Perhaps to clarify a little....this thread will be helpful for anyone arriving early, definitely not specific for CX845 only! Identical advice will apply to any of (drumroll): CX811, 889, 829, 893, 883, 881, 873, 899, 746, 676, 748, 358, 288, 260, 270, 262, 320, 344, 376, 156, 322, 292, and I'm probably missing one or two.

Long story short, all the early morning arrivals! Without offence to the great New York City, CX845 is just one of an absolute ton of longhaul flights (mainly 77H / 77G, but some 35G and 33K/E equipment flights too) that arrive early for the morning bank of regional departures. I think we have many threads scattered about with identical advice but each quoting a different flight number...although the information holds true for each. Every ex-European city has a flight arriving early morning, as do all North American ones except ORD, plus a handful of other destinations from Oz, JNB, ME, etc.

CX845 is usually one of the first alongside CX829, CX811 and CX899, but generally there are flights even earlier. The first two used to be CX746 from Dubai or CX138 from Sydney, but with the launch of Tel Aviv now the first to arrive seems to be CX676 from TLV. TLV seems to regularly land before 4:30am, sometimes before 4:15am. The remainder pour in over the next 3 hours.


Regarding some of these queries:
"Preference to sleep", I don't think the Wing can accommodate you? There are short-ish couches in the Cabanas (Cabanas, if you want one, are a Wing-specific item...don't exist in the Pier), which I don't recommend for sleeping. I think the best bet if you want to sleep is get a day-room in The Pier.

Shower can do either, although the consensus here (and my personal opinion) is Pier is better. For massage, you must do Pier since it doesn't happen at the Wing, although you do need to get your name in early because there are insanely long waits. Hours in many cases. So if a massage is high on your agenda I would go to Pier first to be honest.

For the Pier massage, yes, you need to go all the way there. You can't call it in. You are at "CX's mercy" to use your term.

For eating, the a la carte menu at the Pier is definitely bigger than the Wing's. However, the Pier F has a lousy self-selection...Wing wins here if you want to not just be served a la carte. Wing has both a buffet, as well as a side room with better (IMO) choices. Now if you're willing to sully yourself going to Pier J, I highly recommend it especially if you have kids who would prefer self-selection items. There is an abundance of food and self-select items in Pier J.