Bad experience HKG-MAD in J - bad luck or normal?
First time flying CX J long haul. I have flown CX some years ago from HKG to other Asian cities.
I was really looking forward to the experience as CX is supposed to be a good airline. I have flown BA, AA, Iberia, Qatar, Air Korean, etc in business before.
The lounges were really good and I enjoyed the Pier and the shower and a light snack. As my flight time was so long - 14 hours - I planned to eat onboard to waste some time and maybe that’s my error. I did not pre book a meal because I didn’t know what I’d be in the mood for on the day, particularly with such a late departure.
The meal service was just a main meal choice, no starter, no amuse buche. Is that typical?
3 of the 5 choices were soup/broth. The one “meat and potatoes” western dish had run out long ago. I had the beef tendon noodle instead and it was very disappointing but edible. It was just a bowl of ramen with 4 chewy pieces of beef, no vegetable. The warm bread wasn’t warm. I had cheese with a glass of wine and when it was served the crew did not notice that the wine glass was chipped and cracked. To be fair, when I pointed it out they were very apologetic.
The flight, like many others, leaves HKG late at night and I felt very much like they wanted the meal service to be over with. I was asked if I was finished twice when I still had food on my plate.
I was asked 3 times to fill out the breakfast card and each time I had to say that I didn’t want to preorder as I didn’t know what I might want 13 hours later. To explain, I’ve had this on other flights where I’m still sleeping and get woken up for breakfast that I really can’t eat at that moment as I’m still half asleep so I rather order in the morning depending on how I feel.
The whole meal service was disappointing to me. Is it expected that you eat in the lounge? Do earlier flights have a full meal service with starters for example?
I barely saw the crew for the next 9 hours or so. The galley was empty. I watched a film a while and the audio stopped working so I went to sleep. Sleep was good and the duvet made it very comfy!
About 4 hours to landing I asked if I could get a coffee and it just felt like I was asking for too much from them as the crew member sort of sighed and said she’d see what she could do. She asked how I wanted it and I said with milk. A few moments later a cup of warm brown coffee arrived, no milk or sugar, and it was undrinkable.
When the breakfast service had started, because I didn’t fill in the card the crew assumed I didn’t want anything and there was some confusion when I said that I did. I had the Bircher muesli which was really really good. Sadly the pastries were rock hard, I could not even break one open to eat it. I’m not joking it was burnt solid. The coffee again was awful. They advertise that they can do milk coffee and latte in the menu but that doesn’t seem to be available?
I’m genuinely not a difficult passenger. This isn’t the level of service I expect on any business class service and is not what I’d get on Qatar, Iberia, BA.
Was I unlucky? Or is this normal and I got it wrong somehow?
At this point i will not want to use CX again. I flew Korean Air only a week or so ago and the meal service was full - so many choices and options that I guess it’s very fresh in my mind as a comparison.
I paid nearly €5k for this flight and it just wasnt the greatest experience I’m sad to say.