Review of Cathay Pacific flight Hong Kong → Bangkok in Business

Hi everyone! Welcome to the second leg of the Summer 2017 travel series as well as my 20th trip report written here on FR! Before I get into the flight review of this sector from Hong Kong to Bangkok, something urgent had happened back in New York which required my attention, and I had to head back as soon as possible. I basically cut my holiday short as I was planning on leaving a few weeks before the flight.

While booking the flights, I was lucky that I got seats for all sectors. Anyways, I still had to go to Bangkok since I bought the ticket through a redemption booking. In a way, it would be silly of me not to use it. This is another one of those trips to Bangkok where I'll be there for less than 12 hours. In any case, I hope all of you enjoy reading this flight report!

Summer 2017 Trip Report Index:
1) 28 May 2017: CX899 EWR-HKG, B777-300ER, Business
2) 24 July 2017: CX703 HKG-BKK, B777-200, Business
3) 25 July 2017: CX754 BKK-HKG, A330-300, Business
4) 25 July 2017: CX846 HKG-JFK, B777-300ER, Business

Pre-flight:

I got the private car that I always hire in order to go to the airport, by then I arrived at around 3:00 PM. I was able to get enough time to check-in, go through security/immigration, spend time in the lounge, and plane spot. The process of booking this flight was smooth as always.


HKG Check-in Area


The check-in process took less than 10 minutes. However, I eventually found out that my flight was delayed by an hour. Although, it got extended to two hours by the time we departed.


As usual, I breezed through security and immigration, and was at the airside within a span of 10 minutes

Post-security

I found out from the FIDS that my flight was departing from gate 2 today, which gave me the obvious choice but to go to my favourite CX lounge in HKG, The Wing due to the near distance from each other.


FIDS. My flight was initially delayed to 5:45 PM until it switched to 10 minutes later


Going through the duty-free area


Airside


Before heading to the lounge, I decided to do some plane spotting!

Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300ER, B-KPC, serving as CX882 to LAX


Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300ER, B-KQY, serving as CX838 to YVR


EVA Air Airbus A320-200, B-16201, serving as BR856 back to TPE


Lufthansa Airbus A380-800, D-AIMI, which arrived from FRA as LH796


Cathay Pacific Airbus A330-300, B-LBK


I then headed to The Wing once I was done with plane spotting


Gates 1-4 area


An attempt of messing around with the colour scheme of my camera


Heading to the lounge


The Wing - Business Class entrance


Lounge invitation


Few shots of the lounge


The famous balcony shots


The Noodle Bar


Coffee Loft


Drink menu


Some of the catering options


Shirley Temple


Tomato and lettuce on a miniature burger bun


Boarding pass


I remember spending approximately an hour and a half at the lounge, primarily due to the delay of the flight. Afterwards, I headed towards the gate which was just a short distance.


Plane to BKK: B-HNC. What I believe to be the reason for the delay was the change of aircraft as when I booked this flight, I was told that this flight was going to be operated by a regional Airbus A330-300. However, I guess there was a change of plan and was now going to be using a Boeing 777-200.


Gate area


Here's to another less than 12 hour trip!


Heading towards the plane


Some pre-flight information:
Date: 24 July 2017
Airline: Cathay Pacific
Flight Number: CX 703
Route: Hong Kong (HKG) - Bangkok (BKK)
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200
Registration: B-HNC
Distance: 1051 miles
Scheduled Departure Time: 5:05 PM (delayed to 5:55 PM)
Actual Departure Time: 6:58 PM
Scheduled Arrival Time: 7:00 PM
Actual Arrival Time: 8:21 PM
Flight Time: 2 hrs 55 mins
Departure Gate at HKG: 2
Arrival Gate at BKK: D3

Inflight

Regional business class in the standard 2-3-2 configuration


My seat: 14A


The legroom was somewhat similar to what you'd find on a regional A333


Pre-departure drink - Orange juice


Hot towel


View from my seat for now


Cabin views


Flight info, with the slight glitch in regards of the flight time


Even though I have ordered a special meal for myself, I was stilled offered a menu to see if there were any other options. Hence, here's the menu for the flight.


Just as I expected, the boarding process took quite longer. So I knew for a fact that this flight was going to be further delayed

We finally pushed back at approximately 6:35 PM


Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300ER, B-KPO, which arrived from LHR as CX254, and would serve as CX888 to JFK via YVR later that evening


A sunny day in HKG


On the right: Cathay Pacific, Boeing 777-300ER, B-KPI, as CX846 to JFK


It was quite a long taxi towards Runway 07R


Dragonair Airbus A320-200, B-HSD, serving as KA299 to HAN


Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300ER, B-KQO, serving as CX890 to EWR


Views from the taxi towards the runway


After being held up for two hours, we finally took off towards the sunset

Views post-departure


Hong Kong on a cloudy day


See you later, Hong Kong!


Soon after, I went to see what was on the inflight entertainment


I thought I would save 2 Broke Girls for my flight to JFK tomorrow, so I decided to watch The Big Bang Theory for now


After about 15 minutes, the cabin crew started with the usual drink orders as well as the meal service


For drinks, I decided to go for Coke yet again


Table setup


My special Indian Vegetarian meal


The crew cleared up everything within half an hour. I headed on to the bathroom afterwards, which is standard-looking like the one on the four-class Boeing 777-300ER


Cabin view inflight


Galley view behind the business class cabin


About to enter Thai airspace


Filling out the Thai arrival card


At that point of the flight, I would say that the rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. So, I decided to listen to music and relax until the captain made the announcement that we were now starting the descent into Bangkok and that there were only 30 minutes till we land.

Descending into Bangkok


Even the view is pretty at night


Final shots before landing


We ended up landing at 8:21 PM, more than an hour behind schedule. The taxi to the gate took around 10 minutes

Taxiing towards Concourse D


Etihad Airways Boeing 777-300ER, A6-ETD, which will serve as EY401 back to AUH


Docking at gate D3


Disembarking/Arrival into BKK

Post-flight

To my surprise, the walk to immigration was not that long as it only took less than 5 minutes


Premium Lane entrance


Baggage claim area


The whole process took 15 minutes in total


Arrival hall


Suvarnabhumi Airport signage at the arrival hall


Since I was staying at the airport hotel again, it was another short walk before I proceeded to the shuttle, from then on I was on my way to the hotel.