The product is declining, no doubt. Just go wander around websites where frequent fliers share their experiences on different airlines. CX is always mentioned as having terrible food. Then again, CX owns the kitchens and I suspect they are run in the same brainless-cost-cutting vein as the main airline is...
All competitors have indeed matched us in hard product, the whole 'prestige' thing is only held together by the cabin crew who are willing to bend over backwards for even the most insufferable passenger.
How long is that going to last, then, when managers who won't look in the mirror for culprits have another go at the contracts of their flying staff?
And can someone explain to me why AA is able to offer business class on a HK-US direct flight for the price of a premium eco ticket on CX on the same route?
Their staff cost a lot more than here, they have proper unions and labor laws to deal with, the airplane and seats cost the same, and they make a profit... Is there something I'm missing?
...Oh, right, they don't pay twice the going rate for fuel.
The last 5 have been golden years for airlines. They all turned good profits, got back on their feet, expanded, ordered airplanes, rewarded their staff.
Except for one, of course, which -through mismanagement- never managed to perform as well as its competitors and as its shareholders expected despite constantly gnawing at its own expenses and staff.
Now the golden years are over, and the cyclical wheel of aviation business is showing its muddy side again. That time when they come at us with the butcher knives again, not that they ever put them away of late...
So before we get imposed a new round of punishing measures for the sake of the airline somebody else ruined, why don't we ask our dearest managers what sacrifices
they will be making this time?
#accountability