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Heaven in the Queen of the Sky - Cathay F from HKG to LHR in F
I flew from Hong Kong to London Heathrow on CX 257 last week and happened the only passenger in the first class cabin, so I took the opportunity to take a few more pictures and decided to write a short trip report on one of the world’s best first class products on the “Queen of the Sky.” Since there are many reports out there about CX, this report will hopefully be short and I will concentrate on the pictures.
April 9, 2012
CX 257 Hong Kong to London Heathrow Lv1005 Arr1600 Boeing 747-400 B-HKE
Ground service:
One of the weakest spot on Cathay Pacific first class is perhaps their ground service (although I will argue Singapore Airlines scores lower in this area with really horrible check-in and lounge agents). For a local Hong Kong resident, the departure experience is efficient even without flying premium class. I checked in at the Hong Kong Airport Express station in Central the evening before and got my boarding pass issued and baggage all checked in. On the day of departure, I took the Airport Express to the airport and proceeded to Terminal Two for immigration and custom. Terminal Two is not really a separate terminal, but another check-in area to handle more airlines, mostly LCCs and foreign airlines. Thai Airways is the only major airline that uses Terminal Two. Regardless, the traffic is always lighter there and the only annoying aspect is an additional train ride to the main terminal and changing train if your flight departs from the 40-60 gates. The time saved at immigration and custom honestly makes it worthwhile. Terminal Two is really quiet this morning and I got through the e-gate and custom with no queue.
I went to the Pier first class lounge, since the Wing is closed. Gate 30 is closed enough to the Pier. No pictures since it has been discussed widely here. Anyway, the lounge was fairly busy since it was Monday, but I was able to find a table in the dining area, and subsequently at the main seating area. Service was good as usual.
The inbound flight arrived a bit late from Taipei this morning, but B-HKE, one of the second-hand Boeing 747s bought from Singapore Airlines, ran only slightly late in terms of boarding.
B-HKE busy at gate 30
Boarding began late at 9:45am and priority boarding was strictly enforced. A word about the loading – only one in first, half full in business, and almost full in economy…
The purser greeted me at the entrance and Wendy immediately escorted me to my seat, 1A, and Wuling and Sacha, the other two F/As, did the other pre-takeoff service – beverage, amenity kit, and pajama. Newspapers were already set up the console area and two UK papers were available – the Guardian and Independence (but not sure), along with the usual Hong Kong papers and global English papers.
Door was finally closed at 10:11am and we pushed back two minutes later. After an Mandarin Airlines’ EMB-190 B-186251 took off, we took our turn at R/W7R and lifted off at 10:33am for our twelve hours and thirty-three minutes flight to Heathrow.
Here is our routing:
310-Shaoguan-Wuhan-320-Taiyuan-Gobi Desert-Barnaul-340-Omsk-Western Siberian Lowland-Tyumen-Artyomovsky-Yekarterinburg-Perm-360-St. Petersburg-380-Narva-Kuressaare-Salme-Ronneby Airport-Malmo-Suderdeich-Norden-Drachten-Bakkum-Maylandsea-LHR
Over Gobi Desert
Over Western Siberian Lowland
Towards St Petersburg
I flew from Hong Kong to London Heathrow on CX 257 last week and happened the only passenger in the first class cabin, so I took the opportunity to take a few more pictures and decided to write a short trip report on one of the world’s best first class products on the “Queen of the Sky.” Since there are many reports out there about CX, this report will hopefully be short and I will concentrate on the pictures.
April 9, 2012
CX 257 Hong Kong to London Heathrow Lv1005 Arr1600 Boeing 747-400 B-HKE
Ground service:
One of the weakest spot on Cathay Pacific first class is perhaps their ground service (although I will argue Singapore Airlines scores lower in this area with really horrible check-in and lounge agents). For a local Hong Kong resident, the departure experience is efficient even without flying premium class. I checked in at the Hong Kong Airport Express station in Central the evening before and got my boarding pass issued and baggage all checked in. On the day of departure, I took the Airport Express to the airport and proceeded to Terminal Two for immigration and custom. Terminal Two is not really a separate terminal, but another check-in area to handle more airlines, mostly LCCs and foreign airlines. Thai Airways is the only major airline that uses Terminal Two. Regardless, the traffic is always lighter there and the only annoying aspect is an additional train ride to the main terminal and changing train if your flight departs from the 40-60 gates. The time saved at immigration and custom honestly makes it worthwhile. Terminal Two is really quiet this morning and I got through the e-gate and custom with no queue.
I went to the Pier first class lounge, since the Wing is closed. Gate 30 is closed enough to the Pier. No pictures since it has been discussed widely here. Anyway, the lounge was fairly busy since it was Monday, but I was able to find a table in the dining area, and subsequently at the main seating area. Service was good as usual.
The inbound flight arrived a bit late from Taipei this morning, but B-HKE, one of the second-hand Boeing 747s bought from Singapore Airlines, ran only slightly late in terms of boarding.
B-HKE busy at gate 30
Boarding began late at 9:45am and priority boarding was strictly enforced. A word about the loading – only one in first, half full in business, and almost full in economy…
The purser greeted me at the entrance and Wendy immediately escorted me to my seat, 1A, and Wuling and Sacha, the other two F/As, did the other pre-takeoff service – beverage, amenity kit, and pajama. Newspapers were already set up the console area and two UK papers were available – the Guardian and Independence (but not sure), along with the usual Hong Kong papers and global English papers.
Door was finally closed at 10:11am and we pushed back two minutes later. After an Mandarin Airlines’ EMB-190 B-186251 took off, we took our turn at R/W7R and lifted off at 10:33am for our twelve hours and thirty-three minutes flight to Heathrow.
Here is our routing:
310-Shaoguan-Wuhan-320-Taiyuan-Gobi Desert-Barnaul-340-Omsk-Western Siberian Lowland-Tyumen-Artyomovsky-Yekarterinburg-Perm-360-St. Petersburg-380-Narva-Kuressaare-Salme-Ronneby Airport-Malmo-Suderdeich-Norden-Drachten-Bakkum-Maylandsea-LHR
Over Gobi Desert
Over Western Siberian Lowland
Towards St Petersburg
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