ale.penazzi

This is my first trip report, and as a non-native-english speaker I already apologize for all the mistakes I’m going to make in my writing.

(I started writing it in November but I just finished it.. I know.. I'm too lazy to become a real TR writer...)

Background:
Meeting some relatives while they’re on a trip to Asia as I’m missing from home since a few months now.
I know it sounds stupid to go to Hong Kong to meet someone who lives in Europe but even if I’ve travelled through China, Thailand and Vietnam before I never went to Hong Kong in my life.

That being said I decided to burn some BA miles on Cathay Pacific in Business and that’s the result:

Nov 24th JFK-HKG / CX831
Nov 28th HKG-BKK / CX709
Nov 30th BKK-HKG-JFK / CX750 / CX846

Roughly 37 hours up in the air with Cathay in less than a week for 100.000 miles in J (it was booked before the November 16th BA awards changes).


As I’ve heard some great things about Cathay new business class seats I managed to book both my long legs on the new 777-300 (77D) while the flights to and from BKK are going to be on Cathay regional business class.



CX831 / JFK - HKG / 1355 (NY time) - 1900+1 (HKG time) / 11A

Cathay uses the British Airways Terminal at JFK, which means a new and beautiful dedicated area for premium check-in.

The lounges are of course the British Airways ones and everything was exactly the same as always, which means a small First lounge that both BA and Cathay should be ashamed of and a slightly better Business class lounge.
Two kinds of finger sandwiches, fruits, crackers, some awful packed cheese bites and chips... Seriously? For people that are spending more than 10.000$ for a ticket?
Of course BA First customers have the Concorde Room Lounge but I don’t think that any Cathay First customer is going to be happy with this first lounge...
At least there was some nice Perrier Jouet and after a drink I moved to the Business lounge where I found some danishes and pastries in addition to the finger sandwiches.

It was my first experience with Cathay and I was really looking forward to it..
The flight was almost empty (11pax in J) and I was honestly blown away.
At boarding I was showed to my seat (which never happened before to me on any other business class) by a nice FA and after a few minutes a round of drinks was offered.




The CSM (I don’t how is it called on CX) came to me introducing herself, chatting a little bit about flying on thanksgiving and asking me if I wanted an other round of champagne.
Her, and every other FA attendant during the entire flight always called me by name, nice touch.

The New Cathay Business Class: amazing!

I got 11A, in the front mini cabin (only 2 rows), and I couldn’t have made a better decision. I travelled in J long-haul lie-flat on BA, VS and AZ and angle-flat on AF and AA, but none of them is even closer to the CX offer.
The seat is huge, 1-2-1 configuration, a lot of space everywhere, honestly it looked to me like a mini-First-seat rather than a big Business seat.
The cocktail table on the side is big enough to leave my 17” laptop open while eating, the closet where the headphones are stored is big enough to put a book, iphone, passport, ebook reader, computer charger and iphone charger. And then you have the knee storage space.
The seat itself is comfortable, I’m not a big fan of the fabric they used but I can’t find any fault to it.. In “bed” position it’s private and large enough to sleep on your side and I’m not a small guy (181cm and 85kg).



Back to business, an FA came asking for my choice of drink and bringing some roasted almonds, after a few minutes an other one prepared the table and the starter arrived along with a glass of a nice Chablis.
- Smoked salmon carpaccio with avocado timbale, really good.
- Mesclun salad with raspberry vinagrette, well, it’s just some salad..



Starters gone an FA came with a small tray in her hands with the 4 main courses offered on display.

I went for the beef..
- Grilled USDA Prime beef tenderloin with demi glace, rosemary roasted kipfler potatoes and mixed vegetables.
I know, beef on a plane is never worth it, but I wanted to give CX a chance and I was stunned. Juicy, tender, and not over cooked, way better than any beef filet I had on a plane before. The rosemary roasted potato were a bit too soft, as a comparison, the potatoes I had on my last BA flight were really good and crispy outside.



Then a tray with three cheeses came, I took two of them with a glass of Port and some fruits.

And finally the dessert, a delicious “double nougat mousse cake with raspberry coulis” that came on a trolley as a big pie still untouched, they cut it and put the rasperry coulis on top, on the trolley.



Throughout the entire lunch FAs were always looking from the galley if anybody wanted anything, I think it has been the best J lunch I had up in the air so far. Service, quality, presentation, courtesy, timing.. Perfect.


After lunch they dimmed the lights as it was getting dark outside.. We were on the polar route and we had to wait 7-8 hours to see the sun again.

Going through the movie list (huge) I chose the King’s Speech, it’s such a good movie I had to see it again (for the third or the fourth time I think)..

A little remark on the seat, the monitor doesn’t incline, meaning that to see a movie properly (with the right colors and contrast) you can’t lie down in bed mode.. Well.. I think I can survive watching it in a comfy middle “z” position.

There were four snacks on the menu to order during the flight, I had a simple ice-cream between the first and the second movie (Senna, great docu-film about the best driver of history, highly recommended).

I couldn’t properly sleep as the cabin was too hot for me... Anyway after a quick nap dinner service began. Which really doesn’t make much sense to me... Why would you serve dinner half way through the flight?

Anyway, I couldn’t say no, of course, and here we begin again with my choice of drinks. I had enough wine between the lounge and lunch so I decided to try the non-alcoholic Cathay signature drink, the Oriental Breeze.
I read a lot about these “signature” drinks and this one sounded too interesting to be missed: A sour-plum tea and cranberry juice based non-alcoholic drink with honey and fresh lemon juice and a hint of rose water.
Well, it was delicious! I couldn’t stop, I had 3 of them in a row...




The starter was a plate of fruit... Probably it’s because I’m italian but I always had fruit at the end of the meal and not at the beginning, anyway it was refreshing and good.

The same FA came with her tray of main courses and I chose the pasta.
- Rigatoni pasta with cheese sauce, I was not expecting too much, but I actually enjoyed it.
After the pasta an other pie was brought to me on a trolley, a classic carrot torte, good, nothing special... I had an other Oriental Breeze.. So good....

Well, dinner’s gone and 8 more hours of flight.. What shall I do? I read for a while and then I decided to write my first trip report!

We landed right on time in HKG and I went straight to the arrival lounge to take a shower.

It’s a very small lounge but the shower are nice and they have a menu to order from with dim sum and other more “western” stuff.. I didn’t taste any food as I wanted to get in town asap.
I think that after such long flights any kind of arrival lounge with showers is just what I need so I don’t mind if it is small as long as there is one (JFK, are you listening?).



I stayed three wonderful days in Hong Kong, had some great food, went to Sai Kung, had fun with some old friends, what a city... I love NY, I mean, for me it’s the center of the world, the city of the opportunities and the city which gave me the chance to start my own company. But still.. Hong Kong has something.. I don’t know how to describe it..
It felt more “human” than New York to me.. Culture, history, different layers and different mentalities.. I don’t know..







Back to the trip report, Hong Kong to Bangkok

CX709 / HKG - BKK / 2230 (HKG time) - 0015+1 (BKK time) / 14K

Lounges report: I wanted to check out the three Cathay lounges.

I went to the Wing first and I took a shower in one of the beautiful big shower rooms, they are probably the best ones I found until now.. Spacious, with the possibility to choose between a bath or the shower and a comfy chaise-longue where to relax right after.
The Haven, (the buffet restaurant) was nice and the food was good but the selection was quite small.
I had some maki (there was only one roll to choose from) and a slice of roast beef.
The rest of the lounge it’s nothing to write home about.. Half of the upper floor is closed because of the renovation and what’s left isn’t that pretty. I’m not a big fan of the “open-air” lounges as I prefer the more “clubby” environment, but still, the Wing First as the Cathay flagship lounge was a bit of a letdown..

I moved to the Pier, which is very similar to the Wing, but so much better for a lot of small details. It doesn’t have windows, but it doesn’t feel claustrophobic, the restaurant is the same as the Wing (actually there were more choices at the Pier) and there’s a small bar for cocktails. I had a look into one of the dayroom which are pretty nice, small (really small) rooms with a comfy big armchair, tv, the possibility to close all the curtains and turn the lights off to nap for a while and a waiter to order what you want.

By the way, waiters and personnels in the lounges, and throughout my whole experience with Cathay had been outstanding. Better than any other companies I ever flew with (probably because I never flew with Asian companies before...).
A simple example: my mother was flying on Emirates on my same day, she was in the Emirates lounge and I wanted to say hi as I had a later flight and we went to the airport separately. At the Emirates front desk they didn’t even let me in to look for her to call her out. Nothing. And her telephone was dead. Lucky she was passing by the entrance and I called her from outside.
After a little chat I went to the Pier and I asked if they could let me sit down with my mother for 15 minutes before her flight so that we could stay together even if she was flying EK. And the answer was: “sure, please, call her in”. Small touches that make the experience better..

Anyway, Moet & Chandon was served in both the Wing and the Pier.

Last lounge was the Cabin, which is really the “cool” one, a modern look, stylish chairs and lights, a nice buffet with more asian options than the other lounges but less refined and without the table service (it’s a business class lounge while the other two were First class lounges). The bar is huge and you have a nice view, I might actually prefer it to the Wing for a quick stop, but it definitely lack the classy feeling of the Pier.

Boarding was done with two air bridges. The plane was one of the old 777-300 with the regional business class. Of course it’s ages from the international business class but the seats are actually pretty comfortable, with a great pitch and wide enough.
After take off the CSM came to me and an other traveler apologizing for the delay and to introduce herself (I guess we were the only two Emeralds in the cabin). After that menu were handed out, I didn’t eat anything as I had enough while lounge-crawling and I asked for an Oriental Breeze (their amazing signature cocktail) and an ice-cream.

I spent the rest of the flight going through the pictures I took in Hong Kong and napping.



Bangkok

Landing in Bangkok, going through immigration and ask for a car at the AOT desk was a matter of seconds and I went straight to bed.
Being in Thailand before I knew that every price had to be discussed but I was amazed by the fact that even inside the airport at the desk of a limo-service company where they accept credit cards they try to make fool of people.
As soon as I asked for a car the lady behind the counter asked for 2500 baht, I remember it was way cheaper and I asked her why. Without replying she just said 2000 baht. I then told her I’ve already been in Bangkok and I know that was still too much.
She dropped it to 1000 baht and we agreed on that. Come on.. Seriously? More than twice as much just because I am and look european?

Anyway, after one day of touring around Bangkok I had one of the most amazing dinner of my life. We decided to trust trip advisor for the restaurant and I looked at the top 20 restaurants of Bangkok.
I found a new restaurant with a few reviews but all of them sounded promising and the pictures that the reviewer put on the web were amazing. I then called them and booked a table for 5 at Gai and Joel in Lang Suan.

What a dinner.

I only took a couple of pictures but we were all blown away. From the amouse bouche at the beginning to the house made bread, the impeccable service, the quality of the food, the creativity of the chef, everything turned a normal dinner in an unknown place into one of the best dinner I had in the last few years, especially for the price we paid.





Above the bar there’s a big tv screen where you can see from a camera inside the kitchen the two chefs (husband and wife) prepare your dish, Gai then came to our table and we asked him suggestion for the desserts.. Again.. What a treat.. Wasabi ice-cream with caviar, saffron ice-cream with nougat, a rhubarb crumble with white truffle ice-cream to die for...

Shangri-La / Krungthep wing. I read a lot of mixed reviews and I wasn’t sure I made the right choice, but it turned out great. Perfect service, great breakfast, an afternoon tea to die for and a great pre-dinner cocktail. All complimentary, with tons of high quality food and well prepared cocktails.
The hotel show is age but I think it’s still way better than the original wing of the Shangri-La and the rooms while a little dated are really spacious and the butler service is impeccable.

I only spent one day in Bangkok, I wanted to see how the flood hit the center of the city and how was affecting tourism, etc. Here are a few pictures...





The flight back from BKK to JFK was un-eventful, same seat and same plane as before, almost the same quality of service and food (I think the food was slightly better on the flight out of JFK, but I slept through the majority of my flight and I didn’t pay too much attention to it..).

Overall an outstanding experience with Cathay.. Well, at least on the long-haul flights.. The regional business class product, while still better than any intra-european or US domestic premium cabin, really showed his age..

I was honestly a little afraid of a 16 hours long direct flight, but I actually enjoyed it more than I could think. The new Cathay J seats are great and the crew really made the difference, especially on the outbound flight.

Hope you enjoyed my first TR!

MJLouise

I did enjoy it, thanks for sharing.

amolkold

Your pictures of HK are outstanding! ^

Omar84

Nice report, and great pics, what camera are you using?

ale.penazzi

Thanks! An iPhone for the in-flight pictures and a Canon 5D mark II for the other ones..
(I used to be a photographer years ago and even if I'm not doing it as a job anymore I still enjoy bringing my camera and lenses around..)

MTHTravel

The business class seat looks comfortable and big. No reason for flying First Class at CX I guess.

marcuslai

Cathay really has pulled a 180 for the J hard product ... I totally agree with OP that it's more of a mini F.

econometrics

+2 on that. Incredible! They just keep raising the bar!

The pictures from Hong Kong are awesome! Thanks for sharing! ^

as219

The pics of Gai & Joel look awesome! You noted that it was a good deal "especially for the price [you] paid". Do you mind my asking how much dinner for 2 was? (I can't find an online menu...)

ale.penazzi

I don't remember exactly, but something like the equivalent of 50$ per person..

as219

Thanks!

Expensive for Thailand, but certainly looks like a bargain compared to NYC prices!

mkjr

nice TR...looking forward to flying the new J. personally, i was not too down on the J other than trying to fly with a partner...now, remarkable...i recall some guy on the CX board told me it was premature to conclude the new J was remakable from the initial photos...clearly, it was not premature.

footypjman

Thanks for posting -- flying CX LAX-HKG-BKK this fall. Photos were GREAT. Exactly what I've been looking for!

I have used Thai in the past because they fly LAX-BKK non-stop (a BRUTALLY long flight!), but wanted to try CX and to use some AA miles.

I was very happy to see that I'm on a 77D. Now I just need to book 11A as soon as seating opens to booking (I am still over 180 days out).

hamburglar

nice thanks!

B-HXG

the new CX J-class looks incredibly nice!
but sad that the loading is very light, thought that CX is doing superb in HKG--JFK route