With my big suitcase sent away fairly quickly, I proceeded to explore the rest of the terminal. There were still a few flights leaving at this late hour, with a sizeable crowd at Caribbean Airlines down the hall.
Terminal 3 is used by the non-Star Alliance carriers so there is a good mix of different airlines here. Westjet, the other national carrier, has a large operation out of here.
A newcomer to Terminal 3 is Porter Airlines, previously based at the downtown island airport but they have just opened new routes out of Pearson with Embraer jets. I'm skeptical whether they can replicate the very pleasant airport experience downtown here, but they seem to want to launch longer routes with larger jets that the island airport cannot accommodate.
Luckily, at this late hour, there was no line to get through security and I was airside in no time, with plenty of time before boarding.
Exploring the terminal, I noticed a red vending machine selling colourful sandwiches marked as freshly delivered from New Jersey. It seems business is not so good. There were plenty still available.
Shop prices were way over the roof, and I had no reason to buy any souvenirs here. So I just let the camera do the work.
While Canada has relaxed laws that now permit using marijuana in casual settings, the same cannot be said for other places. Hong Kong has gone the other way, classifying CBD as a "dangerous drug" along with the likes of heroin and cocaine.
Back to duty free shopping, ice wine on offer was also a lot more expensive than at the LCBO store.
Unsuccessful at the shopping mall, I made my way far into the terminal towards my gate. A long time ago, this terminal became an innovation star with tablets at seats. I guess by now, everyone has some sort of electronic device so perhaps this setup will soon be obsolete?
Cathay markers and lines were already set up at the gate with a few agents around. There was a huge crowd and it looked like a full flight tonight. The Economy lines were kept back along the corridors, while the front end of the cabin had lines further up closer to the actual gate.
Boarding was timely and I quickly settled into my Premium Economy window seat. There was enough overhead space for all our hand luggage despite a full cabin. A bottle of water and amenity kit were already in the seat pocket and a blanket placed on my seat. The wider sea is quite noticeable while I had ample legroom to stretch out. They could have even set up a slanted lie-flat bed with this setup.
Despite a full loading out back, we pushed back a few minutes early and took off heading north for the long red-eye to Asia.
Paper menus have returned with 3 choices.
Although I wasn't particularly hungry at this late hour since I had dinner already, I was worried there wouldn't be any food served until just before landing, which will probably be some 13 hours away. So I ended up eating, picking the citrus garlic roasted pork shoulder, which had a thick portion of meat although was not particularly tasty.
I thought of trying Betsy, Cathay's own brew, but worried alcohol at altitude would exacerbate its effects. The port wine has disappeared from the menu.
I saw there was a wifi signal available and I connected to check it out. At USD $19.95 for a flight pass over 15+ hours, it is quite decent value for money.
We headed northeast and passed through northern Greenland on the way to the North Pole. This route is one of very flew from Cathay that will fly through Russian airspace on the other side of the arctic. When I booked this flight back in late October, the flight time was much longer because it avoided Russia, but subsequently, they decided to resume flying over their airspace, saving a few hours. I suppose Russia is friends with China so wouldn't try to do anything funny to this flight from an enemy country.
While I thought this was an entirely red-eye, I spotted a sunrise far away in the horizon. It would eventually get totally dark again for the rest of the flight.
I dozed on and off for more than half the flight. Past the half way mark, the crew served cup noodles although I passed and got some snacks from the back galley instead. 2 hours before landing, we got breakfast. I picked the Singapore fried vermicelli.
This long flight from North America to Asia will not pass above the Pacific Ocean, but the Arctic Ocean instead.
Since I slept for a large portion of the flight, I didn't use the IFE much although the selection was quite decent. There was live TV from the 2 main international news channels.
Printed magazines are no longer available on board, but there was a vast selection on screen instead.
There was a good selection of Hong Kong TV from other channels, including drama series and travel shows.
It was easy to add items onto the playlist including all episodes of the season.
As we approached the end of the flight, a government video was played warning about bringing CBD products in since it's now illegal.
We landed ahead of schedule and parked at the gate close to immigration at 4:49am. I actually thought the flight wasn't too bad, probably because I was able to catch some sleep. While it wasn't deep sleep and I was in and out for more than half the flight, I felt more or less refreshed as that was already better than how I typically fare on long-haul red-eyes, even when at the front of the plane.
For a flight of this length, about 15 hours, I can't tough it out in Economy anymore unless I get a whole row all to myself. The 60,000 Asia Miles for a one-way Premium Economy redemption was quite good value for points.
There were many transit passengers, and I noticed a fair number heading to the Philippines. Immigration was quite quick with the kiosk as there were few people so early and my luggage came out shortly after. I was ready to head through customs by 5:05am, which is quite impressive from gate to land-side.
It's still so early. The first airport buses and trains to the city have not started.
From time to time back in the old days, I would be asked to fill out a survey form on paper while on board with a free pen to keep. Things have gotten more tech-savy now. A few days later, I got an email to do a post-flight survey.
