Hey, first of all a big "sorry" for not continuing the trip report sooner. I've been travelling through the US Southwest for the last 17 days and took 6.000 photos (118GB, puh...), so I didn't have the chance to update it
Also, thanks a ton for the nice words! For this trip, I've been using the following gear:
- Canon EOS 6D
- Canon 24-70mm f/4 (good standard kit lens with a nice macro option)
- Canon 16-35mm f/4 (perfect for wide angles - I've upgraded it with a 11-24mm after the trip though)
Part 5: Cathay Lounge BKK & BKK-HKG in Cathay's 777
After a short night at the Banyan Tree, I spent nearly all of the next day in planes & lounges. But hey, we're at Flyertalk – so this should actually be the interesting part. I booked BKK – HKG and HKG – TPE on one ticket via my old Airberlin miles. For just 40.000 miles in C, a great deal in my opinion (and I got to experience „The Pier“ at HKG, coming up in the next post).
I took an early metered cab (which you have to specifically request at the concierge, else you might get ripped off) to BKK airport at around 5AM. Despite the short night, I actually enjoyed getting there without any traffic for once. Check-in and Priority Emigration (thanks to the voucher CX gives you) were super fast. I actually got to watch two Westerners being detained through Priority Emigration, so for all you guys maximizing your priority experience, this might be another way to go
As I didn't have any breakfast, a short stop at the
Cathay Pacific Lounge in Bangkok (click for more photos) was needed. The escalator leads you to the lounge entrance:
The lounge itself looks pretty nice in the new Cathay design, with wood panels and grey stone/marble elements.
As with many CX lounges, there is also a noodle bar in the Bangkok one that has several smaller items on the menu. I simply love these noodle bars, especially for breakfast. After ordering you get a small buzzer (similar to Vapiano here in Europe) that lets you know, once your order is ready. I took a seat in the (as it was quite early) empty lounge and enjoyed it with a Coke Zero:
Afterwards I went to the lounge bar at the other end, where fresh croissants and other pastries were waiting for me – as well as fresh fruit and excellent coffee choices.
With a double espresso I sat down in one of the comfy chairs and enjoyed the views of the tarmac:
At around 7:30 I was heading to the gate, where Cathay's 777 was waiting to take me to Hong Kong in the old, 'classic' livery.
Luckily, this one had the new 1-2-1 configuration with a sweet window seat for me, very similar to Cathay's A350 I flew a few posts above this one. The cabin seemed a bit older and 'more used', but other than that the differences were marginal.
Here are some more photos of the cabin in case you're interested.
After some juice (no champagne on this one, as it was still pretty early) we were heading for the runway:
The flight itself was super uneventful, I didn't even take photos of my breakfast – even though the choices were pretty good:
We landed on time in Hong Kong, where I was obviously heading straight to 'The Pier' lounge (coming up in the next post).