Monday, July 25, 2005 10:42 PM
Cathay Pacific, SFO-HKG (San Francisco to Hong Kong), Business Class seats, June 2005. We recently flew CP to Hong Kong in their business class. Service is aboard 747s and business class is split between the main deck and upper deck. Cost was about $4000 a seat (through a consolidator; about $6600 retail)... In brief, this was the best flight, with the most restful seats and unobtrusive service of my more than 50 flights over the same route. Several things made it so. First, the timing of the flights is optimal. For the SFO-HKG leg, you leave at 1:20 in the morning; this means, you stay up late, get on-board and 10" after you're in the air, pop a sleeping pill. You get up 7 hours into the flight, use the washroom (kept spotless by the attendants, no mean achievement), crash again and are woken up by a pretty darn good fruit plate service 4 hours later, just in time to get your act together and touch down in HKG early in the morning (5:45 am). If you can keep yourself up in HKG (work out, walk around, SHOP!) until late (9:00 pm), your clock starts to reset really quickly---72 hours to normalcy... The return flight is scheduled just as well. Afternoon departure (3:00 pm-ish), stay up a bit, read and eat, then crash out again. Repeat the flight over schedule, awaken in San Francisco in the morning; again, walking into daylight after sleeping the flight away. Wow... The seats themselves deserve special mention. They are hi-tech (multiple video channels on-demand; individual video games with a detachable controller--I didn't figure that out until the flight back---the detachable part)---a pull out partition from your seat partner. Seats are set up in a 2 and 2 configuration on the upper deck---the seats have water bottle holders built into the arm rests that keep hydration nearby (gotta stay hydrated at altitude; that means no booze!) and the window side seat has direct access to the seat side lockers that the upper deck of 747s have in the fuselage bulge. Plenty of room to sneak around the aisle side passenger to washrooms or galley mid-flight. Most notably, the seats have a spectacular power recline; in fact, those seats recline flatter than my recliner at home does (i'd say to within 20 degrees, with power foot rests) Slept like a baby...Do take the time to figure out the controls; the seat goes back further than you think it does, but you need to sort out HOW; I had to help the grandmother next to me on the flight out...I'm sure a flight attendant would have done it if asked. Amenity pack supplies great ear plugs, a comfortable sleeper mask and nice cotton sock covers... Service is great in its lack of obtrusiveness; if you want to sleep and you've fastened the belt over your blanket, they just leave you alone; no annoying announcements, the cabin is kept dark and comfortable, no jostling you awake to see if you want a meal you'd rather sleep through, no pestering for Duty Free purchasing. They really get what the traveler to Asia wants... The CP business lounge in San Francisco is nothing special; however, in Hong Kong, it's much nicer, with everything from a noodle bar, to an expresso machine, to showers...Also, everyone's English is quite excellent and easy to understand...The upper deck seems to be the way to go if you are NOT traveling with children; they seem to keep the kids on the main deck, and that includes the kids traveling in business. Overall, this contributes to the blissful quiet. I'll fly Cathay again the next time I do the flight.