We arrived at HKG airport right on time,not that it mattered since we had over 4 hours to kill before our flight to New York. Similarly to my previous experiences at Hong kong, transfer was a breeze and we were airside again within minutes . We headed to the Wing lounge since this is the only Cathay business lounge with shower suites and I wanted to refresh myself before our long journey home.Since I mentioned long journey: We were booked on CX888 which stops in Vancouver on its way to JFK making it an 18 over hour trip.I was looking closely (plus had Expertflyer alerts set) if any first class seat opened up closer to departure but unfortunately we were out of luck.
The Wing business class section can be accessed via the departure level entrance.There is another entry right after immigration a level up but that’s for first class passengers only.






5 minutes prior to our departure we walked over to our gate at the other end of the A concourse .
As usual to Cathay Pacific boardings, the area was a sh!tshow and having another 300 people heading to San Francisco from the neighboring gate didn’t help either.I like to be one of the first ones to board the plane but this time I should have just stayed at the lounge until last minute.

Cathay Pacific CX888 1:00AM-6:00AM
Hong Kong to New York( via Vancouver)
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER (77W)
Seats: 11 D/G
Cathay’s business class seats are reverse herringbone style in a 1-2-1 configuration giving direct aisle access to all passengers.Their four class 777s also features a mini cabin ( row 11 and 12) which is perfect if you prefer that secluded feel.Personally I like row 11 more since you don’t have to deal with the occasional noise coming from the galley and the bathrooms.Even if only row 12 would be available I rather sit there before the “main business cabin”…I’d think more about it if it’d be on American’s 77W, where crew is more chit-chaty and louder.
We entered the plane via door 2L and turned left towards the mini cabin.




As you see from the pictures above the hard product is amazing.The privacy is insane and might be even superior to many first classes out there. Space is plentiful and actually it’s even bigger in the center of row 11 since they’re bulkhead seats,you only have the divider wall in front of you instead of another seat.That’s true to 15 D/G but keep in mind that those are bassinet seats.
I quickly changed into my (favorite) JAL pajamas to be a bit more comfortable.Once back at my seat we were offered a couple of pre-departure beverages.We both settled for Cathay’s Delight,a mint smoothie I’m obsessed with.At the same time menus and amenity kits were distributed.There wasn’t much in it besides the usual dental kit,socks and an eye mask.

Once airborne,dinner service started immediately.We didn’t have much food in the lounge so we asked for both the appetizer and the main course.I’d say half of the cabin went straight to sleep.
To start we had the Ceasar salad with paprika prawns:

As for mains I had the pan-fried cod with saffron veloute,potato pea mint puree,sautéed green beans and cherry tomatoes.My wife had the lemon linguine with sautéed mixed mushrooms,sun-dried tomatoes,olive sauce and Parmesan cheese.They were pretty good besides the mint puree that came with my fish.Just as a side-note ,the Champagne was Deutz Brut Classic which is rather good for business class.


After meal I quickly finished my movie(Grand Budapest Hotel) and went to bed.Cathay’s business class are fully flat and gives you plenty of space.Even that the footrest is someway small,I didn’t feel it as cramped as I do on other staggered seats like Swiss,Thai,Emirates or the forward facing ones United,Air China 77W has.
(I apologize for the image quality,I took those with my iPhone and it was really dark.)


I got an amazing 6 hours of sleep,which tells everything about how comfortable the bed was, and woke up just an hour or two prior to our stop in Vancouver.I was quite hungry so I asked for the angus beef burger.It’s on the snack menu and it’s available anytime through the flight.It was good as usual.

Once at YVR everyone has to leave the plane(I believe you can stay onboard if flying the other direction) and go through security again.Basically once you exit there are two tunnels,one for people leaving to Canada and another for people continuing to the US. From there you just continue to the waiting area,wait while they clean and check the plane and about an hour later you’re called to board again.While it does sound like a pain,actually the whole process isn’t too bad.Of course it’s a different story if you’re in economy and you have to stand quite some time in line before the screening.
Once back on the plane a new crew welcomed us.I’m not sure if they forgot to give out amenity kits or they simply knew we were connecting passengers but we didn’t receive any , not that we needed it.Being a short 5 hour flight there isn’t a proper meal service just an evening supper.
The options were pork spare ribs,a cheese plate and seared scallops.I opted with the last one which came with a marinated red peppers,caper and green apple salad.

The rest of the flight was quite uneventful.I did fall asleep for and hour or so but spent most of my time watching tv shows and a movie.There was a breakfast service prior to landing,I skipped the main course(noodles,dim sum or poached eggs) and only asked for fruit plate and croissants.
n interesting “first” that happened to us.We landed at JFK around 5:30,about 30 minutes prior to our expected arrival. Shortly we pulled up at the gate but the doors didn’t open.A couple of minutes later the captain came on the PA to let us know that Immigration and Customs at JFK won’t open until 6AM so we’ll have to wait onboard until then.That was new but hey,what’s 15-20minutes more after 30 hours of traveling?That’s how long it took us since we left our hotel in Ubud…

Summa summarum it was another fantastic trip on Cathay Pacific.Their business class is fantastic,the seats are probably my favorite out of all given how much privacy you get.StudioCX’s,their inflight entertainment, selection is rather extensive you’ll never ran out of options.So the hard product is clearly a winner.
As for the soft products:Food was good and as usual to Cathay I never felt hungry.If you like Asian cuisine you’ll probably enjoy more the flavors out of HKG rather than the US since local catering is superior.Service was attentive and polite on the first segment but left things to desire on the second one.You definitely felt that the Vancouver based crew had more attitude and wasn’t as polished as the ones based in Asia.Interestingly I had the exact same experience when I flew Singapore Airlines from Tokyo to Los Angeles.
It was a great use of 55k American AAdvantage miles, the only better value would have been going in first class but that was out of my control.