I left the Wing at around 3:30 pm for our 4:15 pm flight. Upon leaving, I asked the staff at the reception for the gate number of my flight, and to my surprise, it had been changed to 523. Thinking this was one of the smaller gates at the satellite terminal of HKG that I didn't expect could accomodate the scheduled 744, I asked her to check if there had also been an equipment downgrade.
She said the aircraft was still the Jumbo, but told me that 523 was not a gate at the satellite terminal, instead it was a "virtual gate" where we would be bussed to the plane !!!!!
I confirmed what the agent said at a nearby FIDS and then tried to see if I could spot the aircraft from the terminal. Finally found it parked at an outer bays on the west out from gate 25 - you can see the aircraft just behind another Cathay Pacific Jumbo, the adorably-named B-HUG, in the photo above.
The buses to the plane departed from the ground level of the terminal (of course).
I had never been down here before and it did not look too pretty. The whole area felt very closed in, very crowded and was rather noisy. There was some confusion as well because the flight before ours at gate 523 departed late (an HX flight to Shanghai, with a large contingent of late-arriving passengers) and some HND-bound passengers were incorrectly trying to board that flight.
Once the HX flight finally closed, the CX gate staff who had been waiting at the side of the gate for about twenty minutes sprung into action. Within two minutes, signs were put up for FCL / JCL on the left, and YCL on the right and passport check began.
I was especially impressed with this CX staff (Kitman I think his name was) who was very patient first with the confused customers at the gate, and then with the angry and sweaty customers on the full (and mixed-class) bus that was kept at the gate while we waited for the driver to show up and to turn up the air-conditioning. As the only CX staff on the bus, several passengers on the bus decided to give him a piece of their mind during the ride but he very professionally dealt with them all - polite throughout, not once showing a frown or a long face.
I am not sure if the CX gate staff could have anything anyway to improve the situation as I believe the buses are run by the Airport Authority (?).
B-HKT up close !!
While commonplace back at Kai Tak, but this was my first time boarding a plane at an outer bay at Chep Lak Kwok, and apologies for for using the word "way" this way, but this was way more awesome than via an HSBC-branded jet bridge ! Kitman told me to hurry it up but he did let me wait for all the passengers form the bus to clear into the aircraft so I could take some unonbstructed photos from the stair bridge.
I was shown to my seat by Senior Purser Pam and greeted soon after by In-flight Service Manager Kitty. Both were incredibly friendly and apologized repeatedly for the temperature inside the cabin, and for not having the aircraft at a gate. I told them that it was absolutely not a problem, and that it was not the crew or even CX's fault that an outer bay was assigned anyway. Besides this was a much more impressive and thrilling way to board their 744s.
Then the captain came on the PA and also apologized !
Menus were distributed, but then a little disappointingly, so were hot towels which didn't make a lot of sense in the hot cabin. On a previous Cathay flight which also had temperature problems on the ground, the crew proactively came by to refill my glass of Krug and to offer cold towels.
FCL loading this afternoon was 7/9.
Take-off was about thirty minutes behind schedule partly because boarding began late, and also because two passengers were missing and unlike at a gate, a separate bus trip for them needed to be made. None of that really mattered to me, or to the couple in 1A / 1K who was enjoying every moment as well. We got to chatting, and it turns out Steve was a fellow FTer, and this flight to HND was one of the first segments of an ex-JNB AONE5 trip. (He also insisted I post photos of him and his companion on my TR and it's not difficult to see why
)
For the dinner, the T'ang Court special - the prawns with black turffle paste - was fantastic, as was the Saint-Emilion promotional wine of the day. This was also the first time I've had the new set of pralines. I really really enjoy the chocolates served in F. They go so well with the full-bodied French wines CX offers. I think this is the third set of pralines since Cathay started offering plated chocolates about a year and a half ago - the first featured orangettes, followed by chocolate bars with nut pieces, and now chocolate bars with fruit pieces. The truffles have also become cuboid instead of spherical.
I've inquired different cabin crew on where I could purchase these but apparently they are not in stores. The catering packaging they come in indicate they are made by CX catering themselves in Hong Kong.
The arrival into HND was also about 30 minutes late but at a proper gate. This is not always the case though - on a couple of previous occasions we were parked at an outer bay. I think this is because CX 542 returns back to Hong Kong as CX 543 on the following day and so spends the night parked (away from the terminal) at Haneda. This may also be the reason why this flight is operated with a 744 instead of the more valuable 77W.
FCL bags were again the first out. HND is also very consistent in this. I understand from a friend working at CX in HKG that if there is one place where CX wants to not screw up priority bag deliveries, it is Japan. Apparently, Japanese premium passengers tend to be more vocal than most when it comes to complaining into CX. That first sounded strange to me, but then it sounded less strange.
Thank You
Thank you for reading.
You can find more photos from these two flights and others at my photoblog at
http://www.fjiii.com/.
And now the answer to the quiz - the announcement on Japan flights which is made only in Japanese but not in the other two languages ? It relates to the presence of Japanese flight attendants on board : "日本人乗務員もX名しておりますので、御用の際はご遠慮なくお知らせください", or "There are also X Japanese cabin attendants on board, please do not hesistate to let them know should you need any assistance".
Again, thank you for reading !