Let me rephrase: does CX make award seat available earlier to its own members (as I can see them through the dummy AsiaMiles account) but makes them appear later for partners?

It occured me to that I called AA just slightly under the 330 days in advance and I wonder if that's not what's happening here and I just have to wait about two weeks before calling back.

Just to provide some closure:

Managed to redeem two separate tickets:

QF F SYD-HKG + CX F HKG-CDG
QF J SYD-HKG + CX F HKG-CDG

I'll keep calling for the next 300 days and see if QF will open-up another F seat but otherwise, I'll be in QF J while the girlfriend enjoys F.

Thanks very much all for your help!

Now ... if only QF would let me redeem LHR-SIN ... everytime I enter credit card details it tells me that they expect 2-40 chars. in the address field. I'll have to give them a call tomorrow.

I'd that problem before. I don't think it's the number of characters, but it may be due to any special characters that you might have entered.

I got told off by QF Call Centre once for hassling them for such trivial matters. Also, don't forget they may want to ping you 2500 points for the privilage of talking to them.

Indeed. I discovered that yesterday as well. Turns out the offending character was the lowly comma ... !!!!!!

FYI- I took the BA F LHR-SIN as opposed to CX F LHR-xHKG-SIN as this would've put me in the next zone and increased the number of points required.

Yup. Changes QF made to their website last year (IIRC) meant many characters in people's addresses (incl mine) are no longer accepted. Fortunately any matching with CC address seems to not be so strict as to prevent it from going through (once edited to remove the offending characters).

I haven't read the whole thread, so I don't know if you need to stop in SIN. However, I'd take CX F over BA F even if I have to pay a bit more.

That seems to be the general consensus, but I really do need to get to SIN, and I considered getting CX F LHR-HKG and then flying on my own dime to SIN (as I don't have enough points to cover LHR-xHKG-SIN) but in the end, if BA F is that much worse than CX F, then it should serve as a comparison to CX F and we'll just appreciate it that much more. Or who knows, I just might hit the best BA F crew and it might be a really memorable trip.



(But grrrr, you've got me questioning my plans again now. Too bad/thankfully QF makes it really a pain to change award bookings ... )

As with most things in life, it is a lottery. You can get a wonderful BA flight with a great crew and a horrible CX flight with a grumpy crew. The hard product is not that important, really. I found the BA cabin to be slightly more private than the QF one because of the angled seating. I found the CX new First to be very private and comfy but preferred BA as a bed. BA and QF have poor IFE. CX F has wonderful large monitors but all their movies are in the wrong format.

It all depends. You will have a great flight no matter what you choose. What is important to you? Having lounge access in SYD would actually be important to me. Some extra time in HKG to enjoy the lounge and relax would not bother me either. Two airlines would be fun if you like comparing products. Too many variables.

If you are looking to impress your girlfriend I would not miss out on the lounge experiences where she will be treated as royalty. The QF lounge at SYD is arguably the best in the world and in the Wing at HKG you can have some great fun in the cabana's, if you know what I mean.

You can't go wrong with any choice as long as you have fun!

Although they need to shoot me before I will sit in a CX J seat.

Yes - that is weird - why on earth can't CX get the right format to fit the screens?

First I thought that all their contracts are for 4x3 format and they are too cheap to negotiate a second deal for 16x9. However, the movies are actually in 16x9 format but compressed to 4x3 so they look weird. I found it utterly ridiculous.

I had to cut the rest of your post but I want to say thank you very much for that much much much needed perspective. Like many of us, I can get really nitpicky and lose sight of the bigger picture and your post really helped to clarify my thoughts. Not only that, thanks as well for your opinion on the various pros/cons of each individual offering -- very helpful and was also one of the things I was looking for.

Now to plan the rest of the trip.

To resurrect this thread ...

My current booking is:

SYD-HKG
QF127 F (for the gf)
QF127 J (for myself)

with a few hours layover in Hong Kong, connecting to:

HKG-CDG
CX261 F

on the way back ...

LHR-SIN
BA11 F

a day or two later ...

SIN-SYD
QF6 J

However, hearing talks about the strikes and rumos such as the viability of BA and all have made me wonder: is the F experience even still going to be worth it come next June?

I started looking around my travel dates and I can see seats for 2 in F on CX250 LHR-HKG (noon'ish flight).

I'll be flying CX F on HKG-CDG so it won't be the first time, but this is a day flight whereas the other is a midnight flight and I thought I might get a different experience.

That said, I see a few threads here and there about the awfulness of HKG-LHR v.v. route and how the cabin crew staff are probably the bottom of the barrel compared to other CX flights.

So, I've got: (BA strikes + BA viability => possible cutbacks), narrow, old, and "outdated" First Class cabin, another night time F flight (2125, hopefully they still do a proper dinner service as opposed to a late night supper?) vs CX new F cabin, CX reputation in general, CX LHR-HKG shoddy reputation, CX F daytime flight, CX F daytime menu/service, change fee with QF (booked with points through QF).

In fact, when I looked at it like the above, it doesn't look like there's any positive for BA, aside from the fact that I won't have to pay yet again to get things changed around.

If I were to take CX F, I'll be picking-up CX J HKG-SIN but that's allright as I can use the few hours in HKG to get out of the airport and catch-up with friends and families.

Are the BA worries unfounded and I should stick to what I've got? Or is it that no matter what I should just take the CX F as it's better than BA (assuming it is better than BA)?

Thoughts?

(Sorry if this is just a rehash of the previous conversation.)