dkjb3t4

I'm flying from PEK to HKG soon and was wondering if anyone had experience with these two options and knew which would be better.

Availability is a bit difficult and using BA avios, i'm showing that there are no business class flights in some flights and in some flights, no economy.... (which wouldn't make sense).

dkjb3t4

I'm especially confused because it seems like my options are either 77W operated by CX or 330 operated by Dragonair.

To my knowledge, neither of these airplanes have first class cabins but it seems like I can book it as first class reservation, whatever that means.
I don't want to have to pay for first class miles if i'm going to get dragonair business class (which was hardly better than economy for my flight from HKG to TAO).

Merlinrnr

I don't know about Dragonair but Cathay does operate one flight a day that has a first class cabin on its 777. They operate a handful of intra-Asia flights with first class cabins.

IncyWincy

Use expertflyer or do a dummy booking on cx.com to see what classes are offered on each flight. If sold as F it is truly F, whether for CX or KA. Seats differ depending on configuration. For HKG-PEK I generally prefer CX.

timesnaps

If its operated on a 77W it will be the new 1-2-1 business class with the seats facing towards the windows. I think its pretty much as good as F for the 2.5hr flight!

Duke787

Dragonair has first class on the A330 and the new version (which is think is flying at least some PEKHKG flights) has the CX international J seat as their F seat

dkjb3t4

oh that sounds interesting.

is this first class nice?

rgdave

CX has two flights a day on their own metal between HKG and PEK, on a 77W with international long haul first (configured 1-1-1). If you haven't flown CX's international first, it's worth the extra miles to experience for the 3:50 flight. Dragonair's 'new' first is configured 1-2-1, essentially the same as CX's long haul business class. So if you can bookfirst on CX metal with Avios, it's worth the extra miles. But rather than paying extra miles for Dragonair 'first', try to find J on CX metal --- it's going to be essentially the same seat product, and you'll save the miles.

I don't think CX serves Krug on short haul F, but otherwise it should be a great experience. And if you're departing ex-Hong Kong, you should eb able to access the first class section of the Wing lounge with its champagne bar (no Krug, though). With Dragonair, I think you can only use their lounge (although I may be wrong on that, because I've never flown Dragonair; I've only connected in HKG from CX to CX.)

So on Expertglyer (if you're a member), or CX's website or Orbitz or whatever, you want to look for CX seat maps with a 1-1-1 configuration. Then you'll get the top product.

moondog

Assuming the primary objective is to actually get to hk in a timely manner, be prepared to wind up on ka even if you book CX.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

KA F is a marked step up from KA biz class. Better food, greater choice of food, better champagne. I don't think the actual service is much better in F... the crew pretty much serve your meal and then disappear. Same as in biz class.

Plus KA F gets you a flat bed. Depending how tired you are that can give you an hour or two of sleep.

DernierVirage

As regards the two CX flights each day, unless things have changed very recently, the situation is that:

- you can't book F, even if there happens to be a F cabin on your flight
- you will sometimes be upgraded to F if it exists, but you need status. I am a lowly gold member and I have ended up only once in F
- you can be on more or less any aircraft...in the last few months I have done the trip on: 340, 772, 773, 747..and equipment changes can be made at the last minute.

If you want to be sure to be in F on this sector, you must book on one of the KA flights that sell F class. As someone said, it is the CX J seat in the forward cabin on a 330. To be honest, I always take the first row in J and it's good enough for me !!

rgdave

I only connect in HKG, so for an F connection via HKG, on CX metal the connecting flight to/from PEK books into F. What they sell or make available for award bookings, though, for HKG O/D may be different.

alphaod

The KA F seats are basically CX long haul J seats.

So with that regard, CX F > KA F.


As for what DernierVirage mentioned, I was op-upped from Y->J, but the flight had F seats and I was actually able to select the seats in the front. It was interesting.

DernierVirage

This is interesting stuff. I always thought that you could only get moved to F if you were already in J. And just to make things more complicated, I just tried a dummy booking on the two daily CX flights and they seem to be selling F after all, which seems to contradict what I said earlier.

sscywong

CX does sell F to PEK, but seems not for PVG