dubstyle311

I've flown with Qatar on their new 787 product last year and while the hard product is as good as I've ever seen the rest of the experience is not great. FAs are average however the passengers in J and the Doha lounge are just terrible.

I have an opportunity to fly CX this month to SIN. I've never flown with them before but their J product has always been on my list of things to try.

I just spent some time reading the forums here and I'm kind of surprised to see people are not happy with the CY food and beverage. That was surprising.

I am sure the passengers are MUCH more pleasant than QR but is the J product overall just mediocre? I've always heard they rivaled SQ and while they may come up just a bit short, I thought the soft product by CX was known as impeccable.

QR really isn't terrible but East Asian airlines always have the superior reputation.

What do you all think about the comparison?

FlyPointyEnd

Do you mean CX? CY is for Cyprus Airways.

fairhsa

I've flown both CX (Cathay) and Qatar J class. However, my views are subjectively my own and things I place value on may not be the same things you do.... so here goes.

1. Anything direct is always better than anything not direct - and this wipes out pretty much everything else, imho.
2. The only contradiction to the advice above is price - and I flew Qatar because they had an offer to Europe that was just too good to miss. Cathay rarely if ever has such good price promotions.
3. I liked Qatar food better. But you have to know about me - I really like middle eastern food and don't much like chinese food. (Also, I live in China and Middle eastern food is harder to get where I live, so its a lovely change). I found the Qatar menu to be middle-eastern slanted and the Cathay menu is obviously Chinese slanted. But both had other (Western) options as well.
4. Wine - don't drink.
5. Seat comfort - both the same.
6. Cabin comfort - I thought the Qatar cabin won hands down with its big open space in the middle. Much more open.
7. Cabin attendants - I would put Cathay as a win on this one. But I'm MP Diamond and it means more on the home carrier - so that might have helped. But on balance I found (as a woman) that Qatar staff, particularly the men, did not treat women passengers as well. But it was not a huge deal.
8. Lounge - Cathay lounges are very good when they are Cathay lounges. I found the lounges in Doha to be fine, but I got to use the one for Emeralds, which I understand is different than the one normal Biz passengers use. It seemed fine to me.
9. Doha - I actually liked Doha as a transit airport. But per 1. No transit is better again.

dubstyle311

I do haha. Fixed. Rookie mistake but I promise I am no rookie to J. Flown nearly all the *A business products before the AA USAir merger and I'm working my way through one world now.

Herostratus

The CX J long-haul hard product is better in that Qatar has a number of different J designs where as with CX it is just one design. Some of the QR J flat beds are comparable to CX but others are inferior. (I have not tried QR's newest J) Mattress pads on QR are a big plus, makes the seat much more comfortable for sleeping. QR short haul J (sold as F) is much better than CX short haul J.

I find that the food is better on QR. IFE seems similar in terms of western content.

CX Hong Kong lounges are much better than Qatar's Doha business lounge, that place is massive, inpersonal and poorly designed.

If you are flying trans Pacific AA is also worth a look. Seat is exactly the same as CX but you get (did get) mattress pads and PJ's. Food is similar and IFE has a better selection - WIFI is also guaranteed.

Honestly I would be happy to fly any of the three, the decision would ultimately come down to price. While East Asian airlines may have a better reputation, most of that with CX is just trading on past glories rather than anything special they offer today

dubstyle311

Yeah. It's looking like scheduleing, price and seat availability really should be the prime factor based on this research.

One important question though. Does any of the CX glassware in J haves Cathay logo? I've collected glasses from every other carrier I've flown. And sadly none of the glasses in the CX lounge at CDG have a logo. Haha. This could be the deciding factor.

1010101

I have no real preference between them. I generally favour the newer QR hard products and food but find CX more consistent overall. CX food has declined recently but is still acceptable vs most airlines and the crew are generally a bit more polished. All that said going to SIN you will most likely be on a regional configuration which will be nothing like the QR 787 or a CX long haul aircraft.

I'd check your expectations on your fellow passengers too. Cathay gets more than its fair share of undesirable seat mates.

pemabuk

My home airline is Cathay ex-SIN. I do 2 or 3 QR J class to Europe per year as well.

I definitely think the QR food is better both on board and in the lounges. It's fresher, cleaner and more variety in my opinion. I also agree with another reply, I do enjoy Middle Eastern food.

As for lounges, Cathay has steadily been improving. Over the past couple years (on my regular routes) we've gotten upgraded lounges at HND, TPE, HKG (Pier), and most recently SIN. That certainly improves the experience in the "hard" lounge product. The food is all the same. Nothing special outside the noodle bar. As for QR lounges I do love Al Mourjan in Doha. I've not experience bad behavior transiting there at all. In fact it's usually dead, outside of the restaurant, when I fly though. Contrast that with my frequent transfers in HKG where the lounges can get pretty busy. I see far more DYKWIA behavior in HKG lounges, trying to bring the whole family + maid in, etc etc. I find the HKG CX lounges much louder, especially The Bridge and The Wing than Al Mourjan. And even more so when overlapping with an AA flight to the US. Then it's just plain madness. That's why ever since the renovated Pier opened, I'll head there even if my gate is a 20+ min walk away just to escape.

On board I think the soft product is comparable. QR has a far better wine menu by leaps and bounds. Service, probably goes to CX as the other reply says, but that's because we're on home ground. Hard to compare as it relates to other passengers on board. My QR flights are usually louder, as it seems more groups of people fly together. CX is a quieter cabin in that regard.

CX soft product is damn good, and even though they are my home carrier, I wouldn't call them impeccable. Just last week leaving HKG for SIN, premium economy was being served pre-departure beverages before the right aisle of J. Meaning an attendant had to walk through J to do this with the same tray. Little things like this happen often and I just find it annoying.

I don't know about the statement that "East Asian airlines always have the superior reputation." With the further proliferation of East Asian upstart/budget carriers the legacy ones are cutting costs which affects the product. I'd put QR on par or better for some aspects. Never flown any of the other ME carriers as I'm oneworld.

Hope that helps.

fairhsa

None that I have seen.

FlyPointyEnd

The logos are etched on the bottom of the glass, with the exception to the flutes in First Class lounges, where its on the body of the flute. That said, I don't they are yours to take home.

nmuva98

I'm going to have to massively disagree with this. I found the QR soft product to be far superior to CX in every way. I am based in HK but now do all my long-haul business on QR and only use CX for regional flights or when I have miles to burn.

I can't comment on QR passengers, but the crew ratio is far better on QR, so you simply get more attention from the flight attendants. In contrast to CX where they try, but there are simply too few of them.

Other differences:
1) QR offers choices of hot or cold towel upon departure
2) QR offers champagne and rose upon departure and throughout the flight.
3) QR food blows away CX. Not even close. Dine on demand, more choices, better quality, and all course are individually plated. Vs CX who still uses carts in flight, so you get 20 entrees moved down the aisle for everyone to stare at and cough on.
4) Wine. Again, CX not even in the same league. I like QR's full-size dedicated wine menus with pictures of the bottles, then 2 types of champagne, 2 whites, 3 reds, plus both a dessert wine and port. CX cannot match this in quality or optionality.
5) Every time I fly QR I get a personalized introduction to the flight attendant working my area, with a few minutes to chat--regardless of status. On CX you might get that, but it's inconsistent, only from the head purser and nowhere nearly as personalized.
6) All new planes on most major routes (sorry CX, but getting tired of the 777s).

Where QR falls short:
1) Seats are not as private, as the walls around the seat (don't know the official term, partitions perhaps?) are not as high. That said, I haven't flow the new Q Suites and my impression is those will take business class seats to the next level.
2) I agree that Al Mourjan, whilst large, is not as good as CX's newer lounges at HKIA (notably the Pier).
3) Having to do a non-direct flight (although this is personal preference--I'd rather have better service and than fly direct, as my schedule is typically very flexible)

In my view, QR is far and away the best business class product in the OneWorld alliance. Can't compare to Singapore, as I never fly them, but wouldn't be surprised if they beat both.

QRC3288

To the OP...you're just flying to SIN! I don't mean to splash cold water here but it's a puddle jump ~3 hours of flying time. It's not really trying much of the product, if you're in the experiencing mode, if just flying for a few hours.

I'd say the majority of us here (although certainly not all) fly CX an extreme amount and for business. Bottom line is CX regionally is nothing to write home about, although you have a good shot at getting their long-haul hard product which is good. Soft product blows away the garbage on AA "first" class domestically in the US and the risk of completely awful flight attendants that seem unique to the USA, but that isn't saying anything. If you like whisky, CX J (both short and long-haul) label is JW Gold. If you like wine, well it sucks regardless of where you're flying. If you like food, it kinda depends on departure time and check the long thread we have on J class menus each year. Ex-SIN does have a half-decent laksa for 30k feet and breakfast down to SIN from HKG isn't half bad. No doubt your flight menu will be in that thread regardless if you're going to or from SIN.

CX food is hands down worse than QR, overall. Anyone sayin the opposite is....badly mistaken or just haven't flown enough of either in my view. I'm not sure how much you fly or what your food preferences are, but it's without question that in general QR J catering is better than most other carriers in in J class flights. Of course, some flights will be better or worse and everything is "on average" since there are a zillion different preferences and datapoints, and one anecdote here or there really don't mean much. But I feel fairly confident, with perhaps 500+ CX flights under my belt and at least 25+ on a number of their main competitors including QR, that CX food is - on average - below the level of "premier" competition I'm familiar with in J, including QR, JL, BR, SQ and NH.

I highly recommend you search around here, if you can navigate FT's poor search functionality, to find stories of folks being disappointed by the endless CX equipment swaps. Whatever you read in the blogs, ignore it...those guys seem to imply you can predict CX's regional equipment. You can't. Although SIN is *fairly* predictable, the fact CX will swap out flights at the last minute is precisely what makes it so maddening when you're on an A350, for example (long-haul J hard product, WiFi), and it get swapped to 773Z (7 across J class slanty hard product, nobody has exclusive aisle access, and no WiFi).

icebox425

I recently flew J in the CX 77W and QR 359 and have to say, whilst CX was fine and seat basically the same as QR - it definitely wasn't a 'wow' experience like I had with QR.

Crew is always variable, the CX crew tried hard and meant well but I felt it insincere. You could feel they were smiling at you because they were told to. The first QR crew member I had working my aisle was pretty useless, but when she went to rest the person I had after was fantastic and went above and beyond.

The food and dining experience was definitely better on QR. All plates and accompanying cutlery were placed down directly onto the table one course at a time. CX felt a bit economy like in that you would receive a tray with main and dessert on it. Little things but they made a big difference to me.

I was also left pretty disappointed with CX for not carrying the Betsy beer they have heavily advertised on social media. I was looking forward to trying it and none were loaded!

HarbourGent

This is a small but interesting example of CX messing up a basic part of its marketing mix in recent years. They seem to have too many small marketing pushes which don't push the needle of their financial performance. Here they have one which attracts a lot of their marketing focus yet isn't executed - which should be easy - and disappoints a passenger. Right now I think they would be better focussed on fixing the gaps in their core offering - catering across all classes is a key one - and not putting effort into small reward marketing initiatives they cannot execute properly.

Dschaimz

"I am sure the passengers are MUCH more pleasant than QR" - What a statement. I am surprised anyone would actually answer someone who thinks this way.