midlevels

^

I find that the SIN flights are often a great opportunity to catch up on lost sleep, in which case what type of Y seat you get doesn't matter at all.

However, I don't pay for J so anything op-up I get is a bonus. Often equipment change results in op-up.

I can certainly empathise though that for paid J travellers, equipment lottery is a nuisance. If I paid based on the assumption that I was getting a flat bed and I got stuck in regional J, I would be pretty miffed.

CX must know that their regional J is way behind SQ and I'm sure that regional J must now be #1 on their list of new products to launch, now that new longhaul J, Y+ and Y are done. I'd love to see a new longhaul F, but I don't think it's likely at this point.

Carfield

Boeing 777-200 is almost used only as standbys... so if some of the long haul destinations have issues or some of the long haul planes break down, those 772s will make their appearances, which is quite frequent these days.

I had four regional flights - all four were selected to avoid those regional a/c and guess what, all four were changed to regional a/c. I even got a downgrade from F to J on one of the HKG-TPE legs. Since it was an award ticket, I got $500HKD as compensation.

As of this point, I think CX still needs to stop rotating those international planes into their intra-Asian schedules. Just sell everything as two class so people will be happier when they get an international planes, rather than disappointed. Of course the most important point is that CX really needs a new regional business class product, which features 100% aisle access seats (that is wishful thinking), but at least a recline seat with 50 inches of legroom, a touchscreen AVOD personal TV, and most importantly, USB drive and universal power outlet. Sometimes I hate those regional planes because they get an out of date entertainment system and lack of power outlets to recharge electronic gadgets.

The regional airplane swaps have gotten worst progressively as CX tries to squeeze more hours from the planes and as of this point, I will agree with the sentiment that don't book a flight based on the planned aircraft use. Don't do things like "instead of taking a 4pm flight from SIN to HKG, but since there is a 1am redeye 747 flight from SIN to HKG, I should wait for it"! Because you know what will happen - you get CXed! You end up flying a very uncomfortable 777-200 B-HNA on the three hours redeye flight.

CX please have the common courtesy to inform your passengers at check-in about aircraft change! I hate asking every time!

Carfield

unfrequentflyer

When you were compensated for downgrade seat on award ticket. Was it on AA or CX asia miles?

Awesom Andy

I took that flight once, it was subbed from a 744 to a 77D.

carrotjuice

You've officially coined a new term - CXed!

And yes they never inform about aircraft substitution. Usually one only finds out either by shock upon stepping into the cabin, or for the more savvy amongst us when we notice on the boarding pass our nicely chosen A, D, G or K seat suddenly has been switched to B or H... or if we choose to ask proactively.

unfrequentflyer

When they change equipment and you are bumped from F to J, do they compensate you?

Carfield

I was on an American Airlines award ticket from the US to Asia, so it is hard to get any meaningful miles back from AA. I was sort of grateful that at least CX provides $500HKD cash. Of course, I think they should offer at least $1000HKD but on an award ticket on a third party, it is difficult.

Haha... that's cool... a new term - "CXed" - I guess I have some legacy at FT now!

But from the form that I sign, CX will offer "differences in fares" if the ticket is a paid one. Of course one can argue, how can you measure the value, if the HKG to TPE segment is part of a long haul flight? At that point, I presume they will offer more cash compensation. I also presume more cash will be offered if it is an Asia Miles ticket. Of course if you are a lifetime or diamond MPO, things will be different. To give the agent credits, she tried to look for alternative flights with F.

Carfield

AA_EXP09

I was only authorized paid J on a longhaul twice in my 2 years of being CX GO.
Then again, on Monday I am flying back to YVR on an I fare because original fare class I was in was W so the upgrade was cheap when paying out of pocket, never mind the extra AA EQM/RDM.
Even just drinking champagne I think I come out ahead.

unfrequentflyer

I always get bump downgrade on HKG-SIN. never got anything. I like a free Y to J upgrade cert for the same route.

I am trying to figure out a way to detect cancel flight ahead of time.

jpdx

I was on one of these flights last week, perhaps the same as the OP (CX690 on Sept 3). Online checkin fine, and then the big surprise when boarding (nothing mentioned when dropping off luggage, and same seat number). It's not a huge annoyance to me, but I was dumbfounded by how they assigned the seats. C wasn't more than 1/3 full, but they left several rows completely empty and cramped everybody in the back (I think everybody had seatmates before we started moving around). Why isn't the computer capable of assigning an empty seat next to every passenger in this case?

deadinabsentia

I try and fly the airline with the best equipment on any route.
Cathay can't compete with SQ and they know it. They don't even bother to try any longer.
Fly SQ. Enjoy the flight.

col747uk

I am also a fellow sufferer of the F to J downgrade. On CX690 on 26/12 SIN/HKG with seats 1A & 2A.

When I booked there were three flights with F cabins:
CX712 77W - F cabin was full BKK to HKG
CX690 77W - only us 2 in F
CX734 744 - nobody with F seat assignment

A few days ago amended to:

CX712 772
CX690 343
CX734 333

All with no F cabin. I am now in 15A &16A on the 343. Any better seats to pick?

F Cabin now on

CX714 744
CX710 744

I was on a BA redemption and have got the 20k Avios returned but am reluctant to switch to CX710 as other switches highly likely.

Am monitoring it regularly.

lingua101

do they really want to compete with LCC? Their competitor is SQ

ChrisLi

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.6; en-us; GT-I9210 Build/GINGERBREAD) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

it's not like if cx wants to compete with lcc or not. LCC is here,a very factual existence. Although cx primary competition is sq but at the lower end of the spectrum there is lcc who grabbing those "break even" passenger that help filling the flight.

Look at cx start deep discounting Osaka to fight against peach with 2800 a/i, is it that cx competition is only NH because both are full service yet they don't need to look at other lcc option to be competitive? I think you have the answer.

SQPPS

Yes happened to me a few times on paid tickets. Refund the fare difference between F and J and then a goodwill credit of up to 400 SGD in cash. They rather have you do that instead of flying SQ where they have to pay nearly double for a ticket in F or Suites.