I quickly made it from the Gulf Air gate to the Cathay Pacific transfer desk – no wait there, and I was handed a red First Class boarding pass with the pre-assigned F Suite 1A. Asked for a refund of the Hong Kong departure tax since I stayed inside the transit area since I had heard people had done it before. The agent had no clue what I was talking about, and it wasn’t really worth to pursue for the sake of HKD 120. But such clueless agents are not appreciated at premium counters.

Cathay Pacific First Class Lounges – The Wing and The Pier

No gate assigned to CX 111 at this point, so I went to the nearest lounge, the legendary Wing near gate 4. A friendly agent took my invite and stamped the boarding pass with “Lounge Re-entry” and told me to make my way to the First Class section upstairs. I headed directly to the Cabanas, and got one right away. Best lounge shower experience ever for me.

Cabana bathtub


Rainfall shower


Sink


Door and hallway


Cabana rest area


After a nice and relaxing shower and a two-hour nap, I made my way to The Haven, the buffet restaurant of the CX First lounges. It was a fantastic spread for late lunch – I had plenty of smoked salmon, lasagna and sushi. Accompanied by champagne and Perrier, served by the attentive waiters/waitresses.

The Haven


Chinese New Year decorations


Food/Drink, table setup




Surfed the net a bit after that, and the attendants were busy to refill my champagne glass. While the service is impeccable, for drinking I prefer The Long Bar in the business class section since the drink selection seems to be the same. I suppose it’s impossible to serve premium stuff like Krug or Blue Label in the F section since all Oneworld Emeralds have access even when flying Y.

After learning CX 111 was leaving from gate 71, I made my way to the CX lounge nearby – The Pier. Dinner buffet had been set up by now, and I was curious to check it out. An equally great spread of different dishes. Didn’t eat much since I knew there would be a full dinner onboard, but had a couple of glasses of Moet and Perrier.

Entrance to The Pier


Inside the F section


Moet and Perrier


Boarding pass and passport


06 February 2007
Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok (HKG/VHHH) – Sydney Kingsford Smith (SYD/YSSY)
Cathay Pacific Airways CX/CPA 111
Airbus A330-343X
B-HLS
1905-0715 – On Time
First Class, Suite 1A

View Large View Medium Photo © Jackson Qiu

View Large View Medium Photo © JumboJim747

Boarding gate


I made my way to gate 71 at around 18:45, and boarding was in full swing. The gate setup in Hong Kong is perfect if you ask me, and priority boarding was of course strictly enforced as usual on Cathay Pacific. I was greeted by the inflight manager and escorted to my suite 1A. At first sight, a bit disappointing with peanuts etc here and there – I suppose the 3-class A330s are heavily used. The suite itself is comfortable, but in my opinion doesn’t match the elegance of SQ’s SkySuites on the 747s. PTV is about 10”, a far cry of the SQ monitor for example.

Cabin views




I was soon offered my pre-departure champagne – properly served from the bottle at my seat like on SQ. On TG F, I had pre-poured Dom Perignon which is unacceptable in true first class in my opinion. Unfortunately, Cathay doesn’t offer Krug on its Australian routes, but the regional offering of Cuvee William Deutz 1998 instead. A rather pleasant champagne, but why is Australia not worthy of the Krug? SQ of course knows what it does – I love the SQ wine list page with “The Classic Choice: Dom Perignon 1999, Krug Grande Cuvee”. And you’ll get both of them even on Singapore-Jakarta.

Cuvee William Deutz 1998


Amenity kits, pyjamas and menus were handed out next. The Victorinox amenity kit is particularly poor if you ask me – just the necessities. Doesn’t come close to Singapore Airlines Bvlgari kits or even Thai’s Bvlgari/Hermes offerings. On par with the junk LH hands out which is not much. The Shanghai Tang pyjama on the other hand is fantastic, beats all the pyjamas I have got onboard so far. The menu is a new design, but still just a cardboard thing – no leather or bamboo covers like on SQ/TG. Does the job, nothing fancy.

Menu and Wine List












Hot towels followed and meal orders were taken. Had to ask for refills of champagne – the crew was extremely busy in the galley. This has generally been my experience – CX is a busy mess before pushback while on SQ the F/As are leisurely serving you. I changed to my PJs, and shockingly, the junior F/A simply handed me an el cheapo plastic hanger and expected me to store my clothes myself. Hello, this is F class... Would never happen on SQ. On SQ, I usually simply dump them on top of the F suite and somebody presents them to me when I’m ready to change back before landing.

We were pushed back on time, and took off from runway 25R without any significant delays. Service took a long time to start – CX has scrapped the canapés, and there was no service before the caviar. Rather disappointing. The caviar and salmon dish is individually prepared from an open service cart – nice touch. Had some champagne to go with it - pretty much the perfect appetizer. Considering the full cabin, I was rather surprised when Mr. IFM came back and asked “Mr. Lufthansa747, some more caviar for you tonight?” Heck, how could I resist! “Only caviar sir? No Salmon?” Well the Balik salmon was fantastic too so I agreed to another full plate... This time it was three scoops and three slices of salmon – delicious.

Caviar and Balik salmon


The full table setup was made after the caviar – a personal bread basket etc. Soup was next on the menu – delicious red pepper one served with breadsticks. The Caesar salad was excellent too, although I was starting to feel stuffed at this point. Didn’t particularly fancy any of the main courses, but I took the halibut, and it was mouth watering. I don’t understand why CX doesn’t offer the equivalent of SQ’s Book The Cook. CX F fares are usually much higher.

Table setup and soup


Caesar salad


Main course


I also went for the full array of desserts – cheese, fruit and ice cream. All excellent, but unfortunately I couldn’t finish the fruit and ice cream for obvious reasons... A fantastic dinner, the caviar service was nicer than on SQ, but I prefer SQ’s BTC option for the main course. The other courses were of higher quality on CX I would say. Service was top notch, although I wasn’t addressed by name all the time like on SQ.

Cheese


Dessert and fruit


Unfortunately, I was so stuffed by this point, there wasn’t any chance I’d eat or drink anything more. A duvet was promptly offered, but no mattress and turndown service like in Singapore First Class. Neither did the F/A place the duvet and wish me a good night...haha. I slept quite well, just to be woken up 40 minutes before arrival for breakfast. Nobody had asked me whether I want it or not like on SQ – but since I was awake now anyway, I figured I’d have something.

I chose the fresh fruit, cognee, grapefruit juice and tea – nicely presented and tasty. But I could hardly finish this – I was still stuffed of the caviar and other fine food I had the evening before. The IFM asked whether I’d fill out a survey for him – sure – I love those classy pens CX hands out with the surveys. At this point, we were already on descent onto Sydney’s Kingsford Smith, with just 20 minutes to go.

Fresh fruit


Tea


Main course


The coastline soon came into view, and we gently touched down on runway 34L and taxied to the international terminal. Parked next to a Qantas 767-300ER, others I noticed were a United 747, LAN 340 and Thai 747. Doors were quickly opened, a lady collected the empty pesticide cans, and I was the first to disembark.

On descent


Australian coastline


After touchdown


At gate


Immigration had insane lines – what is it with these countries??? Australia, UK as a non-EU citizen, USA... I’m writing this on TG 795 LAX-BKK (17h35min due to headwinds), the immigration wait at TBIT was 90 minutes yesterday. After about 30 minutes, a gentleman thankfully escorted some of us (including me) to the Aussie passports section, and I was quickly through. Quarantine wasn’t bad, took maybe 5 minutes. I was expecting the worst having gone through the third degree at Melbourne a couple of years ago.

Took the train to Circular Quay, and walked to the Harbour Marriott a couple of blocks away. A nice guy at the front desk – he promptly checked me in at 8am, and gave me an Executive Floor Opera House View as a Platinum. A nice room, although the Westin and Sheraton have nicer in SYD I’d have to say. The exec lounge had a great spread of food and drinks (Food 1730-1930, Drinks 1730-2130).

08February 2007
Sydney Kingsford Smith (SYD/YSSY) Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok (HKG/VHHH)
Cathay Pacific Airways CX/CPA 100
Airbus A330-343X
B-LAC
1600-2225 – On Time
First Class, Suite 1D

View Large View Medium Photo © Mark H

View Large View Medium Photo © George Canciani

Checked out of the Marriott at 1pm – my plan was to take the train back too, but the bar-hopping the night before killed that. So I took a cab, rather expensive at AUD 37 for the short ride to Mascot. Check-in was quick at the First Class desk, unfortunately still no window seats available. I believe the Z availability was some sort of a system glitch when I booked, hard to believe CX would be handing out award tickets a month before departure with 4/8 seats occupied. There is usually zero Z availability on any CX longhaul, apart from flights within the next 1-7 days.

Departure immigration and security were a breeze – would have been even faster if I hadn’t walked through the metal detector half asleep with not only coins but also my wallet and mobile phone in my pockets! I then headed to the temporary Qantas Club first class lounge, downstairs instead of upstairs. Nothing first class about it apart from the Moet, a decent C lounge I’d say. Hope the Qantas onboard product is better – I have a couple of F longhauls coming up.

Thankfully a glass of Moet (or 5 of them to be more exact...) brought me back to life, and I was feeling normal by boarding time. I went to the gate at around 1540, and boarding was underway. Still no window seat available, so I had to settle for that middle seat. Not really a problem with the excellent divider, but there is a serious lack of storage space compared to the window seats.

The same pre-departure ritual as in Hong Kong, apart from the fact that F champagne had not been loaded yet! Rather unacceptable, even more so considering they offered it and the C bubbly was boarded earlier but not served in F. Only HKG crew in F again – I find it a great mistake CX has stopped hiring from outside Hong Kong. Some of my best service on CX has been from Filipinas, Thais, Indians and Malaysians. The newly hired HKG staff are usually clueless and often not friendly at all. Not saying it was the case on this flight, but I’ve had my fair share on BKK-SIN especially. “Gold Label on the rocks and some Perrier, please” resulted in the two being mixed together in CX J BKK-SIN a while ago.

I finally got my Champagne Deutz a few minutes before pushback. We took off without delay, but it took again a good 45 minutes before I god any service on this flight. B-LAC, being a recent addition to the fleet, had the new style Airbus widebody cabin and looked much better than B-HLS.
Pre departure drinks


Menu




Accepted the caviar obviously – I love that stuff. No seconds were offered, but I was promptly served more once I asked. Will have to try how liberal SQ is with that stuff – I have a couple of SQ longhauls coming up as a part of my Vancouver/Montreal trip. Soup and salad followed, both nice although the ex-HKG catering was better. The steak was the clear winner for main course on this flight, and it was excellent. Rather easy to overdo it on the plane I suppose, but this one was cooked to perfection.

Caviar and salmon




Soup


Salad


Steak


My usual choice of drinks


Skipped the fruit this time, so I had just cheese and ice cream for dessert. Also had a glass of some lovely Russian dessert wine – it was not permanently on the menu so get it while you can. The ice cream was rock hard, it escapes me why the crew can’t let it sit in the galley for a while before serving it. A nap was again needed after this massive dinner, duvet was promptly delivered and I was out.

Cheese


Dessert


I woke up after a few hours and decided to go for some JW Blue Label – this is where it always gets difficult for these HKG based crews. I have been asked “Red Label?”in J, been served Black in J, and now I was asked whether I mean Gold. Geez – they have Black in Y, Gold in J and Blue in F – not exactly rocket science is it? Poor old Red has been denied boarding. Anyway, I got what looked like a triple serving of Blue – delicious. Bon Jovi was blasting through the noise cancelling headset – listening to “Living on a Prayer” and sipping JW Blue in my First Suite – does life get any better?

Studio CX AVOD


Refreshment service soon began, I was asked in advance in the galley what I’d like to have. The purser provided excellent service on this flight, and I took time to write it to a comment form. Apparently customer feedback stays in F/A records on CX and is important. The refreshment menu was frankly very poor – so what am I to do? More caviar please...

Caviar and salmon


Chicken Panini


Noodle soup


Fresh fruit


Got a huge serving of caviar and salmon, and also had the Panini (poor), noodle soup (good) and fresh fruit. A fair amount of cuvee William Deutz was consumed as well of course. Changed back to my normal clothes (F/As took care of them on this flight), and we started our descent into Chek Lap Kok. At the same time, Cuvee William Deutz headed down the toilet and none to be had 20 mins before arrival. If SQ did the same, there would be hardly any time to drink anything on SIN-CGK. One of my classic SQ moments is on MNL-SIN when I declined any more Dom. The F/A’s reply with a big grin “Well, I’m sure you don’t want me to throw away this, so just give me your glass!”

We landed at Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok on time, and again used a gate that required a train ride to immigration. I took an A21 Cityflyer bus to Kowloon as I had Pricelined the Eaton Hotel for the night for $65. It was obvious I got some special Priceline room, it was horrible. Two small twin beds, reeked of smoke, old as hell, terrible bathroom. Asked for a 2pm checkout – “our checkout time is noon”. How about at least 1pm? “Our checkout time is noon”. Whatever, I won’t bid for anything below 5 star in HKG for sure. As I was heading out, a Chinese lady was promoting her services to me in the escalator – shows you what a classy place this dump is.

CX F was overall excellent, some points (mostly compared to SQ):

- Food was overall better than SQ, but I missed Book the Cook
- Pyjama was fantastic
- The HKG lounges are superb – best I have visited

- Seat is a notch below SQ
- No turndown service/mattress
- Poor amenity kit
- Studio CX is worse than Wisemen3000, let alone ICE of EK
- Seats were a bit dirty – something I expect on UA, not CX
- Was not addressed by name most of the time
- Crew didn’t live up to SQ crews on either flight

Hope you enjoyed.