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New Business class service - from July 2018 - Experiences and Discussion

New Business class service - from July 2018 - Experiences and Discussion

Old May 2, 2019, 11:31 am
  #316  
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Seeing the J Menus thread, it's really nice to see that CX has changed their J champagne to a really decent bottle of Deutz over the unpleasant Piper.
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Old May 2, 2019, 6:37 pm
  #317  
 
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Originally Posted by G-CIVC
Some improvements are coming soon! For those flying to Boston this month you may have a chance to try it out.
Can you elaborate please ?
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Old May 3, 2019, 8:22 am
  #318  
 
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Being on another new J style diner flight, the drinks round started less than 10 minutes after take-off. The first 2 food rounds started less than 30 minutes after take-off. Really speedy. The cleaning up, cheese and sweet desert on the other hand, did take more than another hour.

Despite asking the SP 3 times for pepper & salt during meal order taking, that never arrived. From her face, I could see, she did not grasp what I said. So be it.

The ravioli (Vegetarian choice) did taste good and with a little pepper, it would have been excellent. This main dish got served on preheated plating. Small portion, though that's fine with me. The cheese and desert were nice to.

The menu does not list a vegetable side dish, though to my surprise it was present on the tray.

The Hong Kong style milk tea was not properly stirred, though let me not really complain about that, because right at the moment of serving, the seat belt sign got turned on, due to some turbulence.

Listed on the menu was a dessert wine, though not loaded and replaced with the previously served Port.

Looks to me, CX starts to get used to the new J meal service. I like it.
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Old May 3, 2019, 9:50 am
  #319  
 
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Despite asking the SP 3 times for pepper & salt during meal order taking, that never arrived. From her face, I could see, she did not grasp what I said. So be it.
Why can’t CX put the salt and pepper when they set the table?

QR always have these nice little salt and pepper shakers even on mid flight snacks.
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Old May 3, 2019, 12:58 pm
  #320  
 
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Originally Posted by boybi


Why cant CX put the salt and pepper when they set the table?

QR always have these nice little salt and pepper shakers even on mid flight snacks.
Because people keep on stealing it
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Old May 3, 2019, 5:25 pm
  #321  
 
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Originally Posted by Cambo
Doing some brainstorming about the "why" of the mixed experiences of the new J class service, let me give some thoughts:

- The whole organization of the service is not automated (starting with the lack of handheld devices to "take your order"), which makes it error prone, slow and very labor intensive.

- Because the whole handling is very labor intensive, the cabin crew simply does not have time for one of the major goals of the new service: More interaction with the passengers. Think about the ISM and SP going through the cabin, right after or maybe just before take-off, chatting with the passengers and registering their wishes on a Pad. Including first drink service, etc.

- And the Pad does transmit the passengers' choices to the galley, where the drinks + appetizers are prepared and served right away.

- A lack of automation makes it nearly impossible and very labor intensive to have "multiple" choices. There is no way, the crew does know if and when they will run out of a choice. So crew (and passengers) do complain towards CX and CX does reduces the choices to avoid disappointing passengers with their choice no longer available.

- There does not seem to be much alignment between the origin of the passengers and the availability of choices. Why have a lot of congee, when the passengers are mostly western nationality ?

- The cabin crew seems to be extremely busy in the galley, just to prepare a drinks round, etc. This suggests, the storage of all the items to be served seems to be highly optimized for space, but not for being readily available for serving. When all bottles, glassware and other items are brought on the airplane organized in such a way, it can be used right away, that would save a lot of time for the cabin crew.

- The higher FF passengers get disappointed with the lack of choices available for them.

- The extra text on the menu does not seem to have much relation with the effective menu on offer, which disappoints the passengers.

- The available choices do seem to be (sometimes ?) focused around one major option, for example largely only beef related, instead of a spread like the standard Y choices "beef, chicken, fish, vegetarian".

- The hot parts of the meal are served on cold plating, with the consequence that, if it's not JIT delivery, the meal gets cold and even with JIT, you have to eat "fast" to avoid cold food. Hot food becoming cold, is a major distraction on taste perception. The JIT again gives time pressure towards the cabin crew.

- The meals are considered bland. Yep, it is. What is lacking is sauces. Every chef will tell you "give me sauce". Sauce takes care a meal gets a flavor on top of the basic taste of the solid ingredients. A flavor not mixed throughout the whole food portion, but varying with the solid parts of the meal in varying quantities. Maybe HKG locals can tell, whether this is due to the Asian habit to have all meal parts served at the same time, and soup is becoming the sauce for the other meal parts.

- And a major flaw I think, is the absent for advanced meal selection. When properly implemented, this would be a major cost saving for CX and would give passengers the option to choose upfront a "light" meal, or even skip the whole meal because they want to sleep right away. It also gives another option for positive passenger interaction.

Feel free to "add"
About the quoted items, I just spoke with the ISM, reactions:

- The iPad items are being implemented, SP's are currently being trained on "the program", which seems to be slightly "complicated". Major issue is though, that the iPads do lose contact with the onboard server, once they walk halfway down the J cabin and the SP does have to walk back to the front galley anyway to let the iPad sync. It is planned to go operational May 6, on the HKG-BOS route, later extended towards other routes.
The Cabin crew (and CX) is very well aware of the implications of everything by paperwork, especially to be able to serve VIPs in a better way (ie grand them their first meal preferences) and the drinks / snacks serving, without having to chase up and down the cabin, especially the larger A350-1000 cabins.

- Advanced meal selection: Yep, CX is working on that. No date yet, when things get operational, though it seems to be far, cabin crew already knows about this.

Looks good news to me, though it should have been there a little earlier
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Old May 4, 2019, 6:44 am
  #322  
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Originally Posted by londonexpert

Because people keep on stealing it
I remember CX used to have those disposable plastic pods of himalayan salt and ground pepper that came with dishes like pasta, and the sichuan(?) chili pepper sauce for the chinese dishes... did they do away with those?
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Old May 4, 2019, 8:25 am
  #323  
 
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Originally Posted by clubeurope
I remember CX used to have those disposable plastic pods of himalayan salt and ground pepper that came with dishes like pasta, and the sichuan(?) chili pepper sauce for the chinese dishes... did they do away with those?
Those are still available. Just on demand.
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Old May 4, 2019, 11:48 am
  #324  
 
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Originally Posted by nathjean


Sorry, was too busy travelling. My MEL-HKG flight on 16th Apr was still old J class service.

Heading back in 3 days, will see if the new service has started.


Currently on board CX105 (delayed and aircraft changed from an A350 to an A333)

I can confirm thats its still only J class service. A bit disappointed.
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Old May 4, 2019, 1:05 pm
  #325  
 
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Originally Posted by nathjean




Currently on board CX105 (delayed and aircraft changed from an A350 to an A333)

I can confirm thats its still only J class service. A bit disappointed.
its already confirmed aust delayed till later this year.
tbh old service works well on these midhauls for the redeye as the whole meal can be done in 30 mins.
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Old May 10, 2019, 8:01 pm
  #326  
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The new service food on LHR-HKG this week was good and efficient, but personally I don't find the result all that different from the old service except that in effect, you could get some of the dishes as part of the any time "cravings" if you wanted to skip the late supper (was on the 254).

I had the cod with harrisa oil, aubergine tartare and purple potatoes. OK, but not particularly memorable. Fruit plate is less nice than the old service fruit trolley where you can choose what you want (not to mention that the fruit quality has gone down compared to a couple of years ago. We've moved from gorgeous mangoes to predictable watermelon...). Movenpick ice cream was ok. Chocolate praline was a nice touch.

For breakfast, the scallop and prawn congee with pan fried turnip cake in xo sauce was actually very good.
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Old May 10, 2019, 9:01 pm
  #327  
 
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Just got back from a return HKG-SFO run with the new service. I must say that I prefer the old cart service over this one. Takes less time with more variety, especially breakfast. They ditched the garlic bread (which is a highlight of the catering) and the option to get cereals and yoghurt have disappeared for breakfast. The quality of the food is hit or miss. The cod was pretty good but the fruits for supper on the HKG-SFO leg was rock solid and not fresh.
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Old May 10, 2019, 11:48 pm
  #328  
 
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Originally Posted by mbamejia
Just got back from a return HKG-SFO run with the new service. I must say that I prefer the old cart service over this one. Takes less time with more variety, especially breakfast. They ditched the garlic bread (which is a highlight of the catering) and the option to get cereals and yoghurt have disappeared for breakfast. The quality of the food is hit or miss. The cod was pretty good but the fruits for supper on the HKG-SFO leg was rock solid and not fresh.
agree 100%

also dessert selection is cut

Cathay has definitely moved beyond. Though my question is what have they moved towards ?
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Old May 11, 2019, 1:00 am
  #329  
 
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Originally Posted by orbitmic
The new service food on LHR-HKG this week was good and efficient, but personally I don't find the result all that different from the old service except that in effect, you could get some of the dishes as part of the any time "cravings" if you wanted to skip the late supper (was on the 254).

I had the cod with harrisa oil, aubergine tartare and purple potatoes. OK, but not particularly memorable. Fruit plate is less nice than the old service fruit trolley where you can choose what you want (not to mention that the fruit quality has gone down compared to a couple of years ago. We've moved from gorgeous mangoes to predictable watermelon...). Movenpick ice cream was ok. Chocolate praline was a nice touch.

For breakfast, the scallop and prawn congee with pan fried turnip cake in xo sauce was actually very good.
this should be catered by Do & Co already I think.
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Old May 11, 2019, 4:08 am
  #330  
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Originally Posted by FlyPointyEnd


this should be catered by Do & Co already I think.
Thanks! No idea I must say - I just had a look at the menu to see if it said anything but it does not mention any supplier (Do&Co or otherwise)
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