Review of Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Chicago in Economy

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!
The report will be broken down as follows:
1. CX806 HKG-ORD B777-300ER [You are here!]
2. AA4319 ORD-MSP Embraer E-175 [http://flight-report.com/en/report-11769.html]
3. AA3067 MSN-ORD Embraer E-145 [http://flight-report.com/en/report-11836.html]
4. AA2323 ORD-DCA B737-800 [http://flight-report.com/en/report-11913.html]
5. AA2239 DCA-ORD B737-800 [http://flight-report.com/en/report-12041.html]
6. CX807 ORD- HKG B777-300ER [http://flight-report.com/en/report-12515.html]
Flight Report
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!