HKGglobaltrotter

A bit of news I have heard re: lounges... (subject to change of course)

1) G16 lounge will be renamed to The Deck and should be reopening in March/April this year. It will be a business class lounge. At the same time The Cabin will be closed for renovation, it will have shower suites after the renovation so all CX lounges in HKIA with have shower facilities.

2) From April, Plaza Premium will longer be the catering company for CX lounges. Sodexo will take over and provide catering service in all the lounges. Let's hope the quality will improve....

Admin: Feel free to amend the title or put this in an existing thread

QRC3288

Well this is certainly interesting! Thanks for the news.

ermen

Didnt they change from Peninsula, to Plaza Premium, and now sodexo?
i dont see a problem with Plaza Premium at all so I hope this is not a cost cutting exercise!

sxc

While ultimately all the companies that CX have used provide a product to a budget, at least they are hospitality companies or experienced in lounge provision.

Sodexo is purely a faceless catering company that really is experienced in providing a product based on the money they’re given and have no skin in the game. I don’t have high hopes for this change.

QRC3288

End of the day, most of what we receive has to do with how much CX is willing to pay per head. Not necessarily the caterer.

Although I *bet* Plaza Premium throws out lower bids overall than Peninsula, and in general isn't as image-conscious as Peninsula / HKSH. No doubt PP says they can deliver the same service at lower cost. Deep down I'm sure whoever at CX is receiving this pitch knows it's a bit false, but you wink wink and nod and lie to yourself that you can actually cut costs without sacrificing quality. Which of course is usually not true.

I'm not familiar with Sodexo. But end of the day I suspect it all comes down to how much CX is willing to pay per head. Given new management at CX, and frankly some possibly *good* changes (canned the knee jerk DoD, introducing duvets, hot meals return on some TPE flights, etc), I wonder if we might be pleasantly surprised. Or I could just be dreaming.

HKGglobaltrotter

I have heard Sodexo currently provides catering at UA and AF lounges at HKIA. I have not been to either so I don't know how good/bad they are. Though you mentioned, it's all down to individual airline's budget so one can only wait and hope it will be an improvement (Wishful thinking? haha)

sxc

UA is very meh at HKG.

hl176

Sodexo? Is that a joke?

Any food catered by Sodexo is hideous and laughable. I went to one of the top boarding schools in Canada and where catering was switched to Sodexo and is stilled catered by them; completely inedible (Jack Ma's son attended, Lai Sun's Peter Lam and his son also attended, Nicholas Tse, and numerous others). Hospitals and prisons in Canada are catered by Sodexo.

Let's just say the food was so bad that people would rather just eat outside instead of at the cafeteria and once, the headmaster was seen dumping his plate of food in the trash after a bite. Sodexo became a running joke and meme around the the school to the point some individuals had #sodexo on one of the patches for their grad jackets.

I hope this is just a bad joke.

hl176

You're just dreaming. I just spoke to my friend from BKK and he said Thai hospitals are catered by Sodexo. His international school there, one of the best there, was also catered by Sodexo. He had nothing good to say about it.

sxc

The timing of the reopening of G16 also lends credence to this rumour. They’ve probably delayed reopening it until the new catering contract was finalised.

QRC3288

Oh come on. You also know the Peak Galleria - that tacky, tourist trap mall atop The Peak which houses a Burger King and Madame Theusads, among other wonders - is owned and managed by HKSH?

HKSH = Peninsula parent company.

The fact HKSH is also affiliated with Burger King and three hour snaking lines filled with mainland tourists to take the Tram, doesn't take away from high standards overseen in The Peninsula Hotels.

I don't think it matters if Sodexo caters an elitist boarding school with bad food, or a hospital in Bangkok. It just tells me the company is big. The bad food you ate may say more about your school's administration or priorities than it does the caterer. It reminds me of the laughable praise of Do & Co on the internet, bloggers who know nothing of the company infer a causal relationship when none exists (I had great catering on board! Catering was Do & Co! Therefore, Do and Co is excellent!)

I'm going to hold an open mind until it's open. CX, end of the day, will determine things like Champagne type, food budget, wine availability, water bottles, etc., not the caterer. The caterer will simply provide the budget. furthermore, if The Deck is biz only as expected, then there won't be service a la carte style, as in Pier F. This a la carte dining was hands down the biggest problem for the HKSH to PP switch a few years ago, which we all complained about.

sxc

@QRC3288 I think the inference is that all lounges will change over to Sodexo. So a la carte dining will be in scope.

QRC3288

Alright, points taken by you and the fellow above.

Now that you say it, I'm definitely thinking too narrowly - I was thinking only The Deck. Of course it would make sense for them to give other lounges too.

I guess maybe I should be getting pessimistic, after all.

hl176

I don't disagree with the points you brought up about HKSH. However, unlike Sodexo, they cater to a wide range of level of catering standards.

If you do a quick google search of Sodexo, there is no doubt that they are a large corporation with lots of experience in the catering industry. What you will see is that they supply catering to a wide variety of universities in America as well to prisons and hospitals around the world. Given the number of complaints, to the point where student run newspages in college are rating them an F, and the lack of track record with regards to higher end catering, this does not instil confidence whatsoever.

sxc