qmiro

Had my first Cathay experience ever on EWR-HKG last week and I have to say I'm hooked. The whole experience was very pleasant. Staff on board are eager to serve. And always with a smile. Plane was maybe 98% full. It is well worth paying the extra $100 to get the extra legroom seat. I sat in row 59 which is an exit row with the galley in front of you (and not a toilet so you won't get a line of people always at your seat). The seat next to me was empty in both flights. At Newark you are pretty much the only flight at that time. Duty free near the gate and a bar are open till departure.
Only drawback is they are really very strict about enforcing weight restrictions on carry on. Max is 7kilos or 15 pounds roughly. So I had to check in my carry on both ways.
Food was plentiful and drinks as well. And the in flight entertainment system was full of choices. You can plug a USB into the monitor to charge or use phone or tablet.
Can't wait for my next CX flight.

CX828

Nice one! Good to hear you enjoyed CX out of EWR. Are you someone coming from UA??

qmiro

I haven't done much traveling to Asia and only did so on Delta and American before. First time to try an Asian carrier. I used to fly United a lot but mercifully that's becoming less and less. I wouldn't imagine being on American or united for a 15 hr flight.

ernestnywang

If you are GLD on AA you don't need to pay the 100USD fee. https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...room-seat.html

IncyWincy

Goodness, not only is AirTran closing for 75 days, Pulaski Skyway is closing for 2 years. This means havoc for travelling to and from NYC!!

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/201...r_2_years.html

Cathay Boy

Pulaski is not that bad, you can always take the I78 alternative or if you don't feel like paying a toll you can take the route 9 bypass, it's local traffic but it's another alternative.

I'm glad they are finally working on Pulaski. It has been labeled "critical condition" since 2000 and I am so glad they are finally working on it.

bszeto

I don't know what streets/roads/highways around the metropolitan NYC area that isn't in critical condition or doesn't look like it's about to fall apart

joking aside, I was on J last month from HKG - EWR as there was no J redemption availability between HKG - JFK, which would've worked much better for me since JFK is closer to where I live. With that said, the traffic back into the city at night isn't too bad since it's not rush hour, and I got home in about 35 minutes, about 15 minutes longer than if I drove from JFK without traffic, or about the same if Van Wyck / Grand Central / LIE traffic is bad. Going through immigration and customs also felt quicker than JFK.

IncyWincy

The work only starts this week so look forward to reports here as to how travel time is affected.

Would appreciate feedback.

Cathay Boy

Second experience is no better than the first. The agent is new and every step needed to ask supervisor to help, the agent said they all work for "World Airlines" I guess that's the mercenaries of airline industry. Wouldn't even print out an Arrival Lounge pass for me because they insists I'm "transit pax" so I am not eligible for Arrival Lounge, decided not to argue and when I got to HK just walk into Arrival with my boarding pass (had a 12 hour transit so went to Tung Chung for some fun.)

This time they made the boarding announcement for the club users really late because as soon as we get there they are already boarding Economy and they do away with the J class line. Not pretty as some J class pax wanted to go up ahead and got into an argument with other pax that wondered why they can cut. Luckily they are only boarding rows 50-66 and lines are the line was already short so I decided to get in line.

mayodave

As an experienced traveller you know the rules and you know the way it works but somehow you seem to get into conflict each trip or booking. I & my colleagues have been many years with CX and never encounter the problems you do

Cathay Boy

Two round trips with EWR flights now. All three 77G (one 77W because 77G went tech) planes are full in Y and Y+ and J are mostly full, looks like EWR is proving to be a great investment for CX.

Cathay Boy

Just wanted to report additional info without starting a new topic.

At check-in today overheard argument ahead of me, apparently a lady got downgraded from J to Y+ and was very not happy. When it's my turn I asked about how often that happens, and surprisingly the agent said almost everyday as ex-EWR flights are almost always sold out in J class. Also was told usually every flight is fully booked in all three classes.

Looks like EWR is a winner!

GE90-115B

Was she involuntarily downgraded or did she get "op-downed" after being op-upped. If she was holding a legitimate J ticket then is she a nobody at CX (aka with no FFP status whatsoever)?

CaptRobPhD

EWR winner, winner chicken dinner? Given the trend Cathay Boy is seeing/hearing it may be possible in the near future for EWR to see growth in freq like ORD has coming in the summer Some of that growth could be organic or it could be shifting capacity from JFK. Regardless of the source, any increase would bode well for pax as the increase is likely to focus on building the customer service aspect in order to attract and retain the clientele the airline is looking for -- it's not gonna grow simply by having full Y. CX uses a partner lounge here in Chicago but their customer service @ counter and gate is nothing like EWR. The bigger it gets the more likely it would/should be that CX feels compelled to bring in their own peeps and amenities. Maybe LAX or JFK peeps can pipe in on CX's growth there...

IncyWincy

Like the poster above said - somewhat strange that someone is downgraded.

In fact, even stranger to say downgrading happens almost everyday.

What did you mean?