Tuesday:Cathay Pacific First Class, JFK to HKGWe took Uber to JFK and arrived at 7:00 AM for our 9:00 AM flight to Hong Kong in Cathay Pacific First Class.
First Class Checkin by
AJK DDF, on Flickr
First Class Checkin by
AJK DDF, on Flickr
First Class Checkin by
AJK DDF, on Flickr
First Class Checkin by
AJK DDF, on Flickr
First order of business, convince the reps to through check my bags all the way to Auckland, despite being on two separate tickets on two separate airlines in two separate alliances.
As a reminder, I was flying JFK-HKG in CX F on one ticket, connecting to HKG-SIN-AKL in SQ R on another ticket. To make matters a bit more stressful, the connection time in HKG was a mere 75 minutes, which is not enough time to exit customs, collect baggage, recheck, and then go back through security. So, if they refused to through-check our bags, we’d be toast, as we’d miss out HKG-SIN segment, and if we missed that, we’d also miss our SIN-AKL segment because it was an even shorter connection.
After a bit of back and forth, some confusion, and a bunch of phone calls, the agents successfully checked our bags through to AKL.
Woohoo!
Once checked in, we headed to the BA First Class Galleries Lounge, which was a fine way to pass the time, though nothing to write home about.
DSC00125 by
AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
We made some last minute phone calls—including some reconsideration calls (a favorite of mine to do while in lounges)—and then we headed towards the gate.
DSC00136 by
AJK DDF, on Flickr
We boarded and turned left—that never gets old—and ensconced ourselves in what felt like an old friend: Cathay Pacific First Class. For the journey to Hong Kong, we followed popular consensus and chose seats 1A and 2A on the left side of the plane, which has its own aisle, as seats 1 D/K and 2 D/K share the other aisle.
![](http://i.gyazo.com/d721bb9c993a1da356119691da114c95.png)
DSC00138 by
AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
Gosh those seats are wide. Really, really comfortable and wide seats. And we’d have them all to ourselves for this 15 hour jaunt to North Asia, a true long haul, and the longest flight we’ve done to date by over 1200 miles, a record previously held by JFK to Abu Dhabi on Etihad First.
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
Once in our seats, I noticed a Chabad Rabbi board shortly after us. Later in the flight, I introduced myself, and he reciprocated, introducing himself as “Nechemia.” We schmoozed a bit, and I asked him if he lived in HKG. No, he said, he lived in BKK. I wondered out loud if he had any connection with the Chabad houses there, and recounted our wonderful time with R’ Kantor.
He said, “Well, yes, I do have a connection… I have one.” And by having one, he meant a Chabad House. It was then I felt like an idiot, because I was talking to none other than R’ Nechemia Wilhelm, of the backpackers BKK Chabad House fame. Boy, was I taken aback.
Suffice it to say, I stopped referring to him by his first name after I made the connection
![Shocked :o](https://forums.dansdeals.com/Smileys/default/shocked.gif)
He was coming from Kinnus, and one of his supporters had used miles to bump him from J to F at the last minute. Nice way to travel, indeed!
Anyway, amenity kits and drinks were handed out, and before long we were in the air.
We had a beautiful climb-out over JFK and Long Island:
DSC00166 by
AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
[That's JFK in the upper portion of the above picture.]
I perused the drink menu, just to ensure they still had a premium scotch on board. I wasn't disappointed with the typical CX Johnnie Blue on board.
DSC00184 by
AJK DDF, on Flickr
I then turned on the IFE and was shocked to find out that it seemed like our 15 hour flight had just gotten even longer, because the IFE changed and showed us heading to HKG over the Atlantic! Cry, I did not
![Grin ;D](https://forums.dansdeals.com/Smileys/default/grin.gif)
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
Because we woke up at like 5 am to catch the flight, I was tired so I immediately changed into PJs, had my bad made and promptly took a five hour nap.
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
Upon waking up with about 8 hours to go, I was hungry.
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
Now, before traveling, I had heard that Cathay doesn’t allow
BYOK, but I figured with my charm, I’d be able to pull it off, so we risked bringing a couple of POM meals on board, some mac and cheese. Sure enough, when I asked for them to heat up our BYOK, the conversation went like this:
"Well, it's against our policies."
"You know how bad that KSML looks? Yeah, it tastes even worse."
"[Giggle] OK, let me check with my supervisor."
She checked and came back to inform me: "It's your lucky day!"
I offered my regular KSML to R’ Wilhelm, who decided against it
![Smiley :)](https://forums.dansdeals.com/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)
so we had her bring us both the KSML and the BYOK.
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
Suffice it to say, the BYOK and dessert tasted much better
![Smiley :)](https://forums.dansdeals.com/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
After Mrs. AJK had lunch at her seat, I came back to my seat to find that the FA had remade my bed. Nice touch.
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
I took a look at the amenity kit, but it was... underwhelming, at least as compared to SQ R (coming up).
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
15 hours on a flight is just the right amount of time for us. Enough time to sleep, eat, schmooze, watch, and rinse, repeat. After not too much longer, though, we were descending into HKG about 25 minutes early.
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
Upon landing and taxiing to our gate, we saw a slew of A330s... the
first of which we flew last year, from Hong Kong to Chaing Mai, and the
last of which we'd end up flying 7 months later from MEL-PEK-ICN.
DSC00252 by
AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
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AJK DDF, on Flickr
We took a quick pic with the Captain, and thus concluded a wonderful flight. Off we went to the SQ F lounge in HKG!
DSC00260 by
AJK DDF, on Flickr