Cathay Pacific Airlines
Of all the airlines that we have planned to use for the round the world trip, I think we probably looked forward to Cathay Pacific the most. Over the years we had heard lots about the Asian carriers and their reputation for cleanliness and service and we've always wanted to try them. Indeed one of the reasons we went with the oneworld Alliance was that it included Cathay. And can I say unequivocally right now that I'm glad we did? Yes, I can!
We loved Cathay. I considered burning the house in Colorado to the ground, taking the insurance money, and moving to somewhere in Asia so we can use Cathay as our airline of choice all the time. If Cathay ever offers the option, like cruise ships, of living aboard full time we might do that too. Cathay, like Virgin Atlantic, has now joined our pantheon of airlines that most closely approximate what it was like to fly during the Golden Age of air travel. At least in our fevered imaginations, as both of us were a mite young to experience it. Really.
We checked in at JFK a couple of hours before our flight was due to depart, mainly because I'm one of those people who hates to be late and rush and get all flustered and sweaty and stuff. Insofar as schedules are concerned, Mary is a lot more laissez faire than I. Arriving at the gate with two minutes till boarding starts doesn't faze her at all. I'd be having palpitations. Since Cathay doesn't have their own lounge in JFK, we were given passes with directions to the British Airlines Terraces lounge in the terminal. Free beer and finger sandwiches!
As usual, Mary requested that I show some decorum and not try to guzzle all the beer myself. It was a challenge but I was able to resist the impulse. I did however, with some help from my fellow passengers I'm sure, manage to exhaust the stocks of at least one or two varieties of beer on the flight. In my defense, the flight was fifteen hours long and they do say that it's important to drink a lot and stay hydrated. I tend to ignore that part at the end where they say that alcohol isn't that good an idea. Worrywarts.
After an hour partaking the bounteous benefits of the lounge we received the message to board the aircraft and made our way to the gate, at which point we noticed that there weren't any people standing around in the gate area. Apparently they board all the Economy passengers first and then the First and Business Class passengers. I guess this is so we don't have to rub shoulders with unwashed or something. And to top it off, there was a separate boarding jetway for us too. I'm thinking - Hey, I can get used to this!
The new First Class suites on Cathay are pretty phenomenal. Here are some pictures from Cathay's site. I don't think we ever thought we'd be able to sit in one of these, and without the oneworld Alliance Round the World tickets, I'm pretty sure we'd never be able to. A normal single First Class fare for the JFK-HKG flight alone normally costs more than the total for the pair of Round the World tickets we were using.
So we boarded and seated ourselves, two of only six first class passengers on the flight. A glass of champagne (it settles the stomach and aids digestions I've been told) before takeoff, and we were off almost before we had settled in. The AVOD (Airborne Video On Demand) came with Bose noise-reduction headphones and as complete a list of movies and TV shows as one could hope for. Over the course of the flight I watched the Bourne Ultimatum (all right), Shoot 'Em Up (ludicrous), Kill Bill Volume I (beyond ludicrous, actually maybe beyond our reality).
Meals on board were extensive, exquisite, and nearly endless. Mary and I dined together since there's seating in the suite for another person and the dinner tray table isn't quite as small as a deck of cards like it is elsewhere. I decided on the more conventional western style dinner while Mary went with the Asian one. After dinner we both had the seats converted into beds and went to sleep, a couple of hours for me and somewhat more for Mary. We decided when we boarded not to get too much sleep so that we could get into the groove in Hong Kong. It's weird. On short flights of a few hours or so I can fall asleep sitting up as soon as I board and wake up just as we're landing. On longer overwater flights I have the hardest time sleeping. It works out all right as we usually end up needing to go to sleep soon after we arrive somewhere overseas, in order to get back in sync with whatever the local time is, but sometimes it is a bit of a bother, as our English cousins would say.
Around the middle of the night I decided to have some fried dumplings and a beer. They were excellent. Then an hour and a half before we landed they tried to press a "light" dinner on us. Too full, I protested. But the protests, which probably would have been more effective if I wasn't trying to use my telepathic powers, were ignored. Dinner was very good, yet again. Damn those Cathay people!
Overall the service was pretty unbelievable though some of that is to be expected considering that there were two flight attendants for six first class passengers. Still, I can't help but remark on how the service wasn't just better - it was orders of magnitude better than what we've experienced on American carriers on overseas flights. That makes our plans to use Frequent Flyer redemptions on American Airline's foreign partners seem like a really good decision.
We also had a short Cathay flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok that we enjoyed almost as much as the long haul flight. We have a couple of additional long haul flights on Cathay coming up, so we'll see if they can keep their Number One ranking.
