Beijing via Hong Kong (CX/KA in Economy): Three Lounges, Two Dragons, and a Duck

[yflyer]

My flight back from Beijing to Hong Kong was also on Dragonair, except that this flight did have seat back video of the non-AVOD variety.



This really brought back memories of 1st generation Krisworld, as experienced on SQ's first Megatops and Celestars.

Nostalgia aside, IFE was an irrelevant consideration for me, as I still had several hours worth of iTunes television to watch on my iPad.

Once again food on Dragonair surpassed expectations.



The braised beef with pear was superb.

[yflyer]

Next up, in Hong Kong, before my flight back to Singapore, I tried another CX lounge, The Cabin, near gate 23.



Again, this lounge was an escalator down a level from the gates, with good tarmac views. I flew on a Friday evening, so the lounge was fairly full.



Apart from the hot food selection (about 5-6 hot dishes such as soup, noodles, meat and vegetables), they had a sandwich bar, where sandwiches were made to order, as well as a juice bar.





Many of the seats in this lounge are in the form of individual pods.





The other section of this lounge, where the Mac's were, had a fairly distinctive, clubby, ambience.



All in all, another very comfortable lounge to spend time before a flight.

But compared to the other lounges, this one did not have a noodle bar. I went back to the lounge reception and asked for directions to the nearest CX lounge with a noodle bar, and was directed to The Wing.

[yflyer]

This was becoming quite a lounge crawl through Chek Lap Kok...

I made my way to The Wing, which is close to Gate 2.



On my way to the business class section of the lounge, I noticed that the first class section was still boarded up for renovations.

The lounge did not appear to have changed much from my first visit 10 years back, but the design itself is timeless, and to me still sets the benchmark for what I would like in an airline lounge.





The lounge has great ambience, and is almost organically integrated with the rest of the airport: The lounge overlooks the departure gates and the tarmac. You are away from the hustle and bustle, but always feel that you are part of the scene, with the airport's distinctive curved ceiling above you, great tarmac views.

[yflyer]

There were several sections to this lounge.



Next up, I proceeded to the noodle bar.



This time, around dinner time, there was wider selection of dishes on offer, compared to lunch time at The Pier.



Once again, the noodles were cooked to order.

[yflyer]

Only one bowl of noodles for me this time. Next I stepped across to the next section of the lounge, where a selection of beverages and snacks were offered.

I started with a glass of Piper Heidseck, one of a large selection of beverages available.







There were also sandwiches and pastries available.



All in all, an outstanding lounge experience.

All three CX lounges were great. Of the three, my favourite remains The Wing, although if I were spending my time in the further reaches of the airport around Gates 60 and beyond, I would be perfectly happy at The Pier.

[yflyer]

My final flight of the week was on CX715 from Hong Kong to Singapore.

This was on a CX A330. It was an older aircraft, with standard 2-4-2 seating in Y and basic non-AVOD IFE.



This was a Friday evening flight, and was almost completely full.



Compared to the CX 777 I flew on the SIN-HKG leg (also an early generation product), I found the 777 Y seat to be more comfortable with greater padding, and more recline.

[yflyer]

Meal service started from the rear, which was great since I tend to prefer sitting in the back of the aircraft when returning to Singapore.

Like SQ, meal service was preceded by peanuts and a tray of water and assorted juices. The packet of nuts was even smaller than SQ's tiny packet.



Once again, there was no menu, and you were asked to make a split second decision between Asian style chicken and rice or Western pasta with tomato when they came by with the meal cart.

I opted for the Asian selection.



A couple of surprises with the dinner service. They served dessert, Haagen Daaz on the tray together with the rest of the meal, not like SQ, who serve the ice cream separately at the end. Maybe this is to give time for the ice cream to melt. I prefer SQ's style of service, which is incidently also how Dragonair does it.

The other surprise: Two chunks of watermelon? As a starter? Or as a second dessert? Are they serious? No other starter was offered. Someone may have shaved a few cents off their catering budget, but I wonder if anyone has calculated the cost in terms of impact to CX's reputation as a premium airline.

Is this the kind of cost cutting CX is resorting to? I used to think CX had a comparable Y product to SQ, but not based on this week's experience. On this route, SQ's Y product is better than CX Y in almost every way.

On the plus side, I thought the design of the cups (and plates/bowls) was very attractive.



Although the effects of cost cutting seem apparent in the Y cabin hard product and catering, in other operational respects, I believe CX remain one of the best airlines. There were no operational issues or delays encountered. Cabin crew and ground staff were all professional, courteous and efficient. And as mentioned earlier, the lounges and overall Hong Kong transit experience were great. They also have a working website. I would be very happy to fly CX in future.

At least now I know I need to bring a 1/4" headphone jack adapter on CX, and also gorge myself on noodles in the lounge before my flight.

[yflyer]

And that wraps up this trip report. A lot of ground covered (and a lot of food eaten...). Hopefully the lounge crawl and food pix make up for the lack of any really interesting content around the actual aircraft and hard products on this trip...

I ended my previous two trip reports with a window shot, so in keeping with this tradition, here is a shot after landing at Chek Lap Kok, with its breathtaking scenery and islands surrounding the airport.



Thanks for reading!

[SQGamespeed]

Great TR yflyer! I too am surprised that food and hard product on Dragonair could be this good (and better than CX)! I remember flying it from HKG to PVG vv on the older A330s with no IFE, no menus, and marginally edible food. And I concur the Wing tends to be better than the other two lounges but I also like the Pier due the great views of the apron.

[yflyer]

Thanks, SQGamespeed. I was also pleasantly surprised at how good the Dragonair food was. Yes, the apron views at the Pier are great.

[Kyo]

The braised beef with pear was superb.

Pear with beef strikes me as an odd (but adventurous) combination. And the menu calls it 'Pear steamed rice'.

What do they do? Turn plain white rice into 'rice with pear flavour'?

[yflyer]

When I read the menu, I also wasn't sure at first if it was (Braised Beef Brisket with Pear) (Steamed Rice) or (Braised Beef Brisket) (with Pear Steamed Rice)...but the rice tasted normal, so it must have been the former.

Imaginative though, and tasted pretty good. The pear flavour was quite subtle, And didn't mess up the dish the way some fusion cuisine can.