CX F upgrade is worth quite a bit more than 1 VIP; probably 3 or 4 to 1 is the right ratio. Remember that the cost of earning that CX upgrade is quite a bit (higher) than the AA vip.

The AA FS was a superb product, but it is now getting old (introduced over 7 years ago) and showing its age. About 50% of the seats that I've personally used have had a breakage that impacted flight comfort; this is up from about 5% the previous year. AA was supposed to refurbish the F cabin when the new J seats were installed, but I've been on some 777s where that wasn't done. I guess they are short on seats and using them on the Pacific 777s first. In any case the falling apart of the hardware has been combined with a deterioration of the soft product; basically F service on AA is identical to J service on 763s (and only slightly better than J on 777s). AA has chosen to improve J and degrade F; probably a wise market decision, but doesn't do much for the F experience.

The pecking order out of HKG is CX, QF, BA, JL, AY. But for LHR-HKG BA is much more competitive after T5 opens (presuming that HKG operates out of T5 and not T3) due to the better pre-departure facilities.

I don't have enough F experience, other than the use of an eVIP here and there, to make a sound comment, but still agree with most of the above. It's a pity you weren't around at the time to participate in this thread; it would have added some some lively points to the exchange.

I'd be happy to trade several VIPs for a CX (or BA, since that's who we're now booked on) upgrade.

It's been a year or so since I've been in F on a 777 (too much I-class flying), so I wasn't aware of this. If this applies in general (that is, if it's not just you being very unlucky) then it really is horrible news, both for us AA flyers and for AA.

What service cutbacks were made? I thought AA announced improvements for both F and J food and service.

I don't see any Z availability now on CX. I'm on a DONE, but my partner is on a OW award, so needs Z.

Does this ranking apply to both F and J, or just J?

I'm sure that stats such as % of seats out of service on 777s is a trade secret. But I cannot remember an AA 777 flight in the past year that didn't have at least one seat taped off. And it seemed to me that at least one plane had the new J seats (so they refurbished J without refurbishing F, even a clearly beat-up F cabin). Converting those coffins to suites is clearly taking priority, even at the expense of missing a cabin cycle. I can live with the dirty carpets and the leather upholstery is generally in good shape, but not much fun when the seat goes into manual mode. I perceive a big change from 2006. As for the service improvements, all the changes in food/wine are unambiguously to reduce cost; in some cases to wines costing half as much, so a big drop. For a while AA had better food and sometimes better wine than BA, but no longer; now BA is ahead again by quite a large margin. For example, AA used to serve the same champagne in J (and F) as BA served in F; but that was 2 years ago, now the AA F champagne is at the BA J quality.

The ranking out of HKG is the same for both F and J in my opinion (rather unusually so, most routes differ in this). With CX having a big lead, QF/BA close together (more a matter of taste, I'd pick QF), and AY quite far behind now (for a while AY was surprisingly good but has also slipped).