I am based LHR and do most of my travel in J with BA/AA to the US. I have been looking forward to doing more Cathay because it seems to have a good reputation and I am jaded with BA.

Recently I got my chance because I’ve been visiting HKG 2x a month for the last few months and will have that same pattern most of H126.

Cathay when it’s good seems superb. My first flight out was in a phenomenal new seat on a 777, great service, love the LHR lounge. 10/10.

Then my return was on the world’s oldest plane with a dirty old seat which it turned out was broken and wouldn’t go flat. Staff pleasant but couldn’t help. An uncomfortable way to spend thousands of pounds.

Next flight is superb.

Flight after that is delayed 2.5 hours due to late arriving aircraft (happens, ok) but no effort at proactive rebooking and then when I get to the lounge I’m told it’s full but maybe come back later. 🙄

For the broken seat I got a template email a week later offering me 18,000 Asia Miles. I explained I don’t use Asia Miles so this is no use to me but how about an upgrade on one of my upcoming sectors? Given I am doing 4 long haul CX sectors a month I’m J this is a pretty easy ask but I get a flat “no” because it is “above matrix”.

At times it seems like the world’s best airline and other times it’s one I would avoid. Have I had a bad run of luck or is this standard and I should I move my future travel to BA?

I think you need to ask yourself which airline better suits your needs. You're not going to get a perfect experience anywhere. No airline is going to hand out upgrade vouchers like candy over a malfunctioning seat, or proactively move you on a 2.5 delay with no connection.

By your own admission, you're pretty sick of BA, so it seems odd that you'd threaten to move your business back to them. I'm not dismissing your poor experience with CX, but as I'm sure you're aware, it's comparable to a normal day at BA (let alone a bad one).

i think better to stay with BA , as based in LHR , because you may stop going to HKG some times later , and CX is no longer a thing for you after that.

That's a very limited list of alternatives. Unless you're willing to shop and connect harder like SQ to HKG or UA to US, you aren't going to improve your experience.

If you're flying CX to HKG that much, you may as well switch your FFP over. There is no immediate need to, but I mean, if one of your complaints is "I am indifferent to Asia Miles compensation as a solution," switching over your FFP is a good shout. And CX treats their own elites in a far superior manner to how BA/AA treats its elites. Given your travel patterns, you will almost certainly be CX DM by the end of 2026, so I think it's definitely worth considering.

With BA, CX is in the "not friends" list of mileage earning. You will earn more miles and probably be treated better on BA, as you will easily hit GGL. And while not as convenient you may wish to consider JAL, QR or AY as they are all in the "friends" of BA list.

I find CX as a BA OWE to be solid with some recognition, but certainly are behind CX elites in access to seats, compensation, and disruption etc etc.

While not sure of the amount, rather than ask for an upgrade, opening an AM account and asking for the amount of miles that equals an upgrade may have been easier for them. That said CX are recently annoying with switching FF accounts so it may be with a degree of annoyance.

I've never had a late flight via LHR when flying many many times on that route, and crowding has never been a problem in the lounge compared to notorious issues with the BA ones there - so on a couple of these things you may have just gotten really unlucky.

What was broken about the seat? Are we talking about a J/F seat that could not be reclined, even manually, or something else? If the former, the standard is an complimentary airport upgrade voucher and some miles (certainly more than 18000) or cash compensation. 18,000 is something you would get for a malfunctioning TV or reading light so totally unacceptable.

The other stuff is minor and not worth complaining about IMO, a 2 hour delay isn't good but if you look at the OT% on LHR this isn't common and with how full flights are it's unlikely you would have been able to be accomodated on another flight that could have minimized the delay. BA or any airline wouldn't be any different - no idea if you checked but I would only approach staff to make the change if I noticed an earlier flight with availability myself.