Bangkok - Hong Kong
CX 708
21 Feb 2016
I originally wanted to take the express train and save some money after taking a taxi into town on arrival. The notorious Bangkok mid-afternoon traffic got in the way, and in the end I conceded to taxi all the way to the airport, with a short margin of error left to check in. Bangkok's airport looks nice but the experience is nowhere near award-winning standards.
Bangkok gets a lot more interesting airlines than Hong Kong, although spotting here is far worse with windows covered up and not easily reachable since the gates are a floor below the main walkways. I had to make the best of what I've got.
In order to get into the gate's holding area and seats, they scanned my boarding pass first. When boarding was called, the boarding pass does not need to be scanned again.
Cathay is stingy with releasing award seats, so I had to capitulate and fly Premium Economy today. My only other PEY experience was with Qantas many years ago thanks to an unexpected online check-in upgrade. I wouldn't pay the premium to buy PEY with Cathay since they still can't get their pricing model right, but BA avios actually has a generously low premium to redeem it. My Y outbound and PEY inbound costed 22,500 avios while an all Y itinerary would cost 20,000 Asia Miles.
The PEY seat is actually very comfortable with lots of legroom, and can pass as a decent J product on medium-haul flights. I probably can get a few hours of good sleep for longer flights so perhaps a transpacific trip is do-able here if the price is right.
Upon departure, I enjoyed spotting some interesting birds from Uzbekistan, North Korea, and more.
We took off into a beautiful sunset and I started exploring the amenities. The noise-cancelling headset was good but everyone got a Y meal. If they want to charge such a premium over Y, they really need to differentiate the product more.
The meal is not any more upscale than Economy.
After the meal and enjoying the IFE, it was time to descend into Hong Kong. For a short flight, I should be grateful there was a hot meal. Here is Asia, we are quite spoiled.
My Bangkok photos : click here