Bling it on: Cathay Pacific First Class New York JFK to Vancouver

Sounds like a great flight on CX, as usual, Ben! We've flown it twice already and are in love. In fact, most of our BA Avios are saved up to take advantage of this Fifth Freedom flight. Will be doing it again in F in about a month!

Try entering YVR on business (probably everywhere in Canada, but no experience here...) as an American. Even with a 3 year work visa that was created solely for the work I was doing for my employer by a Canadian immigration attorney (not that you can tell that by the full 8.5x 11 page fold out visa stapled in your passport) you still get hassled.

Essentially, you need to tell the normal immigration official why no Canadian could possibly ever do your job and that is why you have to come into Canada to do business. Do that 2-3 times and see how fast you sign up for Nexus.

"But I also love the 747 for the fact that first class is in the nose, so it’s extremely private and I love sitting in row one on the 747."

If you're traveling with someone, yes, but aren't seats 1A and 2A more private for solo travelers?

Just out of curiosity, what was the pre-arrival meal? Standard breakfast or snack?

@ wwk5d -- When traveling alone definitely prefer 2A or 2K. There was no pre-arrival meal on this flight.

The flight is too short to have 2 different meal services.

I took it once - great flight. Only problem is that westbound arrival of 1-2am (depending on DST or not), which is rather inconvenient.

Whoops! I mean, seats 1A and 2A on the 777 being more private for solo travelers...

Did you then go to Seattle area from Vancouver? How did you do that last bit?

Scratch that...Just read that you took another flight. Was thinking you might try teh Bolt Bus or the train...

To me this read like the best First Class flight you've had on AA in terms of soft product, complimented by Cathay's hard product.

Other than the lack of formalities were the service standards of attentiveness up to what you've come to expect from CX? Was the rest of the crew as informal?

From other trip reports online I'm beginning to notice that YVR flights are a bit inconsistent. Pleasantly or not.

-JRL

"Within a few minutes boarding was announced, starting with first and business class, and so began one of the most interesting Cathay Pacific flights of my life…"

So was it because of the FA (the fact that she called you "hun") that it was the most interesting?

"Within a few minutes boarding was announced, starting with first and business class, and so began one of the most interesting Cathay Pacific flights of my life…"

So was it because of the FA (the fact that she called you "hun") that it was the most interesting?

I was hoping for more! 😉

(Sorry for the duplicate post!)

@ JRL -- You're absolutely right. Funny enough the service was totally up to CX standards otherwise, it was just "hun" vs. "Mr. Lucky."

@ AJK -- Probably didn't accurately describe the level of "hun" in this post, but yes, that's what made this the most unique Cathay flight ever.

Whoa... I'm Canadian and the exact opposite holds for me... US customs tends to grill you - Canadians just want to know how much alcohol I have... I guess it's a matter of perspective!

I can't wait to read about the 380 flights.

I don't know between the US and Canada whose customs officers are more inquisitive, but as a Canadian entering the US we can also get questioned quite extensively by US customs.

If you see yourself routing through Vancouver a lot to get back home to Seattle, you can consider getting Nexus.

haha what did us New Yorkers ever do to you? If I recall correctly sometime within the last few weeks, you also met an "uppity" New Yorker. Gruff yes, but softies at heart we are!

Ben -

You know that feeling you get after a long night of bow-chika-bow-wow?

Reading the whole 'Bling it On' trip report gave me that feeling. That warm fuzzy, dizzy feeling like no other. You did it!

The. Most. Satisfying. Trip. Report. Ever.

Now if you will excuse me ...

I had wanted to become pilot,but chose another career. Care to share why you didn't pursue flying?

@ Derrick -- And I totally agree with you. I happen to think about US and Canadian immigration are ridiculous!

@ AJ -- Now that I live in Seattle I definitely want to get Nexus.

@ Heather -- Hahaha, for what it's worth I'm actually from New York, so no dislike for New Yorkers here. They're just easy targets. 😀

@ Donald -- I love flying and aviation is probably my greatest passion in life, and I always thought doing it full time would be a blast. The issue is that you're entirely at the mercy of your seniority number, and that seems incredibly demotivating. You're also entirely at the mercy of your company. If you don't like the direction they're headed or they go out of business, you can't just make a career jump, because you'll start as the most junior person at the new company.

All that was just more frustration than I wanted to deal with.

Some of the disguises on Undercover boss are worse than what you'd see on Halloween! Lol. But a good show.

@Lucky thanks for the answer! Those were some points I had never thought about. I followed another, stronger passion and have been able to live out that dream(and still have the aviation bug)!

Hmmm... How many points did this require? This looks awesome, but as someone who takes 5+ hour flights from NYC to the West Coast (SFO, LAX, etc) fairly regularly in coach, I would rather save up the points for use in buisness or first class to Hong Kong on Cathay...

how many AA miles for the trip?

@ Donald -- Sounds like you have the best of both worlds!

@ Anthony -- Well I used 90,000 miles for Abu Dhabi to New York to Vancouver, so this extra segment didn't really cost me anything extra. Usually it would cost 25,000 miles one-way in coach or 32,500 miles one-way in business.

Agree it's a much better value to redeem miles for transpacific flights.

@ AJ -- It was 90,000 for Abu Dhabi to New York to Vancouver.

Do they dumb down the wines for this North America segment? Those wines are under $20 a bottle.

@ Greg -- Nope, that's pretty standard for Cathay, actually...

I don't go to Canada any more because of their Immigration staff. The rumoured 10% secondary inspection and having relatives in Calgary seem to always make me a target

Cathay's first class bed, is hands down the widest bed in the sky and the only first class bed you can sleep with your hand all the way stretched out underneath your pillow and not touch the wall of the mini suite. No other first class bed or suite can offer that. Nobody !
Cathay's first class cabins on their 777's and 747's are also the least crowded offering more square footage per passenger then any other airline. 6 passengers int their 777's, BA, JL, NH, etc.. all have 8 !! WELL DONE CATHAY !!!!!!

Well, United only has 5 passengers on their 767. What? It's still FC, even if it is United lol

I don't know what it is about Canada Customs and you guys... They are always super nice to me.

Nice pics mate! The Vancouver-JFK route is always done by Vancouver base pilots. The cabin crew are split between the Vancouver baased and Hong Kong based crew. A HKG based crew would arrive into YVR for about 2-3 days or so then would fly into JFK in the morning, fly out of JFK a the same day later that night, stay in Vancouver for about a day, then fly back to HKG. That's the usual pattern for the cabin crew. I've had the same questioning experience when I arrived into YVR for the very first time. Who are your friends, jobe description, etc. Lasted for about 5-10 minutes or so which was annoying to be honest. And I had a U.S. passport which really did not matter.

Happen to know the name of the cabin crew who called you "hun"? She must be cute! 😀 I get to fly with the YVR crew alot and some of them are cute.

Anyways, great report. Not just this one but the others as well.

@ Mike -- Wish I knew her name, though sadly I didn't get it. 🙁

Hi Lucky -

I am not a US/EU/Canadian passport holder that requires a visa to get into MOST countries... If I am taking the JFK-YVR-HKG flight... would I be required to disembark and go through Canadian passport control?

TIA

@ Stev0 -- You shouldn't have to clear customs in Vancouver.

Yet more AGEIST comments- you even admit to judging people without good cause with your "snobby New Yorkers" remark.
PHENOMENAL!
(Don't you think you're kinda overusing that word a bit??)