The following morning I worked on this report before checking out around noon and making my way back to JFK T7 and 16 hours of heaven, hopefully.

On check out I asked them if they had an aversion to bedside lamps and the agent explained that they were refurbishing and they had sent the wrong lamps so they needed to be replaced. Would have been nice to be told this at check-in.

I caught the noon shuttle back to the airport and was dropped off outside the doors to the premium check-in at Terminal 7.

Inside I made my way to the CX F check-in desk that was busy but a free J desk agent processed me for the flight. I asked them to change the FF number to my AA one as I had secured my GGL status again with BA.

With new BP with AA number attached I made my way around to security where the queues were short and I was through in around 5 minutes.

Once inside I wandered around the shops for a while and then up to the BA F lounge where a less than friendly agent waived me in.

As usual with this lounge there was little on offer apart from a few sandwiches and crisps and what seemed like a lot of US wines compared to my past visits. I played my usual game of trying to figure out who in the lounge were my fellow F passengers and who were Emeralds. I mostly failed this time. It turned out there were 5 of 6 seats occupied on this flight and only picked one in this game.

I wanted to stretch my legs so around 10 minutes before the published boarding time I went out for another wander of the airport. I then parked myself near the gate and waited and waited and waited. They finally started to board all elites, who had already formed a queue, around 30 minutes after the published boarding time.

I finally made it down to the aircraft and was welcomed at the door by the ISM who handed me over to another crew member who escorted me to my seat.

Flight CX 0831 JFK-HKG Seat 1A (First)
Aircraft: B777
Departure time: 14:55


The leading F crew introduced herself and took my jacket to hang in the closet at my seat.


CX F Seat


CX F Seat


Cabin Decoration


CX F Seat Controls


She asked those magic words and I of course agreed. A short while later she came back with a champagne flute and the amuse bouche. She then returned with the bottle of Krug that she presented and then poured at my seat.

I remarked it was nice to see the amuse back on board and she agreed it added that little extra touch of ‘class’ to First class.


Amuse & Krug


The amuse bouche was artichoke with some sort of smoked fish and was quite tasty.

The ISM dropped by to greet me and have a brief chat. A hot towel was placed at my seat on a small tray. An amenity kit was handed out containing Aesop products. The crew also delivered the PYE pyjama that turned out to be extremely comfortable when I donned them later in the flight.

The captain announced a flight time of 15 hours and 31 minutes he also announced the delay was due to the late arrival of the inbound flight.

We pushed back at 15:21 and taxied out to a point where we just sat there.


Push Back


The captain announced that they shortened one of the runways today at JFK and he had elected to wait for a slot on the longer runway. This wait was an extra 45 minutes before we eventually were cleared to take off at 16:05.

After the crew were allowed up and about the menus were handed out and orders were taken for drinks. No prizes there.



Some warm cashews were placed at my seat and the glass delivered followed by the bottle of Krug presented and then poured.

Krug & Warm Nuts



My order for lunch was taken and of course I had to start with the caviar.




Menu




Wine List


Rhone Wine Special


I wasn’t overly fussed with the blini and as someone on the CX forum commented recently I prefer the melba toasts also.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/r8EUcm]
Caviar


The soup was very nice indeed and the truffle added to wonderful flavour to the leek and potato.


Soup


Next up was the salad that was quite substantial is size and the pieces of lobster were juicy and succulent and not at all tough.


Lobster Salad


My main course was a treat to the eye and was beautifully presented. The ring in the photo is actually potato and my only complaint is that the meat was a little too well done for me although it was not tough at all.


Beef


Beef


I was kind of stuffed at the point and when offered cheese and dessert I asked if I could wait a while. I watched the frozen Canadian landscape pass by beneath us.


Frozen Landscape

Frozen Landscape


Cathay show case a regional wine special with a separate wine list of which one they have on board the flight. I had been drinking the Rhone red wine special Xavier Châteauneuf-du-Pape and finished off another glass of this before I opted to have some dessert.

The bread pudding was delicious as was the yummy ice cream that accompanied it.


Dessert


Sunset

I watched a movie and then asked for my seat to be made into a bed. One of the crew then set the seat down and placed an under blanket on the seat and then the duvet. She delivered a bottle of water and wished me a good sleep.

I slept for around 5 hours before waking and watching another movie.

At around 5 ours out of Hong Kong I asked for some noodles that were delivered a while later. I opted for some Jasmine tea to go with the noodles.


Noodles


After watching another movie and some TV episodes the crew came around and took orders for the dinner service before arriving in HKG.

It was still 2.5 hours of HKG and I asked if I could hold off the second service for another hour and this was fine.

Around an hour later the crew came out and set my table for dinner. The fruit started was OK but as per most flights some of the fruit wasn’t exactly as ripe as it could have been.


Dinner Starter


My main was OK but not overly tasty and I regretted not taking the offer of chilli sauce that the crew made.


Dinner Main


Dinner Main

The dessert was fine.


Dinner Dessert


Throughout the flight the lead F crew always used my name but the other crew member just referred to me as Sir each time she spoke to me.

The crew weren’t overly proactive in keeping my glass of wine or bubbly topped up and I needed to remind them a few times.

There was another hot towel handed out after the meal before the crew readied the cabin for landing. The F lead dropped by and thanked me for flying CX again. I never saw the ISM again after the first greeting.

We touched down a good thirty minutes late at 19:31 and taxied quite a long way up to gate 3. This meant the walk to immigration was quite short. I used the electronic gates to enter and then made my way down to the assigned carousel and waited for the bags to arrive. By 19:50 the bags were out and mine was amongst the first dozen or so.

I then made my way out and was on an AEX train into Kowloon by 20:05.

On check-in I was given one of the smaller harbour view rooms that was on a floor I had never been on before. I enquired if this was a non-smoking room and the agent said all the Towers rooms are now non-smoking. I believe my room was on a floor that was previously a smoking room as I go the whiff of smoke every time I opened and closed the door.

Once in my room I took some pics of the Amenity Kit and PJs from the flight.


PYE PJ



Amenity Kit


Sheraton Room


Sheraton Room


My stay at the Sheraton Towers was marred the afternoon of the next day when I had some sort of food poisoning or gastro problem that resulted in my lying on my bed sweating profusely for a couple of hours and some nasty bathroom action. I eventually called my insurance company and on their advice called the hotel doctor. He visited me just after midnight and gave me some meds to help the bowel cramps and associated nastiness. He said I should be OK to travel the next evening.

I slept most of the following day and wasn’t up to eating anything at all. Luckily the hotel offers plenty of free bottles of water that I made use of.