24left

"Cuts will not affect Cathay Pacific’s aviation safety and services, say its chief executive

Cockpit and cabin crew are expected to be spared the axe as Hong Kong airline aims to cut 30 per cent in management staff costs"

SCMP
PUBLISHED : Monday, 10 April, 2017, 9:05pm
UPDATED : Monday, 10 April, 2017, 10:58pm

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/e...ion-safety-and



Mods - did not see this posted. Feel free to merge/move.

KrazyTrain18

Nice to know they are aware of the discontent with the J catering and do intend to fix it.

LoveHateRelationship

Is the J catering different on long international routes vs regional routes? I recall my TPE-HKG experience had 6 or 7 wines on the wine list along with 3 or 4 lunch items to choose from (including halibut). This is quite a bit different than what my mom experiences regularly on her YVR-HKG routes where she says it's "on par" with AC which to be quite frank isn't saying a whole lot.

Aus106080

"According to Dora Lai Yuk-sim, chairwoman of the Cathay Pacific Airways Flight Attendants Union, airline management said in a recent town hall meeting with staff that management personnel would be sacked first.
She said that the management would let go of non-management level office staff if the first move was not sufficient to cut costs."

Hope CX can successfully reduce cost without sacrificing service and safety.

24left

And yet, people wonder why AC uses the 450-pax HD trawler.

P.S.
On my AC flights, FAs tell me pax in Y complain and say CX is better.
On my CX flights, ISM and FAs told me that pax in the back complain that AC is better.

YVR is a different market, some say.

LoveHateRelationship

I have flown the AC slave ship more than I'd like to admit (currently moving my flying to OW). I will say that the AC hard product is probably slightly better than the CX one (if CX is still using the sliding seats in Y). The soft product though, CX is way ahead of what AC has to offer. I've had far more bad experiences on my AC flights with FAs who are just plain rude and apathetic than I care to recall. The food on AC is also pretty piss poor (they call banana bread and yogurt "breakfast").

cx4ever

CX only has shell seats on (some) regional aircraft - the 777-200s/300s, and a few a333s. Y seats are better padded than AC, and for now, are wider. And I agree the AC food can be pretty pathetic. The second meal I've had on their long haul flights are just some sort of heated wrap-like food. This was a couple years back but I doubt they've changed much.

24left

Yes, the banana bread. Many posts on the AC forum devoted to that beloved product wrapped in cellophane with an expiry date into the next century. The wrap, like everything else, is cheap.

Thing is, CX was not the only airline to reduce quantity and/or quality and/or section of meals in the premium cabins. I have no idea if CX knows if their cuts impacted sales and butts in seats. I'm paid J on CX. Whether it's my TPACs or my regional connections, the front cabins have been full. And yes, I have no idea who might be upgraded.

These things seems to go in cycles with many airlines. There are those who keep the food and service quality consistent - or at least, there are no dramatic swings.

And then there are all the airlines who think those pax who paid $5,000+ for their seat and fly the same route regularly, won't notice when the main meals are smaller, when the beef is un-chewable, when a slice of cucumber is removed form the breakfast or when the crews start telling premium pax "Of so sorry, catering mistake, no snack basket on this 16 hour flight....oh ,so sorry, we only received one bag of snacks from catering....oh, so sorry...."

As for crews, I stopped flying certain AC TPACs because of the crews. I got tired of the barking matrons. Apologies to matrons everywhere.

However, at least for AC's side of the table, they are filling flights with Americans who are offered low prices to connect to Asia, for eg., via AC's main hubs.

It is only when airline management is backed against a wall with massive losses that they might realize that messing with certain cabin and pax is a recipe for failure. AC doesn't have to compete against the ME3 for a few reasons. Those airlines who do need to figure out if they are willing to offer the high-end excellent product at a price premium pax are willing to pay, or they are instead wandering off into the desert of becoming another LCC.

Note that I absolutely do not profess to know all the intricacies of the markets CX serves, but the message they send from their lovely videos seems opposite to the flying experience.

cx4ever

I think the main thing is that CX has always had a better hard product than the competition (similar with SQ). But when American and European airlines start realizing that they can make more money by charging higher for a better experience. (Almost) everyone has changed to a Cirrus or Super Diamond Seat now. Delta, KLM, Air France, and Air Canada have changed, and American even has the exact same Cirrus version that was customised by CX. Only major airline exceptions are pretty much BA and United, who are now introducing all-aisle access seats too (oh wait Lufthansa still isn't... disappointing).

The problem is, now CX can't charge much of a premium for their hard product anymore. They know that the soft product can't really make up the huge difference in fares, so they have to drop the fares. And by dropping fares they have to drop the standard of the soft product too.

SQ doesn't have to do this because they're not as big in CX (esp. in the European market) and is the only airline in SA to offer a premium experience, which (I believe) has a much larger pool of passengers. CX doesn't have enough premium passengers to fill up their seats. And when everyone complains about them changing to 10-abreast, they don't realize that they're the ones who would rather pay a fare around 10% cheaper for just an inch less of seat width, which is driving this development.

There are hard decisions to make for CX; I think they should stick to their roots by offering the best overall product they can with the same resources. For example: lounges. Using the same area they've created a much better experience for fliers, and are literally second-to-none. They're also adding extra padding to their new 777 seats to make them very comfortable with the same real estate. But the main thing is: don't let fliers escape to the SA miles program. Revert the Marco Polo Club rules back and at least keep the smaller pool of fliers.