Review of Cathay Pacific flight Hong Kong → Taipei in First

This is the second report from from the list below, reviewing the HKG to TPE portion of my trip. The main reason I booked this flight is so that I could try out Cathay's great F lounges at HKG. I also had hopes of flying China Airlines new 777-300ER business class out of TPE the next day. However, CI made a last minute equipment change and I ended up in the angle flat A330… not a great experience… Anyway, on with the review :)

The trip plan is outlined below:
BNA - ORD (American CRJ700 Economy - no review)
ORD - HKG (Cathay 777-300ER First)
HKG - TPE (Cathay 777-300ER First)
TPE - CGK (China Airline A330-300 Business - no review)
CGK - SIN (Singapore Airlines 777-300ER First)
SIN - HKG (Singapore Airlines A380 Suites)
HKG - JNB (Cathay 777-300ER Business)
JNB - CPT (Kulula 737-800 Economy - no review)
CPT -JNB (British Airways 737-800 Economy - no review)
JNB - DXB (Emirates 777-300ER First)
DXB - BAH (Emirates 777-300 First)
BAH - DXB (Emirates 777-300ER First)
DXB - CDG (Air France 777-300ER Business)
CDG - OTP (TAROM A318 Business)
OTP - BEG (Air Serbia ATR42 Economy)
BEG - ZAG (Air Serbia ATR42 Economy)
ZAG - FRA (Croatia Airlines A320 Business)
FRA - DMM - BAH (Lufthansa A330-300 First)
BAH - DXB (Cathay A330-300 Business)
DXB - MCT (Emirates 777-300ER First)
MCT - SLL (Oman Air 737-800 Economy)
SLL- MCT (Oman AIr 737-800 Economy)
MCT - DXB (Emirates 777-200 First)
DXB - JFK ( Emirates A380 First)
JFK - BNA (American CRJ700 Economy - no review)

Points:
So one of the better redemption of BA Avios miles (which are fairly easy to obtain from either transfer partners or partner fights) is short haul F fights. One of these flights is the HKG-TPE route on Cathay, which utilizes their long haul 777 aircraft. Due to the short distane of this flight, it qualifies for the 18k BA Avios bucket of point redemptions for F flights on partner airlines. In my opinion, to spend a day in Cathay's amazing F lounges at HKG and to have 2-3 hours in their F cabin is worth 18k Avios, if you appreciate that kind of stuff :) Anyway, I had some Avios from flying AA in the US and then transferred the rest from AMEX MR to cover the balance. I paid about $30 in fees USD.
In terms of value, the flight retails for $1,050 USD. So the math works out to about 5.7 cents a mile in value, which is pretty good. Again, this was more of an "experience" flight for the lounges, but I still consider it good redemption value from a $ perspective.

Airport:
I really like HKG airport; it's clean and modern and fairly easy to navigate. A nice perk about flying Cathay first is that the Wing F lounge is literally right after immigration security on the left, so it's extremely easy to immerse yourself in the Champagne bar or Cabana to chill out for a couple hours.

Now the Wing has a First and Business class section. People sometimes talk about the "noodle bar" which is in the Biz section; however, the F section has a full service restaurant serving great dishes, so that's where I went first.



The ambience is nice inside the restaurant and I was served promptly. There is the option of ordering off a menu or using the buffet, or both. I did both and was impressed with the quality of the Halibut off the menu and the buffet. They also made me an Old Fashioned, which was pretty good.

After the food, I ventured to the Champagne bar area, which has a variety of Champagnes, including Moet, to try. After a glass on the comfortable couches, I decided to check out the Cabanas for a bath/ shower. There was about a 5 minute wait, which was awesome, and I was quickly situated in a beautiful cabana room. These are truly exceptionally detailed and well designed. I could've stayed here for a few hours, but I still wanted to check out the Pier F lounge, so I left after about 45 minutes of relaxing.



The Pier F lounge is located probably 15 minutes away by foot. There is a series of escalators you have to take to get to that side of the terminal, which is a bit cumbersome, but eventually you arrive. I would have to say that I think the Pier Lounge is one of the best lounges I've been in, in terms of quality. All the details just work so nice and colors are soft and complimentary.

There are a variety of rooms for you to enjoy within the lounge, including a full service bar, multiple sitting areas, a spa and foot massage area, and a full service restaurant (there might be more, but that's all I noticed).



I went straight to the restaurant, which kind of had an old club vibe, with wood finishes and green leather. The menu was great, and I thought the service was very good as well. I ordered a number of things off the menu, including the truffle ravioli, vegetable fettuccine and cheese plate, all of which were very good. I also tried their Rose Champagne and a Cathay Delight. All in all I was very impressed with the quality of the restaurant.



One of the best parts of this lounge, in my opinion, is that there are many good location to watch planes land at HKG. I spent a good hour sitting by the window, sipping cognac, and watching a number of places come in, from all over the world. I do, however, wish that the lounge didn't broadcast announcements about flight delays/ changes so much. It got a bit annoying as the frequency of the announcements was a bit high for my liking.



All in all, I think these two F lounges at HKG are excellent and rival some of the best. I only spent about 4 hours between the two, but could've spent longer, especially if I'd taken advantage of the spa services, which I did not.

Flight:
I'll keep the flight part of the report fairly short, as it is the exact same hard product as my ORD-HKG review. The plane however, seemed to be slightly newer/ in better shape. I thought the crew on this flight were quite good, but not quite as good as the ORD-HKG route. However, the flying time for this flight is around 2 hours, so it's a more rushed service.



They do offer a full meal service. Unfortunately I wasn't that hungry, due to the lounge ordeal, so I kept it fairly light and ordered the Chicken dish, as well as fruit (no pics, sorry). I also sampled the Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 06 on this flight, which was a change from the Krug that was offered on my ORD fight. I thought the Taittinger was really good and would consider it pretty comparable to the Krug Grande Cuvee.

The flight went by extremely fast and I just watched a couple of TV shows along with dinner. The views during the day leaving HKG are great though, as you can see all the mountains as well as the boats in the harbour.



We had a long taxi at TPE as we were waiting for a gate to open, which I wasn't complaining about being in F.



Immigration took a little while through TPE and they required to see proof of a return ticket out of the country. TPE was definitely a different kind of airport compared to HKG (much simpler and less extravagant), but was perfectly functional. Once through immigration, there are taxi's waiting and uber is also a popular option to get wherever you need to go :)