mizuou

As a recent defector from BR to CX, I'd say BR PL price is nowhere competitive in its home market. For TPE - LAX, BR is more expensive than CI, and sometimes even more expensive than CX when you can find discounted business class fare for CX.

Two main reasons why not flying BR:

1. Very terrible Award Redemption plan: They only put 1 PL seat available for award redemption for popular route like TPE-NRT.

2. Service attitude: EVA does not treat their employees well these days, resulting in overtiring FAs and disgruntled employees. I have had great service for PL class in the past (3-5 years ago). But after the financial crisis, the cost reduction measure starts to take its toll on the service quality. Maybe DM and GO do not feel it as much, but you can sense the difference when you talk to the FAs.

I've been flying with CX for the past 6 months, quite satisfied with their mileage redemption program and in-flight services. CX early upgraded me to GO when I only logged 41244 miles in my account (60000 miles is usually needed). Very happy with CX business class so far

evq

Any tips on where to get CX discounted business tix?

For routes like HKG to LAX, BR will be around low $4000s (J class), or $3700s (Z class) while CX would be $5500+!

mizuou

TPE-HKG-LAX is always cheaper than HKG-LAX...You need to start and end in TPE to get sometimes cheaper fare.

coolfish1103

That's the question of Time v. Money

Dave Z

Personally, i'd pay the same for BA WTP as BR PL (or rather, i'd pay more given that i get concessions) and then use 25k of my BA airmiles to upgrade to CW. Until we get our arses in gear and release a PROPER flat-bed J seat, i've got no interest in PL.

Agree with you there. Although the AA lounge is definitely the worst of the OW lounges in T3. BA has a great J lounge and i've been lucky enough to blag access to the CX F lounge which is also very nice.

Boy am i glad to see a pax noticing this. You have no idea how bad it is getting on the inside.

evq

I'd love to hear more insider info.

username

I am curious....as they celebrated 20 years this week and with the return of K Chang, the pilot/maintenance son, the news media reports in Taiwan say he is bringing back a whole sense of energy into the company...

Are things actually worse from the frontline employees' views?

Do keep in mind that Taiwanese companies do tend to work their employees hard. Is this even worse than before?

Dave Z

Well, that energy certainly hasn't reached Europe yet. I should obviously be careful what i say as i wouldn't put it beyond BR to be spying on employees on forums like these. Needless to say, workloads and accountability have increased exponentially of late, yet salaries remain almost untouched since at least 2007.

hcshih

From on some internal source pilots (especially FOs) have received a significant pay rise plus benefits after K Chang took control. Bunch of retarded management were dumped. Looks like they finally realised without pilots they can't lift their planes at all. However the working morale of rest of company (cabin crews, ground staffs, etc) seems still unchanged (based on their FB). Not sure if that's from small group of employees or most.

mizuou

EVA cut back on FAs on board since the financial crisis hit. Don't know if anyone's noticed, in PL, when distributing meals to pax in D and G, FAs would cross your airspace to deliver the tray to your neighbor, instead of serving from the other side of the aisle.

And FAs told me that EVA encourage FAs to report their onboard fellow FAs on pocketing extra amenity kit, creating tensions among themselves.

evq

LMAO! honestly, the new black amenity kit kinda sucks anyway... kinda shocked that FAs would try to pocket them... i liked the luxurious feel of the gray kit (even though it had fewer items)

jimbo99

Yep, I noticed that. A more rushed service. In London the rot set in with the change from 747 to 777. A number of FAs commented to me they didn't like the configuration as they felt rushed. Certainly with the change from Deluxe to Elite there were fewer wine/coffee/snack runs. Also a long wait for trays to be taken away.

Frankly the Deluxe amenity kits of old were better than what they dish out in PL now. I also remember they often gave out gifts in C in the old days. I still have a rather smart wooden fluff remover/brush which folds out to form a full sized hanger.

And I'm sure all the old-timers remember when they made a short announcement near then end of the flight, the FAs would take up position and do a little bow and people would give a little clap. Tacky and weird by western standards, I found it jolly decent.

I know the crew (I don't have much contact with ground staff) are under more pressure than before. But I'd say they are pretty professional and keeping up appearances. Only if you ask do they say anything, in my experience.

hcshih

Not sure if the cut back of FAs has been restored, but there were 4 FAs serving TPE/BNE flight in the A332 C class last week. For 24 seats it seems to be proper workload. Not sure about the Y cabin. My only complaint was the missing of dessert (unless you consider a 2cmx2cm Godiva chocolate is dessert).

BTW are the addition choices of C meals specifically for online pre-selection still available? I found they are gone in July TPE/BNE flight. Not sure if this is just a special case or they decided to terminate this service.

evq

Ya, I fly PL all the time, and I always sit in D/G aisles... I've never had an FA reach over me to serve the adjacent pax.