CX LHR-HKG-PER & PER-HKG-LHR

Flight 1
CX250 LHR to HKG 18-Dec-09
Aircraft: B747-400 (B-HOP)
Dep: 1805 Arr: 1355

Checked in online 24 hours before, as I wanted to avoid the check in queues and only use fast bag drop, however, when I got to LHR around 1500 the simple fact is there wasn’t any, which was annoying as my previous flights to the Far East the check in queues have had some length. Was told the plane was on time, went through security, which again had only small queues, and had tons of time to spend in T3, which proved to be a little too much time as I decided to upgrade my Sony point to shoot camera to a Canon Eos 500D, but didn’t open it till I got to my final destination. LHR t3 Departures hall started to fill up around 1630 ish, but didn’t bother me too much; gate was displayed around 60 minutes before the flight, much to my friend’s annoyance who was travelling with me we had to get to gate 13, which is a bit of a long way from the departures hall. Boarding finally commenced around 1740 and my row was finally called around 1755. This was the first time I have flown Cathay Pacific new economy class, and let’s say if you have read the reviews on skytrax about the new economy seat, all I can say is they are true, okay you get tonnes of legroom as the seat in front doesn’t recline, but my word the seat was pure torture when it slides forward and appears to have very little padding. Flight finally pushed back after 1815 due to de-icing, plane took off around 1835. Soon after take-off a small snack was served before the main meal, which was pork with something or other. The Studio CX made up for the uncomfortable seat though; finally managed to get some shuteye other Russia. Woke up somewhere over the Himalayas with some 3 hours of the flight left. Breakfast was served 2.5 hours before landing and the only word to describe was horrible, the last time I had an omelette on this airline it tasted good, this one tasted of rubber, so much so had 1 bite and decided to wait to Hong Kong to get some breakfast. Landing into HKG was the usual approach over the bay and in for a standard landing; arrived on the gate bang on time at 1355 and off the plane by 1405 at gate 60. Disembarkation was quick and clearing security was a breeze.

Flight 2
CX171 HKG to PER 19-Dec-09
Aircraft: A330-300 (Registration Unknown)
Dep: 1505 Arr: 2240

Made my way to gate 71 to go through the usual boarding pass check and hand baggage check for LAG’s before boarding my flight to Perth, went to my allocated window seat and was highly disappointed to see it was the new aircraft configuration as when I pre-selected my seats I was told this route had the new configuration and after the uncomfortable seat on the first flight I wasn’t looking forward to the next 8 hours; menus were handed out prior to push back and was surprised to see a lunch and dinner menu flight lasting 7 hours 45 minutes. The seat belts on this aircraft were weird as they seemed to have foam padding on the left side which I have never seen before on a flight. Flight took off on-time, Lunch was served as an hour after take-off and gradually made my way through the Top Gear episodes on Studio CX IFE. Over Borneo we encountered the expected turbulence the pilots had warned us about, which was a little rough at times to say the least; managed to finally get some sleep on the rock hard seats. Woke up again to one hell of a bump from the turbulences, so much so that 45 minutes later that the dinner service was delayed due to the turbulence, once we finally passed West of Broome, Western Australia the turbulence finally ended and the dinner service began. Arrived on-time into Perth airport, and much to my relief we were the only International flight on the ground which meant clearing immigration and quarantine wouldn’t take long. Was landside and at the Hilton 45 minutes later, where I bumped into the cabin crew again who were using the same hotel.

Flight 3
CX170 PER to HKG 02-Jan-10
Aircraft: A330-300 (Registration Unknown)
Dep: 0005 Arr: 0730

Checked in 24 hours prior to my flights again, got to the airport to drop my bags off at the fast bag drop to find the queue moving very slowly, finally got to the front to have my online boarding passes substituted for a normal boarding pass; was given my allocated seats again for both flights. Security this time took a bit of time to clear it this time as there were a fair few international flight departing (Tokyo, Dubai, Johannesburg, Hong Kong and Singapore) and with only 5 international gates at Perth it was a little busy. Finally managed to get through security and made my way to the bar to order a few stiff drinks to prepare for the flights back and to hopefully get a lot of shut eye. When they called the flight by seat number, around 70% of passengers seemed to be deaf as an enormous queue formed, another call went out saying which rows were called and asking all other passengers to come back when their row was called, no one moved, and staff didn’t bother making another call, so like the rest of passengers we joined a very long queue to get on the flight. I was hoping (and almost praying) for the old economy seat, however, I was disappointed to see the new seats. Push back occurred just after midnight, and take off around 15 minutes after that, my request not to be woken for meals was honoured and managed to sleep for virtually the whole flight with the captains announcement saying we were 45 minutes from Hong Kong. Landing in Hong Kong was very foggy, so much so the people I was travelling with commented after the flight they didn’t even notice the landing as one moment we were in for, and then we had landed, they weren’t wrong as the fog was very dense; arrived 5 minutes early at gate 61.

Flight 4
CX257 HKG to PER 02-Jan-10
Aircraft: A340-300 (B-HXJ)
Dep: 0920 Arr: 1500

After a quick breakfast at Millies Cookies in HKG airport decided to have a bit of a walk round the terminal a but to try and snap the different aircraft which were departing, however and managed to see a good variation of Finnair A343, Air Canada 773, China Eastern A320, Dragonair A330, Lufthansa MD-11 Cargo, Qantas A330, Continental 777 and Singapore 777. Made my way to gate 26 around 30 minutes before where boarding had already started and made my way straight onto the plane. Was again greeted by the new seat with dread this time knowing as I had slept for 7 hours on the previous flight I was going to suffer this time. However, it was my first flight on the A340-300 and found very little difference to the previous A330 I had stumbled off 3 hours earlier. Push back again was on-time. We took off again in dense fog and flew directly north, around 500 miles West of Beijing; however, shortly after this the flight map stopped working, and gradually made my way through 3 movies, 2 documentaries, and several other TV programmes. I learnt my lesson from previous breakfast menus and chose the Chinese noodles over the omelette, and lunch was served 6 hours prior to landing, which I estimated we had to be somewhere over Northern Russia which was an uninspiring beef with rice; the desert was some yellow thing which really didn’t taste of anything. The lights were dimmed again for the 2nd time in the flight. Where I watched my 3rd Movie Bruce Almighty, which could be best described as interesting. 2.5 hours prior to landing the cabin crew came around with a snack box, which consisted of an apple, a snack bar and a bottle of water. The usual pilot announcement was made 40 minutes prior to landing, but he did say we might be down around 10 minutes later due to air traffic around LHR. Got Came in over Dartford, and circled a few times before making the run into LHR passing Wembley Stadium to the right. The flight finally touched down around 1510, to my left I could see the SQ flight from Singapore, which I wished I had taken. Passport Control was quick, collected baggage and out of LHR in less than 40 minutes. Home 45 minutes after that; very thankful the flights were over.

Overall, I haven’t flown Cathay Pacific in quite a while and I would usually highly recommend them to anyone flying to HKG or the Kangaroo route. However, I doubt I will be able to now, Skytrax list them as a 5 star airline, whose status is under review. I fly quite often each year, usually in business, but as I was on holiday and footing the bill for this airline ticket I paid for economy. I still believe in all other classes they probably are a 5 star airline, but in economy I think they have now slipped to what I would expect from a 4 star airline. I found the snacks offered onboard woeful compared to Singapore Airlines economy class 5 star airline, Cathay’s Snacks consisted of peanuts and mini kit-kats. Whereas Singapore offer a variety of Rolls, crisps, fruit and chocolate bars, and the cabin crew come through the cabin very often with these; whereas Cathay Pacific you have to go and ask for them, 2 of our requests failed to turn up for over 40 minutes on 1 flight. Also the seat was woeful, yes I managed to sleep, but I woke up with a painful back on each occasion, and when the seat slides forward, you find yourself sliding forward. Would I fly Cathay Pacific economy class ever again, well until they meet the service of a 5 star airline, such as Singapore Airlines, the answer has to be No.

PS did take pictures but need to figure how to re-size them before uploading as the system says they are too big at present.