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Friday, November 13, 2009
Today is my first trip to Asia. Ever. I’m going on a business trip to visit co-workers at our Asian headquarters in Singapore, and we’re making a market visit to Beijing. I live in San Francisco, and will actually return to New York City before coming back to San Francisco. The Great Circle Mapper says in total I’ll fly 23,187 miles during this trip, which gets me back to San Francisco on Wednesday, November 25th.

Segment 1: San Francisco (SFO) --> Hong Kong (HKG)
Airline/Flight: Cathay Pacific 879
Departure Time: 12:05pm PST
Landing Time: 6:38pm Hong Kong Time
Seat: 90A

Not only is my this my first trip to Asia, this is my first trip on a Boeing 747. I ensured that my executive assistant booked one of the Business Class seats on the upper deck, so I can get maximum effect and enjoyment. I’ve heard the seats in the upper deck are great and a little longer than those down below.

I arrived at San Francisco airport without issue. I was warmly greeted by a staff member of CX who directed me to the business class check-in line. There were only 2 people in line ahead of me and the wait was minimal. I noticed right away that there’s a great service disparity between US carriers and Cathay Pacific, especially in Business Class. The person behind the counter walked over to me in line and greeted me, welcoming me to CX and inviting me to join her at the desk for baggage check-in. I’m used to the typical AA “Next!!” (though I don’t check baggage often, so it’s rare that I hear it these days).

At any rate, check-in was nice and she handed me my boarding pass and lounge pass. She instructed me where to go for Security and she also told me where the BA Terraces Lounge was at SFO. I headed down to security and went through the chaotic scene. It took about 20 minutes to pass through security and there were no issues. I tried to take a peek at the plane I’d be flying, but it wasn’t parked at the gate yet. So I went downstairs to the Terraces Lounge. The nice lady welcomed me, gave me the password for the wireless internet and told me we’d be boarding directly from the lounge.

Boarding started at 11:40am and I was onto the plane. Ahh… the marvel of the 747. I entered, took a right turn and started walking through business class. Immediately I was shocked to see the herringbone-formation seats. My first impression was wow… these are tiny! I’m a fairly big guy (6-feet, 220 pounds) so I was instantly a little anxious. I found the stairwell, went up to the upper deck and found seat 90A. I thought the ottoman would allow more storage than it did, and the seats do feel very claustrophobic. I had plenty of storage space for the bag I brought and my computer bag (I decided to pack one day’s worth of clothes plus some track pants for the plane) so I put everything into the overhead.

I disconnected the CX headphones and installed my adapter and headphones (Thanks marcuslai for the tip!!) I then took a few minutes to review my surroundings and get familiar with everything. The CX Studio entertainment options are endless. Clearly one of the best IFE systems I’ve seen. Everything is at shoulder level so it’s all easy to get to, including controls for the seat and the power outlet. No adapter required (two thumbs up!!)

We started backing out of the gate in no time and I buckled in. These seats require a shoulder seatbelt like you’d find in the front seat of a car. It disconnects if you like leaving the lap belt only.

We taxied over to the correct runway and we were off the ground right around 12:30pm by my clock. It was interesting sitting angled at 45-degrees. As you’re climbing into the clouds, you’re kind of tilted off to the right side (in my case) and pushed against the wall a bit. Not entirely uncomfortable, but definitely a different sensation.

About 10 minutes after liftoff, the flight attendants issued our in-flight menus. Today’s flight will have a lunch and dinner selection:


Menu
Starters
- Smoked duck breast with fig chutney and mango salsa
- Mesclun salad with portabella mushroom and lemon vinaigrette

Main Courses
- Pan-fried sea bass with black bean sauce, egg fried rice, kailan and carrots
- Grilled chicken breast with roasted red pepper sauce, creamy polenta, asparagus and leeks
- Sautéed beef with wild mushrooms, steamed jasmine rice and Chinese cabbage with ham
- Angel hair pasta with truffle oil, sautéed mushrooms, tomato and toasted pine nuts

Cheese and Dessert
- Cambozola, Cheddar, Munster Cheese
- Fresh seasonal fruit
- Pecan pie with whipped cream

Tea and Coffee

Pralines



The dinner menu had the following:

Starter
- Fresh seasonal fruit

Main Courses
- Crab stuffed sole with saffron sauce, Yukon gold mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach
- Braised chicken with mushroom, chestnuts, dates, steamed jasmine rice, kalian and carrots
- Abalone clam and mushroom congee with spring onion pancake

Dessert
- Apple crumble torte with vanilla sauce

Tea and Coffee

Pralines



The selection of wines, champagnes and other beverages included:
Champagne
- Champagne Deutz, Brut Classic

White Wines
- Beringer Stone Cellars California Chardonnay 2008
- P Ferraud & Fils Vire-Clesse 2008

Red Wines
- Geyser Peak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
- Vieux Chateau Landon Cru Bourgeois 2005

Port:
- Dow’s Late Bottled Vintage Port 2003

Aperitifs and Cocktails
- Whiskies
- Cognac
- Liquers
- Beer
- CX Signature Drinks
o Oriental Breeze
o Cloud Nine

After the menus were distributed, cocktails and cashew nuts were distributed. I ordered the Cloud Nine, which is a concoction of gin, Cointreau, Sprite and a little lemon. It was similar to a gin and tonic, but not as much alcohol. It was lined with sugar around the rim of the glass. Overall tasty and refreshing.

The flight was well underway now and I decided it was time to relax and take in a movie. I watched The Taking of Pelham 123 and then decided to watch Angels and Demons. I’m very impressed with the Studio CX product. The screen, while not High Definition, is very good and very big. And the selection is outrageously good.

We crossed the International Date Line around 6:30pm PST. Most of the folks around me were trying to get some sleep, however the woman next to me somewhat inconsiderately kept her window shade up. I caught about an hour of sleep myself, but since it’s about 10:30 in the morning, I think I can power through until I get to Hong Kong. Once I get on my next flight, I’ll catch a few z’s.

I tried a few TV shows, listened to a few CD’s and eventually watched two more movies: Julie and Julia and 500 Days of Summer. Anything to pass the time! Most others slept and after getting up to walk around the 747-400, I spoke with a FA who asked why I wasn’t sleeping. We chatted about the crew rest area, and how she takes this Hong Kong to San Francisco to Hong Kong flight 1x per week. That’s all she does!

The rest of the flight was uneventful. When we turned south, near Japan, the flight was quite bumpy for about an hour. I think the captain eventually found a smooth altitude and it was smooth sailing from there until we started down to Hong Kong. As we descended I twisted my body so I could look out the window and watch the landing from the top deck of a 747. It looked like we were hundreds of feet up as we hit the ground! We taxied shortly and pulled into the gate. Overall a good flight and not as bad as I thought it would be for a 13+hour flight.

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Saturday, November 14, 2009
Segment 2: Hong Kong (HKG) à Singapore (SIN)
Airline/Flight: Cathay Pacific 715
Departure Time: 19:55pm Hong Kong Time
Landing Time: 11:35pm Singapore Time
Seat: 14H

After arriving in Hong Kong airport and being the second person off the plane, I quickly made my way to the E2 Transfer Point, down to the subway and up to gate 41 to catch CX715 to Singapore. The connection time was tight yet manageable, so I didn’t get to visit the CX lounge. I’ll do that on Saturday when I make my way back through Hong Kong. I scampered to the gate and fired up my laptop to download emails and check on a few things.

Today’s flight features a Boeing 777-300 – a two-class plane for CX. The first impression of the jet indicated it looked somewhat newer, yet the seats looked somewhat older. I showed my BP to the FA and she quickly escorted me to my seat and even helped me put my bags in the overhead. I didn’t need the help, and felt bad that this ~100-pound flight attendant – she looked like an 18-year-old girl!! – was going out of her way to help me. They did this for everyone!

My seatmate came and made herself comfortable and just before backing from the gate, a flight attendant came to ask both of us if we’re traveling together. We both answered no and the FA then asked if we would like to spread out a bit as business class had many open seats. I guess I really hadn’t noticed, but I looked around and there were just 11 people in J. 48 seats left empty! So I moved back 3 rows and took up camp next to the window. I knew I’d be sleeping quite a bit and as soon as we got airborne it was lights out for me. Sleeping mask on and I was out for the 4-hour flight.

Near landing, one of the FA’s came over and woke me up, indicating it was time to prepare for landing and to put my seat forward. The captain was on at the time too indicating we had a half hour left. I also noticed the hustle and bustle about the cabin of the FA’s. I’ve never seen that many FA’s on a flight, let alone just serving J. We had 9 FA’s for 11 people. Crazy! Excellent service though.

I noticed I missed the dinner. I didn’t get to transcribe the menu, but suffice it to say the options were a ling fish (no idea what that is), abalone and rack of lamb.

Before long we made the final turn and approach into Singapore’s Changi airport and pulled up to the gate. Immigration had no lines and after getting $100USD worth of Singapore Dollars, I quickly grabbed my bag, cleared customs and found my taxi to the hotel.

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Saturday, November 14, 2009
The Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel
Singapore, Singapore

After exiting the airport, I entered the taxi line and instructed the driver to head to the Grand Copthorne Waterfront. This hotel is chosen due to its proximity to my Singapore office. The traffic leaving the airport was a bit slow due to an accident, but still it took about 25 mins to get to the hotel. Taxi fare: $35.00 SD.

I was met by the bellhop at the hotel who welcomed me to the Grand Copthorne Waterfront. He took my bags and instructed me to head into the check-in desk. The man at the desk was nice and efficient, and told me that breakfast and Internet access was included in the price of the room. He also told me I was being upgraded to a higher floor and bigger room. Not sure why, but I think because my company gives this hotel a lot of business as the preferred hotel in Singapore.

I found my way up to an upper floor and entered the room. Singapore is near the equator, and is very humid, which makes things a bit uncomfortable for a guy from San Francisco. The room was also kind of hot and humid, and I immediately went for the air conditioner controls to get it cooling down.

The décor of the room was nice. Light brown tiles on one wall; dark brown tiles on the wall where the bed is. A chair for sitting, a glass desk for working (and writing trip reports) and a supply of water, coffee, apples, etc. The TV is on the wall and the bathroom is nicely sized with lots of complimentary items, (2 toothbrushes, crèmes, lotions, soap, etc.)

I sat down on the bed and wondered how long it would be before my luggage was brought up, since I just wanted to change and go to bed after the long flights. The bed is VERY hard. No Westin or Hilton pillowtop mattresses here! There’s no top sheet either. Just a duvet and a bottom sheet. I’m not a germaphobe, but I don’t like thinking about who slept in the bed before and what kind of funk they had going on.

The bellhop quickly came to knock on the door and he deposited my bags in the room. I asked him what kind of tip was standard and he only answered, “It’s up to you sir.” I asked him several times what kind of tip is standard, since I didn’t know and he just kept repeating, “It’s up to you sir.”. I find this annoying as I want to treat the guy properly and I honestly didn’t know. So I gave the guy $5 SD. I told a co-worker about this and he said (1)no tipping in Singapore and (2) even when you do, $5 SD was excessive! I look back at it as though it’s good karma and it is what it is.

The next morning I ordered room service, since I was up at some crazy hour. I ordered the American breakfast, which was freshly squeezed juice, a bowl of cereal, eggs, hash browns and chicken sausage with mesclun salad and a choice of breads. All with coffee. Overall the breakfast was tasty. The best part was the homemade farmhouse bread, which was almost Irish in a way. Not as heavy though, but very good!

There’s not much more to report on the hotel experience. It turned out to be an adequate room with a solid shower (good pressure and temperature). I’ll check out of this hotel Tuesday morning and then file my next report after my flight to Beijing!

b-kpf

Really descriptive trip report and glad that you're enjoying your experience with CX so far.

Have to say, I found the take off to be really awkward as well. I found myself loosening the seatbelt and propping myself against the wall so it would feel a little bit more like i was facing forward and not sideways.

Can't wait for the next parts!

sobore

We had 9 FA’s for 11 people

Nice, you won't hear me complain about that!

abeyro

Was it standard in that hotel or just a mistake made by the staff when preparing your room?

camsean

Thanks for the first 3 installments. I'm looking forward to the rest.

$5 really is a big tip in Singapore.

tiddyzhang

great report ! im looking forward to read rest of your report too

206013671

It seemed to be standard as my co-workers had it this way too.

206013671

Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Segment 3: Singapore (SIN) --> Beijing Capital (PEK)
Airline/Flight: Singapore Airlines / 810
Departure Time: 16:55pm Singapore Time
Landing Time: 10:38pm Beijing Time
Seat: 10G

Today’s flight will me and my colleagues from Singapore to Beijing, China. This will be my first trip to China, as it was my first trip to Singapore. I’m very excited about this leg of my adventure.

We have a 4:55pm flight today, and my local colleague insists that we can leave the office in downtown Singapore at 3pm and still make the flight without an issue. I’m a little skeptical, but she insists. So we leave the building at 3:00pm and wait for a 3:15pm car service to get us. The car is on-time and we’re off to Changi airport. When I flew in, I really didn’t get a chance to enjoy Changi ,and I’m a bit disappointed I won’t get to enjoy it today either. Iv’e heard so much about it.

Anyway, as we approach the airport, my colleague gives the driver instructions to stop at Terminal 3 in the Singapore Airlines First Class entry. My initial thought is this is a gate like you’d find at most major US airports. Boy was I mistaken. This is a private entrance where it’s more like a country club entrance than an airport. We were greeted by bellhops who took our bags out of the car. An airline employee came out to greet us and lead us to check-in agents who were seated and looked more like private bankers than airline employees. They took my passport and promptly asked me if I’d like an Aisle seat. She then handed me my boarding pass and some other documentation I would need to complete prior to entering China.

After we were all checked in – which took about 5 minutes – we proceeded to a private immigration counter. Wow! This is really easy! No lines at all and we cleared in just seconds (except for my boss, who forgot where his departure card was located and had to complete new one).

My local colleague then took us from Immigration to one of the lounges upstairs. We were going to go to the KrisFlyer lounge, but instead we went to another lounge where they would exchange money for us. Unfortunately I didn’t have any Singapore dollars left, so instead of having them change USD to SD and then onto Chinese Yuan, I said I’d get it in Beijing when I landed. Everyone else exchanged money. In the lounge the man took our drink orders, brought us a few snacks and we waited. It was about 4:20pm.

We asked the guy to check on the flight status and his board indicated our flight was in Last Call. To Americans, this means the gate is going to close any moment and a rude GA will tell you you’re out of luck. In Singapore, this apparently means that the security checks are underway and the boarding lounge is open. We didn’t know this and didn’t trust our colleague, who said it was no big deal. Instead, we hightailed it from the lounge all the way down to gate B5. When we arrived, we quickly realized why my local colleague wasn’t in any rush, and we sat in the lounge for a few minutes more.

One note… as we left the lounge, I happened to leave my jacket in the lounge. Not only did the lounge staff call my colleagues’ cell phone, but the man who brought our drinks and snacks in the lounge was quickly following with the jacket in hand. Truly impressive service and all lounge employees in the United States should go to Singapore to learn from this staff. Top notch all the way.

We boarded the plane, which was a Boeing 777-200. Today’s flight showed as not having a first class area, but indeed it did. There were two rows of First Class and several rows of business class, of which I was in the first row. I was warmly greeted by the Singapore Airlines flight attendant, and she took my jacket and helped me place my bag in the overhead bin. I thought for sure this was the start of the great service that Singapore Airlines is known for.

The first thing I noticed about this flight was the seats. I’ve heard that business class on SQ is phenomenal. But this was an older plane and the business class seat left a LOT to be desired. It was old and though fairly comfortable for a reclining seat, it wasn’t a flat seat, the buttons / controls were confusing and inconveniently placed, and the IFE was actually horrible. The movies were not on-demand as I hoped they would be, and the audio coming from the IFE went silent about every 30 seconds the entire flight. The silent part was only about a second long, but it was long enough to be annoying. I also noticed that the seat didn’t have a DC or AC power adapter. It had one of the old converter-required adapters. I have this adapter, but it’s sitting in my office in San Francisco, not in my bag. Oh well, no work to be done on this flight.

The plane backed away and the service was underway with drink orders and hot towels. The towels on this flight all are scented with something that smells like a melon. They smelled great and I couldn’t wait for the next towel. Once airborne, I ordered a gin and tonic. The FA returned with tonic water. I sipped it 2x and realized at the same time as her that this wasn’t my drink. She quickly returned to collect it and to prepare a G&T.

Dinner on this flight was an option of chicken, fish or beef. I chose the beef with potatoes and vegetables. The starter was a salmon salad, and the dessert was ice cream and melon. I devoured all. I’m surprised how tender the filet of beef was. Nicely done for an airline!

Following dinner, I laid back, put my iPod on and napped for this scheduled 6 hour, 5 minute flight. Near landing, I the FA came by to ask that I start to prepare my chair and stow my baggage. We had about a half hour to go, and I complied, used the bathroom and got ready for landing. We landed into Beijing at 10:38pm and quickly made our way to the gate. The plane doors were opened and I headed out to be greeted by very cold temperatures. My next adventure was about to begin.

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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The Regent Hotel
Beijing, China

Upon landing, we exited the terminal to hand in our health safety cards. At PEK, they are doing infrared scans of each person for body heat to determine if somebody needs to be involuntarily quarantined due to H1N1 flu. I passed my safety card and passport to the agent, who reviewed and allowed me to proceed. Next it was on to immigration. The Chinese authorities are VERY thorough in their examination of your entry documents. They examined my passport, reviewed my face versus my passport a number of times, reviewed my Arrival Card, and reviewed my entry Visa. We had noticed a person in the next line be turned away from entering the country a few minutes before, and I hoped I wouldn’t be the second example. After 3-4 minutes, I was admitted and I waited for my co-workers to pass as well. No issues.

Next we were on to get our baggage. After passing immigration, you take a several-minute train ride to the baggage claim area. By the time we got there, our bags were there, waiting for us. No wait at all. I quickly grabbed my bag, went to the currency exchange window and purchased $100 USD worth of Chinese Yuan – which is about 618 Yuan.

Next we exited the customs area and looked for our driver. He was late by about 10 minutes, but we found our driver and headed to the car for the 40-minute trip into Beijing.

Our hotel is The Regent. I wasn’t sure what to make of it from my research, but I was pleasantly surprised when I checked in and found the room to be worthy of a 5-star rating. The dark brown wood, the large light in the middle of the room, the free internet access, the slippers and towel placed by the bed, the green apples awaiting to be eaten as a snack, the large bathroom with large soaking tub and shower, with private toilet. There was ample, complimentary water in the room and the TV had many international channels on it. The room also had a nice-sized safe for my valuables (including laptop), ironing board, etc.) It was all to be marveled at. My room overlooked one of the major roads in Beijing and the hotel is well-located about a half mile away from Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. Upon climbing into bed, I was impressed with the overall comfort. A great duvet, comfortable mattress and some great pillows. All in all, a very nice stay.

The food at the hotel was not bad. I had room service one morning and the service was excellent. The next morning I ate with colleagues in the restaurant. Again, good food and good service.

In addition to our business, we were able to explore many local attractions, including but not limited to Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Great Wall of China (about 1.5 hour drive) and me and all 5 of my colleagues went for a group foot massage one night at a place just down the street from the hotel. It was an interesting walk back as I was approached by 3 “women of the night”, offering a "lady massage". Clearly prostitution is a lively business in Beijing. (For those interested, I passed ).

We visited many great restaurants for lunch and dinner, including Da Dong, which is an internationally known restaurant specializing in Peking Duck. I’ve never had duck prepared this way, but in addition my host also ordered (and I tried) duck heart, duck feet, duck liver and several other delicacies that I’ve never thought about eating. I truly felt like I was on Iron Chef.

I would highly recommend the Regent to anybody visiting Beijing who wants a good location. The prices seemed reasonable for a 5-star hotel and I would return without hesitation.

Now, a journey from PEK --> HKG --> NYC on DragonAir and Cathay Pacific!

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Saturday, November 21, 2009
Segment 4: Beijing (PEK) --> Hong Kong (HKG)
Airline/Flight: Cathay Pacific 6879 (Operated by Dragonair)
Departure Time: 10:00am Beijing Time
Landing Time: 1:35 Hong Kong Time
Seat: 10G

Today’s journey would be the longest set of plane rides I’ve ever taken. A little over three hours from Beijing to Hong Kong, and then about 15 hours from Hong Kong to New York City. I live in San Francisco, but have other business in New York.

We started our journey early – 7am local time in Beijing. We didn’t know what to expect at the airport, so we gave ourselves 3 hours to get to the airport, get checked in, clear immigration and security before the flight. My Bejing office graciously arranged a car service and the guy was at the hotel promptly at 7am for the ride. The drive from our Hotel to the airport took about a half hour, and we were promptly let off at Cathay Pacific Corrider C. Today’s flight is operated by Dragonair, a partner of Cathay, so no issues going to the Dragonair-branded check-in desks. There was no line at all…we were serviced right away and the nice agent promptly tagged my bag all the way to NYC. She handed me my boarding passes and we were on our way.

Since we had so much time and had gotten to the airport very quickly, we decided a quick stop at the Starbucks was in order. We spent about a half hour before moving on to immigration.

Once again, as we had done on arrival, the first thing we walked through was a temperature checkpoint. I assume its some sort of infrared temperature gauge that measures if you have a fever so they can quarantine you if they so desire. I started feeling a bit under the weather, but no fever, so we breezed right on by.

We made our way to the train and International terminal E, and upon arrival cleared customs (nothing to declare) and visited the Immigration officer. He checked my passport, took my departure card, stamped my passport and I was on my way to security. Very efficiently run! Security was efficient too. No line at all. I walked up, deposited my computer in the bin and put my bag through. I didn’t have to take off my shoes (Which I still think is a silly thing the TSA does in the US to make people feel secure because one idiot several years ago put a bomb in his shoe). And with that, I had effectively left China.

We found our way to the Cathay Pacific lounge. Not a bad lounge, but not great. We relaxed and watched the haze surround the airport area. Today there was massive smog and visibility was short.

Shortly before the flight was to board, we headed down to our gate and made our way onto the plane after a short wait. We found ourselves on an Airbus 330R. An OK plane, with OK business class seats. Nothing to write home about. There was no personal IFE and limited IFE in a public setting. They showed a movie and some US comedies (which I found to be weird… a Chinese flight showing US programming??)

I slept through the lunch offering they had, mostly because I had a muffin at Starbucks shortly before, but also because I wasn’t thrilled with the offerings. I’ve about had my fill of duck so far on this trip so more duck wasn’t appealing. So instead I slept.

I woke up to notice the guy in front of me was also sleeping, and my one gripe about these business class seats is that, when the chair in front of you is fully reclined, it really eats into your personal space. Virtually no room to really get up and go to the washroom. I had to squeeze my way out.

The flight was relatively uneventful. There’s not much more to report on, but we did land on-time and made our way to the entrance gate. One final comment, and nothing to do with the flight, but we taxied to the gate just past one of SQ’s A380’s. The second sighting of an A380 in 3 days and wow, they are big! Impressive sight.

Deplaning was easy and fast, and before long we were heading to security to head to our gate area.

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Saturday, November 21, 2009
Segment 5: Hong Kong (HKG) -> New York (JFK)
Airline/Flight: Cathay Pacific 840
Departure Time: 5:25pm Hong Kong Time
Landing Time: 8:00pm EST
Seat: 19D

We had about 4 hours from the time we landed in Hong Kong until the time we left Hong Kong for New York, so my colleague and decided to explore a bit. First and foremost, we went to the Cathay Pacific lounge to drop off a few bags so we didn’t have to carry them around. We quickly explored the lounge and I saw the first class cabana buffet spread, so we went in and had some food. After a quick run through the rest of the lounge to see where things are, I was really craving some horrible American food (go ahead with the catcalls) and decided to venture out to Burger King since I was tired of eating duck and noodles the past 4 days. BTW, impressive lounge! Lots of seating, open views to the main runway, a few bars for drinks and snacks. We would definitely enjoy, but not now. First it was on to Burger King and some exploring.

After Burger King we did some shopping at the duty free shops. We quickly reviewed prices online and determined that the duty free prices really weren’t that good. The only real advantage was saving on tax. For the bottle of scotch we reviewed, it was a savings of about $15, and we decided it wasn’t worth the price of carrying this with us. So we passed.

After an hour or so perusing the shops, it was back to the lounge where we waited until boarding time.

At 5pm local time, we headed down from the lounge and saw a huge line building to board. Lucky for us we’re business class, and we went around the left with no line at all. After getting our passport and ticket checked, it was down the jet way for a quick search of all bags for water. Not sure why, but no liquids allowed on board – even those purchased beyond security! No big deal for me as I had none and I quickly boarded.

Upon boarding I got to pass by the Cathay Pacific First Class area. Great looking seats! Tons of room and they are their own little pods. We were in Business Class, so we kept walking and I found my way to Seat 19D. This was a Boeing 777-300ER, so the configuration was herringbone with 4 aisles of business class seats. My seat was in the middle of the plane. You can’t look out the window anyway due to the angle of the seats, so this was fine. I settled in for what was scheduled to be a 15 hour, 35 minute flight.

Before push back, the captain came on and said we were ready to go early, but waiting on passengers from a flight that just landed in Hong Kong. The good news it was on the ground and approaching the gate and it was coming up next to us. So no issues with people quickly making it over, but waiting for the bags would delay departure by a few minutes. He also said there were favorable flying conditions tonight, so we’d get there in a little over 14 hours. Bottom line, he thought we’d get in before 8:00pm NYC time.

Scheduled departure was 5:25pm, and we actually pushed back from the gate about 5:45. It seemed to take forever to taxi to the end of the runway and right around 6:10pm we took off.

The flight plan showing on the in-seat map showed us heading north over Beijing, Russia and near the North Pole before coming over Northern Canada and into New York. That’s not the flight plan we flew! We took off and started heading south, eventually turning east, but never really due north. We followed a flight plan that took us over Tapei, just east of Japan and then east just off the coast of Alaska. Eventually we made landfall over Seattle, WA and headed along the US/Canada border into New York City. It seemed like a longer flight path, if you ask me, but what do I know?

Once on-board, the outstanding Cathay Pacific service began. This is what I’ll remember about this airline. Wow! These FA’s are attentative and very polite! Carine was the senior purser and she had great command of her crew. Joanne was the manager and she came by to introduce herself and welcome me back to Cathay Pacific She asked how my previous flight to Singapore was and she seemed to know lots of details about me that I didn’t think she’d care about. Impressive! ^^ All in all, the entire staff provided excellent customer service and got me everything I needed with a smile. I found it a bit funny that Carine told me several times to “please enjoy your dinner” or “please enjoy your apple”. Just great service. A+ all around. ^^^

Dinner service was started within 45 minutes or so of takeoff. The menu went a little something like this:

Starters

• Cajun spiced prawns and green mango salad
• Mixed salad with cherry tomatoes, celery, carrot julienne and citrus vinaigrette

Main Courses

• Steamed beef shin with shimeji mushrooms in soya sauce, steamed jasmine rice and Chinese mixed vegetables
• Honey and clove braised pork cheek with celeriac puree and root vegetables
• Chicken with Chinese sausage, steamed jasmine rice and Chinese mixed vegetables
• Saffron and ricotta tortellini in creamy tomato concasse

Cheese and Dessert

• Pecorino, St. Pauline, Camembert
• Fresh seasonal fruit
• Fresh fruit tart with rasberry coulis

Tea and Coffee

Pralines

Of course there were snacks to be had for those who didn’t want the dinner or needed a little something midflight:

Assorted sandwiches

• Beef and vegetables pasties with salad and creamy Italian dressing
• Ice Cream

They also had two Signature Dishes:

• Fish ball and cuttle fish ball with ho fun noodle in soup
• Chicken and black mushrooms with noodle in soup

About 2 hours before we landed a refreshment service was started:

Starter

• Fresh seasonal fruit

Main Courses

• Deep-fried ling fish with pine nuts in sweet and sour sauce, steamed jasmine rice and pak choy
• Pan-roasted chicken breast with kipfler potatoes, asparagus and stewed cannellini beans in tomato concasse
• Green peas and mint agnolotti with roasted root vegetables.

Cheese was also offered, along with fruit and a Cherry Cheesecake.

For dinner I selected the tortellini dish, passed on the snacks and while I wanted the pan-roasted chicken for the refreshment meal, they didn’t have it at all. It wasn’t catered into the plane. So I took the pasta again since I’m not a huge fish person. I had the cherry cheesecake too.

The Cathay business class seats are the same ones I had on the flight over, though I can say definitively that the seats on the upper deck of a 747-400 are longer and have more room around the head area when fully reclined. This seat really feels constricted and while mostly comfortable, it really does give the feel that you’re in a coffin! This plane had more options on the Studio CX, including many more movie options, a better seat map program and one cool feature: an outside camera, which seems to be stuck to the belly of the plane. Very, very cool! I didn’t discover this for takeoff, but my colleague did and said it was very cool.

We started our descent into New York City from the north around 7:25pm and touched down at 8:02pm.

All in all, I got about 4 hours of sleep in the seat, and the 14-hour flight didn’t feel like 14 hours. Yes, it was long, but not bad at all.

mike_asia

nice report

fsklee

I am glad you did not buy the scotch. You could not take it through the security check at the gate. But normally the shop would not even sell to you after they saw your boarding pass.

A friend of mine got a bottle of Blue Label confiscated. I think she bought it in SIN. Somehow she managed to pass through the transit security in HKG but was stopped before boarding a US-bound flight.