We landed at around 6:40AM, and by the time we cleared transit security and found ourselves at The Wing it was 7:10AM, meaning we had less than 20 minutes in the lounge before we needed to head to the gate for our 8AM departure. This was actually my first visit to The Wing since it…
Continue reading: A Royal (dis)HHonor: Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to Singapore
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
You are just dialing it in with these TR. Time for some new airlines/destinations.
I have to say, having ready several of your reports, that they come across as very sterile. Contrast this with following report by loyalty traveler
http://boardingarea.com/loyaltytraveler/2013/05/09/utah-scenic-byway-12-remote-beauty/
I'ld take that over 1st class to asia. And it's so close. Sure, you're is about the airplane experience, while I am more interested in the destination.
I don't mind the brevity of this TR, given that this is about the hundredth-sixty-eight time you fly this precise product 🙂 (and I have read all of your TRs of it because I'm addicted to them).
But it might be a good idea to take one for the team at some point and fly their J product, too (reverse herringbone), in long-haul? I know you've flown it short-haul, but on my last trip from HKG to SFO I wondered around the J cabin and, although the mini cabin felt ok to me, the main J felt kind of too busy and rather claustrophobic, despite the fact that it's a great J seat. I wonder what it feels like to fly in there for 13 hours.
@ Foivos -- And I plan on doing that. Have been doing my best to try new products so far this year (minus this trip, which remains the best use of AA miles there is), and will continue to do so. Next up are China Southern and Korean Air.
@ EFG -- I respect that, though I'd also say that if you want to read trip reports about destinations my reports aren't for you. I try not to bore people, but I also recognize that there are MUCH better destination reviews out there than anything I could write. I don't necessarily think that's the case with airline, lounge, and hotel reviews, which is why I focus more on them.
Flight attendant introductions:
Flight attendant: "Wannaporn"
Ben: "Um...no thanks." 😉
Hi Lucky!
Love this report, and love CX F!
I'm flying CX next year LAX-HKG-SIN. The transpac is in F, but can't seem to bring up F for the HKG-SIN on any flight other than the 744. I'm booked in J on the 777-300ER leg on the return; how can I snag an F seat?
I looked (award and revenue) on various sites (EF, CX site, BA site) but can't bring up F for flight 716 SIN-HKG (on a Monday in Feb).
How did you snag the F seat?
@ beachfan -- In February CX716 actually seems to be operated by a regional 777 with the regional business class seats. That aircraft doesn't have any first class seats.
@ Lucky Some skyteam TRs coming up! Looking forward! Keep it up, man, your trip report index is developing into the bible of travel planning for some of us I believe.
@ Lucky — Is caviar available on non-morning CX F departures to destinations within Asia?
@ JRL -- To the best of my knowledge it's not available on any intra-Asia flights.
@Lucky--Six more trip reports before you re-cap for us the Royal Jordanian flight from hell. How are you feeling about "living" that experience again via your TR? Did the airline ever reach out to you? I'm sure your story was referred to them. Great series of reports so far! I need to try CX some day.
@ Peter -- I know I probably sound like an idiot, but this is the toughest trip report I've had to write. After I write every installment the Royal Jordanian flight plays out again in my head. And hopefully with that installment I can provide a bit more of my reasoning, now that it has been well over a month.
Never reached out to them and never heard from them, because I'm not really sure there's anything they could do.
Thanks for asking!
That's some fancy stuff. Definitely wouldn't find flying that way. Thanks for sharing.
@ Lucky -- Perhaps writing about it in the TR will provide some measure of closure for you. Good luck and hang in there!
I saw an earlier comment indicating which SFO => HKG flights were 747s vs which were 777s; can you clarify? I'm booked on CX first class later this year, and the booking still shows 747 as the equipment; I hope that doesn't change - something about the 777 F layout doesn't look all that appealing to me.
@ Patrick -- Whatever the schedule currently shows is probably what will stick. As of now the redeyes are 777s and daytime flights are 747s.
Lucky:
As soon as you write the Royal Jordanian section, I bet the flashbacks will start to fade ... I was on this 6 person plane in the Northwest during a storm with 50 mile per hour winds and we took an approach that was diagonal the runway to account for cross winds. Anyhow, once I landed I told everyone I could about the experience, but it finally started to fade once I wrote it down - some magic in the process ...
Awesome TR as always! I hope to fly CX F someday but will live vicariously through your trip reports in the meantime.
I'm curious whether they write those handwritten notes in Chinese too (for Asian passengers?) or is pretty much everything in air travel nowadays done in English? Have you ever been on a flight where the safety announcements weren't spoken in English?
why cx uses the 300er for such a short flight and I though intra asia flights are just two class configurations only.
@ Joey -- Hmmm, given that many flight attendants don't speak "Chinese," I would guess they do them all in English. I could be wrong though.
Just about all airlines I've flown have had safety demos in English as well.
@ Choi -- I would guess they have some extra long haul aircraft that aren't being utilized between long haul flights, so rather than keeping them on the ground in Hong Kong they're flying them within Asia.
I see you thought the wing cabana's were the nicest (or among the nicest you encountered).
It's the one aspect of BA that I prefered - the cabana's in the concorde lounge (and overall, my experience in the CCR was miles better than yours).
The BA cabana's are more conducive to a nap or lounging while watching TV. The CX cabana's are really just for showering.
@ beachfan -- To clarify I think the Cathay Pacific Cabanas are the nicest airport shower rooms in the world, and not necessarily the nicest "relaxation" rooms. While the BA Cabanas are better for relaxing, all reports I've read suggest the actual showers are horrible and noisy.
"Good morning Mr Lucky, would you be interested in some great Thai porn with your caviar?"
“Good morning Mr Lucky, would you be interested in getting banged by some great Thai boxers with your caviar?”
Lucky,
Since they eliminated Cx f from my home airport of YTZ, I am tempted to redeem for Cx j to avoid customs and transit through ORD or JFK. So you think this is a fair idea or is it worth the extra transit hassle to get f. I loved Cx f but the j looks very good!
I did work with Wannaporn once in a flight and I remember her of course for this obvious reason 🙂 This is her Thai name and she is very very nice and sweet to crew and passengers!
@ Joey - When we write cards to passengers we would write them in English most of the time. We would even speak to passengers in English first because it's really hard to tell which language a passenger prefers. If a passenger doesn't seem to respond with English, then we will start playing the guessing game.
The showers in the CCR BA cabanas are fairly nice, but the drains do make a funny sucking sound.
Like you, I find a shower after a long flight before my next connection to be a real boost, so I've sampled many.
The showers in the T3 arrival lounge at LHR are not in the same league - functional but not luxe.
I wish I can have your good life!
what is the secret to having this freedom and flexibility in life to go anywhere you like at whatever time and not having to pay for it.
Who ever designed those shower rooms did a fabulous job making them look bigger than they probably are.
Wannaporn? Don't laugh ya'll, when I was growing up in Thailand, my nanny was called Sumshit, and no I'm not making that up.
Lucky, do they not cook egg dishes for breakfast on inter-Asian flights?
I agree with some of the comments above, while I love these TRs, the same old routes and airlines has become a bore. I encourage the blogger to seek out new products and airlines this year.
@ avid reader -- Appreciate the feedback, and that's what I'm trying to do. Even in this trip I flew SilkAir, Bangkok Airways, and Royal Jordanian for the first time. This year so far I've flown Singapore Suites, Austrian business class, Brussels business class, Turkish business class, and LOT business class, all for the first time.
So I'm trying!
@ wwk5d -- Hah, the shower rooms are actually huge.
Sadly I don't think they cook eggs aboard on the intra-Asia flights. 🙁
@ Blueline7 -- I really don't think you could go wrong either way. Cathay Pacific has industry leading business and first class products, and I don't think you could go wrong saving some miles and not having to deal with the hassle of transiting the US. So I'd say go for the direct routing out of Canada.
I don't care if you fly the same flights every week. Your trip reports get me through the work day....don't....stop...
You *never* have to apologize for drinking a mimosa! Unless something has changed recently you aren't getting Krug intra-asia anyway, though I think I had a bottle once as a fluke.
@beachfan are you sure it wasn't Lucky you heard making the "funny" sounds in the BA Cabana shower?
@lucky Very good news then! I've never seen anything but the inferior Amour de Deutz on the menu intra-asia.
@lucky: I just booked CMB-SIN-HKG-SFO. First two flights are in J and HKG-SFO is in F. If there any "one" thing you would definitely recommend for the experience?
@ Murtuza -- Cathay Pacific is pretty solid all around -- nothing about the experience that's "amazing" and you can't miss, but also nothing that should leave you disappointed.
I'd say the one thing might be to visit "The Wing" and get a cabana shower room (as opposed to the standard shower room).
Hey Lucky - I don't know if you remember, I but I told you I was pretty sure that my wife, mom and I were in The Wing at the same time as you, that day...well, I see my mom in your photo of the main lounge. She's facing away from you, closest to the bar, with the handle of my wife's rollaboard just to her left.
Good report. Are you sure you had Krug (albeit diluted) though? Regional flights with F eg HND-HKG which I have taken only serve Deutz iirc, Krug (and caviar) is restricted to F on the true longhauls. Not sure about HK-Oz.
@ bahrainLad -- I was surprised as well, but am positive it was Krug. Saw the bottle and it was even on the menu.