[Meal times and] Transpacific service on CX on J
 

My father was on CX 828 from HKG to Toronto in J on Sunday (1040 departure, 1230 arrival). He commented on the following

- The first service on the plane was lunch at 1130 Hong Kong time, and there was not any pre-meal drinks. It appeared that individual dishes of peanuts were prepared; they were just sitting on the trolley but were not handed out. Flight attendant didn't come around to serve any drinks until all the appetizers were passed out.
- Second meal was served at 1700 Hong Kong time.
- For the rest of the flight, if you would like food, you just order the snacks/noodles that they have.
- ISM did not show his/her face to great passengers.

Consistent with other recent transpacific flights ?

I don't know about the other points, but this point seems strange. I suspect that there was a bad ISM who wasn't instructing the junior staff onboard of the correct precedures. I haven't been on any long haul flights that are not late night departures where there hasn't been a pre meal drinks service.

It seems that the ISM is going by the book...

DMs only get the personal greetings by ISM now. Other OW Emerald members may also get the personal greeting but that is entirely optional depending on the mood of the ISM.

Would sure like to hear comparisons with the daytime flights from HKG to ORD and JFK.

This has happened to all 3 of my CX251 HKG > LHR Flights in the past two months. It seems like a norm that if ISM chooses an express meal service, nuts will be there but not handed out.

I asked the cabin crew nicely and was given a couple as she said "we don't give them out anyway, so have as many as you want"

I think CX251 is a designated supper service as it leaves at midnight. I might be wrong tho, but if it shows supper on the menu then you will get the abbreviated express service.

Pretty much my experiences with TransPacific flights lately, services have been greatly reduced. ISM greeting is mostly gone, cabin head still greets but very robotic. Don't get serve first anymore. No more DM thank you card. None of them individually is a big deal, however, for CX to go above and beyond to treat DM very well, do now "down to earth", you do feel a difference.

As for meal time, I really hate the adjustment to serving meal within 5-6 hours of each other. It makes it very hard to sleep meaningfully. The old arrangement isn't perfect, but for 15-17 hours flight you can at least give people an opportunity to sleep 7 hours between meals.

Which probably means there were no diamonds in J class on CX 828 on Sunday......

This is consistent with our HKG-LAX flight #880 last week in PEY. Cabin head came by and greeted me but snubbed my wife who is also OW Emerald.. Next FA we saw was bringing food and wine about 30 minutes after take off. Asked about drinks (we were still on AKL time). But none were offered. One water service about 6 hours in. Then breakfast 90 minutes out of LA.This is our 3rd time leaving HKG at around midnight this year and is without doubt the most minimal service we have encountered. Next time we will try AA thru NRT. Service should be about equal.

For any flights that leave around midnight, there will be an abbreviated supper service which does not include pre meal drinks. This is standard CX service to allow the meal service to be completed as quickly as possible and settle people down to sleep.

Additionally, for PEY, the service is not the same as J. It is the same as Y, with different main courses.

For the OP on CX828, this is a lunchtime departure and should have a full meal service in J with pre meal drinks trolley/nuts, Appetizer tray with water followed quickly by a trolley with full bar, and then the main course on a trolley which has wine underneath to allow for wine top ups if necessary.

About the lunchtime or any regular daytime flight, there should be a beverage service with either almonds or cashews before the meal service begins. Even in PE and EY, there should be a first beverage service with packaged peanuts or almonds in PE, before lunch or dinner services begin.

However I don't think the second meal service should be mid-flight. It should always be prior to arrival. You may start maybe three hours prior to landing, or should never be mid-flight. It is awkward. Cathay Pacific really needs to change it.

Carfield

I disagree to this abbreviated meal service people are saying . . .

For some flight this may be the case, but the fact that catering loaded nuts, suggests that there is supposed to be a drink/nut service prior to 1st meal. Otherwise they would not load these on the flights. This is lazy crew on both CX828 and the CX251 someone else was saying.

When I fly CX829 we depart 01:30am and we still have pre-meal drinks/nut service prior to full meal service.

I fly a lot on these midnight flights to Europe and I am certain they always offer pre meal drinks in C & F. I tend to get on board, get the PJ's on, mask and ear plugs ready, have a couple of Johnny Walkers and hit the sack while they are serving meals. I guess from you guys are saying this principle does not apply in Economy class.

Sorry my experience might have been tainted as I mostly take flights to Australia which definitely don't have pre meal drinks, probably due to the shorter flight. My memory was that the same happened in J on 251/255 to LHR, but my memory might be foggy.

Having said that, CX251/255 are supper services which get the abbreviated meal service of no separate appetiser and only a choice of 2 mains, plus the option of an express tray. In this case, I'm pretty sure that the wine trolley doesn't come out separately after handing out the appetiser trays - it only comes as part of the distribution of mains.

I assume you meant "greet", what MPO tier is your father?