Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - SIN-HKG J Class and F Class Difference?

I am traveling on a oneworld F Class mileage ticket in the Fall and doing several legs on CX, but on the SIN-HKG segment I am connecting onto DXB and the day of departure there is no F-class flight which would allow same day connection in HKG onto DXB. I have choice of taking an A330 or 773 SIN-HKG same day in J or taking 744 night before into HKG in F-class. Pros and Cons both ways, but just curious if anyone had any experiences in this specific market with the J and F class product and aircraft types? Considering if I take the only F-class flight I can, I gotta spend the night in HKG and if so can I stay anywhere in the airport? Airport hotel/lounge possibility for F-class pax? Thanks for any tips! I am using a whole bunch of miles here and want to get the best "bang for the buck".

It's not worth spending the night in HKG solely to fly in F on a 1500 mile flight.

There is an airport hotel, The Regal, and for an airport hotel it's not bad at all-- but it's not like anyone's gonna' pay for you to stay there on an award ticket.

There's quite a big difference. The 330/777 flights have Regional Business Class. This means seats which have far less pitch (still 50 inches I think) and recline, and no Audio/Video on demand (although you do, of course, get in-seat PTV, multiple video and audio channels). In F you would get the full F-class suite, the AVOD system, and first class food & wine.

I don't think CX would give you a hotel in HKG for an award ticket. Normally it is only done for full-fare F (and maybe J) passengers. The (only) airport hotel will set you back US$150-ish for a night. Alternatively, you could go for a night on the town in Wanchai and not bother with a hotel (price: approximately the same depending on which aspects of Wanchai you partake of - this is probably not the best forum for recommendations on the best "bang for the buck" in that area ;) )

And, now that I think about it, are you sure they will let you overnight-- just to get F-- on your OneWorld award ticket itin.?

And, now that I think about it, are you sure they will let you overnight-- just to get F-- on your OneWorld award ticket itin.?


You can stay overnight as long as you don't exceed 24 hours (presuming this is the stopover rule).

Assuming you are taking CX 731 from HKG-DXB then you should be fine. Also I think you should overnight this as I did F Class on the SIN-HKG before as find the experience to be much better than the 773 and you get to spend a night in HKG!! go out and visit HKG! The CX F Class experience is so much different compare to any other F Class flights for this duration in Oneworld. However just to let you know you won't get PJs, Amenity kits, Caviar. A Grey Woolen Blanket will be provided upon request.

OH jsut another word of warning I think the HKG-DXB flight sometimes get substituted to a 2 Class (dreaded NRBC) even for the nonstop!

You can stay overnight as long as you don't exceed 24 hours (presuming this is the stopover rule).

If it's a stop, he can stay as long as he wants-- if it's a transit, the rule is 6 hours and you can't "wait for F" as it were.

Thanks for the tips, I appreciate all the good info! I will probably just suck up the connection and fly J to HKG, its much cheaper to stay in SIN an extra night and gonna be in HKG for a few days anyhow 2 weeks prior. :p

If it's a stop, he can stay as long as he wants-- if it's a transit, the rule is 6 hours and you can't "wait for F" as it were.
i've phoned cxmpo and the cso told me on an oneworld award tix a transit is anything less than 24hrs and the is not technically waiting for f class as he just dept sin on the last flight and even based on the oneworld timetable it suggested this overnight option
however maybe aa is different in the rules

AA mileage redemption does not, unfortunately, treat anything less than 24 hours as a connection. Waiting for the F flight will constitute a stopover.

i've phoned cxmpo and the cso told me on an oneworld award tix a transit is anything less than 24hrs and the is not technically waiting for f class as he just dept sin on the last flight and even based on the oneworld timetable it suggested this overnight option
however maybe aa is different in the rules
If he's using AA miles (and from his profile, I assume he is) it makes no difference what CX says-- it's AA's rules that apply, period.

This award was booked via AA and they told me as long as I stay less than 24 hours in a city (and to the minute) its considered a connection, not a stopover. I'm going from HNL-HKG via LAX and spending the night in LAX with only a 15 hour layover at LAX and still they are only charging me the mileage from HNL directly to HKG, nothing via LAX at all. But its still considered 2 segments towards the 16 maximum. Its a great thing and helps break up a trip with out costing you!

This award was booked via AA and they told me as long as I stay less than 24 hours in a city (and to the minute) its considered a connection, not a stopover.
The agent who told you that was mistaken. It's possble it will/would/did get ticketed that way-- and many agents make that mistake- but that's not the rule and it gets corrected later on in the process, unless you get lucky.

The rule is:
Passenger has 4/6 hours to connect (depending on domestic or international travel). If there are no scheduled flights within this timeframe, regardless of availability, the passenger must take the next scheduled flight but, may not exceed 24 hours. If the connection exceeds 24 hours, it will be considered a stopover.

Passenger has 4/6 hours to connect (depending on domestic or international travel). If there are no scheduled flights within this timeframe, regardless of availability, the passenger must take the next scheduled flight but, may not exceed 24 hours. If the connection exceeds 24 hours, it will be considered a stopover.

JonNYC I think you are confused at the OP question.

He is staying in SIN and need to get to DXB.

There is NO rule saying he can't take the 6pm flight ex SIN and then because by the time it arrives into HKG there are no more flights to HKG, then he can take the next available flight (which is what the OP wanted to do) which is the following day and it is NOT exceeding 24 hours. As SIN is a stopover (based on his original post it does seem like SIN is not a transit stop for him). Therefore it is perfectly fine to get to F Class flight to HKG and then get the DXB flight the following morning. However if there is a DXB flight that can connect that evening then he has to take it (disrespect whether there is F Class or not).

Do the F class from HKG to SIN, they provide lots of caviar, food and better seats even for a 3 hour journey.

As newc12345 stated above, you don't get caviar on shorthaul F, nor do you get the sleep suits, but of course you get the seat and better food and wine than you would in J.

I flew SIN-HKG in F 4 days ago. The food was great for being in a plane but no caviar etc (they didn't offer Krug either). Service was nice, but that could have been the result of me beeing the only pax in F.

Best

(they didn't offer Krug either)Krug is one of two champagnes that are offered in F currently - the other being the Cuvee William Deutz 1996(?). Some routes/flights get one, some the other. I haven't bothered to work out the pattern.

As newc12345 stated above, you don't get caviar on shorthaul F, nor do you get the sleep suits, but of course you get the seat and better food and wine than you would in J.

Exactly. I think the only airline that provides Caviar on the SIN-HKG route is SQ on SQ1 ( I think this is the #) as it is a continuation flight to SFO from HKG, so they serve caviar ex SIn and then I think again ex HKG!
Don't know whether they distribute the PJs and the nice Amenity kits (Bvlgari) ex SIN or Ex HKG.

Exactly. I think the only airline that provides Caviar on the SIN-HKG route is SQ on SQ1 ( I think this is the #) as it is a continuation flight to SFO from HKG, so they serve caviar ex SIn and then I think again ex HKG!.Nope, SQ does not. Caviar is served on the SIN-HKG leg but not on the HKG-SFO leg. This always seemed wrong to me, but they rationalized it by the flight times (the real reason was probably competition). In any case the quality of caviar on SQ and most airlines has declined a lot (understandably so) and it really isn't worth having. CX sometimes has quite good caviar (but not always).

I specifically did an overnight in HKG to get F on SIN-HKG-NRT for an AONE. Both legs were on F for this timing vs. doing both on regional J for a same-day connection. Per advice here, we got a hotel in HKG Central (priceline - $105 for 5* JW Marriott) and the Airport Express is very convenient. Probably cost less than having to do one extra night in NRT anyway, and this way we had more time in SIN since we were only there for 2 nights anyway.

BTW, SIN-HKG was practically emtpy in F (two of us plus 1 or 2 others), but full on HKG-NRT. Service on SIN-HKG was typical excellent, catering was excellent but definitely a step or two below long-haul F.
On HKG-NRT, we still both got the kaiseki meals, because we sat in row 2, I think they were out by the time they got to the guy behind me and he wasn't pleased. THis was one other reason for wanting to do the flight in F.

Bottom line, it's probably not worth it to get F just for SIN-HKG, but it was worth it for both segments.

Krug is one of two champagnes that are offered in F currently - the other being the Cuvee William Deutz 1996(?). Some routes/flights get one, some the other. I haven't bothered to work out the pattern.It is an interesting pairing and someone at CX really knows their wines. This Deutz is excellent and very good value, quality is very high and similar to Krug but a completely different style. Probably the original idea was to offer both together (as SQ does with Krug and Dom). The Deutz is much lighter and people that don't like Krug will generally like Deutz. But the brand is not so famous, which is a problem for CX's market, however I applaud CX for selecting this. In fact most of their wine selections are excellent and really suit the purpose. QF also has some very well chosen wines, but at a much lower price point even in F (I'm guessing that QF's budget for wine is about 30% of CX's). The CX wines in the lounges are roughly at the QF/BA J price point, illustrating how much more CX spends for on-board catering. It always breaks my heart to see several hundred dollars worth of fine wine tipped down the sink at the end of every CX longhaul flight.

Exactly. I think the only airline that provides Caviar on the SIN-HKG route is SQ on SQ1 ( I think this is the #) as it is a continuation flight to SFO from HKG, so they serve caviar ex SIn and then I think again ex HKG!
Don't know whether they distribute the PJs and the nice Amenity kits (Bvlgari) ex SIN or Ex HKG.

SQ 1 does not have caviar because it is the early morning flight from HKG-SIN.

SQ offer caviar on all flights for SIN-HKG and HKG-SIN except for the first flight of the day - breakfast service. they serve both krug and dom on these flights but do not have PJs or amenity kits.

WOW! Overload of information here guys.....Very detailed and very interesting indeed....you guys have traveled a lot and I appreciate all the good advice! I'll post a trip report when I get back.....many thanks again for everyones help! ^