[christ]

Quite interesting to see that Cathay didn’t win anything for any of the travel classes as being one of the highest priced (business at least), I would hope that service would follow. Certainly in business, it would help if they improved their haphazard service. Nonetheless pleased to see why they won re lounges and is well deserved.

It is interesting that Singapore Airlines won so much as i thought others had said its service had gone downhill but perhaps not as bad as others had said (or maybe it was a higher starting point in the first place)?

Also very surprised to see Singapore as best business city in the world – must be very Asia centric as i struggle to see how it beats NY or London. As for leisure city, i can understand Bangkok but again shocked re Singapore as i don’t know anyone who rushes to go there v Bangkok, Tokyo or Taipei. Very sad that HK is not there as it is by far my favourite Asian city and feel privileged to live in HK and there is so much to do.

No idea how Lufthansa won best European airline – I have not travelled on them but comments on other business traveller sites is very negative.

[cwoodward]

This is of no surprise to me as in the many years that I have posted here and read this poll SIA has always won almost everything in these awards that is associated with this part of the world.
It changes a little from year to year but the general outcome always similar. Exactly how or why so many votes are cast in favour of SIA has always rather puzzled me.

However to be clear I absolutely am not suggesting that Business Travellers poll is anything other than an accurate reflection of the votes received.

[christ]

Perhaps there is greater readership in Singapore than HK (though does not seem apparent from those active in this forum). I had not appreciated that SIA has won a lot historically and hence my surprise as no airline is good at everything! As i have said before, my knowledge of SIA is out of date as only flew twice on the A380 in first.

I really am not sure i would class Singapore airport as the best in the world as I did not find friendly (but maybe i am influenced by the somewhat tiny BA concorde lounge)…..I also found the gate areas awful. I also just read out of interest that Seoul Incheon is rated above HK – I found Incheon very efficient but again nothing special (Asiana lounge which Cathay uses was awful but i was intrigued with the amount of Koreans drinking the draught beer early morning). Maybe I am biased to Hong Kong but it always seems very civilised and friendly to me when either arriving or departing and then adding the outstanding selection of Cathay lounges to choose from!

Therefore HKIA has my vote for number 1 and Cathay HK lounges and LHR T3 Cathay lounge as the best lounges (though i also do like BA LGW lounge, LAX one world first lounge (operated by Qantas) and some of the AA flagship lounges).

[AlanOrton1]

Having travelled through both SIN & HKG last week I’d give my vote to SIN.
Nothing wrong with HKG, it’s a fine airport (even though it was strangely quiet at 6pm Friday), but SIN, in my opinion, is a truly superb airport.
I would certainly vote for CX lounge wise, the one at SIN was good and the Pier, although again v quiet, is superb.
Where I think CX has dropped a little behind its OW stablemates is its J product. I’d choose Q-Suite, BA club suite and AY’s new J product ahead of them and would rank their J hard product as similar to AA. Again only a humble opinion.

[christ]

@AlanOrton1 – I agree that Cathay is in principle behind on its J product and even when the new seats arrive, this will only be on a handful of planes. I really like the BA club suite but sadly HK seems to not be a priority as only 1 of the 2 planes had in the summer and in the winter this goes to none with the return of 2 787s with the old seats (I miss the A380 so much). Also Qatar does not use Q suite on the HK sector.

[cwoodward]

“this will only be on a handful of planes.”

Not exactly Christ……..

Unless you consider the
More than 40 X 777-300 being fitted with the ‘teased’ new business cabins starting in January a – “handful”

and of course –
The more than 45 X A330s being refitted with new Business class cabins starting early in 2024.

and not forgetting the 21 X 777X now due in 2025

Not a bad effort I feel for an airline that suffered so much financial loss in the pandemic.

BA it seems have 39 of their aircraft currently (August BA figure) fitted with the new ‘club suite’ with more on the way

[christ]

@cwoodward – i expect that this will take a very long time to complete the retrofit and I think it is not meant to debut before the 2nd quarter of 2024 (as an example look how painfully slow BA are with their club suite rollout – though maybe the difference could be that BA have a shortage of planes where as now Cathay have some surplus). Cathay are a little behind the game timewise.

Is there a full rollout timetable for new planes and retrofits?

[cwoodward]

BA is a poor example to quote I feel
Things here happen here rather faster than in Europe as I expected you would be aware Christ

[christ]

@cwoodward – i was not aware that things happened quicker here – surely it is still a significant task to retrofit. As i said before, I see the only difference is that Cathay has parked planes versus BA which has to wet lease planes. Taking another example, look at how long it took United to fit its Polaris product.

[Inquisitive]

Singapore airlines and Changi Airport wins many awards year after year for a reason. And that is consistency.

Both the above entities are not perfect and there could other airlines or airports fare better in one or two aspects, but SQ and Changi delivers expected services very well and most importantly very consistently to most of the passengers.

We can debate about lounges and business class seats, but if we include economy passengers in the whole group, these two scores well above other airlines/airports. Items like immigration, security clearance, baggage handling, amenities and time pass facilities in the airport, city transport, economy class service in SQ are factors why most people vote for these two entities. I

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