Looking at booking some honeymoon flights to Europe over Christmas/Jan 2019. Cathay Pacific coming in far cheaper than others from some prelim review. I have heard good things in the past about them flying to Japan, etc so was pretty keen to jump on some flights around $1200 return. But just recently looked up some reviews and they seem to be slipping backwards to a pretty mediocre outfit. Only 5.8/10 on flight review website. Is this the case? Is their service and dated aircraft becoming a real issue?
Pointy end is good I've heard varying tales of woe from the bit of the plane behind the curtains- but that seems true of all airlines
Ive flown many times on Cathay to Tokyo and Vancouver via HK, business and economy. The herringbone business setup is nifty and pleasant. However those planes do seem to be getting a bit long in the tooth and it really shows in economy
Turning left is very good indeed. Shame those QFF points have all gone. As to economy while their reputation was very good it does appear to have slipped in recent years but perhaps still Ok amongst a declining standard of travel - as costs increase but airlines hold fares low. CX has been reported to be suffering financial terms and $1200 return is indicative of market forces and evidence of this situation is CX densifying economy in their B777s from 3-3-3 to 3-4-3 as per most airlines
Flew with them in Jan, Melb - HK - Haneda return. Nothing amazing, but definitely nothing wrong with the service. All our gear arrived on time with no damage. Would fly with them again, especially considering their 30kg luggage allowance.
We've flown them from Perth to Sapporo Chitose twice via Hong Kong in economy, couldn't fault them. On time flights, friendly service and decent baggage allowance. This year we flew Tokyo-Perth via Singapore with Qantas, the Tokyo to Singapore leg was run by Japan Airlines (codeshare) and was awesome on a 777 but the Qantas leg on a 737 sucks in comparison! The JAL plane was great, lots of legroom, comfortable seats, big screens and good food.
Never faulted Cathay until last year when we missed a connection. Staff were incredibly rude, solution to missed connection was hard yards. But back to great service this year.... who knows?!
As much as I would prefer to fly Signapore Airlines, the price for Cathay is hard to go by. $1400 vs $2300. x2 people and that's almost $1800 extra to fly SIA.
We flew Cathay Melbourne to HK to Sapporo return. Whilst everything was fine and dandy other than some delays, the planes were old and stuffy and everything thing seemed tired. Which is in complete contrast to flying with JAL this year which was Soo good.
Bumping this, because there is only a 3 more days of the Cathay Pacific sale. We just picked up return flights to Europe for the family of 5 for 6k. Yes, that's $1200 per person, into Paris out of Zurich. Amazing deal for Jan19. Originally looking at Japan but given direct flights there are about $100-300 more Europe won this time! I don't have high expectations o any economy Europe flight, but surely Cathay are decent still despite a few recent financial losses. Here's the details of the Cathay special: https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_AU/offers/collection/east-meets-west-sale.html
Yeah prices were hard to turn down with us too...into Milan, out Paris for $1350 or thereabouts over Christmas / New Years. Also have a week layover in HK on way over and squeezing in Japan too . Best of both worlds.
About to fly them to the US in July. Picked up 5 - 4 adult fares in that - tickets for 5.2k. Late booking for their summer holidays during our school holidays too seemed like a reasonable price.
I've done CX Sydney to Zurich a few times because it's an easy and fast way to get to Euro skiing. 24 hours travel time including the HK stopover, which should be smooth. The CX lounges in HK are very good. People get excited by what wine the airline serves, plastic v metal knives, movie selection, airline food (!!) etc But for me it's one of SQ, Qatar or Emirates to Yurp, basically for the connection and speed. 22 hours is possible.
We flew them Per-Nyc and Vancouver- Per. Based on price and timing of flights. They were fine. Found a lot of passengers on the legs into and out of Hong Kong were annoying Chinese who monopolised a lot of hosties time.
Not all Chinese are annoying, I've met at least 2 I liked. We were toward the back of the plane and at one stage was standing by rear toilets and passengers were helping themselves to all sorts of snacks in the galley.
Good on you for getting some Japan skiing too. Where are you riding in Europe? We are doing Meribel in a catered chalet (easier with multiple families with young kids) but looking for somewhere nice and quiet for a few days before that which is closish to Geneva.
Just flew them BNE to HK then HK to LA. Couldn't fault them at all. Very attentive staff through out the entire flight. Sadly nothing to do with them but we just had our first LAX horror in years. Took us 3 hours to clear customs. From a 10pm landing to 1am before we could get to baggage claim. For the number of flights that landed at that time to the number of custom officials on station to clear the arrivals was very poor. Cathay staff wondered what the problem was and stayed with our flights bags until everyone had cleared through to it and collected.
Not sure if this is the right place to ask - has anyone had issues HK to YVR with luggage oversize? Was just told by Cathay on phone that any bag over 158 in length would be charged 150USD and if exceeds 203cm in full dimensions it would 600USD. Which all seems ludicrous.
Had 2 x flights in the last week on Cathay. Both with large snowboard bags. They were fine with size, just make sure you don’t go over weight. We were 4kg over and they wanted like $240!! So we just repacked and snuck it through.
We flew YVR TO Hong Kong and then connected next day to Perth with ZERO issues, but definitely kept all bags under weight. Pretty sure we each had 2 bags under 23 kg so checked in boot bags and ski bags.
Flew Melb - HK - Haneda Jan 2018 with a 190cm ski bag with no issues. Just make sure you don't exceed the 30kg and you should be fine
Would have been good to get onto one of Cathay's first class tickets that were wrongly sold at greatly reduced prices. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46732952
It depends on what the oversize luggage is. If you are talking about ski bags, the following applies: "The following articles count as one ‘piece’ (158 cm / 62 in, in total dimensions) regardless of their actual dimensions: One pair of snow skis with one pair of ski poles and boots One snowboard and boots" The highlighting is mine. If you didn't tell the agent you were talking about 'sporting equipment' you were given the right info. If not, you got a dud agent.
Qantas have some FF flights to the USA with connection through HK (of course) of only 1 hour. That seems a bit tight to me? Never been to HK, would you risk the tight connection? Otherwise it's a 9hr stopover for the next flight.
1 hour is extremely short. If u r slightly delayed on ur first flight ur bags will not make the connection. I am for a 2-4 hour connection
It IS tight. I’ve done them and it’s a dice roll as to whether you make it or not. Which is a right pain in the butt when they re route you via a couple of other places and you miss your transfers. I always try to get at least 2hrs apart now. It’s just not worth the stress when youre sipping on your champers in the lounge and they announce the inbound flight is late so you’ll be boarding late.
I got burnt on connections on my last trip. Stupidly thought that 2 hours, 15 minutes would be enough time to get off an international flight to Gatwick, go through immigration (actually turned out to be super quick) collect my luggage and check in for the next flight. It all ended in tears after flight 1 was delayed and I had to stay the night at a Gatwick Airport hotel and buy a new flight to Austria the next morning. It would probably be fine 90% of the time but never again.
The difference is that if you transit through HK with both flights being CP, your bags are check all the way through.... no immigration or collecting bags. I've done that before at HK, and 2 hours is adequate. If you're running late, I've seen them pick people up on a cart, and drive them through the terminal to their departure gate. @chicski , if you have a 9 hour stopover, your bags will still be checked through to your final destination, so you can go through Immig/customs and spend the day in HK, with a 20 min train ride into the city.
Yes. You just go through Immig/customs with your carry on. You will already have your boarding pass, so no need to checkin again. I've done that 2 or 3 times.
My wife went Cathay Pacific to Europe last year and said it was way behind the mid-East airlines in comfort in economy. We went to Vietnam last month and she said Vietnam airlines was much better than Cathay Pacific.
I don't know anything about Cathay Pacific but I just purchased two tickets to the UK on Air China China Airlines via Taipei airport, only 1hr there and 4hrs back slower than the fastest +$3k fares (July) and nice new A350s. 30kgs luggage and pick your seat and meals.
China Airlines or Air China ? (they're two different airlines) China Airlines are based out of Taipei. Flew China Airlines earlier this year to Japan in their premium economy seating. Nice product.
I fly CX 2-3 times a year as it is most direct flight to China from Perth with PE. Last time was a few weeks ago. Was not impressed. Old plane crappy service and lounge was poorly staffed. Sometimes it is the luck of the draw when it comes to planes / stewards, but the lounge, while comfy, could have had double the number of staff!
Should b fine. CX and QF both one world so ur bags would be checked all the way, and u would be in transit in HKG which is a piece of piss. If your flight is delayed and you cop the 9 hr stopover... who cares?! It is Hong Kong! It is awesome! Leave the airport and go shopping in Mongkok or TCT. Catch ferry over from downtown... awesome fun
