I was on the afternoon flight (so i didn't meet the other members of the forum
), quick review:
Check-in:
I arrived at 15:20, no queue at all, proceeded to the bag drop. I already had my boarding passe on my phone (Apple Wallet), everything worked smoothly, staff was friendly.
Boarding:
Proceeded directly to gate 8.
There was some confusion about where the "economy lane" was, priority line was at gate 8, but economy ended up queuing at gate 7. Boarding started on time. As in "real life" even when the call back rows a few people in the line where there with ticket for rows that weren't called yet (who said AvGeeks are good travelers ?
), but they were able to go through with a kind remark from the boarding agent.
So some confusion, but this what as rehearsal flight so it was expected.
Cabin:
The Cabin is still from the finair era. As someone who loves the A340 and never miss the opportunity to fly them this felt like some kind of "Back to the future" experience, especially compared to the LH A340s. This cabin was already old in 2016 and didn't age well especially the IFE.
I have no problem with the seats being a bit old, (in term of pitch/witdh they were on par with LH, or at least it felt like it) but the IFE is another story.
The touch screen was quiet unresponsive, so I elected to use the remote. The problem is that the remote was old, some buttons weren't functioning at all and the audio connector was worn out. I tried with the provided headphones and my bose QC35 but I ended up having to move the connector very carefully to get the sound working. Also, no USB connector to charge your tablet/phone/whatever and no WiFi, some things I got used to on long haul.
They said that this wasn't the "final experience", so I don't know if they are going to retrofit newer IFE before starting, but I certainly do hope so.
Catering:
Not much to say here, I'm not a big fan of food so I wouldn't dare to judge.
The only thing is that on the right aisle, the beverages arrived quite after the food (25 mins I think, I was in the back of the plane). Happens all the time, so no big deal, but other carriers usually include a small quantity of bottled water with the plate, it allow passenger to drink while eating without having to wait for the beverage cart. So imho including a small portion of bottled water with the brownie/bread would be a good idea.
Crew:
It's hard to notice that they aren't already used to work together, but that was expected. The important thing is that I felt that they were trying to deliver a perfect service and were very friendly/polite to the pax, so I'm quite happy with that.
General impression:
A nice experience, I'm glad that they offered us the possibility to fly with them.
Now I'm puzzled about my choice of carrier for my next HKG trip.
Belgian-me says "fly air belgium" but traveler-me says "look at those nice A350 that CX is flying, with brand new IFEs".
In the end, the price is probably going the determining factor in this case, but if they refurbish the cabin, I'll probably listen to Belgian-me