Cathay Pacific Review (London Heathrow to Hong Kong CX254)

A Cathay Pacific Boeing 747-400 aircraft coming into land at Hong Kong Chep Lap Kok Airport: Photo Copyright Navjot Singh

Route: London Heathrow to Hong Kong

Departure date and time of flight: 8th January 2009 at 22:05pm

Flight Number: CX254

Flight duration: 11 hours 40 minutes

Class: Economy Class

Aircraft type: Boeing 747-400

Punctuality of the flight:

The plane departed bang on time and landed around 5 minutes prior to the listed arrival time. In terms of punctuality, you cannot get any better than this.

Any baggage issues:

No issues- the bags arrived on time and in one piece.

Comments on the check- in staff and any issues:

The check-in staff were polite, smiled and very professional. There was no problem what so ever. I had arrived around two hours before departure.

Comments regarding the pre-meal service:

Choice of drinks (standard- tea, coffee, orange juice, apple juice, lemonade or coca-cola). A lovely choice of Whiskey, Vodka, Beer and Cognac were also on offer. Oh, you cannot resist those tempting pretzels for the flight. The packaging is all branded in the Cathay Pacific logo.

Comments regarding the first meal:

Dinner was served around 35 minutes’ after departure from London. There were three choices on this full flight: 

• Beef stew Bourguignonne style parsley mashed potatoes with vegetables; 
  
• Braised sliced chicken with chestnuts, steamed rice and mixed vegetables; 
  
• Rigatoni pasta with creamy pumpkin sauce to accompany the meal sprinkled with mung beans and sliced spring onion. 
  

I went for the latter Italian choice.  A lovely dish of prawn salad with lettuce with cherry tomatoes and topped with a slight portion of dill dressing.   

For dessert, nothing could go wrong with the apple caramel topped with custard sauce- sheer delight to have and amazing how we take it for granted to eat such luxury food high in the sky these days. For those with a sweet tooth, a bar of Arnott’s “Tim Tam” chocolate was presented. The presentation of this meal was immaculate.

Comments regarding the drinks service:

A second round of drinks was offered after the meal. Alcohol was served.

Comments regarding the in-flight snacks (if any):

Passengers’ could help themselves to “pot noodles”, Arnott’s “Tim Tam” chocolates and Arnott’s biscuits’.

Comments regarding the second meal (if any):

A delicious breakfast was served at around an hour and a half prior to landing at Hong Kong airport. We had the following choices:

• Western choice (English breakfast)  
  
• Cantonese Breakfast (seafood congee). 
  

I went for the western choice, but having spoken to my neighbour the seafood congee was to die for- would you have imagine that you can get this at 37,000feet!?

The main dish contained a fabulous scrambled egg (frittata), a lovely portion of button mushrooms, a nice tomato and two neat slices of British bacon. For a One World airline like Cathay Pacific this was one of the best breakfasts’ I have had on a flight. Accompanying the meal was an attractive looking pot of mandarin flavoured yogurt. Lovely piece of soft bread- it was warm, and the bread melted as I put it in the mouth. That Frank Cooper’s strawberry jam was just fine- went really well with the round bread bun.

As with all airline meals there was a pot containing a few fresh slices of fruit (and yes, they were fresh). The difference between a 5 star airline and a 4 star airline is that the food is usually cooked within the last 12 hours, and the experience is one that leaves the customer coming back again and again…and again (and referring the experience to their friends/colleagues etc).

Comments on the in-flight system (if any):

The IFE system of this flight was full of an interactive extravaganza of movies and songs.

Comments of professionalism of the cabin crew:

The staff were very professional, always had a smile on their faces and were quick to respond to any kind of request from the passengers. The meal and the drinks were served at the right time without any delay. The beauty of the meal service was that the timing between the main meal and the drinks serving was timed perfectly so that passengers would not need to finish eating their meal in order to get the drink. So the drinks arrived just in time after the meal.

Improvements that could be made:

Perhaps have mood lighting when the aircraft is flying in between different time zones (morning, afternoon and evening) - hey, I could honestly find nothing else wrong with this flight!

Comments on the interior of the aircraft (including seat comfort): 

The Boeing 747-400 was clean, and had a fresh smell. The seats were coloured in the Cathay Pacific green colour. The aisles were also clean. In the toilets, Cathay Pacific uses toiletries provided exclusively by “Murad” (refreshing cleanser, Vitamin C “body cream”, and “perfecting night cream”).

For this long haul flight each passenger was treated to a sleeping bag that contained a pair of socks, eye-shades and a tooth care bottle (containing toothbrush and toothpaste).

Overall rating 1-10 (worst-best):10