration for thinner regional routes. 2. Really aged widebody fleet that needs refurbishment. I don't mind flying older Boeing 777s but refurbish them. 3. Catering is really terrible. Breakfast is so weak across all routes in business class. Portions are small and the fresh fruit plate is tiny. They need non-dairy milk alternative so I can at least get a bowl of cereals, as the meals are no longer filling. I hate those sugar laded yogurt. Long haul flights breakfast is just pathetic and it used to be a three course meals - a good-sized fruit plate first, followed by yogurt and cereal trolley, and then main course, with plenty of bread refills. Now I am not even sure if they can give more than one round of breads. Now I request everything because I am hungry. For the final course, I get fruit, cheese, and dessert so I can at least fill full. From HKG, I actually get some sandwiches or pastries at Starbucks or Maison Kaiser before these supper or morning flights. It is sad that your business class passengers have to bring his or her own food. I love printed menus but is it necessary to separate out the wine list, and I will rather than they use that extra wine lists printing costs to go with a larger fruit plate for breakfast.

I don't mind Mainland Chinese F/As because they are actually more service oriented than some of the newly HK-hires. I will rather have friendly and professional non-Cantonese speaking F/As over any rude F/As who can speak multiple languages.

Carfield

gwang0618

For me its rather the opposite, flying out of YYZ or JFK earlier this year. the breakfast was wonderful - fishball or beef congee or something I cant remember specifically. But its rather the dinner that tasted mediocre.