The Best First Class of CX?
 

Is there a particular CX flight and aircraft that I should be looking for when it comes to experience on the best first class of CX?

Thx

Any long haul 777. They're all the same.

A flight served by the older crew - not that you have any way of knowing, unless you're a CX insider. Since the hard product is the same, its the crew that will make a good flight exceptional, or an average one, poor.

As far as lounge goes, if you have connection in Hong Kong close to 24 hours, are you allowed to use the lounge instead of getting a hotel? Or the lounge has operating hours too?

One flight wise, perhaps the 889 all the way from JFK?:D

Yuck. Hate the stop. IMO, the best flight in F (ignoring the quality of the crew) is going to be either a LH on a 744 (not exactly available any more) or the longest possible uninterrupted flight on a 77W. I think that that's now going to be between JFK and HKG.

+1. The YVR stop sucks! But, it sucks even more on 888 imo (waiting in purgatory for an hour after flying for 12 hours simply isn't cool).

The stop in YVR sucks. Avoid it if possible.

Why is it so terrible? I assume all passengers must disembark?

Don't do this unless you're a total cheapskate*.

Hong Kong is a pretty effortless place to go into the city for an overnight stay for transit. Hotels are not cheap (Hong Kong is similarly priced to New York), but there are options that are reasonably priced if you look around enough. Hotwire and Priceline often have options, and I'm fond of the Ibis Sheung Wan (right next to the A11 airport bus stop) as a reasonable transit hotel option, though it's nothing very fancy (fancy in Hong Kong costs money). The Regal iClub Wan Chai can sometimes be had for $100, and is adequate for the trick of an overnight stay.

Let me fix that spelling for you. :D

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=cathay+hong+kong+lounge+hours#

A stop at 2 am in the morning (when you really want to be sleeping) is pretty awful.

*If you're a total cheapskate, why would you spend miles or cash for one F trip when you can get two or more Y trips with what you spend on F? It seems silly to blow a wad of miles for the F experience and then hang around an airport eating lounge food that's far inferior to what you can get in town, and sleeping in chairs.

D'oh! :eek: :o But, with the power of the big G, the first result still answers the question! :)

On 888 from HKG, yes. And you have to wait in a pretty sterile (in two senses of the word) lounge. There are vending machines, bathrooms and wi-fi, but not much else. I honestly didn't think it was that bad. I wasn't tired, having just slept plenty on the HKG-YVR leg, so it was a good time to catch up on emails and stuff.

On 889 from JFK, you stay on board. It's a bit of a disruption because it's very late at night (a bit worse in the summer than the winter due to DST timings). That said, the more time in F the better, even if it involves being rudely awaken, so I quite like 889 (though it was better on the 744...). And I also like the timing of 888.

Both of which is blocked in China, so you guys are no help there. :p

Do you really not have a VPN? (As a Nexus user, I couldn't fathom getting by without Google.)

I do, but it's a hassle using it every time I want to access some blocked site. I have already learned to just live without blocked things.

For my Google stuff (like apps on my Android phone), I visit Hong Kong/Singapore enough that my apps and such are up to date. For other Google stuff like Gmail, well I have a US phone that's always roaming, so nothing really blocked on that.

Ah. In my case, so much of my phone (e.g. almost everything location based, bookmarks, calender, all email accounts, even the camera) depends on Google apps that it is almost functionally useless sans VPN. Apologies for getting off topic...

I also avoid this route but ... (and i'm guessing here) I suspect OP is going to use his/her AA/AS miles in which case OP should go for this route because on a return ticket, I think OP will get four sets of amenities and four sets of PJs (and therefore four gifts from PYE)? You know ... 'maximizing' the benefits. ;)

Absolutely agree. We had that a year ago, on top of that we had to have several hours layover at JFK as the CX arrival is barely over an hour for the AA connection in another terminal! We vowed NEVER do it again.

i do not remember they hand out PJs again on the YVR-JFK portion.

In any case on our last crossing SFO-HKG//HKG-DPS, spouse did not want to take the PJ and just left the package on the plane (when flying he prefers sleeping in shorts than in the PJ and never changes into PJ in flight.) I only found that out after the fact. We never go to PYE for the "gifts" - Exactly what it is?

It's a box of pocket squares for men. I don't know what's for women. But if you don't use it, it's just a discount coupon if you buy something else in their store. I'm not sure if its worth the trip just to pick up the gift.

Agreed. I learned that lesson the hard way, myself.....but before that stop, man was that the best! :D