CX506 HKG-KIX B744 (74A) B-HUG
Everyone has a passion. It might be a sport. Football. It could be something cultural. Classical music. It could be something interminably boring to the rest of the world’s population. Collecting and alphabetising matchboxes. For example. Then again, if there were no obscure passions in this world, it would be pretty hard to cobble together a game of Mastermind.
My passion? Planes. The smell of Jet-A in the morning. Even on the most mundane journey, I still get a thrill out of being at an airport. And I’m still in awe that what is essentially metal held together by bolts is able to break the bonds of gravity.
So it really wasn’t a very hard decision to use four Asia sectors in a weekend. In Cathay Pacific First Class. I was hoping at the same time to cross off a few new registrations. CX has signalled its intention to drop the 744 over the next few years in favour of the 77W. I wanted to enjoy the nose while I still could.
The next problem was to figure out which flights to take. Cathay only offers First on some of its regional routes. Unfortunately, you need to be some sort of fortune teller to figure out with any precision which regional routes will sell F on any given day. Pitfalls to watch out for: some flights operate with a three-class aircraft but sell two-class. Other flights change equipment faster than Sydney Airport puts up its parking fees. The whole short haul operations department at CX seems to be run by some sort of power-hungry gnome who on a whim of fancy will chuck out a three-class 74A on a Singapore route and replace it with the rattiest 777.
At the time I booked, one flight was easy. The same day Haneda turnaround was sticky 74A every day. Out at 8.30, back by 8 pm. The second flight was harder. I found a 74A Incheon flight. I asked the guy at CX to hold it. He sent me the itinerary. Two class 330. I swapped it for Singapore. Got an email three days later saying that had changed to a 773. He suggested we just hold the SIN flight until ticketing, when departure would be closer and equipment less susceptible to change. I think he was just sick of changing my itinerary every five minutes. Not that I blame him. I was sick of trying to find one simple turnaround flight.
About three weeks before journey, I saw that the first of my turns, to HND, had switched to a 77A. Still three class, but a 777-300ER instead of a 747-400. I was not happy. HND had been a perfect choice. A new airport, a quick turn and a 747. I’m not a fan of the 77W. Even though the seat product is the same, the feel is different. The nose of the 747 just can’t be beat. I started casting around for an alternative. There was one option that wasn’t Manila or Taipei (rejected for shortness). Kansai.
I’ve been to Osaka. Nice city. Nice airport too. The lounges aren’t great. In fact CX’s KIX lounge is crap. It’s about twice the size of Harry Potter’s cupboard under the stairs. It has the same view. About the only thing it doesn’t have is the spiders.
Of course, flying out of HKG means you start your trip with some pretty good lounges. Supposedly. Like The Wing. For a very long time it set the benchmark in lounges. Then we got the likes of Lufthansa First Class terminal. The Qantas lounges at Sydney and Melbourne. The Wing started to fall behind. On the morning I was there? Overcrowded. Dated decor. And internet speed that would have been overtaken by a sloth on crutches.
I nibbled on some breakfast in the restaurant. The offerings were a bit pathetic. And The Peninsula, which provides the waitstaff in the lounge, seems to have slipped in their service standards. They all looked miserable. The lady who was in charge of keeping the showers clean seemed to like her job better.
I was asked to do a survey on board the flight to Osaka. You know the type. Where you tick boxes on a scale of 1 to 5. One of the sections asked about lounge facilities before your flight. I have never done this before on a survey. But The Wing got bottom box ticks from me on pretty much everything. If you are travelling in First, and are thinking about going to The Wing, my advice is: don’t. Go to The Cabin. It’s a one-class lounge. But it’s brand new. It’s got great views. The internet actually works. The next day I didn’t even bother with The Wing First. I hung out in The Cabin. You’ll have to wait until that instalment for the review.
Before the flight I was religiously monitoring the loads. If it had been a girl instead of a plane it probably would have been fair to label me a stalker. When I switched out of HND, both KIX flights were dead empty up front. About two days after I switched F zeroed out on the outbound. It came back with capacity a couple of days later. But my dream of a solitary F cabin looked like it was going to be unrealised.
We went out 4/9 in F. The other three were travelling together. They knew people travelling down the back, who popped into the cabin briefly during boarding to exchange hugs and hellos. I just hunkered down in 1A and took photos of the mood lighting. I felt like I’d gatecrashed a reunion.
After takeoff, and the check captain pointing out “Mickey Mouse land” for those seated on the right hand side of the plane, the senior purser came round to hand out the menus. I was toying with trying the Japanese Kaiseki meal on one of the sectors, but thought it might be better on the return flight if the food was catered ex-Japan. Since I wasn’t sure whether they did in fact re-cater or doubled up out of Hong Kong, I took the opportunity to ask her whether they re-catered in Osaka.
Well, she
asked whether I had any questions.
She gave me a strange look. But she answered my question. And she said if I had any other questions to feel free to ask them. She said she could ask the cockpit if necessary.
That might have been the point at which the crew decided I was mad.
The ISM came round to hand out landing forms. I told her I was in international transit. I think I surprised her. I’m guessing not very many people international transit through Osaka.
This might have been the point at which the crew decided I was mad.
The purser came up to take my lunch order. She hesitated slightly afterwards and asked whether I was flying straight back with them. I admitted it. She looked shocked for the briefest of seconds and then burst out laughing. She enquired as to why. I explained about the RTW ticket. She explained that my connections showed up on their manifest. So next to my name was CX507 (the return flight) followed by my two flights tomorrow.
I’m pretty certain
this was when the crew decided I was mad.
Shortly after the purser went back to the galley the senior purser came back up to me with the manifest in her hand. I don’t think she believed her colleague. She asked whether I was really doing the same sectors as them. I explained why I was doing it again. I have to say, it certainly broke down the barriers like nothing else did. For the rest of the flight I got more inside goss about CX than anything. Much better inflight entertainment than watching Drew Barrymore and Justin Long try to go the distance.
The first sector of the mileage run was celebrated with a glass of Deutz and nibbles. The purser, having decided I was a great amusement, gave me both the nuts and the Japanese snack mix.
The table was then set for lunch.
Lunch
Starters
Prosciutto with baked vegetable flan and artichoke
Roasted red pepper soup
Main Courses
Pan-roasted Australian lamb chops with thyme rosemary sauce, potato gratin, green beans and capsicums
Pan-fried prawn with rice wine lees, egg fried rice, braised white turnip with mushrooms, Chinese celery, dried shrimp and carrot
Eggplant and garlic agnolotti with sun-dried tomato pesto
Cheese and Dessert
Cambozola, Comte, Double Gloucester, Chaumes
Fresh seasonal fruit
Apple pie with streusel and clotted cream
Tea and Coffee
Pralines
Japanese Meal
Cathay Pacific is pleased to offer a seasonal Japanese meal,
in traditional Kaiseki style, as an alternative choice.
Canapes
Shrimp, pork with cheese, chestnut, baby abalone and Japanese taro
Appetizer
Pickled pike mackerel and salmon sahimi bonito with salmon roe, tuna meat with fish roe
served with Choya Plum Liqueur
Braised Dish with Clear Soup
Braised duck breast Japanese style, bean curd skin, baby eggplant and braised pumpkin
Main Course
Side Dish
Boiled cuttle fish slice with shrimp and mixed seaweed
Noodle
Maten tea and plum noodles with shimeji mushroom
Hot Dish
Broiled sea bass with miso sauce, boiled spinach, chestnut and ginkgo nuts
Rice served with assorted pickles and miso soup
To compliment [sic] your Japanese meal experience, Ginjyo-sake is available.
I was asked whether I wanted the bread, since I was having the Japanese meal. I asked which ones were loaded, thus cementing my reputation with this crew as a complete nutter. You get a mini bread basket on CX with about four pieces of bread. It’s a lot. I didn’t want them to go to the trouble of heating and serving only for me only to leave two pieces behind, but the purser pointed out that they would have to incinerate it anyway so they might as well bring it all.
The next few pics I’ll let speak for themselves. The food was exquisitely presented, and very nice, but some of the items I fear ran a little counter to my somewhat Westernised tastebuds. But overall I’m glad I tried it.
The canapés:
The appetizer:
The braised dish and clear soup:
The main course:
I was sucked in by the Western dessert option of the apple pie rather than the fruit option on the Japanese menu. CX has really picked up its game with the dessert in recent years – for a long time it would have been boring old ice cream – although ironically this dessert would have benefited from a side of ice cream rather than clotted cream.
The crew were very good at keeping pace with me and bringing the next course after I’d finished, but with so many courses and my leisurely pace of eating, we were just coming up to the one hour mark when dessert was whisked away and a little ramekin of pralines put on my side table. There are certainly worse places to be than flying through clear blue sky nibbling on chocolates while the islands of Japan cruise by 36,000 feet below.
Our chatty check captain came on with 30 minutes to go: “unless our navigation has led us extremely astray that should be Japan you see outside your windows!” and a few turns later we were bumping down in Kansai.
The ISM did her usual post-landing announcement (“... thank you for flying Cathay Pacific and we hope to see you again soon...”) which elicited a juvenile smirk from me since for once, their manual-directed probably-not-very-sincere hope would be realised.
Next: how to spend a four hour transit in KIX.