Review of Cathay Pacific flight Shanghai Hong Kong in Economy

Airline Cathay Pacific
Flight CX369
Class Economy
Seat 63G
Aircraft Airbus A330-300
Flight time 02:30
Take-off 28 Aug 17, 19:29
Arrival at 28 Aug 17, 21:59
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
KriegerHo
By 1538
Published on 5th October 2017
Hi readers! I took CX369 from Shanghai Pudong International Airport back to my home base, Hong Kong International Airport on 28/8/2017.

I joined Wing On travel for this 5 days Huadong trip. Newest flight itinerary as follows:

HKG - HGH, KA, A320, Y (COMING SOON)
PVG - HKG, CX, A330-300, Y (YOU ARE HERE)

Change of flights:

I was originally travelling on KA897, but the airport says that flight had 90% of cancellation (but it did not, at last), so they arranged me on this flight. I was lucky to be on this flight, because if I was on my original flight, I may not catch up to the last cityflyer bus back home. Thanks a lot, Cathay Pacific!

New flight ticket
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Shanghai Pudong International Airport:

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Flight's delayed to 1850
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Before I cross the metal detector, I held my travel documents and attempted to cross it (I can do this in HK), but the officer rudely ordered me to put it down. When I crossed the metal detector, the machine rang because of my earplugs! The officer rudely ordered me to stand near her, and scanned me. When the portable detector, held in her hand, rang because of my earplugs, I took it out 'automatically' (because I don't want to be ordered rudely again lol). And then she ordered me (rudely again, of course) to turn around. I just followed the commands made by the officers, then I successfully crossed the immigration safe and sound. I drank a cup of iced coffee after crossing the immigration.

Iced coffee
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At 1810 I arrived the gate and waited. No announcements of delayed boarding were made. At 1820 I went to the gate counter and asked for the boarding time, then they told me boarding will commence at 1835. At 1836, they announced in the pa saying that boarding time is delayed to 1851. In the mean time, I did some plane spotting:



Flight info. Sorry for the blurred photo.
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Sunset @ Shanghai Pudong International Airport
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Boarding and Before Pushback:

Finally, at 1847 (+8), boarding commenced! Passengers boarded quickly, despite a full flight, and doors were closed by 1902. Flight attendants Ice and Charlie came to distribute blankets and card decks to passengers and had their smiles on their faces. They are pros at bringing joy to the passengers during the wait to pushback. At 1915, the captain came on the pa and apologized for the delay, and explained that due to:

1) Severe Tropical Storm Pakhar (which brought a No. 8 Gale or Storm Force Signal on 27/8, one day before my flight), so many flights were cancelled, and time was needed to digest the cancelled and/or delayed flights that was affected.

2) Air space restrictions (famous for Chinese airports, especially Beijing Capital Airport, Shanghai Pudong (Hongqiao) airport and etc) implemented by the Chinese Military, which is irritating for fliers.

The flight was delayed, originally for 70 mins. As the captain ended his announcement, he promised to update us with the latest situation. Waiting for the flight to pushback, I took photos of the seat (contents):

seat pitch is great! I'm charging my phone
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Safety card
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Earplug
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Magazine
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Flight:

Finally, at 1929, we pushbacked from gate D65! At 1935, we started to taxi to runway 16R for departure. Luckily the taxi was short, and at 1941, we started our takeoff roll. At 1942, we rotated, and took off! Goodbye, Shanghai!

Photo of flight map after takeoff
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Catering services started at about 2003, and we cruised at FL400 (according to flightaware, FL401) from 2010. The dinner is tasty and the portion is satisfactory.

Dinner
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After dinner, I went to visit the lavatory:

lavatory
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At 2050, coffee and tea were distributed, and I had a cup of coffee. The coffee is great! At the same time, the plane descended to FL300.

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After 2 hrs and 10 mins in the air, the plane touched down smoothly at Chek Lap Kok Airport at 2152, and arrived gate 46 at 2159. The display at the gate showed baggage claim 11. We took the train to immigration, and passed the e-channel quickly. Upon arriving baggage claim 11, there were no information about the flight. I realized that it has changed to claim 13 without any announcements. There are a few flights in the same claim, and there are loads of passengers crouded over there. Luckily, our baggage arrived quickly, and we took the citybus cityflyer back home. For the first time I have to stand for this 65 minutes journey, as there are loads of passengers on the bus. I finally arrived home at midnight.

Thank you for reading this report!
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Verdict

Cathay Pacific

10.0/10
Cabin10.0
Cabin crew10.0
Entertainment/wifi10.0
Meal/catering10.0

Shanghai - PVG

8.4/10
Efficiency8.0
Access9.0
Services6.5
Cleanliness10.0

Hong Kong - HKG

9.8/10
Efficiency10.0
Access10.0
Services9.0
Cleanliness10.0

Conclusion

Shanghai Pudong Airport: Clean and tidy toilets, slow immigration and rude officers. Generally fine (given that you are in China).

Flight: Nice experience. Great food, cheerful FAs', smooth flight. An enjoyable 3 hrs 5 mins of flight!

Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok Airport: Clean airport, efficient, but could be better in announcements.

Overall: Nice journey! CX recommended to all!

Information on the route Shanghai (PVG) Hong Kong (HKG)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 19 avis concernant 3 compagnies sur la ligne Shanghai (PVG) → Hong Kong (HKG).


Useful

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

La durée moyenne des vols est de 2 heures et 42 minutes.

  More information

6 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 415391 by
    Pilpintu TEAM 997 Comments
    Hello KRIEGERHO !

    I don't want to be ordered rudely again

    Those rude officials. They're everywhere. Their mothers didn't teach them manners! >:(

    Goodbye, Shanghai!

    LOL. In my country we say "Goodbye, Shanghai!" for fun when we say goodbye, because the words rhyme! It's like "See you later, alligator". XDD

    no photo for the meal, as photos above 3MB is not allowed to be uploaded

    You can resize photos on a PC. You have great free software like IrfanView or GIMP. You can even batch-resize lots of photos. No need to do it one by one. When you make them smaller, they become "lighter". I usually set all my photos to a 2000-pixel width before uploading them, and this makes them smaller than 1MB.

    Thanks for this very interesting report on this "exotic" route. ("Exotic" for me, of course!) ^^
  • Comment 415592 by
    HelloShitty 1 Comments
    Oh Hi Ho Long Ching Kri! Nice to meet you, Kri! I think your report is very good, but your photos are supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. But........... I thought your name is Krieger, and that's a bad name cuz I searched it on the urban dictionary accidentally, and it said "Name given to crazy bastards with either of two soldier mentalities or both.". that's sad

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