Review of Cathay Pacific flight Taipei Hong Kong in Economy

Airline Cathay Pacific
Flight CX473
Class Economy
Seat 58D
Aircraft Boeing 777-300
Flight time 01:45
Take-off 09 Jun 19, 18:35
Arrival at 09 Jun 19, 20:20
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
starvelk
By BRONZE 1575
Published on 26th December 2022

My first trip report! Do let me know how to improve in the comments :) 
Note: Seeing that Hong Kong is finally open for travelers without quarantining and stupid Amber Codes, I might as well write up some trip reports for my older trips before I embark on new ones.
Also, I apologise in advance for the terrible photos + limited photos as I wasn’t really an expert at taking photos 3 years ago. 
*Cover photo credit: Paul Stewart as I couldn't find any photo of the airframe


Introduction


Back in 2019 (when I was still a little kid), my family managed to snuggle some cheap Taipei tickets on CX for a short 4-day Dragon Boat festival trip. We took CX473, one of the 20+ flights Cathay used to offer on all wide jets between Taipei and Hong Kong. (Thanks to Covid and border restrictions on the Taiwanese side, it’s down to 3 these days).


Arrival at tpe


Arriving at Taipei Taoyuan Airport only 1 hour before our departure, we ran towards the First Class check in area, which was empty at that time (This particular 777 only had Business and Economy class, ie the first class check in is only for Marco Polo Club members). I managed to get a quick shot of the counters. (RIP Cathay Dragon, it was 2019 so it still existed back then. Since 2020, it has shut down and Cathay is now flying some of the routes it previously flies).
Check-in was quick and we managed to drop our bag + get our boarding passes within 5 minutes. 


photo img_4949

We then proceeded to security. Unlike entering TPE, the immirgration leaving TPE was significantly faster, albeit taking 15-20 minutes to clear.  After clearing security, boarding for our flight was already called. We started running to the gate and boarded the 777-300 which would take us to Hong Kong. 


Seat


I had a glimpse of Business Class while we boarded. 2-3-2 on a regional 777 is fine for just an hour, but Cathay operates these planes to India which is a 5 hour flight. Not that great.


photo img_4950

We then proceeded to Economy. As seen from the incredibly blury photo, this plane carries the new Cathay seats they installed on the 777s. These seats come with 32 inches of pitch and a sad 17.3 inches of width, particularly due to the 3-4-3 configuration Cathay decided to go with alongside the reconfiguration. However, the seat felt comfortable with generous amounts of recline.


photo img_4951

In front of me is a 13.3 inch IFE screen, which contained a LOT of movies, TV shows, music and games. It was up to date as well and the screen is really responsive. Good job Cathay!


photo img_4952

A literacy pocket is also found, which contained their magazines and a safety card.


photo img_4960

Food and drink


As this is an extremely short flight, once the seat belt sign turned off, the cabin crew immediately started the meal service. There were no options.


photo img_4955

My meal today consisted of Taiwanese braised pork and a piece of pork chop on rice. Basically, 滷肉飯. It also came with a bottle of water as well as a piece of not-so-tasty pineapple cake.

And boy was I…impressed. Back in 2017 and 2018, Cathay only served snack boxes on the flight (which included a chicken pie, a small packet of lemon tea and a small cookie. Seeing that bump up is extremely nice, considering on flights of this duration outside of Asia, you would be lucky to get a small snack let alone a full hot dinner.

Since it was a short flight, I watched a few episodes of cartoon while eating and not long later, the cabin crew came collecting the trays after the "35 minutes to landing" announcement. 


Kudos to the cabin crew for remaining friendly and professional in rushed flights like these, where a meal service is all you can do!


Landing


We landed at 20:20 into Hong Kong and followed by a short taxi, we disembarked the plane.
Here's the IFE screen after it got switched off. On the newer versions of the IFE, you get to see beautiful pictures of your destination once you've landed. Here's the beautiful HK skyline!


photo img_4958

Epilogue - What is going on in Hong kong?


Thought I might as well write a short paragraph on what's going on in Hong Kong as I've hardly seen any flight reports from people flying in/out of Hong Kong these days.

Even though we've largely allowed flights to continue to operate out of Hong Kong, quarantine was required since February and only ended in September 2022. The requirement of quarantining has reduced travelling numbers significantly and saw 90% less travellers entering Hong Kong compared to pre-covid times. Cathay Pacific has suffered a lot due to this and has sadly closed their subsidary, Cathay Dragon in October 2020. They also grounded multiple of their planes in Alice Springs.

Thankfully, with quarantine now cut, Hong Kongers are travelling abroad once again and the past few months has seen one of the best times HK's Aviation Industry has ever had. Cathay has resumed most of its flights to Asian destinations such as Tokyo, Osaka and Seoul but some long haul destinations are still operating with limited frequencies.

Hopefully the removal of quarantine-upon-arrival will attract more foreign travellers into Hong Kong! I should also be going on a trip to Seoul this January during Chinese New Year on Cathay, so expect a more detailed trip report after I come back from my holidays.

Do let me know how to improve my trip report other than clearer and more photos (will do so on my coming trip!) Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas!

See more

Verdict

Cathay Pacific

9.3/10
Cabin9.0
Cabin crew9.0
Entertainment/wifi10.0
Meal/catering9.0

Cathay Pacific Lounge

9.0/10
Comfort9.0
Meal/catering8.0
Entertainment/wifi9.0
Services10.0

Taipei - TPE

8.8/10
Efficiency8.0
Access8.0
Services9.0
Cleanliness10.0

Hong Kong - HKG

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

Conclusion

Overall, this was a short but high quality flight. The seats were comfortable, the IFE was excellent and I really like how Cathay serves a full meal on this flight.
Sadly, looking back, it was one of the last flights I took before Covid-19 stormed the whole world. Travelling has since become different :/
Nevertheless, I really enjoyed flying on Cathay Pacific and as a Hong Konger, it has always made me proud.

Information on the route Taipei (TPE) Hong Kong (HKG)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 61 avis concernant 4 compagnies sur la ligne Taipei (TPE) → 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 1 heures et 50 minutes.

  More information

5 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 617535 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6668 Comments
    Hi there, thanks for sharing your first report here with us! An interesting read with good details. It is sad how closed off Hong Kong was for so long and glad that restrictions are finally beginning to ease. The HKG quarantine rules were so punitive and I’m glad CX have survived this difficult period. It’ll be nice to finally see new Flight Reports to and from Hong Kong again!

    Very good quality service in 2019 on this short flight! It will be interesting to compare with flights now.

    Thanks for sharing and welcome!
    • Comment 617586 by
      starvelk BRONZE AUTHOR 37 Comments
      Thanks for stopping by! I am quite curious about how CX has changed their in flight service, especially considering that HX doesnt even offer a proper meal anymore due to Covid concerns (more like due to cost-cutting)
      IIRC CX wasn't actually the first to offer hot meals, it was either BR or CI, then they stepped up their competition (not complaining though)
  • Comment 617646 by
    NGO85 SILVER 1963 Comments
    Thanks for sharing this FR with us.

    The CX service is on par with CI for the HK/Taiwan routes at that time. For these high density regional planes with ~400 seats, a hot meal is about the best you can hope for. At least on CI, they would at least take drink requests (other than the bottled water) and walk them out after the meal if time allowed.

    The 3-4-3 is not surprising to see on the regional planes, almost everyone in the region is shifting in that direction. At least with new cabins, you get improved IFE. These seats look visually a lot better than those green/blue multi-color cabins they used to have on the B773s.

    Thanks again for sharing and welcome to the site!
    • Comment 617650 by
      starvelk BRONZE AUTHOR 37 Comments
      To be honest I did expect at least a drink service but oh well...I'll go with what they can offer on this 1 hour flight. I've never taken CI or any of the Taiwanese carriers and I'm pretty interested in trying them (especially starlux!)
      The seats they used to have on the 773 were those really terrible seats with fixed shells and they only slid forwards as such. It also had extremely thin padding and that was one of the worst seats I've ever been on; the retrofitting is actually something good for the 773 but not on the 77W where the great recliners from 2012 (originally in a 3-3-3 configuration) are now replaced with the 3-4-3 ones
  • Comment 617771 by
    Jett Tyler GOLD 357 Comments
    Nice review, I flew with China Airlines (skyteam) in Sept 2019, so just before everything went upside down. Good report on what Cathay Pacific offers on this route!

Login to post a comment.