Review of Cathay Pacific flight Hong Kong Frankfurt in Economy

Airline Cathay Pacific
Flight CX289
Class Economy
Seat 71E
Aircraft Boeing 777-300ER
Flight time 12:45
Take-off 24 Mar 16, 00:35
Arrival at 24 Mar 16, 06:20
CX   #2 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 509 reviews
hkflyer
By 3992
Published on 2nd April 2016
Hi guys, glad to be writing reports here again.

You may be interested to read my reports for my round trip from HK to Osaka in late Feb this year:
Part 1: http://flight-report.com/en/report-13424.html
Part 2: http://flight-report.com/en/report-13555.html

So anyway very quickly I was on another trip again, this time heading to Europe!
Part 1 HKG-FRA (Econ class): You are here!
Part 2 ZUR-HKG (Business class): http://flight-report.com/en/report-13851.html

Video version of this flight review: (Kindly watch and comment!)


So, as always I was back to the Terminal at the Hong Kong International Airport.

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Our flight tonight: CX289 heading to Frankfurt, the main hub in Germany.

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The corridor at the terminal in front of the immigration and security check

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Typical check-in aisle at Terminal 1 (The main terminal)

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Right after security check area

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Restaurant/food court area

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Once again the signature gate corridor

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Our gate tonight: Gate 27

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When we arrived at the gate the boarding for business class had commenced and Econ class pax were queuing up

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So typical econ seat for Cathay: 9" PTV, small shelf for gadgets, cupholder and the table. (Cathay will introduce new econ seats only from A350 onwards)

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The seat width and legroom was alright

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The flight was pretty full with only several empty seats there

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A blue screen for transit pax at Frankfurt

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Flight map on PTV: We were heading North in Mainland China

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We were approaching Wuhan

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Flight info: The flight was expected to last for 12 hours and 30 mins, and we were just at the start…

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Frankfurt was 7 hours later than HK (The summer time took effect on 27 Mar 2016 where the time zone difference will decrease by 1 hour)

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The first meal for dinner was served. Note that Cathay introduced new Econ class utensils starting in March 2016 and first in long haul flights. You may refer to my previous reports for comparison. The cups/carriers now are all white and more squared/rectangular. The colour of the lid is more apparent in labelling the main option.

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So the dinner: Turkey & Vegetable salad (The taste was really so-so tbh…Cathay's salad at Econ class haven't been good personally thinking…), Bread, the Main (Mine was pan fried pork patty, braised bean curd and steamed jasmine rice; The two other options are pan fried fish fillet, green pea, white cabbage, new potato and red pepper dill sauce & mushroom fusilli and tomato concasse respectively). And of course, Haagen-Dazs ice cream! Sad that instead of being stone hard, this time the ice cream was already a bit melting when I finished the main dish and had time to eat it because the ice cream was served at the same time with the hot meal instead of being delivered separately after the hot meal was served usually.

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The menu for Econ class. 2015 edition. Elegant design but a bit light personally with just one thin paper now

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SHOP, the inflight sales magazine and DISCOVERY, the inflight magazine.

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This is a long haul flight so besides snack was put at gallery for self-help passengers can ask for cup noodle. Favourite of HK people haha and the scent was so influencing to the cabin full of sleeping pax haha

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Flying over Russia, we started to see a bit sunshine in the sky.

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Flying over Russia


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Around 2 hours before arrival, the second meal (Breakfast) was served. The set included fruit, yogurt, bread and the main (Mine was the Western option of baked ham and onion souffle, chicken sausage, button mushroom and baked tomato; Another choice was the Chinese chicken and shiitake mushroom congee). I usually chose the Western option, not really because of the taste, but it just sounded the Western one is heavier.

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Cathay's Boeing fleet is equipped with an outside cam at the bottom of the belly. So we were soon arriving in Germany.

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In Germany already

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The cabin light was on but dimmed a bit for landing

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Landed! Taxiing to the gate

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So arriving at Frankfurt sound and safe :)

And by the way Frankfurt Airport released the luggage for the flight with two baggage belt (First time for me to take a flight with two belts), one for First and Business classes and pax with priority baggage tag, another one for Econ pax. The first one started rolling out luggage fastly while there was nothing for the Econ belt. At least it is way better than the crappy baggage delivery at the Hong Kong airport where it is very normal to wait for at least 20 to 30 mins to get the luggage whether you have the priority tag or not.

Scheduled departure: 0035 HKT
Actual departure: 0116 HKT
Scheduled arrival: 0620 CET
Actual arrival: 0607 CET
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Verdict

Cathay Pacific

8.1/10
Cabin7.5
Cabin crew8.0
Entertainment/wifi9.0
Meal/catering8.0

Hong Kong - HKG

8.8/10
Efficiency9.0
Access9.0
Services8.5
Cleanliness8.5

Frankfurt - FRA

9.0/10
Efficiency9.0
Access9.0
Services9.0
Cleanliness9.0

Conclusion

Long haul flight as such could be tiring especially when taking econ class, but I would say the journey was served well by smiling FAs with two hot meals, snacks and the rich entertainment content on StudioCX (The IFE system). The service was good although a bit standardised (Not bit humanized if you understand what I try to say here).

Information on the route Hong Kong (HKG) Frankfurt (FRA)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 9 avis concernant 2 compagnies sur la ligne Hong Kong (HKG) → Frankfurt (FRA).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Cathay Pacific avec 8.4/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 12 heures et 36 minutes.

  More information

2 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 161078 by
    Rl 777 802 Comments
    Thank you for sharing this FR with us!

    The cabin looks clean with a good IFE system.

    The bowls don't look that fancy, plastic cutlery from CX is a bit of a disappointment. Ice cream was a nice touch though. The breakfast looks well-presented (except for the boring bowls).

    Overall it looks like you had a good flight with CX.

    Have a good one, see you!
  • Comment 161127 by
    KL651 TEAM 4534 Comments
    Thanks for this FR.
    With the new ustensils are very boring compared to the colourful ones used before.
    As a result, with the lightly coloured food, the tray looks really bland.

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