We are flying business class on several CX flights, and I'm looking for guidance on specific seating. My flights are as follows:

A34C YVR-HKG
A330 HKG-BNE
A333 SYD-HKG
74J HKG-LAX

We are a party of five, so I'm more interested in rows to avoid, as opposed to seats. Thanks all.

glenngpr, just a word of caution, the HKG/BNE flights are operated using a regional business class product. It is a comfortable product (like the old long haul business class) but with reduced seat pitch.

As I can see, all your other flights will have the new lie-flat seats and they are FANTASTIC - you will enjoy them! Great airline and service. The lounge product in HKG is simply outstanding. The Pier will be closed when you visit but in the future, make sure you visit this lounge. The Wing has been voted as the best airline lounge in the world by the Forbes magazine.

As for seats, I recommend the following:

A34C YVR-HKG: 11 and 15 AC, DG, HK
A330 HKG-BNE: Seats 15, 16, 17 AC, DG, HK
A333 SYD-HKG: Seats 12AC, DG and HK
74J HKG-LAX: 81AC, 86AC and HK (Upper Deck)

The service onboard Cathay Pacific's Business Class is top notch. What frequent flyer status do you have with oneworld? If you are oneworld Emerald, then you will be invited to the Cathay Pacific First Class lounge which is a fantastic experience.

I look forward to reading your trip report. When do you fly?




[This message has been edited by oneworld Fan (edited 06-21-2003).]

Take a look at http://www.seatexpert.com/CX744B.html for the seatmaps.

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International airlines seat desirability map

Curiously, no 74J that I have flown on has had a row 85, although the CX website (and the so-called SeatExpert) erroneously show that as the exit row.

The planes and the real booking systems all have the exit row as row 86.

I feel this tells us all we need to know about the reliability of OWF's pontifications.

I am curious to know how s/he also knows that The Pier will still be closed since we have no indication here of the date of travel, nor, as far as I am aware, any announcement from CX on when it will reopen (the website says end of May, but it was still closed 10 days ago).

[This message has been edited by christep (edited 06-21-2003).]

christep,

What are you going on about? Please explain. Clarify yourself.

Give me a break here as I am trying to assist someone. No need to be attacking me in this manner.

Oneworld fan,

Thank you so much for your insight. It is greatly appreciated.

I am not traveling until Christmas time, but now is the time to pre-reserve seats--hence the questions.

I am an AA EXP, which places me in the Emerald classification.

I do have one more question. Since there are five in my party, I was looking at the lower deck in the 747. Any seat recommendations there?

Again thanks.

What I'm going on about is that you are recommending a non-existent row. There is no row 85 on the Cathay 74J aircraft.

If you had ever flown upstairs in a 74J you would know this. So we can deduce that your knowledge is based purely on reading websites rather than really travelling.

I note that you have now edited your post to try to cover up your original error, but you can see in my previous post what you originally wrote.

[This message has been edited by christep (edited 06-21-2003).]

glenngpr,

Since there are five of you travelling on the CX flight, the following are my recommendations on the main deck seating on a 747-400:

11 AC and DEG

IF you are unable to obtain the centre seats of 11 DEG (these are the the only business class bassinet positions, they are subjected to airport re-assignment at the last minute to family travelling with toddlers).

The second option would be to take 11 AC, 12 AC and one single seat in the aisle 12D.

I hope this info helps.

I travel extensively with CX and SQ and found CX's service to be the best.

As you are a Emerald member of oneworld, then you are granted access to CX's First Class lounge. You may invite 2 more guests so therefore, you can take 3 people in total. As there are 5 passengers travelling with you, 2 will be access to business class lounges unless your partner is also an Emerald member.

If 2 of you are Emerald members, then it should be okay for all of you to access the First Class lounge at all CX/oneworld ports.

Please advise.

in fact, I think only CX Emerald's (i.e. MPO Diamond/Invitation) can bring 2 guests into CX First Class lounges...Emerald's with other OW programs can only bring 1 guest with them...in general this is the rule, Emerald's can access any OW first class lounges with one guest...individual programs might set a more liberal rule for their own Emerald's / top tiers into their own lounges, but it's usually not extended to Emerald's of other programs...

but I agree that if 2 of the 5 are Emerald's, then the CX staff would probably be nice enough to give the flexibility to let the 5th one in...but if only one is Emerald, then it really depends...

We're traveling as a family, so access to the Business Class lounge would more than suffice, particularly since we only have 90 minutes or so between flights.

Looking forward to CX, visting Hong Kong, and returning to Australia.

I also have a seat question, as the topic title would indicate, but this would be in economy... I'm going JFK-YVR at the end of August, aircraft is B74J, and I have seat 36A in both directions...seatmaps at Cathay Pacific and Seat Expert both show this as first row of Economy in the back part of the cabin shared with Business Class.

I would think this would be a good seat, but the CX map indicates most of that row open while most of the 15 rows behind are taken, which makes me wonder if there is anything wrong with it that I'm not aware of? Or do they just tend to keep them open for FFs (I'm in AA's FF program but have no status), and I just got lucky? Massive leg room is not an issue with me, I'm 5'3" with very short legs.

On the 747 I like the forward section of the upper. I would not sit aft of 86 (exit row). I feel 87, 88 are to near the lavatory.