Cathay Pacific departs from Terminal 7 at JFK, which is primarily used by British Airways and United. My flight was at 10AM, so I decided to get to the airport quite early in order to avoid rush hour. That way I could get some work done from the lounge, given that Cathay Pacific doesn’t have Wi-Fi aboard.
I arrived at the airport at 7AM, and proceeded to Cathay Pacific check-in.
New York JFK Terminal 7 check-in
Cathay Pacific’s premium check-in is located at the far left of the terminal, right next to British Airways’ first class check-in.
New York JFK Terminal 7 check-in
There’s a premium security line there, which was completely empty at the time, so I was through in minutes.
New York JFK Terminal 7 airside
Cathay Pacific uses the British Airways Galleries First Lounge at New York JFK, which is rather underwhelming, as it’s basically a dark dungeon. Since I’ve reviewed it before I won’t write about it again.
The Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong boarded from gate 4 at 9:15AM, which was 45 minutes before departure.
Cathay Pacific 841
New York (JFK) – Hong Kong (HKG)
Friday, April 3
Depart: 10:00AM
Arrive: 2:00PM (+1 day)
Duration: 16hr00min
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Seat: 2K (First Class)
At door 2L I was greeted by one of the business class crew, who escorted me left towards my first class seat, 2K. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I love first class on Cathay Pacific, and I especially love the 777-300ER cabin. There are just six seats spread across two rows in a 1-1-1 configuration.
Cathay Pacific first class seat
Cathay Pacific first class seat
Once settled in one of the first class crew came by to offer me a pre-departure beverage. I ordered a glass of Krug, which was accompanied by an amuse bouche.
Cathay Pacific first class pre-departure Krug and amuse bouche
The amuse bouche Cathay Pacific offers on the ground is a nice touch. This one consisted of mango and prawn, and was tasty.
Cathay Pacific first class pre-departure amuse bouche
Shortly thereafter I was offered pajamas, slippers, and an amenity kit. I love Cathay Pacific’s pajamas and slippers.
Cathay Pacific first class pajamas
Cathay Pacific first class & slippers
And while their amenity kit is nice in the sense that it’s provided by Aesop, the quantity and variety of products as such is a bit disappointing.
Cathay Pacific first class Aesop amenity kit
Cathay Pacific first class Aesop amenity kit contents
As boarding continued three of the other five first class seats eventually filled up. There were people seated in 1A and 2A, and then oddly there was a guy in 1D. Despite 1K staying open, he kept his middle seat.
The guy in 1D was puzzling, because he was dressed in a several thousand dollar suit which he didn’t once take off during the flight. He even left on his tie. During boarding he asked the flight attendant what time we were landing in Hong Kong.
“We are scheduled to land at 2PM, sir.”
“But it’s 10AM now. Are we flying for 28 hours?!”
“No, there is a 12 hour time change between New York and Hong Kong.”
“What? They have a different time there?”
Alrighty then…
The crew didn’t seem especially busy, but despite that they didn’t bother to offer me any sort of a drink refill while on the ground, which is quite disappointing when you board 45 minutes before departure.
At 9:45AM Captain Steve came on the PA to welcome everyone aboard and inform us of our flight time of 15hr8min, which he anticipated would put us into Hong Kong well ahead of “shed-jewel.”
I love how many nationalities of pilots Cathay Pacific has — in this case the captain was Australian, while there were two female Chinese first officers (I’ve never seen that before, and thought it was pretty cool) and an American second officer.
Since we started boarding so early we also pushed back a bit ahead of schedule at 9:55AM. I couldn’t help but giggle when I saw that there was an Aerolineas Argentinas A330 parked right next to us.
Aerolineas Argentinas A330 New York JFK
As we pushed back the safety video began to plan. The inflight service manager, Didi, made her welcome aboard announcements. She had among the most insincere announcements I’ve ever heard, which I guess shouldn’t really be surprising when she started her announcements by saying “flight attendants are here primarily for your safety.” Everything she said sounded insincere and uninterested.
We began our taxi to runway 22R, whereby we saw a fair amount of interesting traffic, including a Hawaiian A330 and a Jet Airways 777 (being operated from Abu Dhabi on behalf of Etihad).
Taxiing New York JFK
Taxiing New York JFK
Hawaiian A330 and JetBlue A320 New York JFK
Aeromexico 737, Delta 737, and Jet Airways/Etihad 777 New York JFK
By JFK standards we made great time, and by 10:15AM we were cleared for takeoff on runway 22R.
Taking off New York JFK
It was a fairly stormy morning, so we hit quite a bit of chop on our climb out.
View after takeoff from New York
View after takeoff from New York
View after takeoff from New York
Once we made it above the clouds I decided to browse the StudioCX entertainment system and decide on something to watch.
StudioCX entertainment system
I ended up watching St. Vincent, starring Bill Murray. I have mixed feelings about the movie, but overall I liked it… I think.
StudioCX entertainment system
Menus were distributed about 20 minutes after takeoff. Interestingly that was done by the first class flight attendant and not the inflight service manager. Usually the ISM at least comes around and greets each first class passenger, but this one was nowhere to be seen.
I placed my lunch order, hoping to eat fairly soon so that I could catch some shuteye, as I barely got any sleep the night before.
The lunch menu read as follows:
And the wine/drink list read as follows:
Service began with drinks. I ordered a glass of Krug, which was served with cashews.
Cathay Pacific first class Krug & nuts
As the flight attendant was about to set the table we hit some moderate turbulence (not moderate chop, but actual moderate turbulence), so service had to be suspended. I had to hold onto my glass so it didn’t fall, as anything that wasn’t secured was just about flying through the cabin.
We had consistent turbulence for the next hour, so the service had to be suspended all along. Apparently there were some people throwing up in economy, though everyone in first class managed to hold it in.
View at cruising altitude
About 90 minutes after takeoff the meal service finally began. It was still a bumpy ride, but not nearly as bad as before.
Service began with my table being set, which included a bread basket.
Cathay Pacific first class lunch table setting
Cathay Pacific lunch bread basket
For the starter I had the caviar, which was as good as always.
Cathay Pacific first class lunch starter — caviar
Cathay Pacific first class lunch starter — caviar
Then I had the salad, which came with salmon. It was one of the best salads I’ve had on a plane. It’s sort of funny that Cathay Pacific used to offer salmon with the caviar, but it seemed on this flight they were offering it with the salad instead.
Cathay Pacific first class lunch salad — salmon and quinoa salad
For the main course I ordered the halibut with mint risotto. The fish wasn’t terrible, but it was rather dense and chewy. The sauvignon blanc I had with it, however, was excellent.
Cathay Pacific first class lunch main course — grilled halibut
Then for dessert I had the carrot banana souffle with dolce de leche ice cream and a cappuccino. The ice cream was rock hard, and I found it a bit odd that they gave me a plastic container with toasted almonds, rather than putting it directly on the dessert.
Cathay Pacific first class lunch dessert — carrot banana souffle with ice cream
Cathay Pacific first class lunch dessert — carrot banana souffle with ice cream
To finish off the meal I was offered a hot towel and a variety of chocolates.
Cathay Pacific first class hot towel and chocolates
As far as the service goes, it wasn’t actively bad. But at the same time the crew had no charisma, no charm, and clearly just seemed to be going through the motions. They were quite attentive during the meal service in the sense that plates were proactively cleared, drinks were proactively refilled, etc. But there was no smiling and no asking how anything was.
After lunch I wanted to get some shut eye. At this point we had about 12 hours to go to Hong Kong, and my goal was to sleep for as much of it as possible.
While Cathay Pacific doesn’t have fully enclosed suites, they do offer one of the most comfortable beds in the sky, in my opinion. The bed is so wide and spacious, and the bedding is top notch. So in general it’s easy to get a lot of sleep.
Cathay Pacific first class bed
Cathay Pacific first class bed
I slept extremely well for about four hours, and then woke up somewhere over the top of the world due to turbulence. I was hoping to be able to fall back asleep, but for whatever reason I couldn’t. Grrrr, especially since I knew it would be a really long day upon arriving in Hong Kong.
Airshow enroute from New York to Hong Kong
Since I couldn’t sleep I decided to browse StudioCX again. They had quite a good music selection.
StudioCX entertainment system
Since I was awake I figured I might as well order some milk tea. I also had a look at the snack menu, and decided to order some Haagen-Dazs ice cream.
The snack menu read as follows:
Cathay Pacific first class snack — Haagen-Dazs ice cream and milk tea
Cathay Pacific first class snack — Haagen-Dazs strawberry ice cream
After that I did something I try to force myself not to do. Because it’s a bit of an addiction, and once I start I can’t stop.
I watched The Mentalist. Even though I had seen all the episodes before, that didn’t stop me from literally binge watching nearly an entire season again. Oops.
StudioCX entertainment system
Occasionally I had a look out of the window, and there was almost this brilliantly dim glimmer across the sky which my camera couldn’t do justice to.
View enroute from New York to Hong Kong
A few more episodes into The Mentalist I ordered the shrimp quesadillas from the snack menu. Much to my surprise the quesadilla was well executed, which you wouldn’t expect on a plane.
Cathay Pacific first class snack — shrimp quesadilla
I also had some berries with creme fraiche for dessert. Judge me all you want, but I binge eat when watching The Mentalist.
Cathay Pacific first class dessert — fresh seasonal berries with creme fraiche
A handful of episodes of The Mentalist later, we were 90 minutes out of Hong Kong, and it was time for the pre-arrival dinner.
The dinner menu read as follows:
The starter consisted of a fruit plate, which was good.
Cathay Pacific first class dinner starter — fresh seasonal fruit
Cathay Pacific first class dinner starter — fresh seasonal fruit
I was also offered a bread basket, though it was different than the one I had with the main meal.
Cathay Pacific first class bread basket
For the main course I had the sea bass. On my last flight in Cathay Pacific first class from Chicago to Hong Kong I had the sea bass pre-landing, and it was incredible. Possibly the best fish dish I’ve ever had, be it in the air or on the ground.
This one was equally good. Absolutely freaking delicious. Heck, in the future I’m just going to see if I can have the pre-landing fish dish with the main meal service instead.
I had the same excellent sauvignon blanc I had with lunch to accompany it.
Cathay Pacific first class dinner main course — steamed sea bass
Cathay Pacific first class dinner main course — steamed sea bass
Cathay Pacific first class dinner main course — stir fried kailan with carrot
Lastly for dessert I had the red berry mascarpone cake, which was pleasantly light.
Cathay Pacific first class dinner dessert — red berry mascarpone cake with raspberry coulis
At 1PM Hong Kong time Captain Steve came on the PA once again to give us updated arrival information. He informed us we would be landing at 1:30PM, and should be at the gate about 20 minutes early. As is the protocol at Cathay Pacific, he finished the announcement with “cabin crew, 30 minutes to landing. That’s 30 minutes till landing.”
As we began our descent I changed out of my pajamas and stowed everything I had taken out during the flight.
View on descent into Hong Kong
We hit quite some chop on the descent, thanks to the thick cloud coverage over Hong Kong.
View on descent into Hong Kong
We had beautiful views on our final approach.
View on descent into Hong Kong
View on final descent into Hong Kong
And then a super-hard touchdown in Hong Kong at 1:30PM sharp, and a 10 minute taxi to our arrival gate.
Taxiing in Hong Kong
The traffic in Hong Kong always keeps my eyes glued to the window, and this time was no exception.
EL AL & Cathay Pacific planes Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific & Jet Airways planes Hong Kong
Taxiing in Hong Kong
Asiana 747 Hong Kong Airport
Takeoff queue Hong Kong Airport
Taxiing in Hong Kong
Eventually we pulled into gate 4, which is at the very end of the terminal.
Pulling into gate in Hong Kong
Airshow from New York to Hong Kong
The first interaction I had with the inflight service manager was at the door, when she said “bye.”
Cathay Pacific first class bottom line
In the past I’ve called Cathay Pacific first class one of the most consistent first class products in the world. And for the most part it is.
Cathay Pacific’s first class hard product is excellent, even though it has been around for well over a decade. Cathay Pacific’s entertainment and food are very good as well, all things considered. And they also offer one of the most comfortable beds in the sky, in my opinion.
But this crew disappointed me. While the flight attendants were efficient, they couldn’t have appeared any more uninterested in what they were doing. And while I don’t want to put all the blame on the inflight service manager, her attitude over the PA and the fact that she didn’t once come through the cabin to see how everything was is pretty telling.
I still love Cathay Pacific first class, and will be very sad if/when they restrict first class award redemptions.
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