Cathay Pacific
Premium Economy Class (E)
CX812: HKG-BOS (Hong Kong to Boston)
26 January 2018
Boeing 777-300ER (77W Four Class Configuration)
B-KQH
Seat 32A
Departure: 06:13PM
Arrival: 09:04PM
HKG Layover
After going through immigration and attempting (and failing) to find the e-channel registration office, I decided to go up to departures and get myself airside. Lines were minimal, so I got through security and immigration in about 10-15 minutes tops. Since I had a few hours to kill, I decided to make the most of it.
Qantas Business Class Lounge
My first stop was the QF J lounge right next to the the far right hand exit from immigration. This was my first visit to the lounge and it was pretty nice. There was a good selection of prepared food, so I tried a few different things. Nothing really jumped out at me and the lounge was somewhat busy, so I quickly moved on to my next stop. The Wing.
Cathay Pacific The Wing First Class Lounge
Next up was The Wing F. This was my first visit to Wing F, though I'd been to Wing J several times before. This time, I just wanted to stash my bag in their storage room so I could walk around the terminal unencumbered. I also figured that my flight would be departing from gate 1-4, since that's where US-bound flights usually board. Stupid assumption on my part. The prepared food selection at Wing F was boring, but I wasn't overly hungry so I decided to skip the in-lounge a la carte restaurant. Instead, I decided to venture out into the terminal to do a little shopping.
HKG Terminal 1 Shopping
I bought some cakes and cookies at Wing Wah and Hong Kong Delices. Then I made my way to The Pier F.
Cathay Pacific The Pier First Class Lounge
This wasn't my first rodeo at The Pier F. I wanted to arrive in BOS reasonably fresh and not crusty, so I took a quick shower. By then I'd worked up a bit of an appetite so I went to the lounge restaurant. The prepared food selection wasn't very diverse at that time of day, but the lunch menu was decent. Despite that, I decided on a simple bowl of dan dan noodles. It was quite good. There really wasn't anything else on the menu that struck my fancy. At that point, my plane had a gate assignment. Gate 49! Pretty much the worst possible gate I could have. At that point, I knew I had to go all the way back to Wing F and then go all the way to the other end of the opposite prong of the terminal building.
A visual aid to illustrate. Pier F is around Gate 63 and Wing F is near Gate 3. Qantas J is near Gate 15. It's bit of a hike.
Cathay Pacific The Wing First Class Lounge
A 20 minute walk later, I was back in Wing F with my newly purchased cakes. I felt I deserved a reward for my efforts, so I decided to hit the Noodle Bar in Wing J for good measure. I quickly ate a couple vegetable dumpling and a char siu bao, drank an obligatory Diet Coke and then headed to the Wing F front desk to retrieve my bag. Bag in hand, I decided to go to a lounge located closer to my gate. Next stop: The Bridge!
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Business Class Lounge
By this time, I didn't feel like walking the roughly 1km to The Bridge, so I went downstairs and hopped on the train. After pushing my way through the slow moving, but aggressive Chinese grannies, I found myself at the entrance to The Bridge. I was ready for another meal after all the pushing and shoving I had to do. So, I presented myself and my thoroughly used boarding pass to the lounge dragon at The Bridge. She took one glance at my boarding pass and saw re-entry stamps for both The Wing and The Pier. She found this incredibly funny and decided to show it to the other lounge dragons, who also had a good chuckle at my expense. She then added a stamp for The Bridge. If only I'd visited The Cabin, I would've had the set. Next time.
Undaunted, I turned left and made my way to the Bistro. Seeing nothing of culinary value, I chugged an espresso, made an about face and went to the other part of The Bridge. On my way, I passed by the lounge dragons who were still having a good chuckle at my expense. Head held high, I made it to The Bakery, which had a much more satisfactory food spread. I indulged in a bit more dim sum and another Diet Coke, then searched for a seat with a view. I ended up at the bar staring at the runway action. I had another espresso (my 14th of the day?) and contemplated the coming 16 hours. Before I knew it, it was getting to be that time again. So, I grabbed my bag, braced myself for derision and mocking by the lounge dragons and made my way to Gate 49. But this time I grabbed a luggage cart because only fools carry their own bags at HKG.
B-KQH
Shortly after arriving at the gate, the lumbering beast that would carry us to BOS rolled into the gate and ground staff began preparations for boarding. After a short interrogation mandated by US CBP/DHS/NSA/CIA, I was allowed to wait in the gate's "secure" area. After a long while, I boarded the plane with the First class passengers, but went to sit aft with the other peasants.
Boarded.... Phew
At this point, I was looking forward to the long flight and some solid sleep (courtesy of Benadryl and cumulative sleep deprivation). Sadly, there was no operational upgrade in the offing for me this time around. Instead, I was seated next to a nice older (84 year old) lady from Palm Springs who had no idea how to use the IFE system. Having an elderly grandmother who also struggles with electronics, I was happy to assist. I showed her how to watch a movie, use the touchscreen, plug in headphones, adjust volume, remove the tray table from the armrest, etc.
In the Air Once More
Shortly after takeoff, the ISM and purser both came up to my seat and greeted me personally. They first butchered my name, then asked if I needed anything. I was tempted to say I needed a seat in business class, but I don't think that's what they had in mind. Perhaps that could be a viable upgrade strategy in the future? Next, the menus and amenities kit were distributed. Then the drinks service began. The FA for my section magically knew of my Diet Coke requirement and promptly served me a Coke Zero with some almonds on the side.
Menu
Premium Economy Menu with obligatory Coke Zero
Meal Time
I decided to be brave this time around and went with the beef. It ended up being a good choice. The meat was tender and cooked medium (or thereabouts). The appetizer was twelve kinds of nasty, so I avoided that like the plague.
Post-Meal Coma
After eating the meal, I watched a little TV on my iPad and promptly zonked out for at least 12 hours (courtesy of my good friend Benadryl). I awoke some time later. It's hard to say when exactly, as time and space tend to merge on these long flights in PE.
Snack Time
I'm pretty sure we were still in the air, probably somewhere off the West Coast of the US by now. Seeing as I was awake again and had nothing better to do, I summoned the excellent FA serving my section. I requested a snack. She knew immediately what I wanted. "Certainly, Mr. (butchered last name), would you like your usual hamburger?". How could I decline such an offer? Twenty minutes later, she came back with a perfectly reheated formerly frozen hamburger. This burger was a pale shadow of the magnificent burger they offer in Business Class, but beggars can't be choosers, so I greedily scarfed it down.
Post-Snack Coma
By that time, Mr. Benadryl was knocking on my door, so I decided to give in to his demands and passed out for another 12 hours. When I woke up, I was pretty sure we had passed Boston and were now flying somewhere over the Middle East. Upon checking the in-flight map in the IFE system, I discovered that was not the case. We were actually somewhere over the flat part of the country and would soon be approaching our final destination. At this point, the cabin crew turned on the lights and prepared to serve the second meal.
Post-Snack Pre-Landing Meal
I now had another agonizing decision to make. Dim sum or eggs? As I've said before, I usually avoid airplane eggs at all costs. But in this case, I had to go with the eggs. The dim sum meal was packed with shrimp, so as a non-seafood person I felt the Chinese meal would be a bad decision. I made the right call.
Breakfast?!? At 8PM...
Which brings me to my next point. Why the heck do they serve breakfast at 8PM local time? It makes no sense. I realize it's morning in HKG, but we're not going to HKG. We're going to Boston, where it's night time. And we don't eat breakfast at night in Boston (or anywhere else in America, afaik). For my money, they should do a second dinner service. That would make much more sense. Breakfast at night is just confusing.
So I got the eggs. It was a passable meal. Not outstanding, but (somewhat) better than nothing. The bacon was a bit underdone for my tastes, so I brought it home to feed to my dog. CBP doesn't mind pocket bacon, right? The rest of it was good enough, though by no means "good" in absolute (or relative) terms.
Post Pre-Landing Meal Nap Time
Unfortunately, there wasn't really enough time to get a third 12 hour nap done before landing, so I decided to forgo the nap this time around.
Conclusions
Before I knew it, I was off the plane and quickly through immigration thanks to Global Entry. My Uber was waiting and I made my way home. I had a good time on this trip and saw a lot of cool stuff. I wish I'd been able to sample a bit more street food on my journey, but that's pretty much the only regret of the whole trip. I did a lot of flying and I enjoyed the vast majority of it. The biggest surprise of the trip was how good Royal Brunei was and how bad Thai Airways was. Everything else mostly met my expectations. I couldn't have done it without the invaluable knowledge I gained here on FlyerTalk, so I really have to thank my fellow FTers for their various insights and tips. The trip went really smoothly and was really easy.
Next Up
My next trip report will come in late May. We're going skiing in Vail in March, but I probably won't write a report for that trip. Unless the mood strikes me. Who can say. Next up is my May trip to Myanmar, Laos, Singapore, Mongolia and China. Still working out the kinks for that trip, but that's the basic outline for now. Stay tuned and thanks for reading.