Part 1: Seven Hours in ORD
Part 2: Cathay Pacific – First Class (CLE > ORD > HKG)
Part 3: Cathay Pacific – Business Class (HKG > BKK)
With each step, descending from stair to stair from the 2nd Floor Wing lounge to the boarding area in Hong Kong Airport, I could feel the diminution from First Class to Business Class. CX 617 offered only two cabins: Economy and Business. While I already yearned for the personalized service and Krug Grand Cuvee, I was also excited and interested to experience Cathay’s Business-Class product.
Our layover was fairly quick, two hours total, about an hour and a half after clearing quasi-immigration/security. We immediately headed to The Wing, Cathay’s lounge in HKG. The location couldn’t be more perfect, we literally were on the second floor looking down over the boarding area for our gate. While I was disappointed that the lounge did not have electrical plugs in the general seating area (what airport lounges doesn’t have ample places to charge computers/phones/etc…?!), the lounge did provide food and drinks, and looked relatively modern:
Seating Area
The Wing
There were both prepackaged items as well as hot food made-to-order
Drinks
Quite frankly, the lounge was nothing spectacular, and I was glad we had such a short layover. Before we knew it, our next flight was boarding.
A few minutes after we were seated, a flight attendant came by with pre-poured water, mimosas and orange juice options. As I only drank water in the lounge, I opted for a mimosa. The seats were fairly comfortable and NSPfiance and I booked middle seats knowing the seat configuration was a 1-2-1:
NSPfiance pre-flight, roughly 30 seconds prior to her passing out for the entire flight.
I was excited to see curry on the menu:
Thai food, finally!
The spicy yellow curry went nicely with a glass of wine:
Drink Menu
Of course what Asian meal would be complete without a wonderful Haagen-Dazs dessert?
My first Cookies & Chocolate experience. Cookies & Cream definitely wins that battle
I then settled into my seat, turned on an hour-long Louis C.K. television special (which was fantastically hilarious) and before I knew it, we were approaching Bangkok Airport.
Overall, the flight was a nice experience. Had I been paying for the flight, I don’t think it would have justified spending more to travel in Business Class for just under three hours. Definitely a world apart from our previous flight.
Leave A Reply