J class meal serving time
 

I was on J class traveling YYZ to HKG on CX 827. I like the new biz class seats and the privacy.

I was rather surprised that the refreshment meal (second meal) was served about 6 hours before landing when most of the passengers were still asleep. I declined, thinking that they would serve that meal closer to landing time.

That was a wrong assumption as no refreshment was served thereafter. Two hours before landing, I requested for the refreshment meal and was told that they were out of the items. Found that rather strange as most people were asleep when the meal was served.

Is this the norm?

Didn't think so, though on flight CX139 HKG-SYD in J (a daytime flight), had something similar happen. They started serving dinner around 6 hours before landing in SYD. Which was inconvenient since I wasn't particularly hungry.

In the three previous CX139s I flew, they started the dinner service about 2 1/2 hours before landing.

NG1Fan

I noticed this too. I took this flight in F in May and again in J in June. For the May flight the 2nd meal was served 3 hours before landing and the June flight is was 7 hours into the flight. It has definately changed.

Mind you -- CX829 used to serve a meal right after refueling in Anchorage -- so similar timing.

Is this really? Because I recall they serve a breakfast first and given it is a 9 hours flight, that means they serve dinner 1 hour after breakfast?

This makes sense - this flight's CC probably has not gotten use to the new routine and is still operating on YYZ-ANC-HKG routine. I recall getting 3 meals on that flight vs 2 on the YYZ-HKG.

They used to do this on the SYD-HKG early morning flight - serve the second meal 2-3 hours after breakfast. I think this was because it is lunchtime Sydney time and some people were getting hungry. I hated this because they didn't load any snacks and you would go hungry for the rest of the flight. I would actually pack a Subway sandwich just in case.

But the last time this happened to me was about 2-3 years ago. In my most recent SYD-HKG day flights, the 2nd meal was about 2.5 hours before landing. I hope CX hasn't gone back to serving the second meal earlier.

I just flew SIN-EWR and they serve lunch after take-off and about 8hrs later serve dinner. There is still 9hrs of the flight after dinner, but it is the last scheduled meal on the flight. If you need more food then you can get hot snacks from the cabin crew when you want. I think this works well.

I much prefer the 1st meal served on departure - snacks in between - 2nd meal served 2-3 hours before landing.

Just to follow up on this. I have taken the early morning flight twice in the last few months - once in Y and once in J. On both occassions, the second meal was served 2-3 hours before landing.

In JAL business class you can request the second meal whenever you want it. After the first meal, all food service is "dine on demand," and you can choose from a menu of 13 items including two full meals (Western and Japanese) and various hot and cold snacks.

This is how CO does it on EWR-HKG; the "snacks" is a semi-formal light meal mid-flight that they usually do all at once, but you can usually have it when you want (i.e., later, if you are sleeping). Then a full breakfast before landing.

I prefer this to CX's JFK-HKG where after the second full meal mid-flight all they have left is dumplings or noodle soup...

Is it the same in reverse HKG-JFK? I am flying that for the first time next week.

Looks like you are flying the nonstop?

I think they do space the meals out better on the way to JFK.

Is this your first time on CX all the way to JFK?

Yeah - I have done lots of SYD/MEL-HKG and HKG-NRT on CX and really enjoy flying with them - but this will be an uber-long flight - thankfully in J with mrssimongr.

I heard mix reviews regarding the smaller J cabin on the 77A so prob best to select the bigger J cabin on the long flight.