Great pics and report! ^^

Hong Kong to Seoul – Cathay Pacific 747-400 – Long Haul Business
 

Flight: CX418
Carrier: Cathay Pacific
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Departure time: 14:05 pm
Duration: 3h 30m
Arrival time: 18:35 pm (local)
Routing: Hong Kong (HKG) – Seoul (ICN)
Class: Business (Long Haul Product)
Seat: 14A (although I ended up sitting in 15A)

The Hong Kong airport authority have it pretty well sewn up. What happens if you have to be out of your hotel in the morning but your flight isn’t until later in the day? You’d have to leave your luggage at the hotel which means that before going to the airport you’d have to travel back to your hotel to collect it. There’s a solution to this in Hong Kong, the in-town check in. These check in desks are only available to Airport Express ticket holders (but since that is the most efficient way of getting to the airport you’d be mad not to take it anyway). The desks are run by the airport and every airline is represented. You check in as normal, depositing your checked luggage and obtaining your boarding pass. This means that you can maximise your time before your flight.

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Entrance to the in-town check in

After purchasing my Airport Express ticket I proceeded through the barrier and made my way to the Cathay Pacific business class desk. I checked in as normal and obtained my boarding pass and lounge invitation. I then went out through the barriers and out into Central with my friends. The morning was spent wandering around the streets of Central and visiting a local temple. At about 11.30 I said goodbye to my friends and jumped onto the Airport Express train at Central station. I arrived at the airport approx 20 minutes later. No need to queue up for check in so I headed straight for security and immigration, both were quick.

Now it was time to find the famous Cathay Pacific lounges. I wanted to try out both the Wing and the Pier, little did I know however that they were so far apart from each other! A bit of prior planning on my part would have helped me here. I had no idea where the lounges were and the signs weren’t great, simply pointing to ‘Lounges’, no specific mention of which lounges or which airlines. I asked an agent at the information desk where the Wing was located and she pointed me in the direction of gates 1-4. The Wing is located on an upper mezzanine level, overlooking the departure gates. I presented my lounge invitation and was invited to step into the lift to go up to the lounge. My expectations were high, having heard a lot about the two Cathay Pacific lounges on Flyertalk. Perhaps these expectations were too high because despite the unique setting of the Wing (overlooking the departure gates) I found it a little plain and somehow enclosed. Perhaps it was the use of grey marble that gave it a very cold feel.

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Seating area in the Wing

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View from the balcony

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Computer work area

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The Long Bar

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The Noodle Bar

One thing to say about the Wing though, it’s massive. It would take you a good couple of minutes to make your way from one end to the other. There are no less than two full service bars (the Long Bar and the Short bar), a noodle bar where hot food is freshly prepared to order, several computer and business work areas, showers, a gaming room and plenty of seating areas. I had a good look around and the Noodle bar was certainly the busiest area and I can understand why. I spent probably 30-45 minutes in the Wing before deciding to head out to find the Pier. This was located near gate 63. The gate for my flight to Seoul was 67 so it made perfect sense to spend my remaining time at the Pier. Getting to gate 63 on foot would have been quite a trek (I was to find this out on my return leg) so a train shuttle service is provided. A quick hop on the train and a short walk and I was standing outside the entrance to the Pier.

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The escalators down to the Pier

I made my way down the escalator and was given a very warm welcome in the large white marble reception area by the two ladies working on reception. My first impressions on entering the Pier were ‘this is more like it’. The Pier has a much cosier feel to it, it is more enclosed, there are softer furnishings and the use of white marble makes for a warmer atmosphere.

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Seating area in the Pier

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Seating area in the Pier

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Seating area in the Pier

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The Bar

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Coffee area near the bar

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The Noodle Bar

I was quite hungry at this point so made my way over to the Noodle bar. There were three different types of noodles on offer, all freshly prepared as well as sandwiches, cakes etc. I remember thinking that this would have to be the best food offering in any lounge that I had visited in the past. I placed an order for Dan Dan Mien noodles which were in a spicy satay sauce and was given a buzzer. I went over to the bar to order a glass of champagne when the buzzer went off. I sat down in the noodle bar to tuck into my noodles. They were fantastic, but incredibly spicy.

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Dan Dan Mien Noodles – fantastic

After finishing these I went over to see what desert options were on offer. There were several cakes to choose from so I picked up some vanilla cake and fresh cream cake.

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Cakes

Again these were both delicious. Soon after, my flight was called for boarding so I made my way upstairs to the gate.

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My ride to Seoul

Boarding had already started so I made my way to the First and Business class queue, which was very short. My boarding pass was scanned and then I was invited to board. Boarding for First and Business class passengers took place through a separate air bridge which was hooked up to door 1. Economy passengers boarded through door 2.

I should point out at this point that being able to travel long haul business class on a relatively short regional service was a real treat. Cathay seem to use a multitude of aircraft on this route including both regional and long haul configurations.

Walking down the air bridge I was already pretty excited. I’d seen lots of photos online of the Cathay Pacific business class product (and also read the complaints) so I was really interested to try it out for myself. First impressions were very good.

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My seat, (although it was actually 15A not 14A)

The mood lighting was activated which made the cabin very welcoming. I stored my bag in the dedicated locker above my seat and then sat down. Almost immediately I was offered a drink, aside from the usual three options of Champagne, orange juice and water there was also a kiwi fruit based non-alcoholic cocktail which looked rather nice. I chose the champagne and sat down to read my newspaper while the other passengers boarded.

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View from 15A

The seat was very comfortable and didn’t seem claustrophobic, certainly it seemed no different to a lower deck BA business class seat in terms of width. I’d just started to get settled when an American lady came along looking a little confused, it turns out that I was sitting in her seat 15A. I’d actually been allocated 14A, next to her. No bother, we just agreed to swap so I stayed where I was.

I started to explore the features of the seat and found the headphones on a little holder behind me to the left of the seat, there was also some extra room behind the seat which would become available when the seat was reclined. This served as a useful shelf to store my camera. This seemed to be a feature of the window seats as I’m not sure that the seats in the middle of the cabin had this additional storage space. A little more digging around revealed the magazine pocket and a hole to hold a water bottle.

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15D

The English Captain came over the PA to announce the short flight time of 2 hours 52 minutes and also to inform us of a short delay while we waited for a large group that were still to board. Around this time, one of the crew members came along to hand out immigration cards for Korea as well as a leaflet advertising the duty free offerings. I thought that this was a little tacky actually, I wonder if they did this in first class too?

Soon we were pushing back and the safety demo started. A funny quirk of the angle of the seat meant that I could watch the safety video on the screen of the person opposite me. Given the angle of the seat it is necessary for all passengers in business class to fasten a shoulder belt in addition to the lap belt. After the safety demonstration the crew made their way through the cabin ensuring that each passenger had fastened both belts correctly.

Take off was smooth although it did feel a little weird taking off seated at an angle. As soon as the seat belt signs were off the senior purser made her way through the cabin greeting each passenger by name and presenting the menu and wine list for the flight. I was very impressed by the size and quality of both of these.

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Lunch menu and wine list (resting on my knees to give a sense of scale)


I was surprised that a full 3 (or 5 depending on what counts as a course) course meal would be served on this short flight.

The service started with drinks which were served from a trolley by the senior purser and one other crew member. The service started at the front of the cabin on the A side and then moved to the front of the K side. Passengers were always addressed by name and wines were presented a poured for tasting. I’ve never seen this level of service in business class before. I ordered a Pacific Sunrise champagne cocktail which had to be prepared in the galley. It was quickly presented to me with warm nuts.

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Pacific Sunrise and warm nuts

The main lunch service then started with the crew extending the substantial tables and laying a linen table cloth. The starter and salad were presented on the same tray along with the cutlery and individual salt and pepper pots. A selection of warm breads was then presented.

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Salad and prawn starter

The food was very well presented and I liked the little touches such as the salt and pepper pots and the style and quality of the crockery. What I didn’t like was the duty free advert attached to my cutlery. Again, I found this tacky. The prawn starter and the salad were very good and I was soon onto the main. These were served from a cart, with the choices laid out on top of the cart so that each passenger could preview what was available. I selected the sweet and sour pork and also asked for some chop sticks as these were not provided in the cutlery set. This is the first time that I’ve used chopsticks on board an aircraft before.

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Sweet and sour pork

I have to tell you that the main was a complete let down. The meat was quite dry and chewy and the rice was also rather dry. I would have though that an Asian airline would have been able to get the rice right, but they didn’t. Frankly, the food that I’d had previously with Qantas in economy on the A380 and in premium economy on the 747 was several standards higher than what was presented as a business class product on this flight.

During the main service the purser ensured that everyone’s wine glasses were kept topped up. Amazingly, she remembered everyone’s names and wine choices. I was very impressed with the level of service again. Each time the wine was poured the bottle was again presented to the passenger.

After the main was cleared away the cheese and desert trolley was presented. There was a large choice of freshly prepared fruit and a selection of three cheeses which were presented as blocks with little flags indicating what they were. You could have both if you so wished (take note BA) but I decided to stick with the cheese.

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Cheese and biscuits

The cheese was delicious. Soon after, yet more food was offered in the form of Hagen-Daz ice cream. Three flavours were on offer, Strawberry, Chocolate and Vanilla.

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Hagen-Daz ice cream

I was pretty much stuffed at this point but just to make sure one of the crew came round with a box of pralines and I had a couple of these (I had to try everything!). Once I’d finished my table was quickly cleared away.

During dinner I’d set up the IFE and decided to watch ‘Public Enemies’. The screen in business class is absolutely huge, 15 inches wide. The screen itself was very high resolution and the hand set had it’s own colour screen showing the flight number and the time remaining. This was a great little touch because it meant that there was no need to stop the film to find out what the remaining flight time was.

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Huge 15" IFE screen

There was a very good selection of films and TV programmes to choose from although it turned out that some of the older films were not presented in widescreen which was disappointing.

Prior to landing I decided to grab a couple of shots of the cabin.

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The main deck business class cabin

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The business class self service bar

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The colourful stairs to the upper deck (these changed colour in sync with the mood lighting)

Our landing into Seoul was reasonably smooth but I could certainly see why the shoulder strap was required during the deceleration. Dual airbridges were quickly attached and I was off the plane and out into the modern airport that is Incheon. We had to take a short train ride to reach immigration and baggage claim, both were quick.

I was quickly outside and looking for the taxi rank. Damn it was cold! I’d gone from 23 degrees to -10 in less than three hours, shame, my holiday was behind me.

The taxi ride took about an hour and I checked into my hotel, The Intercontinental Seoul Coex before meeting up with my colleagues for a few beers in the Sky lounge.

Overall Impressions

My first experience of Cathay Pacific’s long haul business class product was excellent. The seat was great, very comfortable, the IFE was amazing, the service was absolutely immaculate. On the negative side, the food could have definitely been better. While the starter was good the main was pretty poor. I also found the cabin a bit crowded as it seemed like we were packed in to what was quite a small cabin area.

Compared to BA I found the service to be better, much more attentive and personal. The overall presentation was better, with high quality stylised crockery and glassware. I also liked the fact that more choice was made available for the meals (i.e. you can have all three desert options if you wish).

I’ll discuss these comparisons more in my Hong Kong to London leg later.

good report so far with great pics ^ Your Aus adventures looked quite fun

Excellent report and pictures Matt.

I was in HK over Christmas and you could barely see the island from TST at some times.

For as long as I can remember CX have had little advertising cards attached to the peg on the cutlery. In the past it has been advertising new flights and such. I never take any notice of them any more. ;)

Re the lounge in SYD you will just have to strive to get a Gold card and go back. The F lounge has great views over the apron. :p

Terrific report ... I have travelled in 80A before and it's a great seat (especially when there's no-one beside you). If that was your only economy long haul flight then you have done really well. ^

To say the least ...

(of course the F Lounge Cuisine is an order of magnitude better ...)

Matt, what a fantastic trip report - I very rarely read the detail of the 'ground time' rather preferring to read about the flights, however yours has been an exception.

Very interesting indeed, thanks!

Thanks Moomba. I've seen lots of photos of the F lounge and it looks truly stunning. I'd thought that Qantas might have put a little more effort in the J offering, hence my expectations were so high. I think that a Gold card would be great, I just need to convince my company and my wallet to fly me a little more in 2010!

Thanks serfty. Yes, I was pretty lucky to only have one long haul economy flight out of the three that I'd booked. Thanks again to my Oneworld status.


Thanks freofan! Glad that you enjoyed reading it. These things take a hell of a lot of effort to put together so it's nice to get comments like that. :)

Fabulous trip report Matt, and thanks for including the links to your previous trip reports - I missed them when they were initially posted. They are great reads and your 64K one reminded me why it is still my favourite seat in CW.

I now really really want to visit Hong Kong!

I also find the J lounge a bit disappointing. It somehow lacks the flair and character present in other hub lounges. And the layout is somewhat confusing. But maybe that's just me :P

Great report and awesome pics!

What type of camera do you use?

QFBoy

Superlative TR! Thank you very much for sharing it with us.

Thanks! Yes, 64K is still my favourite too. I don't think that it can be easily beaten, not even by a CX upper deck seat, more on that later.

iPhone (rubbish!) and for the Cathay legs and 'ground' pictures I used my Nikon D300 paired with the Nikon 18-200mm VR lens, which is about 1000 times better than the terrible iPhone camera!

Excellent! Can´t wait to read your HKG-LHR report.

Brilliant TR! Looking forward to the final leg

Have you done the return journey yet matthandy?