Review of Cathay Pacific flight Taipei → Hong Kong in Economy

Visited Jianguo Weekend Flower market.




Chanced upon a protest assembly. Seemed more like a family day with kids and grandmas involved in it again!




Buffet lunch at a restaurant offering Taiwanese delicacies at a rather new cafes/art gallery/restaurants hangout place, Huashan Park.




More Taiwanese food!




More night markets. I will really miss them…






On the day of departure, I received an email from CX that my original TPE-HKG sector on CX421 had been delayed for 2hrs. CX would rebook me on either the earlier CX475, departing 45min before, or a later flight at 1pm. However, as I only checked my email quite late, we still proceeded to the airport as our scheduled timing and see what the CX agents could do.

Reaching Taoyuan Terminal One, CX check-in desks were seeing a long queue. We proceeded to the bag-drop queue having done online check-in earlier. While queuing, a CX ground supervisor was asking around if anyone was booked on CX421. We immediately signalled that we were flying on the flight and was connecting to SIN. The supervisor immediately pulled us and one other passenger aside to an available counter and told the check-in agent to process us for the earlier CX475. Apparently they were trying as far as possible to shift passengers with connections to the earlier flight. At this time, it was only less than 40min before the departure of CX475, but the agents still managed to put us on the flight, even though we had to be separated. Well, better than waiting for the later flight and missing our connection in HKG. Also, I would have no idea what plane was operating the flight.

CX Desks




Terminal One was renovated, and it actually looked quite nice!




Boarding passes for both sectors.




Cleared immigration and security with no hassles and proceeded to the gate B6, which was the first gate just after passing through the duty free shops. Boarding was already in progress.



18 November 2013
Cathay Pacific
CX 475
Taipei Taoyuan (TPE) - Hong Kong (HKG)
B777-300ER
B-KPT
Economy Class


Boarding in progress when we reached the gate.




Curious as to what plane would be operating this flight. Turned out to be an almost brand new B773ER! I would have thought that CX would probably send a higher capacity 744 or 773 instead.




Straight down the aerobridge, with newspapers available at the door, Don't remembering them available at SIN, nor at HKG.




This plane would be a 4-class fitted B77W. Upon entering the plane, we first passed through Business class, which occupied the entire cabin between Doors 2 and 3.




How I wished I was seated in one of these seats, which are one of the nest Business Class seats out there.




Passing through the mini Premium Economy, which did not seemed too spectacular other than wider seat pitch.




Reached by seat, 64A, at the mid section of the rear economy cabin. CX only has slightly more than 180 Y seats on this premium-configured aircraft, and it appeared that it was totally full in Premium Economy and Economy. Apparently quite a number of frequent flyers were upgraded to Premium Economy. Never mind, I am perfectly comfortable in the new Economy seat.




CX 773 beside, preparing for a flight to KIX. CX has a huge operation out of TPE, with 5th freedom flights from TPE to various cities in Japan, as well as Seoul.




Flight map.




Fiddling with th IFE again, I discovered that this plane was fitted with underbelly camera! Here, it was showing the pushback tug at the nose gear!




Last stages of boarding in progress. The crew were also handing out blankets to passengers who needed them.




And another CX plane arrived.




Pushback was delayed as we were still waiting for a few missing/late passengers, probably the ones who were transferred from the later delayed flight. In the end, we only started our pushback almost 30min after STD.

Safety video shown during pushback. Apart from the introduction, it was exactly the same animation as the one shown on KA.







TransAsia A320 parked at the remote stands.




Another CX plane, a B744, parked at the remote stands too. Wondering what is it doing there with its flaps fully extended.




Taxi to Rwy 05L for departure.






Finally took off from TPE, more than 40min behind schedule! Luckily the flight was only a short 1hr20m and CX has padded the flight at 1h55m.




Climbing out of TPE and making a left turn back.




Seat belt signs switched off and a service announcement was made.




Flying along the coast of Taiwan with some nice scenery.








Studio CX was switched on shortly after departure. With headset available in the seat pockets, we were able to enjoy AVOD IFE even on this very short flight. Similar to KA, movies were unavailable on this sector.




I chose to watch a Taiwanese music award concert.






Wasting no time, the CX crew sprung into action and started the meal service. My aisle was served by a very friendly and smiley Taiwanese crew who provided exceptional service to passengers.




Apparently, CX has also changed its meal service on the HKG-TPE sector. Gone are the sandwiches and similar to KA, boxed meals are now served. Crew also handed out a pack of oolong tea and a cutlery pack.




Fearing that the piping hot meal box might contain the same fried rice as on KA, I was pleasantly surprised when I lifted the lid to find that it contained a Taiwanese traditional dish of braised minced pork with rice, along with half a hard-boiled egg and some pickles. It was truely delicious!! I don't mind getting a second serving!




Great meal!




An exemplary moment of the great service on CX, the pax seated beside me had obviously not pre-booked a vegetarian meal. When she asked the crew serving us whether the meal contained meat, which the meal did, she initially refused to have the meal, just requesting for the oolong tea. However, the stewardess then offered to prepare vegetarian cup noodles for her after the distribution of meals and informed the purser about it. After distribution of meals, she came back and ask the pax if she would like fruits or instant noodles as they have both, and miraculously present a fruit platter after the pax preferred to have the fruits. Wonderful service by CX!

Flying across the straits between Taiwan and China.




CX crew in action, serving hot beverages while clearing the meal boxes.




Nice scattered clouds below.




Connecting flight information was shown. My next flight, CX635, would be departing from gate 69. Lots of connecting pax on this flight.




73 miles to go.




Almost there, but we were put in a holding pattern for about 10min due to heavy traffic in HKG. This resulted in a slightly late arrival.




View from underbelly camera while flying circles.




Headphones were collected and IFE was switched to flightmap and camera view mode. Descending past some outlying islands.






Final approach from the west, with some construction (a bridge?) going on in the sea.






And landed on Rwy07L, about 15min late.



Following the centreline on the belly cam.




JinAir B738 taxi behind us.




Shanghai Airlines and Dragonair.




Parked at Gate 48 beside a B773.






Up comes the catering truck.




Disembarking with crew bading farewell along the aisle.




A shot of the new Economy seats. I would rank it as one of the best and most comfortable Economy class seats currently in the market.




Premium economy




Business Class. Nice for CX to have orchid decorations at the seats!






The neighbouring B773 aircraft. Would be having a 1h40m wait for the connecting flight back to SIN.