According to G-CIVC, Cathay Pacific is making two improvements to its first class service.
- They’ll be rotating vintage champagnes in first class each month throughout the whole route network. This month will be 2004 Krug.
- They’re bringing back an amuse bouche for a three month trial on Hong Kong to Chicago, Boston, and New York JFK flights
Cathay has served Krug in first class for years. But like Singapore, Emirates, and some other premium carriers they’ve been testing even higher end champagnes for first class. The biggest issue isn’t even cost as much as sourcing. They need to be able to get batches of the product in large enough quantities for their flights.
Cathay Pacific introduced a predeparture amuse bouche in first class in February 2014. It lasted three years, cut amidst financial losses at the airline.
Though the first class service remains largely the same it’s also consistently excellent.
Cathay expects to offer a new first class seat when they take delivery of Boeing 777-9s potentially in 2021. As of March they hadn’t selected a supplier for the seats or firmed a decision on whether they would offer enclosed suites.
I consider the current seat to be excellent, it is private and more spacious than what many carriers who offer doors provide. Seating is 1-1-1 rather than the denser 1-2-1 standard. And I’ve long found the current seat to offer some of the best sleep in the sky. The width helps in this regard.
I read in Flyertalk that LAX and SFO were in the “third band” while JFK and LHR were “ first band “, as an explanation as to why those destinations got premium champagne. I would have thought paid F demand in LAX would have been solid due to Hollywood. Any insights?
I also read about a precipitous. decline in food at the Pier F lounge and others.
Thankfully, the bed is still the same even if the food is going downhill
@beachfan I was just in the CX F lounges a few days ago, Pier and Wing and there was not a decline in food quality and offerings, although the Pantry at The Pier did have a makeover in Terms of what is offered.
Also, personally as a AAdvantage member, I no longer will use the additional 40K miles from Biz. for me, the value isn’t there anymore. Yes the seat is a bit more comfy and bed mode is great, but I personally sleep just as good in biz. Also, I would rather fly AA biz with their Casper bedding vs CX J. AA has bedding, better food and better IFE. Now they just need consistent FAs
I loved the amuse bouche on CX F.
Hopefully it will return permanently.
Flew in Saturday HKG-LAX. Got to drink tons of Krug2004. Plenty of bottles on board. They opened at least 3 for me. 🙂
I don’t get cutting the amuse bouche in first class for financial reasons. It is hard to believe that it was killing profits. And if it was, just raise the price of a first class ticket by $5 or $10 or what ever. With some of the Cathay flights between HKG and JFK going for over $30,000, price appears to be no issue.
Excited to fly CX J for the first time later this year. It looks like for champagne I get the Deutz. Not vintage, but probably better than what I’d buy at home.
was just recently on their jfk to hkg flight. i noticed 2 things. the tv monior has been replaced. it’s now similar to the mechanics of the a350 C class although the size/resolution is still the same. the remote control has also been updated similar to the a350 C class.
Flew cx f JFK to pvg via hkg. Had breakfast in pier and it was excellent. Didn’t notice any drop in food quality and have been there multiple times. The service onboarding was also consistent. The food onboard has declined and the seats are starting to show their age. In terms of entertainment they had enough films for me but if someone goes to the movies I can see the selection being a bit weak. The hard product has dropped off over the past three years but it’s still adequate. Once they upgrade their cabin and improve the food onboard I think they will be back near top.