Hello guys. Welcome to my first flight report.
Last April me and my family went for a holiday to Beijing. So after comparing to all offers and prices we decided to fly with Cathay Pacific to Beijing. At first we wanted to fly with Malaysia Airlines (MH) as it provides direct flight to Beijing but we chose to fly with Cathay Pacific (CX) even though we know that we need to transit at Hong Kong and board another plane to Beijing simply because CX was a lot cheaper compared to any other premium airlines that offers direct flight or transit flight to Beijing. So the first part of the flight report will be flight between KUL to HKG. Second part of the flight report will be flight between HKG to PEK.
We arrived quite early at the airport approximately 4 hours before flight. Once we reached at the airport we straightly headed to check in counter. Check in was smooth and it only took us 15 minutes to get our boarding pass and checked our luggage. Probably because we are amongst the earliest to check in at the counter on that day. After we got our boarding pass we headed straightly to departure. Security and immigration checks were fast and again everything went very smoothly. Our gate located at the Satellite Terminal and to go there we need to take a short ride on a train to be transported to Satellite Terminal which is separated from Main Terminal. Since we still have 2 hours to spare before flight we sit at Dome's Cafe for a cup of coffee and light meal. There are wide variety of restaurants, fast foods, bars and cafes in main terminal and satellite terminal in KLIA. KLIA also has Wifi available at most seating and public area to ensure that public especially transit passenger stay connected. However the Wifi service only available for 2 hours per user.
An impressive display of airplane models that fly to KLIA.
We headed directly to the gate after we finished having our coffee and light meal. Our big bird CX A330-300 await us at the gate!! Kuwait Airways A340-300 just arrived from Kuwait City and bound for Jakarta.
The boarding process was really efficient as business class priority boarding and economy class boarding by row were strictly enforced. We were welcomed aboard by the beautiful cabin crew in their white/red uniform. The cabin crew were really friendly, helpful and keep on smiling throughout the flight. After 20 minutes the boarding process completed while the cabin crew busy assisting and settling the full load passengers in the flight. Two thumbs up to the cabin crew for excellent service!! Economy seats in this CX A330-300 are arranged in 2-4-2 configuration.
View for my window seat 69A. I had earlier requested to be seated at window seat from the lady at the check in counter.
Spacious leg room (32 inches) and the brand new seat was very comfortable. Some of CX A330 planes are still fitted with old shell seats.
IFE with USB port. IFE is touch screen enabled.
CX studio offers wide selection of movies, TV series, songs, games etc.
Door closed and the flight started to push back on time. The sexy back of Kuwait Airways A340-300
9K-ANC is a very old plane. 20 years of service
MH20 A380 bound for CDG
Another old plane, the rare Iran Aseman Airlines A340-300. 23 years of service
Cruising over South China Sea
Soon after the flight reached cruising altitude the meal was served to the passengers. No menu were distributed in this flight neither in the IFE system but there were two option of menus on the cart, beef with rice or chicken with noodle. The disadvantages of sitting at the back of the plane you will be amongst the last to be served the meal, your choice of meal will finished and you will only left with one option of meal. In other words you will only be served with whatever meal option left on the cart. So I was informed by the FA that the only meal available was chicken with noodle and they have no more beef with rice on the cart.
My meal tray: fresh cut fruits, warm bread with butter, chicken with noodle and kit kat bar. Small portion but overall the food tasted really good.
Cruising over Vietnam
The winglet of A330
Soon the flight started to descend into Hong Kong airpace
Hong Kong views from above. Simply amazing!!
The flight landed 10 minutes ahead of schedule. QF127 from Sydney just landed.
Taxiing to the gate.
Our plane parked at the gate next to Turkish Airlines B777-300ER. We disembarked and rushed to the immigration transfer as we only have 1 hour and 30 minutes to catch for another flight to Beijing.
Thank you for reading my first flight report. I will post the second part of my trip report (HKG to PEK) soon
Thank you for sharing this report!
The seat looks quite comfortable with a rather good seat pitch.
You were unfortunate enough to be left with just one option. The main does look good nonetheless.
IFE looks fantastic, truly a state-of-the-art entertainment system.
Can't wait for your next FR to PEK. It'd be really nice if you include a tourism bonus from Beijing!
See you on the next one.
Thank you for your comment. The seat was really comfortable for 4 1/2 hours flight and really satisfied with their service. I will post the second part of my flight trip soon and yeah I will definitely include my holiday pics. Thank you for your suggestion.
Thanks for sharing this first report! Lots of good details and pics! The seats look comfortable and the meal looks tasty. Nice views of Hong Kong on landing! It would be nice if you could put some notes in the summary section that briefly explain your grading.
Welcome to Flight-Report!
Thank for your comment. I forgot to put some notes in the summary as I must have overlooked this before i hit the submit button. Nonetheless I have to say that overall it was a good flight with really comfortable seat, tasty meal with good entertainment system and all the FA were really friendly and helpful.
Nice report. I will be flying CX722 myself together with my family two months from now. It will be my first flight with CX after probably 4 or 5 years. Really look forward to that. I have a shorter connection of 1 hour at HKG for my onward flight to Taipei. Fingers crossed that both flights will be ontime.
Thank you for your comment. As far as I concern CX is always on time. I had short connection too but I managed to reached the gate on time. Make sure that you know your gate for your next connecting flight and usually this information will appear in the IFE of your CX722 flight where they show you the connecting gate for your next flight approximately 20 minutes before landing. The transfer immigration might be a bit slow if there is a long queue and sometimes they ask you unnecessary questions. Basically you need to rush to your next gate because the airport is quite huge and your connecting gate could be from one end to another end of terminal. But no worries because the sign board is very clear and you will get there in time. Anyway enjoy your flight ;)
Thanks a lot for your feedback. I have been monitoring both my outgoing flights via FR24 recently. It seems that the flight out of KUL is pretty much OK with the occasional odd delay, but the flight from HKG to TPE can sometimes be delayed quite a lot. Recently, this flight (supposedly on Dragon Air) has been substituted with CX metal. Hopefully it will not changed much, otherwise I will be arriving at TPE too late, and I need to continue my journey fairly early next morning.
Flight from KUL should be smooth but flight from HKG might be delayed due to inbound and outbound flight almost every minute and thunderstorm. It is not unusual for a big and busy airport like HKG. My connecting flight from HKG to PEK was delayed for almost 30 minutes due to heavy traffic. Bear in mind that most of KA flights are code sharing with CX. So sometimes they might switch your flight from KA to CX but only on rare occasion. Hopefully everything will be fine so that there will be no hiccup for your travel plan.