16th September 2006
SYD - HKG
CX 110
A 330-303X Reg: B-LAC
Seat: 30A
Depart time, scheduled 07:35 Actual 07:51
Runway 34L
Arrival time, scheduled 15:20 Actual 15:00
Runway 25R

With an upcoming business trip to France, I thought I would splash out and upgrade to a D Class Oneworld explorer ticket. At the time, the cheapest and most convenient place for me to purchase this was CMB, even taking into account purchase of a separate [economy] ticket to get to [and from] CMB. With only 2 weeks and 2 separate weekends to do this trip, it promised to be very tiring. The route was as follows, with separate tickets noted in [ ]
[SYD-HKG-CMB] CMB-HKG-SYD as one leg, SYD-AKL-ADL-PER-SYD as the second leg, SYD-JFK-DFW-MIA-BOS-SFO-DFW-LAX-LHR, the third leg, LHR-IST-LHR-MCT-LHR, [LHR-CDG-NTE, BOR-CDG-LHR], last leg LHR-HKG-CMB, [CMB-HKG-SYD].


Leg 1

Today was the day, and a very early start after a busy week at work. As I was only away for 2 days, and had to go straight to work after I arrived back into Sydney on Monday morning, I drove my car to the airport, and left it in the international carpark. Before I left home I checked ExpertFlyer to see how full the flight was, thinking I could ask for a free seat next to me, but saw loading was almost at 100%. Being a QF Silver FF, I checked in at the CX business class line, and asked if I could get a free seat but was quickly told there was no chance – oh well unless you ask you will never know! Anyway 30A seemed to be a good enough seat.
As I had a bulkhead seat, I had put my carryon bag in the overhead locker, but had my camera bag by my seat. Unfortunately it was seen by an FA, and put in the overhead locker. Usually I ‘hide’ my camera beside me in my seat, but I was too tired and slow today, so I was not able to get any shots after pushback. Shame because we got some great views on takeoff


CX 110 waiting for boarding


UA 744 just arrived from the US

Breakfast was served pretty quickly after the flight levelled out. Being my first time on CX, I was looking forward to seeing if the service was as good as I had heard. I have to say I was pretty disappointed, the FAs seemed to ‘throw’ the food at us, and had no interest in the passengers. After breakfast I started watching a movie, ‘Just my luck’. It wasn’t too bad, didn’t need any thought processes!


Outback Australia


More of the Outback


Runway in the Outback


Gulf of Carpentaria


Islands around Indonesia

After a little sleep, I watched ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. I thought this was an incredibly good and well presented documentary, and would recommended it highly.
With about 2 hours to go we had another meal, and again the FAs showed remarkable disinterest – obviously about the same as I showed in the food as I can’t remember what it was we had.


Moments before touchdown



16th September 2006
HKG – CMB via BKK
CX 703
B 777-367 Reg: B-HNK
Seat 30A
Depart time, scheduled 18:40 Actual 18:38
Runway 25L
Arrival time, scheduled 23:15 Actual 23:10
Runway 22

With a layover of over 3 hours, and no lounge access, I thought it could be long and boring, but it was anything but, due to the size of the airport, and all the different types and airlines flying in and out of HKG. First thing I did was to check the gate I was departing from, and the rego of the plane, and after a few photos, went for a walk to the other side of the airport.


The plane to CMB

During the long walk, [it really does take about 15 minutes to walk form one end to the other, and I don’t walk slow either] I took a number of shots of different liveries that I would not normally see in Sydney.






And some we do see in Sydney

By the time it came to board, I was getting very tired, and so I tried to sleep as much as possible seeing I still had a lot more flying to go yet! The flight was not very full, however I had someone sitting next to me, but there was no one in the isle seat – why he didn’t move I don’t know.
I was quite surprised by this plane, it was one of the first 773s CX took delivery of and it showed its age. It was made even more disappointing as this was also the plane I was coming back from CMB on, in J class.
These legs were all in darkness, so I didn’t get any photos, not that it was a problem, as I would be doing it in the other direction in mostly daytime.
On arrival in BKK, we were advised that the passengers going to CMB wouldn’t be allowed off the plane, which surprised me. They also made this announcement in French which was good, [but strange], because I wasn’t really listening to the first [English] announcement not expecting to be held on the plane.
After an hour and a half on the ground, we departed for CMB, and again I spent most of the leg sleeping, and again the person next to me didn’t move to the isle!

I was a little nervous when I got off the plane. I had been told that the DONE ticket would be available for me to pick up at the transit desk, and that I would be met by CX staff at the gate. There was no one at the gate, no problem but just added to the anxiety. I looked for a CX ticket desk or anything similar, but the only desk was SriLankan Air, so I went there and asked if there was a ticket for me to pick up. Fortunately it was there, and they said they were expecting me. As I had no checked luggage, the staff at the transit desk for able to check me in, but only to HKG, where I would have to check in for the SYD flight.
Seeing there wasn’t much to look at in the airport, I headed to the lounge, where I ended up having about an hours sleep.

17th September 2006
CMB – HKG via BKK
CX 700
B 777-367 Reg: B-HNK
Seat 14A
Depart time, scheduled 02:15 Actual 02:13
Runway 22
Arrival time, scheduled 12:15 Actual 12:18
Runway 7L

The flight seemed to be reasonably full, with business at about 90%. Seeing how old the plane was, I didn’t expect much from the seat, however it did turn out to be very comfortable, and I slept for most of the 3 hour flight to BKK.


Approaching [the old] BKK





The CX business class seat

Again the onwards passengers were held on board in BKK, while the plane was cleaned, refuelled, and the BKK-HKG passengers boarded. It gave me some time to stretch my legs, and wander around the cabin.
We left the blocks on schedule, and slowly taxied to the active runway passing a lot of interesting craft on the way.


Eithad 773ER




Thai 744 in StarAlliance livery


One of many L1011s on the tarmac


BKK from above



One the CMB-BKK leg, I had the seat next to me free, however on this leg, my seatmate was the captain of this plane who had taken it from BKK-CMB-BKK. He was deadheading back to HKG, but was engrossed in his book, and I didn’t want to be ‘that’ annoying passenger who kept talking, so I had breakfast and slept again.
The weather outside was very cloudy so I didn’t get much opportunity to take any photos until we had almost completed our descent into HKG.



The nose camera had been activated for this leg, so we had a great view of the landing and taxiing to the gate. I asked the off duty captain whether the 773 was hard to taxi due to its length, but he said once you got used to it, it was very easy.

The service on CX to and from CMB was much improved over what I had seen on the leg to HKG, so I put that down to the person and not CX in general.

As I had to check in for my QF flight, I went to the transit checkin desks and received my boarding pass so I could then go through security and head upstairs. I had applied for a points upgrade to First, however it seemed it didn’t come through with the receipt of the business class boarding pass.

The flight to Sydney wasn’t due to depart until 21:20, so I had almost 9 hours of waiting. At least I was able to spend this time in the QF lounge. It is nowhere as good as, well any other QF lounge, but it was quiet and relaxing nonetheless, and I was able to shower and change clothes. Luckily I was well prepared for this and managed to start and finish a book during this time.
It was about 2 hours until departure, and there was a lot of people in the lounge relaxing and minding their own business when suddenly a young woman started yelling and telling her boyfriend off. I can’t remember now what she said, but the partner was in big trouble, and everyone in the lounge looked at each other and tried not to laugh.


View from the QF lounge

On boarding I could see why my First Class upgrade hadn’t come through, it was full, as was business, and economy.
When I had booked this ticket this flight was supposed to be the 64J version, and I had hoped for a 774ER, but 2 weeks before hand the flight changed to the 50J version which meant my seating had changed. Fortunately I was lucky in that I was able to ask a friend to change my seat, and I received 23K. In my opinion, the best seat on this plane, as there is no seat in front, and it feels like you have more space than the seats behind.
I was still very tired from this long and quick trip, and very aware that I had a busy week at work, so I missed dinner, and took a sleeping table, and slept most of the way to Sydney. It worked so well that I woke up about 30 minutes before arrival, and just before a FA came to me to apologise for not giving me the breakfast I had ordered on departure, as they couldn’t wake me!
It was a fantastic approach from the north over Sydney, and I was able to take some great photos of the city.


St Leonards/Artarmon


Sydney Harbour


Rushcutters Bay and Double Bay




Approach to SYD

As normal for Sydney airport in the morning, it was very busy, but with no checked luggage I was able to get through fairly quickly, and was at work an hour after landing.

Leg 2 to follow soon.

Cheers and thanks for reading