March 10, 2011
Los Angeles – Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific First Class
Boeing 777-300 B-KPL Seat 1K
11:20am – 6:35pm Flight time: 15:01
I have been so looking forward to this day ever since this trip started to take form a few weeks ago. Really, the next four days are going to be nothing but pure bliss as I, a guy who drives a bus for a living, lives in a cabin without water and sleeps on airport floors, will get to revel in the lap of luxury starting with a nice fifteen hour First Class flight aboard one of the world’s finest airlines across the Pacific to Hong Kong. Then it’s on across southern Asia and the Indian Ocean to Johannesburg, South Africa where I have a comfortable private room booked for the night until the next day when my Premiere Class train – upon which I’ve booked a private compartment – will commence a 25 hour journey to Cape Town. Following a brief stay in Cape Town, it’s off to Mossel Bay where three nights in a private compartment aboard a train converted into a hotel await. All this plus a few other myriad activities in the region. Right on!
Add to that the reality that two weeks from today I’ll be camping out and enjoying good times, good tunes and good friends at a four day music festival way up on the Suwannee River in North Florida. Not only that, but three weeks from today I’ll be back in the Mojave Desert with a big car and a cooler full of beer. Life could hardly be finer!
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I love the drive into LAX along Century Boulevard. The broad palm lined promenade is home to many of LA’s finest airport hotels and seems a much more fitting approach to one of the world’s leading international airports than driving in along some concrete parkway through barren fields.
Arrival at the Tom Bradley International Terminal was not quite so appealing. My driver worked hard to find a place to pull in and then drop me off amongst the throngs of humanity trying to get into – and out of – the terminal. Honestly, there were almost as many people milling around outside the building as inside. Perhaps some of them were with big Asian tour groups awaiting their ground transport. Certainly there were hordes of smokers effectively obliterating any notion of stepping outside for a little “fresh air”.
After running the gauntlet outside, I easily located Cathay Pacific’s check-in counter and was bagged, tagged and on my way to the One World Lounge mere minutes later. I’d not visited this lounge since flying out of LA on BA back in March of 2008, so I was looking forward to an hour or so’s worth of a return visit. First however, I had to get through security.
I am not one who is rabidly anti-TSA. I understand what they do and why they do it and for the most part I am reasonably patient with their procedures, however inane they may seem at times. Today however was just ridiculous.
The idea behind Priority Lanes at security checkpoints is to speed those folks traveling in First or Business Class or elite level flyers through the security checkpoint. This is accomplished primarily by getting them up to the metal detectors and X-ray machines faster. Call me spoiled if you like, but as an elite level flyer who’s averaged over 175,000 miles flown per year over the past ten years, this is one perk that’s well earned and well appreciated. Here at FlyerTalk I suspect there are a substantial number of equally “spoiled” flyers who would agree with me.
The Priority Lane ID checkpoint at TBIT was being manned by one lady who was checking the IDs of not just the First and Business Class passengers in the Priority Lane but also anyone and everyone from the Special Needs lane, which included people in wheelchairs, people with walkers, a man with a cane, any and all families with children and all flight crews. Since families (obviously) and disabled people rarely travel alone, that lane was never empty. What would happen is the TSA lady would check the boarding pass and passport of one person from the Priority Lane, then check the boarding passes and passports of the family of four in the Special Needs Lane. Then it was back to the Priority Lane for just one person or a couple traveling together, then back to another family or someone in a wheelchair with their accompanying family members or an entire crew worth of Flight Attendants! Then back to one single person in the Priority Lane. I watched a guy in a red jacket who’d entered the regular lane for Economy Class flyers about five minutes after I’d already been in the Priority Lane. That line was starting to get somewhat long by the time he’d arrived. He was cleared and through security eleven minutes before I finally got to the ID checkpoint. I know – I timed it.
As ever there were more than a few blue shirted TSA folks just standing around. I have never consistently seen more uniformed employees apparently just standing around than at any TSA checkpoint. You’d like to think that any one of them likely could have stepped in and helped out. Unfortunately it would seem that initiative is frowned upon for lower level government workers and barring a direct order from a supervisor – assumedly one who’d been astute enough to keep an eye on the proceedings at his or her checkpoint - they were powerless to do anything but just stand around. Stuff like this is why you could not pay me any amount of money to work for the TSA. There’s just too much mindlessness going on – be it in planning or in execution. I can’t imagine how anyone with half a brain could work there longer than a month.
Anyway, on to the lounge. Accessed by elevator just past security , the One World Lounge is located up on the fifth floor of the TBIT. A receptionist checked my boarding pass, took my invite card and directed me toward the First Class side of the lounge.
In terms of ambience, this lounge is not particularly overwhelming. Certainly it would not be confused with Qantas’ excellent facilities in either Sydney or Melbourne, or Cathay’s in Hong Kong. One would think that Los Angeles, being the second largest city in the United States, a center of culture and industry in addition to being a gateway to dozens of international destinations, would rate a larger and more pleasant facility.
One World Lounge at LAX
Mind you, we’re talking simple ambience here. Otherwise, this lounge provided a decent variety of hot and cold food stuffs relative to the time of day as well as a self service bar featuring a variety of decent quality spirits and liquors. The lounge staff did a good job of keeping the place tidy and overall I’d say that it’s a decent enough lounge – it just feels a bit cramped.
One World Lounge Cold Food
One World Lounge Hot Food
One World Lounge Bar Selection
Because of the debacle at the TSA checkpoint, I only got to spend about twenty minutes of preflight lounging over a mid-morning taste of Gentleman Jack’s bourbon (I’d seen it in stores and been curious but as yet had never tried it) before a boarding announcement was made for CX 885. Unfortunately, our aircraft was remotely parked, meaning there’d be no leisurely and laggardly stroll to the gate for me. It was pretty much boogie on down to gate 138 and jam onto a bus with 100 or so other folks. Then get dropped off at the remote gate and queue up for the long and dreary trudge up to and through the jetway to the aircraft. First Class Priority Boarding? We don got no steenkin Firs Class Lanes here at remote boarding!
Cathay Pacific 777-300ER in the One World livery awaits
Once on board however, things improved dramatically. Upon spying seat 1K on my boarding pass, the Flight Attendant manning the entry door greeted me by name and passed me off to another Flight Attendant who escorted me to my seat, hung my jacket, helped stow my gear, and then brought me a nicely chilled glass of Krug Grande Cuvée Champagne. Yes!!! God, it’s good to be back in International First Class!
Krug Champagne ~ A great way to start your flight
The First Class cabins aboard Cathay Pacific’s 777-300s are outfitted with six wonderfully spacious suites – three less than the number of seats in a single row of Economy Class. They are configured in two rows of 1-1-1, so if you consider how wide the cabin is on a Boeing 777, each suite is about four feet wide by seven feet long. They provide a huge amount of personal space and when you’re faced with a fifteen hour trans-Pacific flight, that makes all the difference between dread and delight.
Spacious accommodations in Cathay Pacific’s First Class Suite
Room to stretch your legs
An amenity kit and pajamas were delivered in short order, followed by a refill on my Champagne. I took a long swig from the glass, reclined my seat a bit and gazed out my windows at the distant mountains, not a care in the world. Meanwhile, just one hundred feet behind me, the scene was decidedly more chaotic. Approximately one hundred and eighty people were attempting to settle themselves and their belongings into Economy Class seats that offered approximately one seventh the amount of personal space of my suite. What I’ve always found interesting is how despite having spent a good portion of my life sitting in Economy Class, once I’m in First Class it’s so easy to completely forget the hundreds of other people riding along on the same airplane with me but doing so in far less comfort. Conversely, when I’m sat back behind the curtain, I’m very well aware of the fact that there’s a First Class cabin at the forward end of the plane though I’ve never been all that bothered that I’m not sat up there.
Shortly the Captain came on over the PA, introduced himself and informed us that our flying time to Hong Kong today would be fifteen hours and one minute. If that holds true, this will become the longest flight I’ve ever flown upon in terms of flying time. No complaints there, especially whilst comfortably ensconced in Suite 1K.
We’ve got a looooong flight ahead…
Amazingly, it took us just over twenty minutes from the time we first started taxiing away from our stand to the time that we began our takeoff roll from Runway 25 – this despite never following any aircraft out to the runway. I think we went all the way down to the other end of the airport, crossed over, then taxied all the way back up to the eastern end of runway 25. When you consider the amount of fuel a big jetliner uses while just taxiing, I’m surprised the airlines haven’t pushed LAX to develop a more efficient way to get from the remote gates over to 25R.
The nose wheel camera did a nice job of capturing the take off roll – this was the first time I’d ever seen one from that perspective. We climbed out over the Pacific Ocean and then turned to the north, paralleling the coast up to about Santa Barbara before heading inland for a bit. As pretty a day as it was, I think I prefer the coast around LA at night when it’s all lit up. Spectacular!
Climbing away from Los Angeles aboard Cathay’s 777-300
Wine lists and menus were handed out shortly after reaching cruising altitude. Although I’d been looking forward to checking out this month’s wine selections, I opted instead for one of Cathay’s Signature Cocktails, the Cloud Nine. The title seemed appropriate to my condition and the ingredients
sounded refreshing:
“A refreshing combination of vodka, Cointreau and Sprite with a refreshing touch of lemon flavor”
A Cloud Nine cocktail gets things started in style
As for the luncheon menu, it was beautiful in both presentation and content, a stylish hint of the Epicurean delights to be served aloft. On the cover was a stylish photograph of some nicely presented spring rolls and dipping sauce. Inside, the menu was every bit as impressive. Let’s have a look…
Los Angeles to Hong Kong
LUNCHEON
Caviar and Fine Smoked Salmon
Oscietra Caviar and Fine Smoked Salmon
Served with Warm New Potatoes and Crème Fraiche
INTERNATIONAL FAVOURITES
Soup
French Onion Soup
Salad
Caesar Salad with grilled jumbo prawns, toasted pine nuts,
Parmesan cheese and Caesar dressing
Grilled Prime Angus Beef Tenderloin
With herb butter, garlic mashed potatoes, carrots and broccolini
Sautéed Gnocchi
With goat cheese, portabella, shiitake, asparagus and soya beans
on tomato basil sauce
CHINESE FAVOURITES
Soup
Double boiled ginseng soup with black skin chicken
Cold Plate
Marinated Cucumber
Braised Abalone with Chicken
Or
Stir Fried Seafood
Served with steamed jasmine rice and stir-fried mixed vegetables
* * * * * * * * * * *
CHEESE AND DESSERT
Yellow Cheddar, Port Salut, Maytag Blue and Goat Cheese
Seasonal Fresh Berries with Vanilla Cream
Hazelnut Chocolate Cake with vanilla Ice Cream and Toffee Sauce
Black Sesame Dessert
TEA AND COFFEE
Pralines
As ever, Cathay Pacific presents an attractive and enticing selection of foods. I do however wish that, like Lufthansa, Cathay would offer a variety of different appetizers to commence the culinary festivities. It’s not that caviar and salmon aren’t a fine start to any meal but rather – from a strictly personal perspective - I really like putting together a plateful of small, exquisitely prepared appetizers. They are akin to epicurean foreplay and of course, variety is indeed the spice of life.
I recall reading somewhere that Cathay loads at least two of each of the main course dishes, so with only three of the six First Class suites occupied, there was little question of anyone not getting their first choice, much less going hungry over the course of this fifteen hour flight.
By now I’d polished off my refreshing but sweet vodka, Cointreau and Sprite cocktail and was ready to consider the wine selections. Here they are:
WINE LIST
Champagne
Krug Grande Cuvée Champagne
White Wines
Estancia Reserve Monterey Chardonnay 2007
Bouchard Pere & Fils Meursault Les Clous 2006
Red Wines
Kalleske Greenock Barossa Valley Shiraz 2008
Atlas Peak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Chateau Lynch Bages 2004, Grand Cru Classé Pauillac 5th Growth
Port
Ramos Pinto Quinta da Ervamoira 10 Year Old Tawny Port
Although I have a distinct preference for red wines, I’m more than willing to give white wines a taste, especially when flying in International First Class aboard airlines like Cathay Pacific that make a reasonable effort to offer a decent selection of quality wines. No doubt some of our wine snobs will beg to differ, but my reality as one who enjoys wine but isn’t particularly passionate about it is such that I’m not likely to ever be paying $60-80.00 a bottle for wines like the Lynch Bages, so why not sample a nice variety during the flight? Who knows, maybe I’ll come across one that I’ll feel is worth putting out the extra money for – assuming of course that I can find it available for sale.
By now we were just off the coast of Monterey, speeding north at a sprightly 587 mph. If ever there were a time to sample a glass of the Estancia Reserve Monterey Chardonnay, now was it. May I please have a refill on these almonds as well? Thanks!
Like all of the world’s finest airlines, Cathay Pacific allows its First Class clientele to dine on demand, at a time and pace that suits them rather than the Flight Attendants. As such, when my lovely Japanese Flight Attendant stopped by to take my luncheon order, I indicated my desire to eat at 1:30pm, starting with a plate of salmon and caviar followed by soup, salad and, for my main course, the Sautéed Gnocchi. Normally I opt for a meatier dish but I’ve always liked vegetarian fare and in particular I quite like a nicely prepared gnocchi. Today’s version, prepared with goat cheese, portabella and shiitake mushrooms, asparagus and soya beans was simply too tempting to pass up.
By 1:30pm we’d sped well past Seattle and were about midway up Vancouver Island. Although clouds obscured any views of the beautiful landscape below, the moving Sky Map provided a nice variety of perspectives that clearly showed our present location, where we’d come from and where we were going. I took another sip of my Chardonnay (now on my second glass) and watched with anticipation as my table was set with crisp white linen, gleaming silverware, bread plate, salt and pepper shaker, olive oil and a bread basket filled with warm garlic bread and dinner rolls.
The salmon and caviar arrived nicely plated though somewhat lacking in the portion of caviar served in years past. Two spoonfuls was always the rule up to and as recently as three years ago, but nowadays you get one small scoop braced by two strips of salmon. Speaking I hope for those of us who actually enjoy caviar, I feel that if for whatever reason it’s no longer possible to offer enough caviar to properly enjoy its exquisite essence, it’s better to offer none at all. One little spoonful doesn’t really do it for me. Two seemed much better, though admittedly twice as expensive for the airline to provide and twice as much impact on the world’s dwindling caviar supplies as environmental pollution and over-harvesting have taken a severe toll on the sturgeon population, particularly in the Caspian Sea.
Caviar & Salmon ~ A great way to start any meal
Next up came a bowl of French Onion soup, attractively garnished with a large piece of cheese covered garlic bread floating in its center. Many French Onion soups are quite salty but I thought this one was just fine.
French Onion Soup ~ Cathay style
The menu writers weren’t kidding when they described the prawns adorning my Caesar Salad as “Jumbo”. As I sliced them into more manageable bite sized pieces, it occurred to me that this salad alone was, with the addition of the prawn meat, larger than many Economy Class airline meals in their entirety.
Those prawns are every bit as big as they look!
The parade of food continued with the arrival of the Sautéed Gnocchi, tastefully presented in a medium sized bowl and garnished with shavings of real Parmesan cheese. Mmmm! This gnocchi was a good choice, not only in terms of its delicious flavor but also in the amount of food offered which surely had to be a bit less than the Beef Tenderloin dish.
The main course gnocchi ~ Delicious
By now I was getting pretty full, so I asked that my cheese and dessert courses be withheld for a half hour or so. The pause that refreshes, as it were. In some of my past trip reports, comments have been noted not only about the amount of food served but also about the amount of food eaten. To be sure, I rarely ever eat anywhere near this much food in a single meal at home, Thanksgiving being the one possible exception. The difference now of course is that I’m not at home. I’m seated in a $90,000.00 high tech suite aboard one of the world’s finest practitioners of the art of First Class air travel, an art which traditionally includes seven course meals. I want to enjoy every bit of the service, and since I only get to enjoy this style of travel every few months rather than weeks, my approach is “Live it up, baby!” Drink that Champagne, enjoy the food options and be sure to have some dessert!
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Now that we’ve entered the digital age, inflight entertainment has improved by leaps and bounds over the old systems considered state of the art just ten years ago. Cathay Pacific’s Studio CX is one of the better IFEs out there, offering a huge selection of movies, television shows and music. The movie selection included films from Hong Kong, Hollywood and Bollywood as well as some European studios. Hollywood movies included current as well as classic movies. I settled on the Stephen King’s classic tale of a man wrongfully imprisoned in “The Crankshaft Reduction”. Cheese, Port and Hazelnut Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream and Toffee Sauce helped bring this movie to a most satisfying conclusion on the beaches of Zihuatanejo.
Hazelnut Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream and Toffee Sauce
By now we were a little over five hours into the flight, speeding westward while battling a tepid 35 mph headwind. Following a heading just north of the Aleutian Island chain, our 777-300 crossed the International Dateline about six hours and twenty minutes into the flight. All that wine and port I’d been drinking over the past four hours of the flight had made me well and truly sleepy, so I reclined my seat to about 160°, raised the leg rest most of the way up and napped comfortably for the next three hours.
By the time I awoke there were still almost six hours left in the flight, about the same as a westbound transcon or a West Coast to Hawaii flight. I mention this just to give those of you who haven’t flown a flight of this length just how long it is. Fifteen hours – that’s just a number – but if you look at it as the same amount of time as if you woke up at 7:00am, went to work at 8:00am, put in a full day that had you home by 5:00pm and then had dinner and enjoyed the rest of the evening until you went to bed at 10:00pm, that’s a lot of time there. Now imagine of you woke up at 7:00am and then just sat around the house all day until 10:00pm. Whoa… long day.
Granted the meals, the inflight entertainment options, the occasional stroll around the airplane and of course a bit of sleep combine to make this fifteen hour flight pass by a bit faster than just sitting around your house, but still, it’s one helluva long flight, about the same as taking off from New York, flying to London and then turning around in flight and flying back to New York.
Lunch was served six hours ago. I probably won’t get around to dinner for another four and a half hours. Let’s check out that snack menu…
SNACKS
Wontons in Noodle Soup
Fried Chicken with Crispy Garlic and Chilli
Smoked Salmon with Herb Ciabatta and Mesclun Salad
Hot Pot Rice with steamed chicken, Chinese sausage and black mushroom,
served with daily soup
One of the best parts of Cathay Pacific’s inflight meal offerings are its soups. We’re not talking a simple bowl of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle here. Noooo – these are big bowls filled with thin Vermicelli type noodles and a filler such as beef, chicken, duck or, on today’s flight, shrimp filled wontons.
Wontons in Noodle Soup
Although wontons look like little alien brains floating around in your soup, they’re quite tasty. Additionally Cathay supplies a small dish of industrial strength hot paste. I’ve learnt from past experience that this stuff is not to be trifled with. On one flight a few years ago I blithely scraped the entire portion into my soup and spent the next ten minutes sucking air and water in equal quantities.
Boeing’s 777-300 is a long airplane – even longer in fuselage than a standard 747. As such, it’s quite a walk all the way to the back of the plane. Notable though the distance may be, even more dramatic is the change in cabin comfort and ambience, especially when seeing the difference between Cathay’s First and Business classes.
Many airlines have eliminated their First Class cabins altogether while others have improved their Business Class to the point where the distinction between it and First Class is becoming increasingly blurred. This is far from being the case at Cathay Pacific where the Business Class seating pales in comparison to the First Class suites. I took a moment to try out an empty Business Class seat and found that while it was actually quite comfortable to sit in, it also felt exceedingly cramped due to the high molded walls rising immediately next to it on each side. Maybe an old country boy like me just needs more openness, but this seat felt at once dark and claustrophobic – not a good feeling with fifteen hours of flying ahead – unless you’ve been upgraded from Economy. In any event, I understand that there’ve been quite a few complaints about Cathay’s current Business Class seat resulting in Cathay’s planned roll out of a new, much more spacious Business Class seat. Check it out at Cathay’s web site. It looks much, much better.
I chose to have dinner about an hour out of Hong Kong. The dinner service is not nearly so elaborate as the luncheon service, so serving it only an hour out of Hong Kong is easily accomplished. Let’s have a look at the menu again…
DINNER
Starter
Fresh seasonal fruit
MAIN COURSES
Pan Fried Sea Bass with Apple Cider Sauce
Served with fingerling potatoes, roasted fennel and baby squash
Stir-Fried Beef with Mixed Peppers
Presented with steamed jasmine rice and kalian
Penne Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce
Accented with roasted artichoke and spinach
* * * * * * * * * * *
CHEESE AND DESSERT
Camembert, Smoked Baby Swiss, Gorgonzola and Herbed Goat Cheese
Pear Charlotte with Mixed Berry Compote
TEA AND COFFEE
Pralines
Just for the heck of it, I thought I’d ask if in lieu of fresh fruit there might be any more caviar available. Yes indeed replied my lovely FA, who then delivered unto me a plate with not one but three small scoops of the exquisite eggs. Mmmm! Heavenly…
Caviar service – Part 2
I had the Stir-Fried Beef with Mixed Peppers last year on my SFO-HKG flight. It was good but not overly remarkable, so this time I decided to go with the Pan Fried Sea Bass with Apple Cider Sauce. I recall a variation of this dish that I had on a HKG-SYD flight a few years ago and remembered it being quite good. This evening’s example did not disappoint either. Even better though was the Pear Charlotte with Mixed Berry Compote. Wow! Now that’s one of the better inflight desserts I’ve ever had! Well done, Cathay!
Pan Fried Sea Bass with Apple Cider Sauce
Pear Charlotte with Mixed Berry Compote
By the time the last of my plates were cleared, we were well into our descent into Hong Kong’s International Airport at Chek Lap Kok. As usual the descent was through low clouds and light rain, extending my streak of never having landed or taken off out of Hong Kong under clear skies. I will of course keep trying. It is an enjoyable pursuit, especially when undertaken from the vantage point of a First Class seat aboard Cathay Pacific.