Dragonair J from Bengaluru to Hong Kong

[SQueeze]

Thanks for the report. It's a good read as usual.

Now that I see it, looks like BLR only gets the not-the-best planes from all airlines and that includes SQ and now CX/KA. Looks like it being so premium heavy yet with lacking capacity means that the airlines can put whatever on the route and it will still be full to the brim.

On the other hand, I believe CX puts reverse-herringbone ex-BOM and SQ's twice daily ex-BOM uses 1-2-1s.

[SQGamespeed]

Thanks for the report. It's a good read as usual.

Now that I see it, looks like BLR only gets the not-the-best planes from all airlines and that includes SQ and now CX/KA. Looks like it being so premium heavy yet with lacking capacity means that the airlines can put whatever on the route and it will still be full to the brim.

On the other hand, I believe CX puts reverse-herringbone ex-BOM and SQ's twice daily ex-BOM uses 1-2-1s.

I was looking at the CX route map and saw that while BLR is served with KA, HYD is served by CX using its own metal. This seemed odd as KA focuses more on 2nd-tier regional cities, and BLR would seem to be a more major city when compared to HYD.

And I can confirm that CX does use reverse-herringbone for BOM, or at least it did when I flew HKG-BOM vv in October. Don't know whether that's regular for the route though.

[yflyer]

Thanks for the report. It's a good read as usual.

Now that I see it, looks like BLR only gets the not-the-best planes from all airlines and that includes SQ and now CX/KA. Looks like it being so premium heavy yet with lacking capacity means that the airlines can put whatever on the route and it will still be full to the brim.

On the other hand, I believe CX puts reverse-herringbone ex-BOM and SQ's twice daily ex-BOM uses 1-2-1s.

Thanks, SQueeze!

I was also quite surprised that Cathay didn't fly to Bangalore themselves, preferring to codeshare with KA.

That said, KA's service and product are pretty much the same as CX, and I would even put their catering as better than CX (Whose catering in Y is not impressive).

This particular KA BLR-HKG flight seems to be frequently delayed as the plane they used is often subject to rolling delays on the China routes during the day. When I flew, I was delayed by just under an hour going there, and also coming back.

There are now so many choices flying to BLR. Even Tiger Air has a direct BLR-SIN, which looked quite full on the day I departed, judging from the crowds in the boarding area.

[ek&sq]

Thanks for the report. It's a good read as usual.

Now that I see it, looks like BLR only gets the not-the-best planes from all airlines and that includes SQ and now CX/KA. Looks like it being so premium heavy yet with lacking capacity means that the airlines can put whatever on the route and it will still be full to the brim.

Well that's not entirely true. BLR was among the first destinations to receive LH's new business class product when it introduced 747-8 service, and QR also fly 787's to DOH.

However, I agree that it's rather odd that CX choose not to operate BLR-HKG themselves despite having taken delivery of several new A330's, and carrying a large number of BLR-SFO/US-bound pax.

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Thank you for the report yflyer - it's always such a pleasure to read them. I noticed you said you were op-uped to J, but were given a seat in Regional Business class/Y+ section. Did you share this cabin with revenue pax, or were they guaranteed the flatbed cirrus product? I would not be pleased to leave it to luck if I were a paying passenger!

[SQueeze]

There are now so many choices flying to BLR. Even Tiger Air has a direct BLR-SIN, which looked quite full on the day I departed, judging from the crowds in the boarding area.

Yea, but for business travellers, TR is not usually one of the considerations. For business travellers, they are stuck with SQ as one-stops like MH and TG are not in favour. My company's contract with clients for example specify travel on Singapore Airlines in the fine print.

Even more incredible is ex-BOM, even if there are other nonstop airlines, they are still stuck with SQ. Nobody wants to fly with AI or 9W although the former offers a good flat bed product. And so, for last few days SQ flights ex-BOM were full from Wed morning all the way to Sat morning (7 consecutive flights) and my waitlist for 2 weeks didn't clear at all. And that's on Z class which now has hit stratospheric SGD 4,700+ to BOM. Ridiculous that it's still full like that. For BLR! It's impossible to get seats on Thu and Fri evenings too but the morning Silkair flights are usually available.

[yflyer]

Thank you for the report yflyer - it's always such a pleasure to read them. I noticed you said you were op-uped to J, but were given a seat in Regional Business class/Y+ section. Did you share this cabin with revenue pax, or were they guaranteed the flatbed cirrus product? I would not be pleased to leave it to luck if I were a paying passenger!

Thanks, ek&sq!

I believe this was a 3 class Dragonair aircraft, with F (In this case, the flatbed Cirrus was deployed as an F product), J (Using the CX Regional J seat) and Y, with no Y+.

I believe most revenue J pax and frequent flyers got seats in the F part of the cabin, while the J section was both revenue pax and op-ups. I didn't ask, but I doubt there were enough seats to accomodate all revenue pax on the Cirrus seats. If they did, they must have had very few J pax!

Where I was, we were all given the full J treatment i.e. J meals, amenity kits etc, so it wasn't a case of them operating the F cabin as J, and operating the J cabin as Y or Y+.

If I were a revenue J passenger, I would not be fully satisfied with the regional J seat on this sector, as I found it a lot harder to sleep on than the Cirrus flatbed!

[Guitarsingapore]

Another nice report with many interesting photos. Thanks for sharing!

[yflyer]

Another nice report with many interesting photos. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, Guitarsingapore!