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Mrs and I will be flying Cathay Pacific to the UK next year. Tickets have been booked and paid for but I’m still keen to hear what people think of them. (Comfort and service.)
Will be going via Sydney (from WLG on one of the old Qantas 737 tractors 🙁 ).
Sydney to Hong Kong on a B777-200. I understand CX still have a 3-3-3 config so we get 18″ but I also read somewhere they’re refitting to 3-4-3.
Hong Kong to Manchester will be an A350. Never been in one of those, I understand these are quite new.
Yet to fly them so interested in the response also. What was the driver for booking CX? Price?
Primarily yes. Allows us to fly in to Manchester and out of Gatwick, and an overnight stop-over each way in Hong Kong (hotel recommendations welcome, preferably less than NZ$200 per night) and came in at $1592 return pp. (Not flying until 8 Sep. originally we were hoping to go a week earlier but that was about $900 more each. Last week of European school holidays I guess.)
I haven’t flown CX or hung out in Hong Kong …… yet 🙂
When I haven’t flown a particular carrier or aircraft then I turn to you tube to get an actual feel for it. I had a quick look and there are economy reviews of CX 777-200 and their A350.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cathay+A350+economy
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cathay+777-200+economy
Will be interesting for you to compare the differences between the 2 aircraft. The older aircraft are noisier and leave you feeling a bit dried out. Sometimes I’m prone to blood noses for a few days after. It’s a good idea to buy some bottled water airside or fill your own bottle for the long flight. Just more convenient at times than flagging down a flight attendant.
Seating wise there is seat guru.
https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Cathay_Pacific_Airways/Cathay_Pacific_Airways_Boeing_777-200_B.php and just click top left corner box to switch to A350 layout and info.
I’d probably aim for the 2 seaters on the 777-200. Just hover over the seat and a pop up box should give you the pros and cons of the seats. Look over the user comments regarding seats for both aircraft and flick through the in-flight amenities icons as well. When it comes to entertainment on long hauls I think it’s good to have your own music and a few movies just in case your screen doesn’t work (as I had on a flight recently despite resets). Looks like no power in economy on your 777-200 so have devices charged prior or at least take a charger. You can even get an idea of the food offered by clicking on the links.
With regards to service, I am not a massive fan of tripadvisor but it looks like there’s some interesting info on CX – https://www.tripadvisor.co.nz/Airline_Review-d8729046-Reviews-Cheap-Flights-Cathay-Pacific
What sort of overnight stay are you doing?
– Land, go to hotel, sleep, get up next day and back to airport? Or
– Land, have time to go to city to stay and look around and most of next day and later return to airport for connection?
– Or some variant?
If we are just transiting a place then price factors in a lot more to me than how nice a hotel is and what the amenities are because I’m barely going to be there to use them. Especially if you head out for dinner then back to sleep and you’re up in the morning to leave.
Transport and location become more of an issue for me if I’m further away from the airport. However I quite like being able to step out and just wonder around and find a cool area to explore or catching a bite which generally doesn’t involve staying around airports.
Free breakfast wifi and cancellation policies are good ways to narrow down the list. These aren’t limited to the major hotels.
I haven’t flown CX or hung out in Hong Kong …… yet . When I haven’t flown a particular carrier or aircraft then I turn to you tube to get an actual feel for it. I had a quick look and there are economy reviews of CX 777-200 and their A350.
Thanks, will take a look. Never occurred to me to check youtube for reviews. Also looks like I got it wrong and it will actually be a 777-300 from SYD-HKK and back.
What sort of overnight stay are you doing? – Land, go to hotel, sleep, get up next day and back to airport? Or – Land, have time to go to city to stay and look around and most of next day and later return to airport for connection? – Or some variant?
Flight times couldn’t be much worse actually. Both there and back we’ll be arriving very early morning (5am – 7am) and departing midnightish so we’ll have roughly 40 hours there x 2. We’ll end up booking 2 x 2 night stays and hoping for early check-in or at least a bag drop-off on arrival. (Was cheaper to do it that way than the airfare extra for more favourable times would have been). The idea is to catch up on sleep and get some sightseeing in both days, and some downtime and a shower prior to the late-night departures. (Cheaper that way than buying lounge access or day-rate hotels.)
Hope you’re good at sleeping on planes! I get really jealous when the +1 knocks out. (I also get really ignored! :))
I had a wee look through a few sites for accommodation in Hong Kong and I think you’re going to be fine choosing accommodation. I’ve never been but would angle for Kowloon and Hong Kong Island I guess.
So I don’t give you useless advice how do you normally go about choosing accommodation?
Hope you’re good at sleeping on planes! I get really jealous when the +1 knocks out. (I also get really ignored! )
Glass of wine and a Zopiclone does the trick. Probably not the healthiest and it’s not quite business class but it works for me and is a hell of a lot cheaper.
I had a wee look through a few sites for accommodation in Hong Kong and I think you’re going to be fine choosing accommodation. I’ve never been but would angle for Kowloon and Hong Kong Island I guess. So I don’t give you useless advice how do you normally go about choosing accommodation?
We’ve got a stop-over each way so considering Kowloon on the way there and the island on the way back (or vice versa). Choosing hotels – typically 3 or 4 star, price is a factor, I do check reviews, mrs. would like a pool if possible (budget permitting), wouldn’t want to go much smaller than 20m2. Not concerned about free wifi(often unbearably slow). Breakfast would be handy but giving we’ll only be using it one night out of 2 it may not prove value for money. Quite would be nice (something I look for in reviews).
I do have Accor silver status, the Novotel Kowloon looks reasonably appealing.
Glass of wine and a Zopiclone does the trick. Probably not the healthiest and it’s not quite business class but it works for me and is a hell of a lot cheaper.
Ha! I’ve heard of the sleeping pill trick before but never used it, not sure why.
So I guess I’ve had some fun noseying around at accommodation in HKG and getting to know the names of a few areas. It looks like Novotel is probably what I would book with your criteria. That 20m2 criteria cuts a number of properties out, but Novotel is within budget, roomy, has breakfast included last I looked and in a popular area. Just doesn’t have your pool and I have no idea about quietness. Looks to be a small walk from the subway/train ~ 350m from Jordon. I’m seeing that for NZD 361.43 including taxes and breakky. Side bonus of Accor points.
There were a couple of other places but I am having issues after a computer ‘update’ accessing notes. One was something like harbour plaza metropolis in Hung Hom – still Kowloon I think. Very close to MTR but possibly less noisy. Has a pool, reasonable price, but no breakfast and seemed a bit dated. Can’t recall the name of the other main pick.
As an upsell Cordis also had good reviews. I think I saw it for $440NZD total for 2 nights on hotels.com in the Mong Kok region (not far north of Novotel) with an airport shuttle and close to MTR. Has everything except breakfast but didn’t really see any dodgy reviews or complaints about smells etc. I think direct it’s 460NZD and you can credit to partners.
Out of curiosity are you crediting your QF and CX flights to a frequent flyer programme?
Forgot to say you’ll find some hotel reviews on you tube also. Not all reviewers are created equal but that’s what the fast forward button is for 🙂
I’m in Hong Kong right now with family. My wife and son came up from Auckland on Cathy Pacific and found the flight and service very good overall. Feedback was typical comfort level and inflight Entertainment was fine (though naturally lots of Chinese content, and subtitles on English content). Food also shows the Chinese influence – with cup noodles available throughout most of the flight if, for instance, you’re hungry between meals.
I’ve also flown Cathay Pacific a few times myself and didn’t have any issues that I recall. Tomorrow we’ll be flying back on Air NZ.
After all this time, got back from our trip yesterday.
Overall no issues with Cathay, would fly them again depending on plane type (see below).
Flights were on-time, IFE works well and reasonable selection, food was pretty good. Service was professional and efficient, but not particularly wartm and friendly. I found this to be the case with folk in Hong Kong in general to be honest, they don’t seem to smile a lot.
Seat comfort on the A350s was about as good as can be expected, oddly it seems that some rows have more legroom than others. We also flew a couple of legs on their 777-300. First one was fine, with 3-3-3 config. Sadly they are going through re-fit and the last was on a 3-4-3. The marketers can spin it however they want, 17.2″ on long-haul is simply not wide enough.
This could well mean I’m running out of choices for my next trip and we might have to star budgeting for premium… it’s just such a big price jump from economy. Ideally there would be an in-between option with a guaranteed 18″ width and 34″ pitch at about 20% or 25% more expensive than standard economy, rather than the premium one has to pay for premium.
I stuffed up some dates for a booking so am now flying Cathay next month in PE so will get a brief taste. Hoping to be asleep for most of it.
If you’re going all the way through to the UK you could fly Air NZ and buy the twin seat so you have a seat between you and +1. The arm rests go up in economy which should negate any width issues so it’s only take off and landing you’d need to pop them down. You could possibly get cheeky and choose the row of 4 in the middle and both of you buy a twin seat so you’ll have 2 seats each or one at a time can lie across 3 seats? Dependent on flight loadings but fly low season on a Tuesday to increase your chances?
Might be a matter of looking at the seat maps a bit closer as well as I’ve seen some A380s with a seat in economy with nothing in front of it so leg room for days, and Cathays A350 I’m sure has a seat or 2 to aim for with leg room in mind.
Scootbiz can be really cheap to Singapore. They depart out of the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne (and Perth but you’re most of the way to Asia by then). They have some flights through to Athens on the 787 as well but it’s not daily. It’s something priced between economy and full service premium economy. It would mean 4 flights which might be too much hassle but it’s still an option.
There’s Air Asia X angled seat to Kuala Lumpur? Then a cheap flight economy flight through the Middle East?
Alternatively from Asia you could choose some cheaper economy flights that transit through the Middle East breaking down the flights into 6hr-ish flights which make economy more tolerable? Currently Qatar has an A350 flying out of Singapore as a day flight. The onward flight to London would likely be a red eye but you can choose whatever works for you.
China Airlines has had some deals in premium economy.
Otherwise set some fare alerts for the airlines you’re happy to fly and wait to be notified?
The other alternative is to dabble in some award flights.
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