Review of Cathay Pacific flight Düsseldorf → Hong Kong in Economy

Welcome to the second part of the September trip to Hong Kong. This report will cover the Cathay Pacific Airways flight from Düsseldorf to Hong Kong. After arriving from Munich. I swiftly headed towards Terminal A where Cathay Pacific flight is handled. My flight to Hong Kong was assigned at gate A80. Terminal A is normally for Lufthansa and its Star Alliance partner while OneWorld carriers mainly use Terminal B. But anyway, it is really sad that Cathay Pacific Airways had decided to terminate the Düsseldorf route in 2018. Probably this will be my last time to fly this route.

1. Part 1 MUC to DUS: Here!
2. Part 2 DUS to HKG: You are here!
3. Part 3 HKG to KOJ: Here!
4. Part 4 KOJ to HKG: Here!
5. Part 5 HKG to LHR: Here!

In a few minutes I arrived at the Lufthansa Business Lounge in Terminal A. Cathay Pacific Airways uses the Lufthansa lounge in Düsseldorf airport.

Lufthansa Business Lounge

View of the terminal A from the entrance of the Lounge.

The lounge wasn't quite full and there were lots of empty seats. I was trying to get some food before the flight. The Apparently, the food selection was quite limited which was not comparable to those Cathay Pacific Lounge in Hong Kong. Overall the lounge environment was good for relaxing, everything was just very basic and nothing special.

My food 1

My food 2

Entrance of the Lufthansa Business Lounge.

Flight report

At 12:23pm, I left the lounge as I was not sure how much time I need to pass the immigration but to my surprise the immigration was so empty that I was able to reach the gate just a few minutes after I left the lounge… At that time, it was about 15 minutes to the schedule boarding time so there were already a lot of people in front of the gate.

My plane, B-LRL, a 7 months old A350-900. Boarding was commenced at 12:44pm. I enjoyed the priority boarding with my Silver status of Macro Polo Club.

My seat, 40A. It was the first row of the economy class. Pillow and blanket were neatly placed on the seat. There was a man sitting at the aisle seat but soon he moved away. The loading was not very high and the two neighboring seats remained empty.

View from the window.

PTV was mounted on the partition wall. There was a space below the PTV where you can put your phone or other stuff there.

Cabin during boarding.

The remote control of the IFE.

Welcome screen of the PTV. The sensitivity of the screen was very good.

The overhead panel without air vent.

At 13:13pm, menu was distributed. There were two choices for both lunch and breakfast.

At 13:27pm, pushback was started which was a bit ahead of the schedule.

Eventually, we took-off from RWY23L at 13:39pm.

Sharklet of Cathay Pacific Airways A350-900

At 13:53pm, not long after takeoff, I started to watch the first movie, Dealer/Healer.

About 25 minutes after takeoff, the crew distributed the roast salted peanut snacks and orange juice together with the antiseptic towelette. I realized that they started to provide this China brand roast peanut to passengers instead of the Cathay Pacific original that served in the past. I guess this is also one measure for cost down?

View from my seat

About 40 minutes later, the crew started to serve the lunch. I went with the "Chicken" option with the Coke as drink.

In the middle of the meal, the crew returned and gave every passenger a Mövenpick ice-cream.

Entered the Russian territory, after passing through Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus.

At 15:52pm, I visited the lavatory. I really like the scent of the hand cream provided there.

After I returned from the lavatory, I started the second movie, Baywatch. Soon the cabin went completely darkness. 40 minutes later I fell asleep.

I woke up after a 30 minutes nap, and noticed that the sky was almost blacked out but still able to enjoy the last moment of sunset. At that time, we were flying over Russia.

After I finished the second movie, we were flying close to the boarder of Kazakhstan. Going through the duty free catalog, I finally decided to buy the "Remove before flight" Tag set but the crew checked and said it was currently out of stock on the plane. She then gave me an order form which I can also place the order.

When everything was settled, I requested a cup noodle with an orange juice.

Then I started to watched the third movie of the flight, Alien: covenant. According to the flight map, we were very close to the China border. Remaining 5 hours to Hong Kong.

After I finished Alien movie, I went to the lavatory again and grabbed an orange juice at the rear galley of the aircraft. Returning to the seat, I start watching a Taiwanese movie.

At 22:01pm, the cabin light was turned on gradually with a bit of mood lighting.

Drink was served again and I had an apple juice.

At 22:30pm, breakfast was served and I took the omelette choice.

A coffee after the breakfast.

Very close to Hong Kong. At Hong Kong time 5:35am, announcement from the flight deck informing we had commenced the descend and expected to land 15 minutes later.

Final approach!!!

We landed on Hong Kong international airport at Hong Kong time 5:52am, flight duration was 10 hours 13 minutes. After a few minute of taxing, we arrived at gate 46.

Thanks for reading.