Well, I just ticketed and had to go with 883. It was an award and 881 was no longer available. I may call back from time to time to see if it opens up.

In any case, it is so wonderful (read sarcasm) to deal with the AAdvantage desk. The agent starts assigning seats and gives me row 12 on 883. I kindly ask if I could have the upper deck and her reply is, "that is the upper deck". Of course there is no use arguing, so I will just call back in a couple of days and ask for seat assignments in the 80s.

This will be my first CX experience, so I'm sure I will enjoy it.

As for the possible unscheduled stop, I am assuming everyone stays on the plane. I say this because my wife would need a visa to stop in Seoul or any other non-HK destination.

Yes. Upper deck begins with row 80/81. Perhaps you can ask the agent what rows are available then?

Even if the aircraft makes an unscheduled stop and passengers have to disembark, CX will take care of all the arrangements regarding passports that require visas. I had an experience when our flight was diverted to TPE due to a typhoon in HKG. Many passengers required a visa for Taiwan... but CX took care of all the land arrangements and basically took everyone's passports for 'safekeeping' till we departed again.

881/883 Late AGAIN
 

Looking at flight status, 881/883 scheduled for arrival into HKG on 12/18 are both expected to arrive late....I guess headwinds are very strong lately....

I'm taking 881 tonight and hope that it doesn't get delayed....as the immediate connection 713 to BKK is the ONLY flight with F(!) and the next flight with J is at 2PM (!!).....

I'm taking 881 tonight and hope that it doesn't get delayed....as the immediate connection 713 to BKK is the ONLY flight with F(!) and the next flight with J is at 2PM (!!).....[/QUOTE]

So did you make it?

Have a great time in Thailand, I was there for the first time last month, and loved the country...

It looks like both 883 from LAX and 873 from SFO are going to be visiting Inchon again in a couple of hours. It also looks like there have been a couple of days where if you were connecting off of 883 you would be OK, but even more where the connection is blown.

I'm taking 883 on Friday night on my to BKK and am mentally preparing myself for the ICN stop and misconnect. The next CX flight to BKK isn't until 14:25, while there is a CI flight at 11:40 (not my first choice) and a TG flight at 12:45 (which I would take).

So did you make it?

Have a great time in Thailand, I was there for the first time last month, and loved the country...[/QUOTE]

Yup!!! Even ahead by 20 minutes! Intersetingly though, the 883 flight on the same evening (departure 12/17) stopped in ICN and the 881 flight I was on arrived ahead of schedule.

On board, the Purser commented to me that "ALWAYS take 881, because it's going to be on time 99% of the time, while 883 will always have to stop in ICN." Seems to me that the technical stop is intentionally scheduled.

Also, caviar is back on all flights in F. A colleague who took F SFO-HKG on 12/22 also had caviar on board.

Another great note: on board my 881 flight, I was served a personal bottle of the highly hyped Ch. Lynch Bages 1995, which even the Purser commented is "odd" to see as they have pretty much depleted the stock and are serving Branaire Ducru 1996 as described on the list. Also, Tiganello was available. It was great making Mimosa with Krug before arrival..... :D

On my flight to BKK, it was great making Mimosa with Deutz Cuvee William..... :p

Yes I made the connection, but just barely as we did fuel stop at TPE. I have a couple other things to mention about the trip which I'll do in another post.

Well, I was supposed to be on 883 but ended up on 881 due to AA being late. Ended up on the lower deck on 881 since I had to take what seats were left. In any case, still an excellent flight in both directions. I am now hooked on CX for life.

CX starts its afternoon ex-LAX flight, flying 3x/week in July. It goes to 7x/week in August. I'm looking forward to flying it when I'm awake and can actually enjoy the food in F.

I'm going to be on CX884 in July as well - that one is the early (1:20PM) afternoon flight out of HKG that makes up CX885 (also coincidently the 1:20PM flight from LAX). I'll be curious to see if there is anything different in the service with the earlier departure. The one difference that I did see is that the flight is operated with a standard 744, not the 74J with the larger J class.

883
 

Last night was my first time on 883 (usually on 881) and we had no headwinds so landed at 4:25 am (1:15 early). Smooth flight, but getting into HKG before the Airport Express starts left several with the dilema of sitting around or paying for a cab (I took a cab and got in a nap before work).

881 wouldn't put you in this "dilema"...

I will be taking the LAX-HKG-BKK flight leaving LAX in the afternoon on AUG 6. Will report back on connections, flights, meals etc. at that time

This is not at all unusual. The pilots, flight planners, and meteorologist have spoken and decided with weight, fuel, headwind, and other considerations that an intermediate stop is necessary. During the flight, if the fuel burn/headwinds are less than expected, the pilots might be able to eliminate the intermediate stop.

Think about it! I would rather have an intermediate stop planned rather than have the pilots decide that they are running low on fuel and must make an "emergency" stop.

That being said, I have no idea why Cathay chooses to put all the cargo on one of the flights rather than the other.

hi
 

i will be taking LAX- HKG-MNL on August 6 as well.......... what flight u taking on august 6?

oh the afternoon flight huh?
 

well u have to stay overnight in hkg right? i will getting the lax-hkg-mnl then on august 10-12 me and my cousin will go to bkk via PAL. ( MNL-BKK -MNL )