Cathay must think again about its new business class seats
I refer to the letter by Dane Cheng, of Cathay Pacific ('Comfort and privacy at the fore of Cathay's business class design', January 13) regarding its new business class seat. All is clear: Cathay Pacific believes it has done well. In time, we customers will adjust to the 'new product'.
Assuming it has just begun the seat retrofit, I would suggest Cathay's management think again. It seems to me that this is a rather serious competitive misjudgment. I would switch carriers to avoid hours in Cathay's seat.
I encountered the new seat two weeks ago. Needing to work on a computer, I considered asking to be moved to a seat in economy. Instead, I stayed, and got to witness something unusual. The new seat forged an instant community in business. My neighbours engaged the flight attendants in impassioned conversations centred on the question: 'Why?' Passengers commiserated and compared notes on the seats on other carriers.
All this begs the question: Why, in adopting a flat seat years after its competitors, did Cathay decide to reinvent the wheel? Why didn't it simply combine British Airways' second-generation seat with Cathay's superior service?
Finally, as Cathay is a public company and relatively few fly business class, does this matter to Hong Kong? Yes. Our competitiveness rests on myriad factors, big and small. Hong Kong has, hands down, the best airport in the world, served by the most convenient city-to-airport train. We are home to one of the best airlines. But that airline offers a business class service that is notably inferior to that of British Airways or Singapore Airlines.
Dick Groves, Wan Chai
