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-   -   New Business class service - from July 2018 - Experiences and Discussion (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-cathay/1916638-new-business-class-service-july-2018-experiences-discussion.html)

dkracing Jul 18, 2018 10:56 am


Originally Posted by Kachjc (Post 29982395)
idk , the CX cusotmer experience is a lot better than what it was in 2011
and way better than 2007-08

only 2003-05 was better...

plus not sure how "profit enhancement mode" results in world beating lounges like THE PIER.....

some people are never pleased

Not sure what flights you are taking but in my humble opinion as a flyer who is on board a CX long haul every month for the last ten years I can assure you the service is not nearly as good as it was in 2011 nor is it as good as it was in 2007-08. The airline's treatment of customers, appreciation of frequent flyers, the food and most of all service has been in a free fall decline for the last few years (ever since their bad fuel hedge and the promotion of their new CEO to be specific). Anybody who can say otherwise either has not flown the airline consistently for a long period of time or is working on behalf of the airline.

jckl Jul 18, 2018 11:02 am


Originally Posted by l380 (Post 29987287)
I am quite impressed with the presentation and the variety of options available!

If you read carefully, they are the same current items, just placed differently in the menu and dressed up.
Ok, a literal handful of them are new. But still the same protein-veg-carb dinner, YCL dim-sums/western egg breakfast.
The 'char siu noodle' is easily a dish served in all 4 classes on the same flight, I've seen it in Y.
Soup that used to be in a mug is finally in a bowl though.

Now that the hot snacks can be ordered as a main, they can load less of the proper main courses. I bet they'll load 70% main courses 1-3, up the snacks to make up the 30%.
You also don't get a side salad anymore, I assume garlic bread will also be gone replaced with the 'loaf'.
There will inevitably be fewer hot snacks lying around mid flight.
And the cheek of them listing out the snack basket offerings to pad out the menu.

I'll give them credit with the breakfast card though, it's rather chic.
But, instead of having cereal and yogurt with hot breakfast as of now, you are to choose either or.
Chinese breakfast also don't get bread/pastry.

So second meal is where they cut cost, together with loading fewer main courses and subtly limiting breakfast drinks choices.
There is ultimately fewer food items served per pax if you think about it.

FlyPointyEnd Jul 18, 2018 6:23 pm

Quite impressed with the new menu, good to see that Billecart is back. I really don't like Piper.

Has anyone noticed that the burger and wanton has been removed from the inflight snacks?

BUT777 Jul 18, 2018 8:23 pm


Originally Posted by jckl (Post 29987567)
If you read carefully, they are the same current items, just placed differently in the menu and dressed up.
Ok, a literal handful of them are new. But still the same protein-veg-carb dinner, YCL dim-sums/western egg breakfast.
The 'char siu noodle' is easily a dish served in all 4 classes on the same flight, I've seen it in Y.
Soup that used to be in a mug is finally in a bowl though.

Now that the hot snacks can be ordered as a main, they can load less of the proper main courses. I bet they'll load 70% main courses 1-3, up the snacks to make up the 30%.
You also don't get a side salad anymore, I assume garlic bread will also be gone replaced with the 'loaf'.
There will inevitably be fewer hot snacks lying around mid flight.
And the cheek of them listing out the snack basket offerings to pad out the menu.

I'll give them credit with the breakfast card though, it's rather chic.
But, instead of having cereal and yogurt with hot breakfast as of now, you are to choose either or.
Chinese breakfast also don't get bread/pastry.

So second meal is where they cut cost, together with loading fewer main courses and subtly limiting breakfast drinks choices.
There is ultimately fewer food items served per pax if you think about it.


Agree that there are actually fewer food items with the new menu.

Starter - you've got one more choice now, the soup was on the express menu on some routes.

Main - same 3 choices as before, but they put the hot snacks items, noodle soup, burgers... on the same menu now... and yes, the side salad is gone (which something i appreciate to have)...

Breakfast - it used to be 3 choices, western egg dishes, congee with a side dish, and dim sum... plus fruits, bircher muesli/yoghurt, bread/pastry with each item. Now i see they have one western, Chinese - dim sum and congee combine together as one but without bread/pastry, and yoghurt/pastry as another choice? Will they refuse to provide bread if requested with the Chinese choice?

The new plating looks nicer though. But I still hope that the quality will improve as well.

CommittedLurker Jul 18, 2018 8:46 pm

I cannot believe they have removed the salad. I actually enjoyed that quite a bit. By putting the snacks on the main menu, they will probably be finished before the actual snack time.

This is a definite downgrade, disguised as a new presentation.

fakecd Jul 19, 2018 4:58 am


Originally Posted by dkracing (Post 29987542)
Anybody who can say otherwise either has not flown the airline consistently for a long period of time or is working on behalf of the airline.

i agree entirely except the point about staff... even staff (friends) tells ne how crappy CX and they hate the firm and they would rather buy tickets on other career than standby ID90

clubeurope Jul 19, 2018 5:22 am


Originally Posted by FlyPointyEnd (Post 29989122)
Quite impressed with the new menu, good to see that Billecart is back. I really don't like Piper.

didn’t they only remove billecart only on regional flights? My most recent LH with CX still featured billecart.

QRC3288 Jul 19, 2018 5:31 am

what they've done is taken the cheapest elements of what they showed to a few of us a year ago as the "a la carte dining" concept, and gone forward with those less expensive modifications (plating, menu design, etc.) while ditching the more-expensive stuff like better quality wine, upgraded / more abundant main courses, etc.

I do think it's an upgrade overall. Plating, dining timing, a few more options, etc.

But there is a lot of "cheek" as posters upthread mention. CX boasted to us this new J class wine list, they had the bottles, they were on the menu, it was quite solid. What they had planned were far superior to the terrible wine currently on offer (not saying much...) and being rolled out in this refreshed service. Plus they intended / showed us a lot of genuinely new and abundant food options, etc. It was reasonable to expect a few downgrades since the event where they showed us was the promotional roll-out event last year of the new J class a la carte service. But virtually everything they presented to us as fact food-wise a year ago isn't happening after all. It's really quite shameless. They then kindly gave us all a bottle of Bollinger to signify the change (that was to be the new Champagne), among tons of other changes. What remains of that is a ghost: the plating and menu design, and a few twists, and the old terrible wine in J class.

Regardless of this being disappointing compared to the substance of what was originally planned, I count this as a decent upgrade (no doubt they'll market it as groundbreaking though, when it's clearly not). But they could lose all goodwill in my book if they don't load enough food options. F class, for example, has had loadings cut significantly in the last decade I've been flying CX F. If you're 5 or 6/6, you better be DM or not care about your primary food choice. My last F flight was 2 months ago, we were full house 6/6. Only 3 of the congees were loaded and they ran out. I forgot to check, it's possible some of the pax were op-upped but I still find myself fretting about food choices in J and F. If I'm thinking of having a burger I always tell the crew when I board to save one, or it's realistic they'll be gone if you ask later in the flight. So if this is how CX does this new menu roll-out, with maybe 1.1x main courses to passengers, then I'll think even less of it.

Mr. Strong Jul 19, 2018 11:38 am

As I suspected and mentioned in post #5 above, I'm convinced that this new dining service is CX's attempt to put lipstick on the "pig" that CX F&B has abysmally fallen to.

No offense to Roger Barstow, but what I find incredulous, laughable, and oxymoronic is his title of "Head of Culinary Excellence at Cathay Pacific". Culinary excellence as a description of F&B at CX is an admirable aspiration but there is no culinary excellence at CX. Did Ivan Chu come up with that title? Hehehe. Alas, getting culinary excellence at CX is something CX Management and the folks at Swire seem unwilling to invest in, let alone spend on (just look at the HK lounges F&B contract going from Peninsula to Plaza Premium to Sodexo, then look at the cutbacks in the planned new inflight F&B service). I understand that Mr. Barstow was previously at Qantas and designed their menus with some consultants from Rockpool in Sydney. I think Qantas has good F&B; alas, Qantas has Alan Joyce at the helm and he certainly understands product leadership and service excellence. I'm not so sure Boss Hogg, Greg Hughes or Vivian Lo and the management at Swire have what's necessary (i.e., capital, vision to adapt, etc.) to really turn things at CX around from a customer experience perspective.

FlyPointyEnd Jul 19, 2018 7:33 pm


Originally Posted by clubeurope (Post 29990378)


didn’t they only remove billecart only on regional flights? My most recent LH with CX still featured billecart.

I wasn't sure i thought it was a system wide change. AUS was on Piper. I know some ports still have Duetz though.

clubeurope Jul 20, 2018 8:12 am

AusBT just posted an article about the new service, lots of interesting pictures too...

https://www.ausbt.com.au/here-is-cat...dining-concept

fakecd Jul 20, 2018 10:41 am

enhanced CX new meal service that takes 4hour for first round. remember those initiatives they tried to put in funky tray and took forever? CX cabin crew doesnt have sufficient training nor manpower nor galley facility to make this happen. 3 starter 6 main DOD good luck :rolleyes:

G-CIVC Aug 7, 2018 10:50 am

A close friend of mine just got off what I believe is the 6th official non-trial flight, return sector 807.
Discussed a bit and conclusion is essentially same old s--t in more (debatably still) presentable tableware. A far cry from last year's trial (quality wise, not execution) - a quick snap of the actual food is on my instagram story (warning: you have been warned...adjust your expectations)
Menus for 806 and 807 uploaded in the other thread.

jmj9905 Aug 7, 2018 3:57 pm

Thank you G-Civic for the menus. Flying 806/807 in Sept./Oct. Guess I need to lower expectations.

Carfield Aug 7, 2018 4:26 pm


Originally Posted by G-CIVC (Post 30057544)
A close friend of mine just got off what I believe is the 6th official non-trial flight, return sector 807.
Discussed a bit and conclusion is essentially same old s--t in more (debatably still) presentable tableware. A far cry from last year's trial (quality wise, not execution) - a quick snap of the actual food is on my instagram story (warning: you have been warned...adjust your expectations)
Menus for 806 and 807 uploaded in the other thread.

Many thanks to G-CIVC for the menus!

Wow the new menus look not that different except they have cut back on main course choices PS. [just putting your snack menu items into your lunch menu does not mean that you are offering more choices]. However, I like the two additional appetizer choices, but with this new menu, they manage to cut the salad course. The breakfast looks weaker than before. Hopefully the real meals look better.


Carfield


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