FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Big Trip 2012 – Hong Kong, the UK and the South of France on CX, BA and EZ!

Jun 15, 2012, 6:25 am

#4

matthandy

Join Date: Jul 2008

Location: Kent, UK

Programs: BA Gold, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum, Hilton Diamond

Posts: 3,809

The cockpit on the A330

Cockpit overview

A last look at the cabin

B-LAL, on stand

I started to make my way towards immigration, which is a rather long trek from gate 71. I turned on my phone to try and make arranagments to meet an ex-colleauge of mine who by coincidence arrived from the UK on Qatar, landing just 5 minutes before me. I think I had posted something on Facebook the day before about heading to Hong Kong and got a “me too!” response from him, so we agreed to meet up and share a taxi to the island.

Immigration at Hong Kong is split two ways, with it not really being clear if there is any difference or any advantage to either side. Once you’ve been through you realise that one set of immigration desks is south of the baggage hall and the other north. If the crew had been able to tell passengers which baggage belt was in use then it might have helped, but they didn’t, so I randomly decided to go right. The queues for immigration were rather long and it took a 30 minutes or so to make it through. My colleague was 10 or so minutes ahead of me so had to wait in arrivals whilst I collected my bag and went through customs.

We grabbed one of the local taxis and then took the 40 minute or so journey towards Central. My drop off at the Four Seasons was first so he remained in the taxi and we agreed to meet for lunch the following day.

Verdict

The new Cathay Pacific Business class product is definitely a winner. It ticks all of the boxes and I can see how many people compare it to a First class seat. It’s wide, comfortable, fully flat and offers both lots of privacy and lots of storage space. Is it the best Business class seat in the sky? Maybe so.

On the soft product side of things, well all of the amenties such as the wash kit, blanket, pillow, headphones were very good and high quality. The food was also excellent, although I do wish that it was served by hand. However, the crew on this particular flight were not very engaging or warm. They appeared to do the minimum of service and nothing more, which was a bit of a shame as I’ve had some really fantastic crews on Cathay before.

Overall though, this was a very good flight indeed.

Up Next

A stay at the Four Seasons Hotel including a visit to Tsim Sha Tsui at night and some wanderings around Central.

After that, oh, lots more……

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