Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - A gate greeting I could have done without

A mini-report on my flight from London last night...

I was travelling on CX250 departing LHR on the 11Dec. After landing at HKG we were advised by the flight deck that once the aircraft had parked only passengers seated in the forward cabins would be allowed to deplane, and Economy Class pax would "have to be patient".

When the aircraft rolled up to gate 40 only the 1L bridge attached and the waiting passengers were greeted by a posse of police officers and airport security officials. The pursers then had to visually confirm that the passengers deplaning, one by one through 1L, had been seated in First and Business Class to the police officer guarding the gate.

In all my years of travelling this was one scenario I definitely hadn't come across before and will certainly make for an interesting story over Christmas dinners. No doubt speculation will be a key part of it, so I was wondering... what do you all seasoned traveller FTers think? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Btw, it was B-HUB which did this run, putting paid to the theory that certain routes are pretty much guaranteed NBC.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by B-HXB:

Btw, it was B-HUB which did this run, putting paid to the theory that certain routes are pretty much guaranteed NBC.</font>

74B's have been routinely appearing on HKG - LHR all autumn and winter. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Interesting story though!

I wonder if there were pax(s) in the economy that triggered the police presence and they were kind enough to let off the premium paxs first before doing whatever they have to do?

Does anyone know anything more about this?

That sounds plausible - just as CX does not subject First/Business passengers to the random gate screening on flights to the USA.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by SNA_Flyer:
That sounds plausible - just as CX does not subject First/Business passengers to the random gate screening on flights to the USA.</font>

Actually, in September, while flying HKG-LAX in J I got that screening. I was very suprised because I was under the same impression that it didn't apply to F and J passengers.

I guess bad people never fly in J of F.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Tango:
I guess bad people never fly in J of F.</font>

I disagree.

For 9/11 alone, the "bad guys" were sitting up front.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by fakecd:
I disagree.

For 9/11 alone, the "bad guys" were sitting up front.</font>

No kidding. J and F should probably get special attention. Except, of course, for the fact that the gate screenings prevent nothing.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by fakecd:
I disagree.

For 9/11 alone, the "bad guys" were sitting up front.</font>

I'd say Tango was being facetious/sarcastic about CX's logic.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by terenz:
I'd say Tango was being facetious/sarcastic about CX's logic.</font>

Ah ha! Now I see where he was coming from!