Background



(You can find more photos from these flights and others at my photoblog at http://www.fjiii.com/.)

With two consecutive long weekends this September in Japan (its Silver Week, celebrating in part the Autumnal Equinox), I took the opportunity to finally visit a friend's new-born in Vancouver - an incredibly adorable akachan, and then to join my folks in Hong Kong for a family dinner on the Mid-Autumn Festival (which for some reason is close to but isn't exactly on the day of the Autumnal Equinox ...).

This report will be on the two return flights : CX 889 from Vancouver to Hong Kong (YVR-HKG), and then the on-ward flight CX 542 three days later to Haneda in Tokyo (HKG-HND), i.e. the two boarding passes on the left in the above photo.

Thanks in advance for reading !

Wierdos like me who take pleasure in reading boarding passes will notice the BN1's in each of the above. That's the Boarding Number which basically tracks the order of (on-line or otherwise) check-in of the passengers. Besides being used for identifying passengers, it is more importantly also used as a tie-break when Cathay gives operational upgrades to members in the same elite tier - the lower the BN, the higher the priority. And so there is often a rush for a low BN at T-48 when OLCI becomes available.

Personally I think this is not a fair system - why upgrade a passenger who had the free time / the quickest fingers / the fastest internet connection 48 hours prior to departure ? A fairer approach in my mind would be to use the date of their last operational upgrade, i.e. upgrade first those members who were upgraded least recently. Surely not a difficult extra field to track.

In any case, BN1's were not useful for me on this trip since I was already in FCL, but I do like to "collect" them. I'll never have the most BIS miles of FFers, but I might well have the lowest average BN. My current average on Cathay Pacific flights is around 3 or 4, depending on whether you take a straight average or if you weight each flight by distance flown. The longer the flight, the more important getting a low BN would be.

Anyways ...



Akachan 赤ちゃん - a Japanese word meaning "baby", literally a red person

Before we start, a couple photos of the adorable akachan whom I had come all the way to visit !





Flight 1 - CX 889

Vancouver to Hong Kong (YVR-HKG)
Operating Aircraft : B-KPC
Aircraft Type : Boeing 777-300 ER
Miles : 6,381
Seat : 1A

There are two evening Cathay Pacific flights from Vancouver, (a) CX 888 departing 10:50 pm that continues onto New York having started its journey in Hong Kong, and (b) the one I was taking - CX 889 that departs at 02:05 am to Hong Kong after having originated in New York. (The times are slightly changed in winter when daylight saving kicks in.) Passengers on either flight are allowed to check-in when the counters and lounge open, which is about 3 hours before the departure time of (a).

Interestingly, the two sister flights of CX 888/9 are not operated back to back. When CX 888 lands in JFK, it turns around as CX 841 which is a non-stop flight back to Hong Kong. Similarly, CX 889 begins as CX 840 that flies into JFK non-stop from Hong Kong.

Check-in was smooth and took less perhaps around forty-five seconds. I noticed that unlike the afternoon CX 837 flight to HKG, no YVR priority sticker was affixed onto my boarding pass - but none was needed anyway as security was very blissfully quiet, just one person ahead of me in the line.





The lounge is accessed via an elevator immediately after security and one floor up. The lounge has the usual CX out-port stylings and sports both a JCL and an FCL section. I believe the FCL section has the distinction of being the only CX lounge with champagne (half-) bottles that you can take to your seat. Even in Hong Kong, you'd only be poured some in a glass.

Very friendly staff; the service staff were a great bunch to chat with. I actually look forward to chatting with them each time I fly (Elizabeth, Ella, and Lovisa are some old-timers with lots of stories) - this may well be because of the aforementioned champagne bottles though.











Boarding was on-time and done in order of those needing assistance and traveling with children (none on this flight boarding at YVR), and then first and business class passengers. I am not sure which group comes next as I was already on my way to door 1L.

Sidenote - apparently no shop in the YVR international terminal sells cameras or camera equipment !!? I was looking for a compact flash card for my DLSR (the photos show here are from my phone) but was told by the a Duty Free staff member that no shop in the terminal sells camera items. I did find a bookstore that carried micro SD cards but those did not help me.





We have a YVR-based cabin crew tonite : John was the In-flight Service Manager (his back features in the escalator photograph above, the gentleman on the lower right), and taking care of the first class cabin was William and a lady whose name escapes me. Joanne, an FCL cabin crew member four days ago on my incoming flight to YVR was working in J tonite but she somehow knew I was on board today and also dropped by my seat to greet me - very impressive !!

I was shown to my seat, assisted with stowing my carry-ons and the pillow was removed from its storage case for me. A pre-departure beverage (Krug, juice, or water) was offered, followed shortly by a hot towel, as well as the amenity kit and pyjamas.

Another sidenote - while the men's kit from Zegna has not changed either in its design or contents for two years now, the female one has been updated earlier this year with a different design from Trussardi and comes in red, brown and beige. When I asked, William was happy to let me take the female kit, and even brought out the two colors stocked on this flight to let me choose. (The pre-existing Zegna design and the older Trussardi design, and contents can be found here at this link.)





FCL was full tonite (three having boarded in JFK, and three including myself joining at YVR) and prior to take-off, our preference to eat first vs. sleep first was taken. Everyone appeared to have elected to sleep right after take-off; as the plane leveled, both cabin crew members and the ISM came out to distribute bottled water and get the beds quickly made.

About four hours later, I woke and one call button press and no more than two seconds later, William came and offered to get me a new bottled water and make me something to eat. I was not too hungry yet and so opted to have the breakfast first - an omlette with all the fixings shown on the menu you see above, and a dash of caviar (which is not expressly noted on the menu but why not) to be served with a glass on mimosa.

One more sidenote - in my experience, I've found for lunch or dinner, the steak is generally a poor bet on Cathay, and would go for the Chinese option without even needing to see what it was. But for breakfast, the Western option for me is nicer than the Chinese dim sum selection. (Their dim sum tends to have very thick skins on the dumplings and all pieces taste pretty average.)

And with breakfast, CX's mimosas are a must for me - sure, it may be a waste of Krug but Cathay mixes it would a very pulpy orange juice that makes the drink bubbly and textured at the same time. Love it ! I sometimes ask for this too as my PDB.







Hmm.

Luckily the kids were still asleep and not having the meal with me !

The turbulence hit out of the blue and was pretty insane. The cabin crew was asked to take their seat as well. A few minutes later when they resumed service, William came by immediately to check on me. He must have apologized five times while clearing my entire table. He offered to remake breakfast and suggested the Chinese option that was quicker to prepare.

I agreed and in lieu of the mimosa, I asked for another bottled water as the turbulence hasn't died down completely.





As expected, the dim sum offering was average and a dab of the hot sauce was necessary to give the it some kick. While I was having my second breakfast, Joanne also came up from the J cabin to see if I was okay with the turbulence. She too apologized profusely, which is just ridiculous as none of this was any of the crew's fault.

I remarked that very fortunately, it was not meal time in JCL or YCL when the turbulence hit, and I wondered the commotion that would probably entail if it was. Never mind having spare meals loaded to re-distribute to the passengers, I'm not even sure if there would be enough tissue paper on board to wipe up the mess.







After another four hours or so of sleep, I was up again, as were the kids and most of the other passengers in FCL. William made up my bed and prepared the supper dishes for me. Still not too hungry, I decided to have only for the caviar and salmon, and the Chinese dish of chicken and abalone in oyster sauce. Both were delicious and the main course went down very nicely with the pot of hot jasmine tea.

We were by now just over an hour from Hong Kong - damn these tail winds. Our other FCL flight attendant was back from her rest too. It's a shame I didn't get to interact with her at all on this flight. She worked the first shift when I was asleep, but still I would've liked if she came by to say hi or to introduce herself. However, it is entirely possible she did at the beginning of the flight and that I just don't recall.

That may be the one small thing that very slightly tarnished the FCL experience today, but regardless, it was an thoroughly superb and deightful flight. I had everything I wanted, when I wanted it.

One last sidenote on the debate of whether the A or K side has less foot traffic in the FCL cabin on Cathay's 77W aircraft : the prevailing wisdom seems to be that the K aisle is quieter because (a) FAs consciously avoid that aisle as four seats open to it as opposed just two on the A side, and (b) the ISM who the FAs periodically report to is seated on the A side.

Sitting 1K on the outbound CX 888, and now 1A on this CX 889, I would like to add two data points to the contrary. Having counted the FA traffic on both aisles while I was awake, the K side garners 75-80% of the FA traffic on each flight. On both flights I think this is due to the fact that the galley - where all the items are stored and where the FAs gather, is on the K side. The A side was both quieter (not as close to the galley) and saw less foot traffic.

Speaking of things to track, did you know that three minutes is how long the IFE waits before beginning to shut off due to inactivity ? And the small graphic on that screen that shows the origin, destination, and a little plane with a flight path connecting the two ? The little plane appears on and off at an interval of five seconds.

And to my tremendous satisfaction, CX has fixed a "bug" in their IFE software - when they initially upgraded to the most recent generation (the green home screens, as opposed to the older blue home screens), you could no longer cycle through the photos of the four FA models by pressing the home button. Instead you had to go into the full menu, and then get back out, at which point the system would once more pick a random FA to show. Now, CX has added the functionality back. Pressing the home button will once again allow you to invoke ther system to pick again a random photo of the FAs. I am not sure you would find these tidbits useful but just in case !

Arrival into Hong Kong was slightly early. As is usual in Hong Kong, we were met with two gangways at the gate and FCL passengers were first to disembark on door 1. The FCL tags on suitcases were also respected (as they almost always are at HKG) with first class bags first off the belt.

Again, not sure about the JCL bags as I was already outta there !