triplefives

On my A350-900 a few weeks ago in PE, the A/V controller in my wife's seat was stuck and wouldn't come out. Told the flight attendant who came back with some ice tongs (with teeth) and started working on prying it out successfully. Once she pulled the controller out, she said the wire sometimes gets coiled up which makes it difficult to pull back up. We thanked her for her help and my wife tested out the remote a few more times to her satisfaction. In that time, I wondered her seat was the only one afflicted - was it because someone was super harsh with the remote on the previous flight? Then I looked at my controller which was also marred by teeth markings also from ice tongs.

Knowing the A350's reputation for fit and finish, I looked around the cabin and noticed that the bulkhead wall also appeared to have a few spots that were bubbling like wallpaper bubbles. Not sure if it's isolated just CX but a flight on the A350 can be quite fun if you're amused by these things.

Cambo

Yep, double-sided tape, which gets hot due to the lighting behind it and the silver lining behind the glass lets go. When you are there again, have a feel how hot the mirror gets at that location. Do that at home and the silver lining will let go to.

Once the silver lining lets go, it is exposed to the air and gradually turns brown (Ag2O, silver Oxide).

Cambo

Yeah, I noticed that to and did wriggle the thing out myself by pushing around the controller until it let go.

Maybe modern art ?
Fortunately, an airplane flies based on the frame, not on the interior.

QRC3288

I had my first CX A359 flight of 2019 a few days ago, TPE only, J class window seat. Defects included:

*White caulking holding together panels of the seat frame which had unnaturally separated, in multiple places
*Faux wood finish peeling off
*The "shield" part of the seat was either cracked or previously broken off entirely, it was glued back together. I'm talking about the wing-like thing that's at your head/jaw level, between you and the aisle.
*IFE screen wobbly, you could jiggle it in ways it clearly wasn't designed, didn't fit properly into position. I'd say this breaks within the next week or two.
*In-flight map not working; for part of flight showing a previous journey from Australia, the remainder of the flight nothing.
*Arm rest / aisle guard stuck down as if glue or honey was at bottom. I was eventually able to pry it up, but very unnaturally. I'd say this breaks soon too. The top cover part with leather was nearly popped off, only about 1/3 was still glued to the raise/lower mechanism.
*2/3 bathrooms had tattered toilets.
*1 of the bathrooms broke mid-flight; the door became inoperable, stuck in the closed position. FAs tried hard to re-open, and two passengers tried to help them force it open, but nothing worked. Fortunately, no passengers were inside the bathroom when the doors got jammed lol. The ISM taped a red "NOT IN SERVICE" sign over the bathroom for the remainder of the flight.
*As the FAs tried to fix the bathroom door, the pax in 11D was collateral damage. A mix of people standing in his seat area and those obnoxious curtains blocked his television / hit him over and over. He kept getting the curtain in his face; eventually he ends up holding the curtains in his hands, watching the show of FAs trying to wedge open the bathroom door.

I have to say, at this stage I am surprised these problems still exist. I would've thought 3+ years in this wouldn't continue.

THR

rickywk

Just flew A35J in long haul J, still a lots A350 problem exist in my flew oldest A35J birds.

Toilet: Door lock still crazy, toilet bowl and sink is broken already. Two birds also was 1 year old aircraft.
J seats: My seats power plug not always working, Inbound flight LCD screen partial no backlit.
11D/G: CX sold this two seats on my outbound flights, pax seems keep awake on entire flight due to too near "pantry" and toilets.

nightkhan

1/29 CX 890 on A359 HKG-EWR, J seat 14K. When trying to recline, push seat forward, lean seat back, the seat/gear would get stuck after moving just a few inches and start "skipping". If I pressed the button to make the bed (automated), the seat would repeatedly "skip", trying to move forward but then skip and move back again over and over. If I just tried pushing the seat forward, it would slide foward a bit, and then take a huge jump back to original position.

Luckily there was still an empty J so I was able to move. But what irked me was that both the in-flight manager and a FA both tested the seat while I was sitting on it, and then again when I stood up, and determined that the problem was only happening when I was sitting on the seat and said they could manually adjust the seat for me instead of moving me. Obviously I said no and opted to switch to a seat that was working. Then after I had moved, the IFM came up to me again and they said the seat was "working again now", and that I could move back to my original seat. Definitely said no to that one.

synthkeys

I've had something like this happen a few times to me on CX890/899. I've never switched seats but I was able to "coax" the seat to/from recline position with a little bit of pressure. It felt like the seat was going off it's track and getting stuck at some point. For me, the build quality of the seats on the A359 are not as good as 773 which are much older and seem to have held up.

carrotjuice

This is strange, considering you had found an alternative seat that’s otherwise empty. Did the IFM “invite” you to move back “if you wish” (as you presumably had your hand luggage stored around that area) or “insist” that you move back (although I can’t imagine why, perhaps for cabin load balancing reason?)

sxc

I have had that feeling that if I’m leaning too heavily back on the seat it seems to “jam” as described. Standing up definitely “fixes” the problem when I’ve had it.

nightkhan

It was a combination of things that made it seem like they were reluctant about me moving, or just rubbed me the wrong way. When I first brought it to the attention of the ISM, I was trying to show her how the seat would get stuck when I was trying to recline or push the seat forward. But she immediately brushed it off and asked me to stand up a bit, and after playing around with the controls, the seat ended up moving past the stuck stage. Afterwards she said it's all fixed and left immediately. I figured the seat was fine now, but immediately the seat snapped back to the upright position after I had sat down and tried to move it. I tried playing around with it further to see if it was just a temporary glitch, but it kept experiencing the same problem. I flagged down another FA and tried showing him. He was also dismissive and asked me to get up and tried moving the seat. It was fine when I wasn't sitting on it so he left immediately too before I can show him the full extent of the problem. I called him back immediately to show him the problem when I was sitting down. Finally convinced him that there was a real issue, so he went to find the ISM. Since I was in row 14 I was close to the galley and heard her saying she already fixed the problem and there wasn't any issue. The FA finally convinced her to come back and check the seat again, and this time I showed them how the seat was skipping when I was sitting on it. The ISM told me there was an empty seat towards the back that I could move to if I wanted, but again she asked me to stand and tested the seat. It would sometimes move, sometimes skip and jump back, so that's when she told me I could stay in the seat and they could manually adjust it for me whenever I needed it to be moved. I thought that was ridiculous and said I'd rather move to the empty seat she mentioned. She said that's fine, but left without telling me which seat was empty that I could move to.

Rang the bell, got the ISM back, and she said 19K was empty. Took my stuff and moved back. Probably 10-15 minutes later she came around and said the seat was working now and that I could move back to my original seat. At this point I knew the issue was most likely only occurring when someone was sitting on it, so told her I'd stay put in the new seat. Wasn't a big deal, but just weird how dismissive they were about the whole thing.

MaximusNJ

The exact same thing happened to me on the same CX890 flight two days earlier (1/27). When I realized the seat would work when I stood up I thought "I guess that's the way it's supposed to work... but boy, that's poor design". Glad to know I wasn't crazy.