
Background
Hello world! Today's trip report details a trip that happened last December when I went on a family holiday to the United States of America. I was, unsurprisingly, delegated the important duty of deciding how to get there from sunny Singapore. Our route would include flying to New York, and back from LA. Had SQ still been running its A345 flights, I might have been on that

However, a compulsory one-stop opened up a wealth of choices for me. SQ, ANA, CX, Eva Air etc etc - all great and wonderful carriers. However, as Dad and mum had agreed to let the kids fly Premium Economy, this cut out quite a few carriers, leaving just CX and Eva Air in the running. Price, as always, was a big factor, and CX won out marginally. Furthermore, its Y+ product was newer. However, I would most certainly be seated with my fiancée in a pair seat, leaving my sister to sit with strangers and largely ignored by me. As such, I suggested that my sister be allowed to sit up in J with my parents while my fiancée and I would sit in Y+. CX had a promotion that would book the short sectors between SIN and HKG in J, so that really made a lot of sense monetarily. Besides, my fiancée and I could cuddle with each other....

Alas, my dad is a fair and just man. He ruled that since I had been such a nice younger brother who thought about his sister's (dis)comfort and was so nice to suggest that she sit J while I 'slog' it out in the back, that we should all just sit in J together, as this was a family holiday as well.

Uhhhh.
Well. Okay!!!!



At Changi Airport
Just two days after I was back from Europe, it was time to be back at Changi Airport again!


The drawing of that thing with a ball on top looks familiar.. Have I seen it somewhere?
The CX counters were sort of crowded, but we were attended to pretty quickly at the Business Class counters.

Big bags for a 3-week holiday!!
Being unadventurous and boring, the 3 of them left to use a lounge that they normally use in terminal 2, while my fiancée and I were left to wander on our own. We would later meet on the plane. My fiancée had to use the internet, so we headed air side straight to the lounge for some light breakfast and for her to do work.

Terminal 1 air side

Siew Mai

Breakfast, consisting of noodles, sausage, pork pastries, and a siew mai

Some seating facing the planes out there
As we normally don't arrive very early ahead of departure time when at Changi, the time for boarding quickly came.

Mood lighting in Changi
Security at the gate was cleared quickly, and we were admitted through into the holding pan. Boarding had already begun so after a quick snap of the plane, it was time to board the aircraft to Hong Kong!!
Flight 1
Cathay Pacific
CX 736
SIN-HKG
Airbus A340-300
B-HXG
Seat 19A

While booking this itinerary, I was delighted to see that the A340 would be operating this short flight to HKG. While personally I was happy to be on the A340 and sample the now-outdated herringbone seats, I knew my parents wouldn't be too delighted. True enough, mummy was annoyed she couldn't see daddy from her seat

We were welcomed on board, and I found my seat 19A, the 3rd last of the cabin.

My first impression - tight squeeze.

Cabin shot
An FA came by quickly and offered some pre-takeoff drinks from a tray. I grabbed myself a champagne


Legroom shot + champagne

Panel with all the essentials
The seat really did feel a little claustrophobic. It wasn't wide at all, and there wasn't space to really put anything securely. Moreover it was a constant distraction whenever anybody walked by because, facing the aisle, you would invariably see all the action happening.

Headphones positioned next to my bum, with another ledge on top for personal items.
An FA soon came around again to offer us some towels.

I must say though, that this seat really prevented you from seeing anybody else's face. The only thing you saw a lot of were people's feet.

Fat. The airbag seatbelt, not me (I hope??)
Soon, the cabin was ready for push back as all passengers had boarded. The safety video began playing, and the cabin crew came around to ensure everyone had their screens out.


Pushing back
I thought looking out of the window would be extremely difficult. But thankfully my window was placed exactly where the gap between my seat and the side panel was. Also, there was this:

Pillow velcro-ed to the seat
As you can imagine, all I had to do was turn to my side, lean my head/face against this pillow, and I had a rather decent view out of the window


Taxiing to the runway
It was the peak morning rush hour and along the way, I saw many planes zoom by on their takeoff roll.

SQ 777


Sort of miss MH's awesome J class service

All was still well for them at that time...

Before our turn to fly, it was this big bird's turn first.

748. Surprisingly, an aircraft that I don't have a very big urge to fly on

Our turn next!
This being my favourite A340, I decided to take a video of our takeoff. Unlike my IB flight, we actually had a rather powerful takeoff roll and steep ascent into the sky!
Watch it here! (And listen to those cute CFMs...)

Bye Singapore!

Banking slightly to correct our heading

Onwards towards Hong Kong!

Reasonably quick flight just over 3 hours

Climbing steadily

Getting myself comfy

As soon as the seatbelt signs were switched off, one of the more senior cabin crew members came about distributing menus. I still find the CX uniform a bit incoherent. You have the main cabin crew who wear white, then a slightly senior one who wears gold, and I assume the purser is the one completely in black. However, the styles and design of each uniform are all different, so it doesn't seem like there's a common theme about them. As we know, SQ differentiates their crew by the colour of the sarong kebaya, but at least the design is still uniform throughout.
I was addressed by name, but this was achieved thanks to the manifest sitting atop the pile of menus. Cheeky!


Menu for today

Drinks list page 1

Page 2
With the rather short flight time, I decided to put on a movie immediately.

Something I hadn't watched before
However, a quick visit to the toilet was a must before commencing my inflight entertainment.

Frankly, I thought this was the most hideous looking toilet ever. That shade of green was just..


Some amenities available

The fancy mosaic
Back at my seat, the on board service began first with a drinks run and some nuts.

OJ, water, and nuts
It was already apparent that it would soon be difficult for the crew to serve lunch, with the huge screen blocking their way.

Cloudy skies out there
One thing I did like about this seat though was the vast amount of sunlight streaming through. I generally like sunlight a lot so it was nice to have sunshine.

However, it did soon prove to be a bit too glaring for my IFE screen so I had to lower the shades. The lunch service soon began, and I had an über polite male FA serving my aisle along with a female FA in golden clothes. He was the super professional, "certainly sir", first-time-serving-J type. Very charming. The female FA, on the other hand was. Hmm. Voluptuous.
Anyway.
My table cloth was laid:

The meal tray followed, and drinks and bread from a basket were offered immediately.

Meal tray with starters
The salmon fillet starter was good. Honestly I think you can't really go wrong with what is essentially salmon sashimi, can you?
When this was done, a trolley topped with a variety of main courses came rolling down the aisle. My initial concern with the food getting cold was stemmed when I discovered that the crew typically only put one or two of each choice on the trolley. Fresh, hot dishes are topped up from the galley when those on the trolley have been taken. On the down side, this style of service doesn't feel as 'premium' as a hand-delivered-from-galley style of service, such as on SQ or QR. On the plus side, I got to see the food before I decided, and on more than one occasion, I actually changed my choice and was happy about my change!

Braised chicken with black fungus
The food portion looks small initially but it filled me up rather well. Eyes big, stomach small, as Singaporeans would say...

Next came the dessert trolley. I took everrrrrything...

Gluttony!!

Gluttony part 2!
Having stuffed myself with lots of food, I decided to pay a visit to the toilet. To my horror, I discovered a snoozing pig in the form of my sister who had skipped the entire meal service. Uh, this was a 10am - 2pm flight and she slept the whole way.


Gives you a good idea about that 'coffin' concept. Looks really comfortable, though, doesn't it?
Later on, she did review that this seat felt more private than the new J. She felt cocooned in and her head was far from the noisy aisle. Of course, she had no inkling that someone had stood her over and had taken lots of pictures of her sleeping.


Shot down the cabin. Some Christmas decorations on the bulkhead

I got a Latte for my after-meal drink

Bright sunshine outside by now
My movie soon ended and I spent the rest of my time browsing through some short TV shows. Eventually though, we neared Hong Kong and the captain announced the beginning of our descent.


Slats extended

Attempt at a hideous green mood lighting

Wow!! Building of a super long bridge! To where?
The rest of the descent was caught on video. A very nice clear day with our aircraft meeting up with its shadow. Also, my beloved tip-toe touchdown

Watch it here!

Exiting the runway

Cathay Land

Arriving at our gate
The doors were soon opened, and we began to disembark the aircraft. Interestingly, the purser (who hadn't interacted with me at all on this flight), said goodbye to me by name but it was sir/mdm for everyone else.

At Hong Kong

Lots of HSBC advertisement met us immediately. We trooped down to the arrivals level and made a fairly short walk to transit security. This was done quickly, and once up the escalators, we were back onto departures level.

From here it was a long walk back to the main area with all the food. Our next flight would be departing from gate 4 anyway, so this walk was mandatory.

Crowded eatery area
My mum craved her Hong Kong milk tea, while my sister, who was ravenous, craved her curry pork chop rice, both from Tsui Wah Eatery. So my fiancée and I left and we agreed to meet up in the lounge later on.

The rather nondescript sign and secret passage to the The Wing First Class lounge
The was my second visit here since turning oneworld emerald. I like this lounge for its open concept. It was also very clean and everything was held up to immaculate standards. The staff were also always very professional.
But first, a glass of Rosé champagne!

Which I didn't like...


Inner section is always more quiet
My fiancée was a little peckish, so she grabbed some dessert.

Here's what's left of it
Then after some time I got just a liiiiiitle bit greedy....


Some clay pot chicken rice thing
It was brought to me at the long bar as I preferred to sit out here watching aircraft roam around. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite as tasty as I imagine it to be. In the meantime, we held a mini champagne tasting session: Champagne Deutz The Peninsula, Moët & Chandon Impérial, and Moët & Chandon Rosé Impérial

In my drunken state, I didn't take any pictures, but The Peninsular won.
Soon, my sister contacted me that they were in the J side of the lounge, so we headed over.

Noodle bar
However, I wasn't interested in noodles, and so popped over to the café area to grab myself some coffee and ice cream


Muahaha!

Lots of pastries were available to go with your coffee
With about half an hour more to go to departure, I popped my head over the ledge at the end of the noodle bar to take a look at gate 4.

Full flight to JFK!
Boarding for our flight had just begun, so we decided to wrap things up at the lounge and slowly head downstairs.
There was a secondary security check here, and sadly all of us were made to throw away our brand new bottles of water. What a waste.

Time to head on board!