Cathay Pacific Airways Review (Hong Kong to London Heathrow CX251), BOEING 747-400

A Cathay Pacific Airways coming into land at Chep Lap Kok Airport (Hong Kong): Photo Copyright Navjot Singh

Route: Hong Kong to London Heathrow Airport

Departure date and time of flight: 15th January 2009 at 23:55pm

Flight Number: CX251

Flight duration: 13 hours 05 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). As with most of the airlines in China, the drinks (coca cola, orange etc.) were all branded under the Cathay Pacific Logo. 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 40 minutes’ after departure from Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific doesn't disappoint when it comes to in-flight meals’. The main dish consisted of sweet and sour pork served with boiled white rice and some vegetables’. The pork could be described as being scrumptious- just right and not too touchy with the oil either. The rice was perfect- not the kind of gooey type that some airlines offer as part of their in-flight meals.

A lovely tuna salad was provided with freshly cut olives (only two of them) and slices of apples. It’s not too often that a non-tinned tuna is served at 37,000 feet.

For the dessert Cathay Pacific provided a bright tangerine covered sponge cake blended in with a slight hint of mango. That glistening touch of an orange on the top of the cake was just perfect. What’s more is that nothing tasted well than having a short dairy milk chocolate bar. Hey, come on, I’d been living in China for like 6 months without any Cadbury’s chocolate and so this was a sheer treat at 37,000 feet.

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. The main dish contained a fabulous Spanish omelette made up of red and green peppers, a lovely portion of button mushrooms 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 strawberry yogurt.

As with all airline meals there was a pot containing a few fresh slices of fruit- including those cute tangerines (and yes, they were fresh).

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.

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