I approached the TPE CX F ticket counter was surprised to see a large family being checked-in there. I didn't think they were actually flying first, and as soon as an agent saw me waiting, immediately called me over to check me in. Check-in was quick and she made sure I knew how to get to the CX lounge once I got through security. The lounges in TPE terminal 1 are not conveniently located. I had never flown out of T1 before and was used to the nice T2. The T1 lounge was located down several corridors and up a slow moving elevator. Security was so fast that I barely had time to take off my jacket before the bin went through the conveyor. The baggage screener was so fast I don't even think he was looking at them. Amazing how overseas security is so painless. Eventually, I finally found my way to the lounge.

Lounge entrance (I love how CX always has a nice welcoming sign and cut-out)


The initial business class area was quite crowded. I had already eaten prior to getting to the airport and the food options weren't that impressive. I decided to head towards the first class area. One thing I noticed in all my CX lounge experience is that they never checked if you actually had F lounge access when you walk into the lounge. The F lounge was much less crowded, but small.



There was also a series of semi-private workstations where I settled in. Unfortunately, the guy in the cubicle next to me decided to have a loud prolonged business conversation on the phone. Everyone in the lounge could hear him easily. After completing his call, he then proceeded to burp loudly multiple times. Sheesh, show some class...

Cubicles


Boarding time soon arrived and I packed up my stuff and headed to the gate. As usual, there was quite a line in the first/business class queue. I know understand what people were complaining about when they said that CX should board F separately! Despite the fact I was probably 20th or so on board, I was easily the first one in F.

CX 401 TPE-HKG
November 18, 2012
7:30 PM-9:15 PM
Seat 3K
Load: 9/9

I was in seat 3K this time as the first two rows were taken when I booked my award. The first two rows were occupied by some celebrity family as they received an extra special welcome on board and were met by CX crew in HKG. They were also hussled through immigration there as well. Anyways, as I was on a 747-400 again, I will spare the cabin photos. I didn't notice much of a difference between 2K and 3K aside from the fact that the view of the cabin is slightly different. 2K feels a little more spacious as the aisle is wider there.

One nice feature of the seat is the mini closet that you can use to hang up clothes and store your smaller carry-ons.


I had my usual pre-flight champagne (or two) and we were on our way. With such a short flight, service began almost immediately after take-off.

Here's the menu
Starter

This was honestly quite nasty. Probably one of the worst appetizers I've ever had before. I know CX is trying to be fancy and all with this duck liver with scallop business, but seriously? It was horrible.

I opted for the chicken thigh dish.





Definitely nothing to write home about. I love chicken thigh much more than chicken breast because I think it's hard to mess up the flavor. That said, this was not a good dish. All in all, probably the worst CX F meal I had on my trip. I saw other TPE-HKG menus with steak so I was quite disappointed by the meal availability.

Dessert

It's tough to mess up dessert, but this dessert was also very bland. I almost always finish my dessert, but didn't because of all the good things I knew that would await me in the Wing.

I was the first one off the plane, though I didn't get the special VIP welcome that the family in rows 1 and 2 got. I'm also annoyed at myself that I didn't read the name on the sign that the CX ground crew member was holding to see who it was. Still kicking myself over that. I walked briskly towards transit security and was amused to see CX staff members literally running with this VIP family's luggage towards immigration. There was a short line for the equally painless security screening. I saw that my HKG-SFO flight would be leaving from Gate 4, which is right outside The Wing, so I settled back in the lounge. There was nothing different than my last visit, including the same waitress serving the F lounge area. However, I decided to check out the shower area.

I'm a huge fan of showering in airports. There's just something about showering on a layover and boarding a plane freshly showered that's just inherently cool to me. I was surprised at how small the shower rooms in The Wing were. Compared to the ones in the RCC or ANA lounge in NRT, these were tiny! When I put my luggage on the bench, there was hardly any room left to maneuver.





When I stepped in the shower, I only noticed the hand held shower head. I was shocked and jumped when I turned on the water and it came pouring down from above. Friendly PSA, the showers in the Wing lounge are waterfall! For the life of me, I could not figure out how to get water to come out from the handheld shower head. I consider myself to be a relatively smart guy and I fiddled with the knobs for five minutes without success. What am I supposed to do!?!?

After filling up on some light eats in The Wing, I made the short walk to Gate 4. Apparently you cannot bring liquids onto US bound flights so there was an annoying security screening of all passengers and luggage right at the gate area. They split into First/Business and Economy lines. The older couple in front of me were seated in economy and when they approached the screening agent, he directed them to the economy. As the couple walked away, the husband said a few words in Cantonese which I could not recognize and was surprised to see the agent run after them, apologize profusely and bring them back to the front of the line for screening. I wonder what he said...

I had flown only F on the 747 up to this point so I was looking forward to checking out 77W F.