Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class San Francisco to Hong Kong

Asian Adventure: Roof of the World Tour Overview
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific Lounge Review: The Cabin at HKG
Asian Adventure: Cathay Dragon A330-300 Business Class Hong Kong to Beijing
Asian Adventure: Regent Beijing Hotel
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Dongcheng District
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Great Wall
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Run-ze Jade Garden
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Legend of Kung Fu
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Tiananmen Square
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Forbidden City
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Hutong Tour via Rickshaw, Tea Tasting, Flying to Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Hotel Shangri-La Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Qing Dynasty Terra Cotta Warriors
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show
Asian Adventure: Xi’an Wrap-Up, Flying to Lhasa, Lhasa Home Visit
Asian Adventure: Shangri-La Hotel Lhasa
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Jokhang Temple and Barkhor Market
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Canggu Nunnery and Sera Monastery
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Potala Palace
Asian Adventure: Leaving Lhasa and Flying to Chongqing
Asian Adventure: Viking Emerald
Asian Adventure: Shibaozhai Temple
Asian Adventure: Cruising the Three Gorges
Asian Adventure: Three Gorges Dam
Asian Adventure: Jingzhou City Walls Tour
Asian Adventure: Wuhan - Hubei Bells Performance and Provincial Museum
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Shanghai Museum
Asian Adventure: Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Old Shanghai and Yuyan Gardens
Asian Adventure: The New Otani Tokyo Hotel
Asian Adventure: Tokyo - City Tour
Asian Adventure: Mt. Fuji and Hakone Tour Returning by Shinkansen
Asian Adventure: ANA Suites Lounge Review, Tokyo Narita
Asian Adventure: All Nippon Airways B777-300ER First Class Tokyo Narita to Houston

It was the first week of October and our tour would officially begin on Sunday, October 8th so it was time to start making our way to Beijing.  For those of us who did not buy our air from Viking, we had to be sure we were there on time as Viking would not make accomodation for us if we were late.  So we had all arranged to arrive in Beijing on Saturday, which would have left us with time to handle any flight delays or cancelations.  As it turned out, none of that was necessary as our flights were on time.

Since the flight over the Pacific would be such a long one, M decided he wanted to break up the trip a little so he flew to San Francisco on Monday with the intent of spending a couple of days with friends in the area.  Since I could not find an AA award flight to connect with our flight on Cathay, I flew out Wednesday evening after work, arriving in the wee hours of Thursday morning - giving me plenty of wiggle room in case of flight cancelations.  Our friend J, who was able to get an award ticket all the way from Nashville to Beijing, left Nashville early Thursday morning and arrived early Thursday afternoon.  So M and I took the train to the airport and helped J bring her bags back to the hotel where they allowed us to store all our bags until it was time for our flight.  We had a leisurely afternoon having a late lunch and wandering around a nearby mall until it was time to go to the airport.

We had planned to go to the lounge at the airport so we had the shuttle driver drop us off a little after 8 PM even though our flight wasn't until 12:50 AM.  Unfortunately the Cathay counter doesn't even open until 8:50 PM so we had a little bit of a wait.  Once the counters did open, M sailed right through the check-in process for the first class folks because even though there were two flights' worth of people checking in, there are only 6 first class seats on each plane so it doesn't take long to process them!

J and I waited in the business class line which was significantly longer but still moved more quickly than the economy line.  And before too long we were checked in too.  Our next stop was TSA screening and while there was a separate line for premium cabin passengers, there were a number of flights on several different airlines all going through the screening process at the same time.  Add to that non-native English speakers trying to understand what they needed to do and it started backing the line up quite a bit.  Fortunately that was enough for them to open up the old-school metal detector and I got to jump over to that line rather than having to go through the newer nude-o-scope, which was nice.

Once we were all through security we made our way to the Cathay lounge.  It was fairly crowded so I decided not to take any photos.  The food selection was not that great.  I wasn't really hungry and knew we'd be getting fed on the plane so perhaps that's the reason for the small selection.  I did nibble on a salad just to take the edge off hunger and prevent a headache.  I'd spent the afternoon walking between the hotel and the mall and then walking around the mall so around 10 PM I decided to use one of the lounge's shower rooms.  I wish I'd thought to take my camera with me because these rooms were well thought out.  Some lounge shower rooms are quite small which means they get steamy and it's hard to keep your clothes dry and to keep from sweating as you're putting your clean clothes on.  But these were nice and large and the steam dissipated fairly quickly.  It's amazing how refreshing a shower and shampoo will make you feel.

Since we weren't exactly sure where our gate was in relation to the lounge, about 20 minutes before boarding was due to start we left the lounge in search of our gate.  While we didn't need the full 20 minutes to find it, our gate was at the far end of the concourse and down an escalator so it was a good thing we'd left a little early.

Boarding was a couple of minutes late but once it began, things moved quickly.  First and Business class boarded through door 1L while Premium Economy and Economy passengers boarded through 2L.  We all crossed over to the right aisle and left M in his first class seat.  Thanks to him for supplying the photo!

Cathay Pacific B777-300ER First Class Seat

J and I kept moving back through the Business Class mini-cabin (only 8 seats there) into the main part of Business Class.  Business class on this aircraft is in a 1-2-1 configuration so we each had a window/aisle seat to ourselves.

Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class Cabin

CX 873 – SFO-HKG
Departs: 12:50 AM
Arrives: 6:10 AM + 1
Duration: 14h 20m
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Seat: 19K (Business Class)

Cathay Business class seats are fully lie-flat so we each had a little pod for the trip.  Our blankets were wating for us on our ottomans and we each had the better part of an overhead bin for ourselves.  So we had no trouble getting situated quickly with our bags stored overhead.

Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class Seat

Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class Ottoman

Cathay's business class is in a 1-2-1 layout and we each had window seats. The seats were angled a bit so our feet were closer to the windows.  This is not the only airline that has seats like this but it puzzles me because one of the benefits of a window seat is being able to, you know, look out the window and typically that's not easy to do in these seats.  I'm sure there's a reason for this; I just don't know what it is.

While in the seat there was a small compartment on the right that held the headphones and it was a good place to store my glasses overnight as well.  I liked that the compartment door had a mirror on it too.

Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class Headphones

On the outside of that compartment was a reading light, the IFE controller, the seat controls and a power plug.

Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class Seat Controls

Under the armrest was an open compartment which was a good place to store my shoes while sleeping.

Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class Storage Compartment

After takeoff we received our amenity kits which contained the usual stuff.  Like most airlines I'm aware of, Cathay does not offer pajamas on trips to Asia in Business Class though M did get a set in First Class.

Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class Amenity Key

With such a late departure time we were on the supper flight which, I believe, is a slightly lighter menu than what the earlier flight gets.  But we had plenty to eat and I don't feel I missed a thing.  Here's the menu and wine list:

To start I had a salad, some berries and garlic bread:

Since we were on an Asian airline - even though we weren't departing from their hub - I decided to try the more Asian of the two entrées: the prawns in a sweet wine sauce with pak choy, carrots and steamed jasmine rice.  I'm not a huge shrimp fan but this was really good.  I skipped the cheese plate and the pralines but did have a cup of tea to top off my meal.

Though Cathay offers snacks including a burger or ice cream, I don't know how anyone who had the supper could really be hungry.  Even after sleeping a few hours when it came time for breakfast I wasn't as hungry as I usually am.  So I just had the fruit and a croissant for breakfast.

First Class has a dine-on-demand feature and M took some photos of what was on offer there:

In general I'd heard that Asian crews tend to want you to use the call button and don't actively check on you throughout the flight.  That wasn't necessarily the case here as I found they were fairly visible in the aisles.  I do love how they keep the lavatories clean.  Even though it's clear the lavs have been used at the end of one of these long flights, they're still in a whole lot better shape than the lavs on US-owned airplanes simply because US flight attendants are not required to maintain the lavs as part of their jobs.

My only complaint was the IFE system.  While the selection was good, partway through my second movie the IFE went a little nuts and would freeze or die.  The FAs would reboot the system in various parts of the plane but then you had to fast-forward to where you left off.  In addition, Cathay ran ads before the start of every movie or TV show, which was quite annoying, especially when the ads were for Cathay themselves!

M really loved his flight in First and our flight in Business was solid though not spectacular.  If I get to go to Asia again I would definitely try to fly Cathay over a US-owned airline.