Review of Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok in Economy

Hello everyone, welcome to the second (And final) flight report of the "Back in Time" series!
The series will be about the flights I have flown on back in 2019.

In the series consisting of 2 reports, I will show you how the Hong Kong aviation market looked like before the covid-19 pandemic. I have dug deep into my photo album and found the pictures I took for these flights, and recall the most out of my memories. Though the pictures would be limited and are of low quality, as I was quite young back then, I would still hope to bring you back to our "good old times" and share the passion of aviation from the younger me.

Please enjoy the short flight report, where I fly from Hong Kong to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, for a family trip!

Aircraft: B-LRK (Airbus A350-900)
Age of aircraft as of flight: 2.5 years
Flight number: CX755
Scheduled flight time: 09:30 (+8) - 11:30 (+7) | 3h0m
Actual flight time: 10:01 (+8) - 11:13 (+7) | 2h12m
Seat: Economy (Window seat, A)

An unexpected incident

5th of August, 2019. We actually booked a much later flight, which I think is CX653, which was scheduled to depart 2.5 hours later (at around 12:00pm). 

Back in August 2019, there were protests and strikes all over Hong Kong. In fact, they have scheduled an airport strike on the day of flight. We got to the airport as early as possible in the morning, and to check out whether our flight tickets require amendments.

I will not comment on the strikes itself, but it came to our realization that our flight has been cancelled. The airport in the early morning is very crowded, with lines full of desperate passengers trying to change their flight.

After some long queuing and negotiations with the CX staff at the check-in counter, we were rebooked to an earlier flight, despite having our seats separated far apart. It is partially dependent on our luck, though, as some friends that we are travelling with got to the airport slightly late, and are rebooked onto a Thai Airways flight. 

Any way, I would like to appreciate the effort of the staff members to try reduce the impact on passengers, as they have such a large number passengers to handle under such extreme scenarios. Hats-off to them!

boarding

We rushed through security before hustling to gate 69, as there wasn't much time left between our confirmation of our new flight and our departure times. 

Eventually and fortunately, we made it to the gate on time. I boarded, and my family ended up being split up in separate seats quite far apart, due to sudden change in arrangements as mentioned above.

cabin and seat

The aircraft I was flying on is B-LRK, which is a 2.5-year-old Airbus A350-900. The aircraft is relatively brand new, as it was delivered to Cathay Pacific in February 2017. Alike other Airbus A350-900s in the fleet, the aircraft features 38 Business seats (1-2-1), 28 Premium Economy seats (2-4-2) and 214 Economy seats (in 3-3-3 configuration).

I couldn't remember which specific seat I was seated in, but I could remember it was a window seat on the left side of the aircraft, meaning it ends in "A". A thing I can be certain is that my seat is in the rear cabin (between doors 3 and 4). Legroom is around 32 inches.

My overall impression to the cabin is new and simplistic, as the design of the seat is overall neat, functionable and quite comfortable.

The seat features a large IFE touch screen. Beneath it, there is a collapsible cup holder, which can act as a phone holder. A USB port is featured as well. There is also a double-folded tray table and a seat pocket for storage.

The overhead reading lamp and the flight attendant call button can be accessed from the IFE system, at the upper right corner.

A safety card, magazine, and such relevant contents are provided in the seat pocket. Headphones are provided as well.

As for the seat, it gives me 32 inches of legroom, which is pretty enough for a younger me. An adjustable headrest is featured, which is quite comfortable in my opinion. Headphones are provided on the seat.

Overall, the relatively new seat functions are very considerate and comfortable, giving out a professional impression. It is relatively ahead of its time when comparing to other Asian competitors. Nice job!

We proceeded to take off at 10:01, 31 minutes slightly behind schedule.

meal service | breakfast

Unfortunately, I do not have pictures to the meals served, as explained above.

Breakfast is very standard: passengers can choose between a Western breakfast, and Chinese congee. 

I went for the Western breakfast, which tasted pretty nice (as nothing could really go wrong with it). However, I did not take a picture of it due to obvious reasons (Refer to the start of the report).

On the other hand, a travel companion had the Chinese congee, but realized it has not been re-heated at all, resulting in slight stomach pain afterwards. That is a slight cut-back for the catering marks. 

in-flight entertainment

I'd have to say, I really appreciate the user interface of Cathay's IFE. It is easily navigable, and provides a nice variety of games, TV shows, and "online shopping services" too. I don't know what that does, though.

The touch screen works quite smoothly, keeping me entertained throughout the 2-hour journey. Not much detail can be recalled, but overall I have a pretty nice impression on their IFE.

landing

2 hours and 12 minutes after departure, we then landed at Bangkok at 11:13, which is 17 minutes ahead of schedule. Landing was slightly rough.

We then proceeded to our gate. I took a really nice picture during taxiing, the iconic Suvarnabhumi Airport terminal building can be seen. I really loved the wing tip on the Airbus A350.

Alike all other international flights, we proceeded to security checking after the we have left the aircraft. As it was during morning rush hours, customs procedures in Bangkok took slightly longer than expected, with us standing in long queues.

Afterwards, we retrieved our bags and left the restricted area.

We basically had few hours to chill out for, as we had to wait for some other friends who got changed to a later flight on Thai Airways.

There was a food court at the basement of the terminal, in which a nice variety of local Thai food can be enjoyed, such as chicken rice, pineapple fried rice, and mango sticky rice. There were also some nice retail shops for tourists to buy souvenir - they offer souvenirs with some nice prices, too! (Just a heads up, the scenario I'm describing only applies to the pre-covid 2019 conditions.)

This would end up to be my second last flight before the covid-19 pandemic. I would eventually return to Bangkok 4 years later, which is my first time after covid, with Thai Airways. (Flight report published)

This marks the end of the "Back in Time" series of flight reports! Thank you very much for reading, and please stay tuned for the upcoming flight reports!