Hello everyone and this is my first flight report here.
Background
I am a typical Hong Kong 9 to 5 office worker. In Q4 2014 I was reminded that I needed to clear my unused annual leaves before July 2015 otherwise it would be forfeited. Since one of my best friend is now studying Master degree in Chicago, I planned a 2-week vacation started form late June 2015 to visit him and sightseeing. In the meantime, Cathay was promoting round trip tickets to North America which further motivated my travel aspiration. For this trip I also travelled in Minnesota Twin Cities, Madison WI and D.C. (recommended by my friend because of 4th July and he is a big fan of House of Cards!!!)
For the domestic flights inside the USA, as I need to have 4 eligible flights for renewing my Marco Polo Club membership, I choose American (Oneworld) and here is my routing:
This is my first time in Cathay (and long TPAC flight) and American, and travelling in the USA!
I made my online check-in one day before the flight and chose the seat. Due to ticket limitations I could only choose those middle seats each 3-seat column
On that day I left home at 7am, had breakfast and took the Airport Express from Tsing Yi Station. I took the Express rather than bus because on that morning there was traffic accident on the Tsing Ma Bridge with a serious traffic jam!
I arrived the airport around 9am and I was immediately attracted by this poster:
The counter check-in process was very smooth even the long queue and soon I proceeded to immigration and security control to enter the airside.
Still having time I tried getting into the Plaza premium lounge since I have free admission tickets but there are too many people and therefore I forgave it
View of the North Satellite Concourse, the sky is so nice today!
A Delta A330 plane to Seattle was near our boarding gate
Boarding started before 40 minutes the flight since we need to have extra security check. I was so bumpkinish that I took photos around the boarding gate and did not aware that photography is not allowed during checking (I am too stupid lol). Suddenly one of the security staff came and stopped me and censored me to delete the photos.
After the smooth checking I sat aside and had a look at my plane
The queue
Walking to economy cabin through the famous Cathay business cabin and I was warmly greeted by the FAs.
And the middle one was my original seat with pillow and blanket (I will tell you why original…)
A packed headphone. Standard one.
The view from my original seat to the economy cabin. It was near the premium economy cabin with 3-3-3 configuration
The leg room for Cathay economy class. OK for me
Cathay touchscreen IFE system, we started from here!
View from the wing (Dragonair)
The aircraft safety card and magazines
Later a family of 5 came in and found their seats which were around me. From their conversations I knew that they purchased their tickets through travel agencies with continuous seats chosen i.e. row 42 seat ABCDE. But ultimately the father and mother’s seats are on my both sides and I “separated” them! Then the father asked me if I could exchange his roadside seat to me and I definitely accepted it because I could have more space for my legs!
Passengers started settling down. The plane is 100% full today.
The menu and custom declaration form were then distributed.
The plane pushed back and started playing animated safety videos. Very standard one and not as hilarious as Delta’s (just I think).
The plane took off and immediately turned left (south)
Navigating the IFE. It is very active and contains a lot of shows. Heisenberg is always my favorite!!! (indeed I have already finished all seasons)
Meal services started around 45 minutes after the take off. It was lunch and provided with 3 options: beef rice, chicken with mashed potato or vegetarian spaghetti. I am a no-beef people and not prefer having vegetarian so I finally chose the chicken one.
The lunch tasted good but in my opinion the sauce was too strong for me
Haagen-Dazs ice cream was served after the entrée. Tasty!
After the lunch the FA turned off the light for passenger resting
I then went to the toilet. It is clean and tidy
Some people were playing cards game with IFE while I was watching some variety shows for the next 3 hours and kept asking the FAs for water. They gave me quickly each time.
3 hours later the economy cabin was gradually filled with cup noodles smell. I ordered one and the family around me also ordered one each. It is chicken favor from Nissin but packed in Cathay branding. Good taste and noodle’s quality.
And then I spent another 3 hours for watching Wolf Hall. Mark Rylance is excellent!
Dinner was served in mid-flight (around 7 hours after takeoff). Personally I think it is too early to have a dinner. It would be better if it was served 3 more hours later.
For the dinner except the vegetarian 2 choices were provided: meat-ball with rice in Shanghai style or mashed potato with fish in tomato sauce. I already have mashed potato for my lunch so I chose the meat ball.
The dinner is very fantastic especially the meat ball and rice even it is the second meal. It is the most delicious plane meal for my whole trip!
The FA turned off the light again for resting and I continued listening music from IFE
We were now approaching to Seattle and then incident occurred!
Suddenly my IFE restarted followed by a Microsoft-like blue screen. The IFE hanged.
I walked around the cabin and tried to seek help form FAs but I could not find anyone or they might all be in rest lol
In order to kill my boredom, I walked around several times (still could not find any FAs lol), played my phone, filling water myself and even kept watching the airshow from the father’s IFE =P (At that time the couple were sleeping and they set their IFE to airshow) I also tried napping for a while since I had never experienced long haul flight before and I am not very adapted to sleep on plane
Later I caught a male FA when the plane was in Idaho and I told him about this. He replied that he would fix it soon but then disappeared again lol
Finally the IFE restarted to normal when we were flying over Minnesota but it was about to land
Passengers including the family around me woke up gradually and I started filling the custom declaration form.
The father later chatted with me until landing. He mentioned that his son is now studying in Chicago and the whole family came here to visit him during summer holiday. He originally thought that I am a student studying in USA (Am I look so young really??? =P).
The plane was getting closer to ORD.
Preparing landing
Eventually the plane landed with heavy swinging. The father said this time Cathay did not land as well as he experienced before.
Then the family and I came out of the gate and proceeded to the immigration. There were several planes arrived ORD at the same time and we had to wait for nearly an hour for clearing the custom. But the immigration staff was quite friendly. He just asked how long I would be in the USA and then let me to collect my baggage
Sadly the baggage carousel for my flight was out of order and the airport staff had to walk into the carousel in order to take the baggage out one by one lol
The arrival hall and my friend was already waiting for me!
Outside Terminal 5
We got on the airport transit to Terminal 3 for checking-in of next day flight to Minneapolis
We then took the CTA Blue Line. Oh the central track is still under construction (you may know what happened before…)
Finally I arrived the hostel in the Loop, took a night sleep and prepared for next day travel to Minneapolis.
I survived from the long TPAC flight! :Dv
Thank you so much for reading this report!
See more
Verdict
Cathay Pacific
8.5/10
Cabin9.0
Cabin crew8.0
Entertainment/wifi8.5
Meal/catering8.5
Hong Kong - HKG
9.2/10
Efficiency9.0
Access9.0
Services9.0
Cleanliness10.0
Chicago - ORD
8.9/10
Efficiency8.5
Access9.0
Services9.0
Cleanliness9.0
Conclusion
My first time on flying Cathay and very satisfied. The flight is on time. Cabin is new, clean and comfort with 3-3-3 configuration. IFE system and catering is good. Crews are professional and friendly but can be more initiative.
1 LIKESLIKE TO THANK THE AUTHORTHANKS ! FLIGHT-REPORT LIKED
The flight lasts for 14.5 hours. I know that Cathay flights from HKG to East Coast of the USA i.e. JFK/EWR/BOS last about 30 minutes more than ORD but it serves one lunch/dinner and one breakfast before arrival. So I don't know why Cathay gives the second meal so early for the ORD flights even flying back to HKG.
Thanks for sharing your first report. You got lucky to get out of that middle seat! That would have been uncomfortable on a 14.5 hour flight! As usual, Cathay service stands out as way above average for Economy. Nice pictures.
Yeah I was so lucky for sitting roadside on this flight. But for the return flight I was stuck in the middle seat for the whole trip and fortunately I survived again!
Thanks for sharing this report with us and welcome to the site!
Still having time I tried getting into the Plaza premium lounge since I have free admission tickets but there are too many people and therefore I forgave it - I have been in this Lounge (used by MU) and it was too overcrowded. If the line was that long to get in when you were there, you were wise to wait.
Suddenly one of the security staff came and stopped me and censored me to delete the photos. - So this is why you commented on my report. It's probably because they knew how to confront you in their native language.
As Kevin said, I would absolutely hate to be stuck in a window or middle seat on a flight of this length. It's a prison sentence.
What bizarre meal service times. Maybe the difference in meal time offerings is based on the time of departure. Based on my experience, they serve meals at HK time. So you got lunch and dinner served at the appropriate times since you land near 1am. I find the meal sizes to be a little small for a flight of this length, NH has fuller trays.
That was an unusual approach you took into ORD with those two 90 degree turns.
Sadly the baggage carousel for my flight was out of order and the airport staff had to walk into the carousel in order to take the baggage out one by one - Welcome to America!
- In HK many credit card issuers cooperated with Plaza Premium Lounge which cardholders can enjoy free access to the Lounge. Therefore there are too many people inside the lounge. Indeed I just wanted to take a bottle of water before boarding but for this situation I totally forgave it.
- Or unluckily I just met a very diligent security staff on that day so sad.
- You are right it was really a prison sentence because for the return I was stuck in the middle seat in addition I had an incident during the flight! (I will explain later).
- The meal size might be a little bit small to other passengers too. Soon after lunch ended some passengers already ordered cup noodles.
- Oh maybe this unusual approach led the plane landed with swinging heavily.
- HAHA I heard the staff kept saying bad words on it :P
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6 Comments
Really nice flight apparently and catering seems really tasty to me (great bonus concerning this ice cream too).
How long was this flight? i guess they gave food too early (7 hours), otherwise you could rest more which would be better.
See you
The flight lasts for 14.5 hours. I know that Cathay flights from HKG to East Coast of the USA i.e. JFK/EWR/BOS last about 30 minutes more than ORD but it serves one lunch/dinner and one breakfast before arrival. So I don't know why Cathay gives the second meal so early for the ORD flights even flying back to HKG.
Welcome to Flight-Report!
Yeah I was so lucky for sitting roadside on this flight. But for the return flight I was stuck in the middle seat for the whole trip and fortunately I survived again!
Still having time I tried getting into the Plaza premium lounge since I have free admission tickets but there are too many people and therefore I forgave it
- I have been in this Lounge (used by MU) and it was too overcrowded. If the line was that long to get in when you were there, you were wise to wait.
Suddenly one of the security staff came and stopped me and censored me to delete the photos.
- So this is why you commented on my report. It's probably because they knew how to confront you in their native language.
As Kevin said, I would absolutely hate to be stuck in a window or middle seat on a flight of this length. It's a prison sentence.
What bizarre meal service times. Maybe the difference in meal time offerings is based on the time of departure. Based on my experience, they serve meals at HK time. So you got lunch and dinner served at the appropriate times since you land near 1am. I find the meal sizes to be a little small for a flight of this length, NH has fuller trays.
That was an unusual approach you took into ORD with those two 90 degree turns.
Sadly the baggage carousel for my flight was out of order and the airport staff had to walk into the carousel in order to take the baggage out one by one
- Welcome to America!
- In HK many credit card issuers cooperated with Plaza Premium Lounge which cardholders can enjoy free access to the Lounge. Therefore there are too many people inside the lounge. Indeed I just wanted to take a bottle of water before boarding but for this situation I totally forgave it.
- Or unluckily I just met a very diligent security staff on that day so sad.
- You are right it was really a prison sentence because for the return I was stuck in the middle seat in addition I had an incident during the flight! (I will explain later).
- The meal size might be a little bit small to other passengers too. Soon after lunch ended some passengers already ordered cup noodles.
- Oh maybe this unusual approach led the plane landed with swinging heavily.
- HAHA I heard the staff kept saying bad words on it :P
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