Cathay Pacific Flight to Hong Kong

It arrived, the announcement I had waited for, the culmination of many months acquiring points and understanding how to best utilize them, finally, first class passengers were called to board. Not only did I have priority boarding I had my own lane, my own jet walk, my own entrance onto the plane,  I did't even have to board with the masses.  I arrived to my suite, yes suite, not seat.  Suite 1A and Diva Ridge my travel companion occupied suite 2A.  Our first class cabin had only 6 suites; our two are marked with an arrow.

Many months of reading blogs confirmed why these were the best 2 suites from the lot.  It was like Diva and I owned the entire left side of the cabin.  No other passengers ever came into our area in 15 hours of air time, only our cabin steward and the lead attendant made there way into our designated space and only to provide service.  The cabin crew didn't even use our side of the plane to cross through to the business class section, all that activity happened on the right side of the cabin.  I barely saw any of the other passengers, I just know all the suites were occupied on the way to Hong Kong.  For the flight back there were only 5 passengers and I saw even less of them.  I excitedly took it all in; Diva and I acted as if we both were the recipients of  $5000 Nordstrom shopping sprees; constantly popping up and down with "Did you see this?",  "Look at that", "Do you have one of these?"  As we waited for economy class to board our steward presently us with cooled cloths to wipe away the sweat we formed as we worked ourselves into a joyous tizzy.  Then came the call for a send off drink I chose Krug Grande Cuvee champagne to go with my warmed almonds.

A little later the cabin attendant brought by my amenity kit and pajamas, I wasn't asked for a as size they brought them to me with the size already correctly selected.

As we taxied down the runway the 20 inch entertainment monitor in my suite switched to show live camera video of the takeoff.  As soon as we were airborne, preparations for dinner were underway.



I indicated to the steward I'd  like to have Diva dine with me in my suite.  Once the entree selections were made I located the noise cancelling headphones and checked out my entertainment options.  There were over over 500 movies new and old, TV shows, games, flight information and of course those outside cameras. One had the option for English or several other language to choose from.

We had been provided with the menu and wine list that would serve us for the flight. Dinner, Snacks and Brunch were covered.  Word of advice don't ever order congee and I don't mean just on a plane, I mean anywhere!

While the table was set with white linens, china, stemware and silverware. I chatted with Diva about how cool this all was and how surreal.  Back at the table we started with caviar and Balik salmon.  I took one bite of the caviar with toast points and realized why Tom Hanks in the movie "Big" rubbed a napkin over his tongue...YUCK!  Give me more champagne, please.  The plate was quickly removed.

 The remainder of the meal went along fine, we had several wines from which to choose and a feature wine for the month from the Bordeaux region, a rather excellent French Merlot.  Dinner took a little over an hour starting with a yummy lobster claw salad, about halfway through I decided I would take a sleeping pill since I wanted to get as much rest as possible.

                                              

After dinner was cleared away I escaped to one of two bathrooms in the front of the cabin.  One bathroom was larger than normal to accommodate changing into pajamas.  The bathrooms other than being roomier and containing upgraded soaps, creams, and mouthwash were nothing special but remember only 6 people would be using them and I swear the attendants cleaned them every time someone came out.  When I returned from changing I was asked if I'd like to have my bed made. Special duvet covers, linens and pillows were brought out and the finished product looked really inviting.

I settled in put on the headphones provided and started to watch an episode of "Modern Family" I say started because the sleeping pill took effect and next thing I know it was 7 hours later.  Now this is how you know you are on a long flight. I ate dinner, slept for 7 hours and still had like 5 1/2 hours to left kill.  I have to say I had a really sound sleep and the bed was very comfortable. When I awoke I noticed that my headphones had been removed, the entertainment screen was back in place, I was covered up with another blanket added and a bottle of water was placed near me.  I peeped over the suite to see if  Diva had slept. She decided to stay awake as we flew over the North pole. She reported seeing icebergs in stillness of the waters below and preceded to described the beauty of it all.  Seriously, I slept and we flew over the North Pole? While we chatted my bed was transformed back into the multi-position seat whose control pad (below) made sure every contour of the body was comfortable.
 


I chose to stay in my pj's as I was served breakfast.  The remainder of my in flight time I watched the movie Identity Thief.  By the time it was all over I felt like I had only been on the plane for a few hours, it was unbelievable.  I do need to point out that this seating is not conducive to interacting with another person, I literary had to stand up and turn around if I wanted to speak to Diva.  There was a visitor seat in our suites that we used to pop in and out when we wanted to have a chat or when necessary housekeeping was being performed in the cabin (i.e. setting up a meal, making the bed, etc).  So if we really needed to see each other during the flight I could have chosen from the other 4 seats where they open to the aisle and she would have been across the aisle but I would have given up some privacy.

The cabin crew wrote us hand written notes thanking us for being there, we had our fill of food, chocolates, drinks, and never had to want for anything.  The crew was remarkably professional and always anticipated the passenger needs.  

So the question becomes was it worth the $400 I spent to travel first class (I had plenty of points to take the same plane in business class but chose to "buy" points so I could upgrade myself to first)? Absolutely yes, for the given amount of time spent on the plane without the feeling of confinement I would have paid twice that amount.  The question then becomes would I have paid the full $26,000 fare?  No, unfortunately even at the discounted price of $15,400 that amount of money was not worth the expense to me.  Yes, it was the experience of a lifetime that I got to enjoy in two directions and my only regret is not seeing the North Pole fly over but hey, I got more sleep on that plane than I ever get in one night at home so I can't complain.