I'm planning a lot of travel in Asia next year and wanted to know what CX First Class destinations remain on their regional services (I'm presuming First Class is available on all the long-haul routes). There's lots of talk about First Class disappearing or having gone from many routes, so I wondered if someone has a list of current destinations I could get to in First Class. And any advice on discounted First Class fares ex-Europe. Is there such a thing as a First Class pass or am I being optimistic ?

Welcome to Flyertalk.

First off, your presumption about first Class being on all longhaul flights is sadly mistaken. Within the pst year, CX reconfigured the majority of its A340-300 fleet to a two-class configuration.

The following regional destinations are one I personally know to have at least one three-class flight to/from Hong Kong daily:

Tokyo
Singapore
Taipei
Manila

There is also daily F service to Bangkok, but not always F service from Bangkok to Hong Kong (looks to be F service M,W,H,F,S). The F flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok continues to Singapore and then flies directly back to Hong Kong. As such, there is also daily F service b/w Bangkok and Singapore.

There is also F service from Hong Kong to Jakarta and back, every day but Tuesday. There is also F service to/from Osaka every Tuesday and Sunday.
There may be others, but these are all I know.

As for longhaul flights, F service is offered to the following destinations:

London
Paris
Frankfurt
Los Angeles
San Francisco
New York
Vancouver
Sydney
Melbourne
Adelaide
Johannesburg (seasonal -- only in the South African summer season)
Dubai (not all flights)

F service is not offered to the following longhaul destinations:

Amsterdam
Rome
Toronto
Auckland
Brisbane
Cairns
Perth

just flew HKG-TPE-HKG and it really is the best you can get from a short-haul flight. i paid it in fullfare F with no long-haul connection and it still was worth every penny. great service!

Also between TPE and Tokyo and a couple other destinations that go through TPE. Used to be KIX, NGO and SEL but might have changed.

Curious, though. Why does CX keep the F service to Manila? Is demand that high or is there another particular reason?

Looks like the daily RT F service to KIX is gone, although there is F service a few days a week. I forgot about the TPE-NRT-TPE F flights.

My guess re: F service to Manila is that CX gets a lot of connecting F traffic as there are not too many direct international flights to MNL.

Believe me - there is no demand!!! I take this flight all the time and I can not remember the last time anyone else was in the cabin

The reason is that CX needs to lift capacity in Y - they have tons of traffic from foreign contract workers from HKG and beyond

I did sit across the aisle once on the CX 253 in F from a guy connecting from MNL to LHR. I presume he flew in F from MNL. Not that that proves anything.

looking at the way CX schedules their planes, as long as there are some F cabins on the longhaul, there will remain some Asian F services as well. The best F flights in Asia are the Japan routes and the evening service 716 SIN-HKG.

There is no F pass. All the oneworld "pass" products are in Y only.
Discounted F fares are available from many European destinations on the local CX websites. Check "Online fares". Incidentially, FRA seems to be the cheapest departure point.

It is my experience (as CX Gold and CX Diamond on HKG-TPE, HKG-NRT, TPE-NRT, SIN-HKG, HKG-KUL) that a fullfare J ticket will almost always get you a seat in the F cabin on Asian flights. I find it makes more sense to buy J (not D or I!!!) than A or F.

I can not personally speak to this, but I have been on TONS and TONS of flights with MANY open seats in F and things packed in in J - are you saying that NONE of those J PAX were GOLD or DIA or that they were all on D fares? I find this a bit hard to take.

Thanks for your help about CX Asian F destinations. I'm now weighing up whether to buy an RTW in F or buy Europe - HKG round-trip then the Asian add-ons. I'm starting in Nice so really not bothered where I start the long-haul. Thanks for the tip about CX ex-FRA, but CX doesn't seem to have anything to match BA's current offer for LIS-HKG in F which is less than �3000 ! Are the CX F fares ex-FRA the best I can get in Europe ?

I would say that the planes with F config fly HKG-MNL during the day to keep them used, better than parking on the stands all day in between long haul sectors.

No, it doesn't. That was B Watson.

Can you also let me know what I'm doing wrong? I fly those routes in full fare J as a Diamond member about 25 times per year and have been op-upped into F on about 4 occasions this year (excluding sitting in an F cabin on a 2 class service with a 3 class cabin, i.e. the KUL routes).

I fly HKG-MNL-HKG several times a year and encounter a few pax in F (generally 3-4) when F is offered on the route. I still haven't bumped into B Watson.

I flew HKG-MNL and my wife and I were the only ones in the F cabin.

On the way back I think there were 2 other pax.