While Cathay Pacific is generally regarded as one of the best airlines in the world, I haven't been terribly impressed by their longhaul business class product. While they have excellent reverse herringbone seats throughout their longhaul fleet, there's not much else that's great about the experience. Their service flow has always felt robotic and impersonal…
Continue reading: Cathay Pacific Is Revamping Meal Service In Business Class
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Its been a while since we've had any kind of business class rankings. Just saying.
Three app choices. Six entree choices. Lighter options. Heavier options. How many people do they estimate will actually get what they want? Seems like a nightmare waiting to happen
I was never bothered much by the way they serve the food. I am consistently disappointed by WHAT they serve and really hope they work on improving the quality of the food.
To be honest, on my last flight from NRT back to HK on business, the food they served is just a dismal. The steak, my goodness, i thought i was chewing a rubber. I hardly complain on presentation and portion, but both are just awful. It's like economy class food put on the business class cutlery...
Seriously, whatever they will revamp, i have no expectation on CX as the management has been focusing on how to cut cost. The only good thing about the CX J is the seat and the attentive FAs, that's all.
FINALLY! Honestly, I've started avoiding Cathay biz class, mainly for this reason. They're regarded as such a great airline for business passengers but I really can't stand the food. I don't like that they serve everything in those ceramic ramekins and there's just really no thought that goes into the meal or the service, plus it's really not very tasty, either. So glad to see this change as I think it will improve their product greatly.
In the list of changes, quality isn't mentioned. They're trying everything that doesn't involve paying more for the food.
I have mixed feelings. Most of CX's east coast flights leave 1-2am, so I'm honestly not interested in a "restaurant" service but rather a "quick" service so I can get to sleep. Also, the combination of options sounds like a nightmare for catering logistics -- only F gets all options catered for all pax so the likelihood that a customer won't have their first choice increases with each option unless they are also planning to allow meal selection in advance.
Second the comments that declining food quality is a more pressing concern than personalization of service. I honestly don't care if they wheel a cart of aluminum buffet tins Air India-style if the food is actually good.
It seems like a rather drawn out schedule for implementation, even considering the extra training. Expanding the number of choices is great on the surface, but it won't mean much if they run out. I wonder how they'll deal with catering enough appetizers/mains without overdoing it and having too much waste.
@lucky - Also, "...but I’d rather that then have them add it and the service flow is then a disaster."
should be
"...I'd rather that THAN..." 😉 It's a bit surprising, since you're usually good with avoiding these mistakes! :-p
The timeline would suggest that ORD has already been getting this service for 11 months?
One other comment that I have is that is in CX business class, they don't have "competitive" bedding for their long-haul flights! There is no mattress pad and the pillow and duvet isnt as good as other long-haul business class airlines. If they provided a mattress pad-- it would really make those long overnight flights to HKG much more competitive.
Typo error: ORD 2018? I’m going to change my award ticket so I can fly from hkg to ord instead to LAX!
@Michael
Wholeheartedly agree. CX foods are terrible, even in F. They should spend more thoughts and MONEY in improving the food quality (and the wines in J.) Just pouring Krug in F is not going to cut it other than AS sweet spot makes it still worthwhile.
@jaymanlb
Can't agree more. The CX J seats are old and very hard. Their bedding is worse than the new AA bedding which we just flew MXP-MIA and were very pleased. Also AA J foods on long hauls actually are better than what CX feeds you. Shocker to many I am sure but that is how it is these days.
The MAIN problem BY FAR is the quality of the food, not the flow or the number of options. The taste and quality are consistently shocking.
See, I disagree about CX's food. I know the food is an average aspect of an otherwise excellent J product, but I generally enjoy it. The Chinese options are generally better than the Western options. The congee for breakfast is always good and the stir fry dishes are always really tasty. Some of the regular Western dishes are good too - they had a lamb and rosemary pie with roast vegetables which was always excellent. I can't remember being served anything I would describe as "shocking" in J.
I agree they could improve the service and more flexibility is always welcome, but I think the complaints about CX's food are overdone (pun intended). If you really think it is that bad, you must be devasted flying US domestic.
@Edward "The steak, my goodness, i thought i was chewing a rubber"
Chewing rubber......ewwww
Chewing A rubber......EWWWW
Service flow notwithstanding, do people actually enjoy the food in CX J? It's always so damned salty.
I flew them in January. I kind of liked the main course service followed by the "order whenever you want" option, but yes, the food quality wasn't anything to write home about. Any positive changes will be welcome.
CX long haul haul business class food is worse than the food offered in premium economy class (long haul) of EVA Air
Eva food is pretty good
I am glad they didn't go with dine on-demand. It is disruptive and I prefer meals to be something of a ritual throughout the cabin. I wonder in practice too how many passengers really want to eat at different time. I doubt more than 25%.
An idea of “Dine On Demand” sounds nice to ears.
But the reality would be 40-50 J passengers ordering meals throughout 12+ hour flight that comes with all the non stop noise from the galley, silverware noise while passenger dining, the food smell, crew walking “thumps”. It would be an pain for business/frequent travelers.
It works F in single digit number of seats. Not J with 40-50+ seats.
As CX has squeezed seats as much as possible in the cabin in the past few decades, I assume that they must have had squeezed the galleries as small as they could. Not to mention the manpower. The service can be enchanced only when appropriate manpower and working environment/equipments are provides to crew.
Let’s see how it’s going to turn out!
Fortunately I have had excellent (albeit always Asian) food on CX and I am glad that they are not going with dine on demand because that never works properly on EY or QR, which appear to be the ones every one raves about. On several EY flights over the last 12 months, I have never once experienced the dine on demand at the time I had requested. So I avoid flying them just because of that.
Historically, there was thought put into the timing of food service on long haul flights to help passengers adjust to time zones but I realise that has degraded to one major meal and one minor meal on long haul flights. That appears to work for some and not for others. First world problems, I guess!
I think this sounds really nice in theory, but too difficult to achieve in real life. In my opinion they should improve the quality of their food. From my experience flying with them, the food is just okay. For the level of airline that it is, the food should be improved. That would be a much more realistic improvement.
Such soft service improvements are a much needed improvement to compliment their excellent hard product. An improved meal service in J with a little crew warmth would go a long way to restoring CX's premium reputation.
Took a business class on CX from sfo - HK- CGK on 8/19/18. The foods quality and services were just like being in economy class with 3x the price. How dissapointing! Yikes.
On my way back, JAL’s overall services and foods quality were so much better.
Hello lucky, I recently took the new Cathay Pacific J class food service flights from Chicago O’Hare to HKG in August. On both legs of the journey, the service was extremely slow even though I was sitting in the forward smaller business class compartment which got served first. The food arrived cold and extended periods of time passed between courses and collection of dishes. Requests made to individual cabin crew for example, for an additional glass of wine or water refill or anything else was delivered by another cabin sometime later if at all. Hopefully the learning curve will improve in the service gets better. It would be interesting to hear your review of the service and share your thoughts with everyone now that a good number of months have passed since the new service has been rolled out.
Recently flown Cathay business from Auckland to Hong Kong and I was surprised how dismal the service was. All very stilted and the food was mostly tasteless. There was barely any service bar the food and drinks and seemed a pain to them when I asked for some mid flight ice cream.
1) How does this affect special meals? Would those pax be limited to whatever special meal was loaded and not allowed to choose from the "anytime" menu?
2) When does SEA get the new menus?