grov

I believe that CX took the AA seat and added lots of nice extras, including extra storage areas. My only quibble was the footrest was a bit far away, and I'm not that vertically challenged.

percysmith

US Air introduced it first
Then Cathay
Then AA

http://blog.apex.aero/cabin-interior...opnotch-seats/
http://www.ausbt.com.au/american-air...for-new-planes

VLJ

Thanks so much - Cathay beds sounding great and your reassurance of the lengthy journey being comfortable is helpful.
I think we can definitely manage the whole journey and will enjoy a visit into Hong Kong city for dinner and shopping before returning to the Club Lounge well in time.
I am just waiting for our first journey dates to come up - less than a week away before they release the dates we need - the seats seem to be available most days - I am just concerned about our return journey.
We must travel on either Sunday Dec 28 or Monday Dec 29 to return to Perth Dec 30.
There only seem to be avails on Wed or Fri in the month leading in on most weeks.
There is always the option of LAX-Melb-Per which seems to have more J seats avail but we then have to add a day of travel to get to LA - and also entering US.
I do have a query though - we are 25,000 points shy of the 556,000 required to do the Per-HKG-YVR and return. We can of course book the whole first leg with points but the shortfall will occur in the return if the option comes up - 278,000 points required and we will have about 253,000 - I have never used Points Plus Pay and wondering how much it would cost us to pay the shortfall - I went right into a dummy booking but no option to calculate and didn't want to go too much further.
If we come back via LA we have enough points so that will be plan B - not ideal as it takes away one day of holiday to travel to LA - but at least we have a chance of getting the journey.

VLJ

We have secured J seats PER-HKG-YVR for Dec 2014 and just waiting for return leg options to come up.

However on Manage my Booking it does not allow us to select seats on our flights on Cathay.

It only allows aisle or window preference - but no seat map or allocation in J - is this usual?

Also for the return journey - we are only 8,000 points short for the entire YVR-HKG-PER in J. As there will be limited seats for the date between Christmas and NY - we want to be ready to select when it comes up. I see there is an option for top up points - where it will cost around $300 to purchase that amount - would this be a better option to have the points in the balance account ready or is Point Plus Pay a better alternative - have never used either before. Just don't want to miss out on selection due to tiny shortfall of points as they disappear instantly.
We need the flight to depart Sunday December 28, 2014 - am checking every day but I am not sure the usual release dates are adhered to.
We booked our 15/12/14 seats on 21/12/13 - that seemed they released a lot earlier than expected.

og

IIRC CX only open up seat selection about 6 months in advance.

DH188

Seat selection hasn't been available through QF MMB for the past few months. The last time I was able do this was in September.
It was quite handy as it often allowed you to select seats that were blocked on the CX site - i.e. bulkhead, extra legroom.
It should still be possible to select through the CX site or, failing that, call them.
IME there is no six month limit on advance selection.

grov

I was able to use a QF booking to select CX seats. IIRC, used the flight booking code on the CX website.

JClasstraveller

While OP has now booked CX PER-HKG-YVR, if points were not an issue, why anyone would voluntarily go through LAX is a little puzzling.

Further, OP, you keep mentioning that it's a "long haul" through HKG but if through MEL and LAX, going 1 stop is longer.

HKG airport, if you've never been, is far too nice for 8 hours to be an imposition, more so if you're travelling in J and have access to the CX HK lounges. The option is there of course to go into the city to eat and do a little shopping. Quite frankly, the MEL-LAX option, except for the extra points, is not appealing.

You've made the right choice.

VLJ

After further research we would now not voluntarily go thru LAX - we see in the lead up to our dates there are very few awards options available coming home YVR-HKG-PER, so we may not have any other choice in J awards.
The only other option on the dates we need to return home would be via LAX-MEL-PER, certainly not ideal - but it is the difference between going or not at all as we would not be purchasing the J seats and I would struggle flying in Y for that length of time, we are taking advantage of our points to use for this trip.
Thank you all, we were able to use QF ref no. for access to CX site to manage booking and select seats option.

flyer121

QF J food, booze, and amenities is superior to CX. The CX seats will be better. If it were me I would choose QF.

Isochronous

You think the QF amenity kit is superior? Seriously?

og

Some kits are good, some bad. As long as the ear plugs work, the socks are comfortable, the toothpaste tube does more than a single application and the bag has a zip and can be used to hold / store things, then I'm happy. QF changes their kit bag from time to time.

botfly

Just my 2 cents here as I just took my first QF J flight on the HKG-SYD route. For seats, if you are travelling alone and like windows, then CX seat is far superior as it's 1-2-1 config so you will feel more private. The CX seat also has more useful storage space for small items like camera, eyeglasses, and mobile phone. On the QF A380, you only get 2 large bin on the side by the windows which serve very limited purpose. As for comfort, I found that QF seats are better as there's a massage function and they also provide mattress to lay on your seat.

In terms of food. QF has less quantity but higher quality than CX. The meals did not taste reheated airline food at all and they were delicious.

And in terms of service I feel QF is far superior as CX crew seem to do too much to try to impress you.

Limewood

VLJ look at the option of departing SFO to HKG as seats out of YVR are near impossible to obtain at the best of times. (dam nice airport SFO is now).

VLJ

Thanks all - now my situation is that we have PER-HKG-YVR on CX in J award seats.
However - we are only days off award seats being released for return - it seems as mentioned there is very little YVR-HKG-PER in awards for the journey.
There are more options coming home from LAX - already we have to fly from Calgary to either YVR, LAX or SFO.
SFO flights to AU are QF 747.
We could get either QF or CX in J from LAX - CX being 777 and QF being A380.
However the flight LAX-HKG-PER on CX is duration of 31 hours, whereas LAX-MEL-PER is around 21 hours.
I don't mind the duration so much but which would you choose - CX over a longer duration but better bed?
Or QF A380 less transit time?
I don't mind the break of 7 hours in HKG but seems no matter what we choose we will have to enter US.
Am thinking rather than travelling from Banff to Calgary through to LAX and then waiting 8 hours then travelling another 21 it may be better to stay the night in LA to prepare for such a long journey.