gleff

(This trip report is also being posted at my View from the Wing blog, if you haven't visited before please do!)

Prelude

I recently returned from Asia, an American Airliens First Class Oneworld award. This is just a bit of background before I begin sharing some of the details of my travels.

When the KVS Availability Tool introduced Cathay Pacific award availability (really just an interface with the Cathay website) it seemed like a good time to start searching Cathay award availability. And with the economic downturn and fewer first class tickets being sold, Cathay first was pretty widely available.

I've long been more of a Star Alliance guy, I have plenty of American Airlinesmiles but haven't flown much Oneworld. So this would be my first time in Cathay First. And with the Oneworld distance-based awards, you can fly pretty much any routing you wish (the longer it is, the more miles they charge) as long as you don't exceed 16 segments on the award. To qualify to use such an award you need at least two airlines <em>other than American</em> on the award. So I thought it might be a good idea to try British Airways First Class as well, something I'd also never done - I've flown BA business before, but never splurged on first.

So I started poking around and saw plenty of Cathay first class award space departing both JFK and Toronto. By the time I narrowed down my dates, Toronto was the only option, since I wanted to depart over a weekend and Cathay seemed at the time to be releasing first class seats out of JFK only mid-week.

And flying back to Toronto made sense if I did a round-the-world trip flying out across the Pacific, back across the Atlantic, I could fly back through Heathrow and while American doesn't permit you to redeem transatlantic flights between the US and London on British Airways, you can redeem BA flights between London and Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

So there I had the basics of a plan.

Cathay first class Toronto - Hong Kong. Then where else to go? I'd never been to the Philippines and of course Cathay offers first class on the short Hong Kong - Manila segments. It's certainly an inexpensive destination, plus a first-time experience, and I could get out and about in the Philippines as well.

Then what to pair on? Back to Hong Kong, I've been a tremendous number of times, but never visited Macau. So why not. And then there was good availability on Cathay Hong Kong - London. I had been batting around a London trip anyway and while a round-the-world oneworld award would run 180,000 miles in first class compared to 135,000 for a straight Asia roundtrip, the incremental 45,000 miles would save me from making a separate transatlantic crossing so seemed worthwhile.

Then back London - Toronto on British Airways in first class. Great!

Availability was no problem when I wanted to fly, and I started planning the trip.

For the Philippines I grabbed a couple nights in Manila at the Intercontinental. I had wanted to stay at the Peninsula, but the Intercontinental was just too good a deal. Using the Friends and Family rate, booking an Executive Suite was less than $200. And as a Royal Ambassador, the hotel provides a 2 room category upgrades -- not capped -- which meant that they confirmed me in the Presidential Suite. The hotel provides complimentary internet to Royal Ambassadors and they have a lovely club lounge. All for under $200. I just couldn't justify staying anywhere else.

For a bit of beach time we booked separate Philippine Airlines flights to Cebu, it's not the most exotic or remote destination in the world but boy is it inexpensive. And I did discover that while the service and facilities in the Philippines is not the most polished in Asia, it's certainly among the friendliest and most genuine.

I discovered Turbojet, which offers ferry transfers to Macau pre-immigration, and you can even through-check your bags on several airlines all the way to Macau. Easy easy connection from the Hong Kong airport.

The Westin Macau is right on the beach, less than an inexpensive 10 minute cab ride to the strip (and the hotel has a complimentary shuttle). I admit I'm a slave to status, they provided me with a lovely suite, internet, and breakfast. Still, if I had made the switch to Hyatt - which is the program offering the absolute most value these days -- the brand new Grand Hyatt right in the middle of the action is truly impressive. I did have perhaps the best pork I've ever eaten down the beach...

Back through London, I've pretty much decided that staying in any major European city it is a must for me to have a club lounge and burn points so I booked The Waldorf. And I scored a booking at The Fat Duck Restaurant so I'll have an extensive report on that, to follow on my visit two years ago at El Bulli.

Now, the return home was quite complicated. My First Class British Airways plans were nearly foiled three times.

* BA stopped servicing Toronto with 3-cabin equipment in the Winter. So my flight went 2-class.

* They brought back First Class the day after we were originally to fly, so we switched dates.

* Then they dropped First Class <em>from that flight</em> but happened to bring it back <em>the day before</em> (our original travel date) ... so switched again.

* Then the British Airways cabin crew announced a strike during our travel dates. I've already discussed my backup plans, those included a cancellable award ticket on United, but fortunately the BA flight actually went... albeit with 'reduced service' to say the least.

The real adventure though began with flying up to Toronto. We were on separate tickets. I could have included the flights to and from Toronto on the award, but that would have meant connecting from DC on the way to Toronto and I preferred a non-stop. With a desire for maximum flexibility on the tickets I booked awards.

But the travel date approached.. and I know that separate tickets on a trip like this is never a good idea when connecting same-day.. and weather was looking bloody awful. I mean bloody awful. It was supposed to rain sideways, major gusts of wind beyond the tolerance of many aircraft, and at the very least the likelihood of Dulles being reduced to a single runway.

A delay I could handle, we had a plenty long connection time. But a cancellation I'd be hosed without really any backup flights possible that would get me to Toronto in time. (There <em>had been one</em> when I originally booked but that was no longer on the schedule.)

So I thought, I'd love to bounce ideas off someone. I'm pretty good at figuring these things out but two minds are always better than one. So I decided to plunk down my $25 and test out CrankyConcierge. I'll report on that experience as well.

So all this is a preview of things to come...

gleff

For two days before my trip began, I checked the weather obsessively.

I was connecting up to Toronto to begin my first class oneworld award. Missing the start of the trip would be a serious pain. Fortunately oneworld awards are pretty changeable, even after travel begins, but there are no changes to routing. And if I don't even start the trip, then I'm at the mercy of award availability... from the looks of things I could fly Toronto - Hong Kong - Manila in first class the next day if I missed my outbound flight. But certainly that availability could have changed, especially with Cathay Pacific where availability sometimes seems to come and go for no logical reason at all. I certainly didn't want my first class flight to Hong Kong to turn out to be business class and lose a day of the trip no less.

So it certainly mattered that I make it up to Toronto in time. But the weather was looking like it might not cooperate -- severe storms with significant winds, and here I was flying United Express with no likely backup flights that could get me to Toronto if my flights cancelled.

I thought about catching an earlier flight up to Toronto, it'd be easy to do, the United flights were wide open and I was on an award so it was fully changeable. But I didn't want to, I had people visiting from out of town for just a day and wanted to visit with them longer if possible. Still, the costs of missing my connection were high. But knowing my luck, I'd switch to the earlier flight... it would cancel, the other flight I was supposed to be on would go off just find but it'd be sold out and I wouldn't be able to get on it!

So what to do?

I shot off an email to Cranky Concierge. I figured if there was a good time to give Brett's new service a try, it was now, when I had a flight that was likely to give me problems. I could simultaneously review his offerings, and get someone to bounce ideas off of.

He took my flight details and my cell phone number for texts and my email address as well.

Cranky Concierge kept updated on the weather, the big factor that would influence our strategy. The afternoon before he let me know.. Then late the night before I got an update with the planned operating schedule for the aircraft I was supposed to fly, and also for the earlier flight I was considering.

Both flights were coming to DC from Montreal, where weather looked good, and flying to Montreal from Chicago. So as long as the schedule held, and these planes made it out of Chicago which was expecting rain, we should at least have aircraft at our disposal.

Then at 8am, updated weather -- indeed, the storm was hovering North of DC, we'd get lots of rain but the worst of the storm wouldn't hit, and it didn't look like United was cancelling lots of flights. The aircraft in question were beginning their flights just fine. A prediction that we'd be ok.

Still, I decided to make my way up around noon instead of 5pm, figuring in the absence of perfect knowledge better to have time on my side. Besides, with the uncertainty of the weather I wouldn't have been much of a lunch companion for out of town guests.

I got an update that my new earlier flight took off from Montreal on-time. And indeed everything was smooth as can be. Off to Dulles, that place was deserted. Nothing going on in the Red Carpet Club (by the D gates, the one that used to have the rat problem if I recall correctly). The departure monitors showed a good 95% of flights operating on time.

Another email from Cranky Concierge with departure and arrival gates, offers of suggestions on wireless internet, restaurants, or shops...

But this was the end of the line for working with Cranky, though I did receive an arrival email in Toronto I didn't have him monitoring the rest of my trip.

Flight to Toronto went off without a hitch, but then so did the original flight I was scheduled for. The pressure was off at least. Would I have been ok without Cranky Concierge? Sure. But it was nice to bat around strategy with someone. And no doubt for a traveler who isn't me (no arrogance intended), it's a huge value at $25.

Now we were in Toronto with a better than 10 hour connection. Toronto weather was awful, hovering just above freezing and raining sideways. Didn't want to head into the City, I just grabbed a room at the Sheraton attached to the airport.

We arrived Terminal 1 so took the airport train over to Terminal 3, which is the same stop as the Sheraton. Walked into the hotel (with brand spanking new reservation), they had already blocked me into a large room on the club floor and let me know my benefits in lieu of the club, since the lounge is closed on weekends.

Strictly speaking the lounge was still accessible via keycard, there's just no service, but the coffee machine was operational and there's a refrigerator with drinks which was great for grabbing a few waters.









They provide breakfast in the restaurant via vouchers (we'd be long gone), and instead of happy hour a CDN$40 credit for use in the bar or restaurant. Great, a nice lunch. And free internet. Well worth it, we were fed and could relax until it was time to head into the terminal.

It was just your average Sheraton room, though in a corner so a bit oversized with a very long hallway. The bathroom was by the entryway, and the bedroom on the other end of the hall.









The view from the room was just of the parking lot, but you can see the rain. We stayed here on the way back as well with a room overlooking the runways. Out the window by the elevators though on this stay we saw the Terminal 3 action.



Then around 10pm it was off to the terminal to check in for Cathay Pacific. I won't go through details of the check-in process besides saying that there was no line for Cathay First, but nothing special to the experience. We checked our bags through to Manila, were handed boarding and lounge passes, and headed over to security. Only a few people ahead of us but that process took at least 25 minutes as nearly everyone got full patdowns and hand swipes and several folks had full searches of their bags. Not to mention the requirement to take out laptops, my Checkpoint Flyer laptop bag is of no use in Canada!

Once through we headed to the utterly mediocre KLM lounge and prepared for our just past midnight Cathay Pacific First Class departure.

Now that piece was worth waiting for, and sadly you'll have to wait to read about it...

gleff

After months of anticipation and significant stress making it up to Toronto to start my trip, it was finally time to get underway.

The KLM lounge in Toronto was disappointing to say the least. They did announce boarding, at least, and walk around letting everyone know it was time to head off. I couldn't help thinking, though, that they were really just shooing us out of the lounge so they could close down rather than being helpful.

So off to the gate where things were a bit of a madhouse. We lined up for boarding (boarding call was made rather prematurely in the lounge) and finally made it onboard. All the unpleasantness and stress melted away upon entering the aircraft. A flight attendant walked us to our seats, showed us the closet for our carryons, and began service.

I kept looking around the cabin because the day before the flight was showing full up in first, but eventually only one other passenger boarded. We weren't alone but the cabin was only full 3 of 6. Clearly this should be a good flight.



But my seat was acting strangely. Sitting on the ground it kept shifting itself, one jerk at a time, towards bed mode. I'd move it back. And it would jerk forward again. I thought I must be bumping something, but no, the seat was possessed. With as many open seats as there were in the cabin I wasn't worried, but thought this strange. As soon as we took off, though, my seat must have exorcised itself, perhaps the ghost went back into business, because it stopped behaving strangely.







Shortly after takeoff we were asked for our dinner selections. I asked in return if it would be alright if I dined with my wife. They understood perfectly -- I wanted to sit across from my wife in her suite, dining opposite from each other as though in a proper restaurant.

When they were ready they invited me over to her seat. Once properly situated on the ottoman, they installed a table extender which locked in perfectly. It would have been a bit tight for me to excuse myself during the meal, and the buddy seat/ottoman is narrow, but it's a really lovely way to enjoy a meal with a companion in-flight, and especially because the seats themselves are so private. One minor note about the ottoman, because it's so narrow, it's really quite difficult for someone as wide as me to manipulate the seatbelt. So after this first meal together, future meals where we dined together I sat unbelted.



A little Krug to begin.


Lovely caviar presentation. Though for my tastes the portions are modest. Still, at this time of night I wasn't hungry enough for more and didn't ask for seconds, which they would have gladly provided.


I went with the Chinese option, as is always advisable on Cathay.





For dessert, the chocolate lava cake was fine but initially served too cold (the chocolate center solid) and needed to be reheated.



My wife went with the warm black sesame soup, which I tasted and ordered later in the flight.




After dinner I headed into the really quite lovely larger of the restrooms in the cabin (the restrooms are different sizes and one larger one has upgraded décor in the 777). I changed into my PJs -- a large, which I had asked for, which worked fine with the top but the pants were exceptionally long. Mental note for later, the medium would work much better.



Upon returning to my seat I found that my bed had been made.







This was perfect for lounging for awhile before I was ready to sleep. I watched a couple episodes of Entourage and then tried to watch Couples Retreat. Even the Bora Bora scenery, which brought back memories -- nor my fondness for Jon Favreau -- could make that dog watchable, and so I retreated to an old favorite, Before Sunrise (Before Sunset on the other hand remains an all-time favorite).

I slept for four hours and woke up a bit puckish, so I had a look at the snack menu.

Frankly the choices were a bit limited:
I had the soup, and followed it with a bowl of the black sesame dessert, pictured earlier.



That kept me in good stead until breakfast, which was good but a bit modest compared to what I'm used to on a transpacific flight. Better than a United breakfast, and certainly more interesting than what I've had transatlantic with BA or Air France. But it wasn't really a substantial multi-course affair.



I much enjoyed the Strawberry, kiwi and banana energizer. I had another glass of orange juice, which I had enjoyed on boarding -- fresh squeezed, not too acidic, just the right amount of pulp. I didn't go in for the fruit, yogurt, or cereal. And opted for the dim sum over the eggs or congee.

Ok, with all of the choices one certainly could have had a bit of everything. And I wasn't particularly hungry after the late dinner and midflight snack.

The dim sum was excellent - chicken glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf, chive and pork dumpling, shrimp dumpling, and siu mai. And I am a fan of the sirachi sauce, or similar spicey sauce, served alongside soy sauce with the dim sum.



Oddly, Cathay Pacific won't seem to prepare or serve coffee while the seatbelt sign is on. Which meant that I couldn't have my cappuccino with breakfast, while sitting back in the buddy seat of my wife's suite. So I wound up having to wait until returning to my own seat for my morning pick-me-up. And I stuck with cappuccinos, which were fine. Interestingly, unlike the other better Asian carriers I've flown, they don't market particular gourmet coffees (e.g. Jamaican Blue Mountain).



Ultimately I do have to say that this was the most comfortable seat I've ever slept in. Cathay's inflight entertainment system is outstanding. The food was all high-quality, though the options and portions not nearly as myriad as the first class offerings on some carriers. The seat is hardly ideal for couples traveling together who actually like each other and want to spend the flight together although the seat itself is actually wide enough for most couples to spend a bit of time side-by-side if they really wanted, and the option to dine together is magnificent.

Service I'm a little bit vexed by. It was certainly friendly. It was precise. Every time utensils were placed before me, they were done so with care. Cathay Pacific logos faced me. They never forgot truffles when their procedures called for delivering them. And we were even gifted an unopened box prior to landing (the glory of a half-empty cabin and overnight flight).

But Cathay service standards seem to be to stay out of the cabin. The pilot announced after his takeoff announcement that you wouldn't hear from him again until close to landing, which was true and appreciated without actual need for mid-flight announcements of grave import. The flight attendants similarly didn't circulate, either. I'd hit the call button and they'd be there instantly, but they weren't so proactive as to notice when you needed something before coming to the conclusion that you needed their help. Service in that way really wouldn't be considered 'anticipatory' -- something that carriers like Singapore certainly do better. Don't get me wrong, all of my needs were met, and it was nice not to have the aisles cluttered or constant activity when trying to sleep. But the best carriers don't swing in that direction either, they seem to notice from an unobtrusive spot exactly when they're needed and to appear only when it's helpful for them to do so, without being called. Cathay didn't hit that sweet spot.

Also another minor bit, not a complaint mind you but just a difference. Whenever I've entered the lavatory in All Nippon's first class, it's been freshly cleaned with the toilet paper folded over. That's not something you could imagine on a United flight, of course! And it happened once or twice on Cathay but not consistently. Still, the lavatory itself was beautiful and again no complaints.

A marvelous in-air experience, my 15 hours absolutely flew by, and I was thoroughly refreshed on arrival just before 5 am local time. They held disembarkation while the three of us in first class exited the plane. And then it was off to transit security and the Wing to freshen up in a cabana...

Jimgotkp

Very nice TR! Looking forward to hear about your experience at Manila, HK, etc.!!

DLATL777

Gleff,


Love the report, makes me want to get back on the wings of CX F. I have a question for you. I know the AA Oneworld awards are mileage based; can I also do this with my BA miles? I have over 300,000 BA miles but when I called about using one of these mileage based OW awards in F they acted clueless.


Thanks

macabus

Nice report Gary.

I'm flying to HKG in a few days, and really looking forward to my first time in CX F.

I know what you mean about bathroom cleanliness on NH and JL. Totally incomparable to other airlines. It must be a cultural thing with the Japanese.

Enjoy BA First. I've experienced it many times and they're usually excellent.

gleff

Yup, it's an award using 2 or more partners and that's mileage-based.

Here's the chart:
http://www.britishairways.com/travel...r/public/en_gb

Mileage prices are for coach, remember that business is double and first triple.

SFO777

Excellent report gleff. CX First is still on my "to do" list, so it was great to get your impressions of their in-flight service and FA interaction.

palermo

Great trip report.

My 2 cents on OW AA awards.

Just be careful as the OW awards on AA may be less efficient than the partners award. Normally when you are not interested in doing more than 1 stop as it is destination based rather than miles based.

You don t need to use a OW to fly in 2 or 3 different partners if you are doing connections and you can choose totally different partners in your return flight as this is a separate award. Do the maths and see what works better for you.

gleff

That's completely right.

The question I was answering was whether BA had a distance-based chart.

And even AA's chart, a better value (except that BA's will let you fly BA between the US and London...), is good for some routings and less good for others. Certainly a roundtrip in F from US to South Asia for 135k is better than a oneworld award of the same distance.

But crazy fella that I am, I wanted to stop in London on the way back from Asia. And I wanted to stops in Asia.

gleff

Our flight landed just a few minutes early, but that meant before 5 am. And Hong Kong is a ghost town at that hour. We quickly went through transit security and found our way over to the Wing. It opens at 5, but the first class side doesn't open until 5:30 am. We waited and wandered -- most parts of the lounge, the Game Room for instance, were deserted. But the main sitting room was jam packed.





Once 5:30 rolled around we went upstairs, and immediately asked for a Cabana. We shared one, which was perfectly fine, and in my opinion this makes for one of the nicer shower facilities after a long overnight flight. My wife and I aren't separated, which means we can mill about and meander slowly given our four-ish hour layover. And there was enough space and in a tranquil enough environment (most lounge shower rooms are pretty antiseptic) that we could relax. I asked a staff member to bring us coffees, and they happily obliged.

The cabanas offer shower, bathtub, and sink area, and an 'outside' patio area with lounge chairs looking out over a man-made stream. The patio area has a barrier separating each cabana from the one next to it, and the stream of course is shared.













After an hour or so freshening up, we found a spot in the lounge itself, looking out over the gate area.







Immediately an attendant came over to take drink orders, which were promptly fetched. The lounge quickly filled up. It is, after all, open not just to first class passengers (of which Cathay has many at their hub) but also all top tier oneworld elites. As a result it felt like a very nice business class lounge rather than an exclusive, quiet oasis (the way the Thai first class lounge in Bangkok, the Asiana first class lounge in Seoul, and the Lufthansa First Class Terminal do -- although even that last gets pretty busy at peak times). Put a different way, I never have a problem walking away from my spot and leaving my carryons including laptop in the Frankfurt First Class Terminal. Here I'm not sure I'd do that.

The first class dining room in the Wing is called The Haven, and had a well stocked buffet catered (and, I think, staffed) by the Peninsula. But there are many tables, close together, and while I was there most of the tables filled up. That made it feel more like a busy cafeteria than a comfortable, quiet space. So I decided to take a plate of food back into the bigger lounge space.



Soon enough it was time to board, we headed over to our gate in the 20s, and boarding quickly commenced. This time we had another 777, once again the aircraft had only one other passenger besides us in the cabin, and I took a center seat while my wife took the window.









Shortly after takeoff menus were distributed for this short ~ 711 mile flight, and it was time for the third (!) breakfast of the morning.

Once again I took my meal with my wife, the flight attendants installed the table extender and I assumed the position on the ottoman of her suite.





Unfortunately, my cappucino didn't quite come out right, no foam and lukewarm. I didn't bother with a second try at it.

Instead, after breakfast there was just time for a quick refresh in the oh-so-spiffy Cathay Pacific lavatory, and we were nearly ready to land in Manila.





After landing, baggage was first off the belt. We walked through customs and there was a staff member waiting for us with an Intercontinental sign. He took us out across the street to the generic air conditioned "hotel lounge" (the higher-end properties had their own designated lounges). This was basically just a room with several contracted staff members with various hotel signs waiting to head into the terminal to pick up guests or coordinating vehicles. A couple of minutes later a hotel Mercedes pulled up to the back side of the lounge, we walked out, our luggage was placed in the back, and we were on our way. It turns out that it's a contracted car service, rather than owned or managed by the hotel, but it did the trick as we meandered around the massive airport complex and passed by the far off domestic terminal.

gba

Nice report gleff, I'm looking forward to the rest!

gleff

I'll put up the next section in just a bit, the Presidential Suite at the Intercontinental Manila, but figure I should wait until there are 2 more comments on-thread.

Most folks default to 15 posts per page, and that would push the segment to the next page of the thread. And that's probably the polite thing to do for picture downloads.

Thanks for reading so far!

Agneisse

Great report! Love the pics/food porn.

Moomba

Here is number 15 for you.

Thanks for the report and pictures gleff. Interesting to read your comments on CX crew compared to SQ. I find I enjoy my flights in CX F far more than SQ because of the interaction with the crew.

I am waiting to hear how you rate your BA F flight.