I managed to get First tickets on NRT-HKG. Is this route as guaranteed as the Haneda one please? Unfortunately HND was not available.
Thanks for any insight!

What date?

Nope... I recently had my NRT-HKG equipment change on 16th June CX501 about 10 days before departure. I was booked in PEY only however the original equipment came with F, later changed to regional 777 with no F and no W.

It looks that F from/to HND simply vanished completely. There are number of dates with CX in F from/to NRT, but no JAL from/to HND. This is really disturbing, as HND has superior lounges and is much more convenient airport for Tokyo.

March 25, 2019, so still a long way to go. It's sad to hear about what happened Ausriver, but let's see, fingers crossed the 77W with F will be there. I better check 2 weeks before and see what can be done in case it happens. :/

I am getting hit by equipment swaps from planes with an F cabin to planes without one almost every time I book a ticket that includes an intra-Asia segment in CX F. (HKG-BKK/SIN)
Not happy. :(

In this case, I can just tell you plainly don't get your hopes up. I say this for all long-dated bookings with regional routes not named "HND".

However, and I've been properly schooled on this recently (as I was mistaken), once CX releases a schedule for the current season, they generally do a decent job sticking to it. For example, last season NRT had F on one flight pattern. Currently PEK is that way. CGK was that way a year ago for a season. However, there is absolutely no guarantee they'll continue that.

Tokyo has been one of the few long-time guaranteed regional F destinations. It was NRT until CX launched HND, at which point HND became the guaranteed F destination. They used to even do it 2x daily to/from HND, and cut it back to 1x.

As a final point, I occasionally fly F regionally. The morning flights in particular are nothing to write home about if you're looking for the "wow" factor. Breakfast is essentially the long-haul J meal in F plating. What you're paying for is that massively wide side, which to be fair I find highly productive and can basically eat and work/read very comfortably at the same time. But it's a lot to pay for that.

Ironically, KA has better F catering than CX regionally. But KA flies the long-haul J seat. (KA only flies F to PVG and PEK regularly).

Just saw on Flightradar24 that B-KPG (4 class 77W with F) flew SYD > HKG as CX100 on August 15. How rare is it for a 77H to fly to SYD?

It has been happening with relatively high frequency lately. The main conclusion I take away from it is SYD has too many seats (the plane represents a decrease in seat capacity). From the few reports we've gotten here on FT, the F section is closed off.

I would be curious if anyone reports it was open.

I don't fully understand CX's rotations, but I think there is some slack in the 77H fleet right now. After DUS and LAX each coughed up a frame due to permanent flight cancellations. I think in LAX's case (CX897/898) that represents 1.5-2 frames for the 77H rotation.

Its worth noting a 77G/K is out of commission for a while due to a ground incident in Rome. And CX is rotating planes through XMN for interior conversions.

Eventually, booked HKG–HND return on CX in F.
Sadly, not JAL.

To those of you who wonder if F is permanently gone on the TPE route, just FYI there are still occasional flights that offer F in the coming week. I just did a random search.

05SEP: CX494/495
06SEP: CX494/495
08SEP: CX430 (suspect this one is going to be repaired at TPE or going through something that takes time)
09SEP: Return as CX421 then CX470/
10SEP: /CX471

Only one data point but flew CX100 on the 8th August and was lucky enough to enjoy business class service sitting in a beautiful First class suite...