Cathay Pacific business class interview and course after three years: the internal assessment, the questions and what changes when you move to the front
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#1 Cathay, three years, business class since spring, and the Cathay threads on here cover the recruitment and the rebuild. This is the internal move to business: the assessment, the course and what the front cabin is like at Cathay specifically.
The path
Cathay crew start in economy and the business class qualification comes through an internal application after a period that has been short since the rebuild (the young seniority list that Leon's thread describes). For me it was about 30 months. The In Flight Service Managers put names forward based on the appraisals and the service audits (Cathay audits too, less systematically than SIA), and the application goes to a selection.
The assessment
A service practical in a mock business cabin with assessors as passengers, a wine and menu knowledge test, and an interview about handling premium passengers. The questions: a time a premium passenger was unhappy and what I did, how I would handle a passenger who wanted something not on the menu, what I knew about the business class product on each aircraft type, and why I wanted the front cabin beyond the allowance. The last one matters: the honest answer is the craft, and the people who say the money are not selected.
The course
About a week. The Cathay business product (the herringbone seats on the A350 and the 777, the new Aria suite as it rolls out), the dining (the Hong Kong specific menu, the dim sum service on the regional routes, the wine list), the sequence, the standards, and a lot of role play. The Cathay style is precise and quiet, closer to SIA than to the Gulf, and the course builds that.
What changes
The cabin: 30 to 40 passengers with high expectations and a Hong Kong business traveller profile that knows the product. The service: dine on demand within a structure, with the meal timing choreographed. The pressure: the audits and the feedback are more detailed in business and a complaint has your name on it. The money: the business allowance and the long haul profile of the routes, which for the Hong Kong cost of living is the real reason people want the move. And the standing: business class crew at Cathay are treated as the service specialists and the path to the supervisory grades goes through here.
The Hong Kong specific parts
The passengers are Hong Kong, mainland Chinese, Southeast Asian and Western business travellers in a mix that changes by route. Cantonese and Mandarin are used constantly in business and the non Chinese speaking crew work harder on the regional routes. The dim sum service on the short business routes is a specific skill that the course teaches and that nobody else in the world does.
Advice for economy crew at Cathay
Do the audits well, ask the ISMs to be put forward, learn the wine list before the course, and want the craft. The move comes fast right now. It will not always.
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#2 Cathay, and Yuen's 30 months is the rebuild speed. My batch was similar. The 'want the craft not the money' point is what the selectors say out loud. The money is why people apply and the craft is why they are chosen.
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#3 Cathay, and the dim sum service on the Taipei and Shanghai runs is the thing I tell crew from other airlines about. A full dim sum service in business on a 90 minute sector. Nobody believes it until they see it.
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#4 Qatar business, and reading the Cathay version the structure is the same and the style is quieter. Our assessors want warmth on top of precision. Yours want precision on top of quiet. Both are business class.
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#5 SIA, and the Cathay style being closer to ours than to the Gulf is right. The Asian premium carriers share a grammar. The dim sum is the Cathay dialect.
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#6 Hong Kong, different carrier, and the business allowance being the real reason in Hong Kong is honest. The rent decides everything here and the front cabin pays it.
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#7 Emirates upper deck, and I want to learn the dim sum service purely for the skill. Some crew collect routes. I collect services.
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#8 Vietnamese, applying to Cathay, and the Cantonese and Mandarin in business point is the honest thing I needed. Mandarin study starts this month alongside the English.