Hong Kong to Vancouver (HKG-YVR) on American operated by Cathay Pacific 747-400 business class
After a while the gate was assigned for my flight - a higher numbered one. I had plenty of time to stay in The Wing, but the poor service prompted me to move to The Pier. Some more drinks and catch up on a few days worth of messages and it was time to board.
Once again I'd booked under the American Airlines flight number in order to get the status bonus miles. For long flights such as these it can be quite worthwhile. The downside is lower priority for operational upgrades, of which there were a few on this oversold flight. But never mind.
Unlike other flights ex-Hong Kong this time the passport was checked at the gate and everyone's carry-ons were opened for an extremely cursory check in the airbridge - just so they could meet USA's requirements with the minimum disruption to passengers. I notice it is much the same in many other countries for flights to USA. The search is not a real search and seems most unlikely to find anything, but is a large waste of time and annoyance to many thousands of travellers.
Since I previously checked the seat map some days earlier there had been an aircraft swap. This time we got one with the new business class that is a (
unauthorised?) copy of the Virgin Atlantic (and Air New Zealand) lie flat seats in herringbone layout.
However, it seems to me to be a much inferior copy. For starters the seat is very narrow. Air New Zealand has just 5 rows of 1+1 forward of the emergency exit row whereas Cathay Pacific has 6 rows and further the row closest to the emergency exit is well clear of the exit whereas on Air NZ there is a slight overlap.
The walls between the seats also seem higher. So for the widest pax it could be really uncomfortable, and also not good for those prone to claustraphobia.
There are other differences. The ottoman is not strong enough to sit on thus is a footstool. The table is smaller. The seat reclines to a flat bed - no need to flip it over. There are less in seat storage spaces, although still better than British Airways new or old Club World seat.
The seat belt has no airbag. Instead there is a diagonal shoulder belt as well as the lap belt, and the shoulder belt needs to be worn on takeoff and landing. However there was no info that I could find on any brace position - Air NZ makes special mention in the safety video that the brace position differs in business class due to the herringbone design.
We are not allowed by the FAs to recline the seat for take off, despite the button for the preset position giving a small amount of recline (similar to Air NZ's or British Airways default seat position for business class and club world respectively).
The IFE is the same as on the other longhaul Cathay Pacific aircraft, albeit with a slightly different look to the menu, and the controller has extra functions much like on Singapore Airlines 77W aircraft. There is a time to go on the current movie/show, the route and time to go on the flight. However this time to go stopped being accurate once we crossed the international date line (and still showed the same information on the subsequent flight from Vancouver to JFK).
After dinner I, and most others it seems, slept. Breakfast was served quite early at some 3 hours before arrival. Given the short flight time today this meant sleep time was a couple of hours shorter than I'd expected. The IFE was switched off/crashed more than an hour before landing
The blinds were left down for landing!
The transit procedure for those, like me, continuing to New York JFK was poorly explained. I guess there is no option to go through immigration and use the lounge, but I was unable to find out for sure. (If the flight arrived on time there likely would not be enough time to try, but when it arrives early I would guess there is enough time.) Instead most of the passengers were herding into the locked gate area. Unlike international transits in USA there is no need to clear immigration or go through security. But this also meant no amenities (although midway through the transit some tea, coffee and water were brought out).
Apparently for flights in the reverse direction the transit stop is much shorter (no need for extensive security checks as required by USA) and passengers have the choice of remaining onboard or exitting into the gate.
Reboarding was started late, thus we spent 2 hours cooped up in the gate. Yawn.