Was I wrong to be irritated?
 

Family and I were flying on F tix from NYC to SGN (we were on mix of revenue tix, Asiamiles award and J cash+ DM upgrade).

The HKG to SGN leg was on a 77W with F. Every other time in last few years (50+ instances) this route was been served with an F cabin and i was in J, they seated me in F. Their system is smart enough to know i like 2A

They sat the three of us in J on HKG to SGN. I was irked they didn't seat us in F, considering we all had longhaul F tix. The response from the crew - "oh we never set DM members in F on this route unless J is full" 10 seconds before someone sat in 1A, lol, - just irritated me further.

I complained a bit about the 'fake news' response, and the gate agent came back new boarding passes in the F seats, which I declined on the basis that I don't want to beg our way into a higher cabin. My gripe was much less about sitting in 1k / 2k vs 11k and 12k for a short flight, and more about CX getting customer relations wrong (from my POV).

Interested in other views.

you are right to be irritated, but noone would give a rat's a$$ unless you rarely fly ex-SEAsia fares (mostly ex HKG fares), fly full fares j/F, and show ure moving ur money.

to add: well, it had been shown the only way to milk sth out of CX (from another thread I've said) is to be shameless and give the irrelevant people some sticks

Probably wrong to be irritated with the cabin crew since they have no say / no idea about allocating seats. It's the ground crew responsibility.

If anything you should be more pleased as the inflight crew cared enough to report your irritation to the ground crew and tried to get something done.

I presume you can't pre-select these seats?
Why didn't you change them at the lounge in HKG? Or at checkin?

There was every reason to be irritated, however not at the cabin crew. They don't make the rules, assign seats etc. They're just there to enforce what they're told to do. You know what they say, don't shoot the messenger.

But yes, being irritated was a justified reaction.

perhaps indeed. I'm would (still) write commendations to the inflight crew. but complain about ground ops.

otoh, i guess J was "just" full?
oh well, once the F cabin is open then they need to send staff over anyways. true i would hate to have to bust their lies. btw, did you find out if 1A was a non-rev?

I don't track my spend closely, but I will spend in 2017 enough to do 2200 - 2500 club points this year, while giving CX about 60% of my flying (rest to Sky and Star airlines, and some on JAL and MH).

Longhaul J and F seats on Asian flights is a key factor in what keeps me flying CX regionally so much vs cheaper or more direct options.

Cannot pre-select.

Aircraft change while we were flying NYC to HKG. I didn't realize a 330 had swapped out for a 777 until i spied the red carpet while walking down the airbridge.

So you are an op-up right? So far I still can't see why only putting you but not your family members into F, nor putting others into F as well is irritating...

And as you said, your family members are on different itin... If the ground / airport control see that you are traveling in a group of 4, honestly very likely that even you won't be put into F...

Or am I missing anything?

Irritated yes, but after making a fuss to the wrong people, who then managed to get you what you wanted, and then turn that down, well then it sounds like you did get what you wanted, ie a chance to complain, sounds extremely DYKWIA

i would not have got irritated. you got what you paid for. i certainly wouldnt have made a fuss to cabin crew

No, was not an op-up.

Yup. That's me for sure .

When you booked this flight, the HKG-SGN leg was originally going to be operated with a 2-cabin (no F) aircraft, right? So you were booked into J for that leg? Was your ticket also a biz fare class for that leg?

If so, I get why you feel like you should have gotten upgraded once the equipment change occurred. BUT, they didn't owe you an upgrade, they just owed you what you paid for.

Anyway, I apologize if I misunderstand any of the facts.

I can't remember where I read it, but I remember that two FAs have to be staffed in F for safety compliance reasons if it is opened for seating.

So is it really SOP to not open cabins when the original booked cabin is not full?