Round The World and other travels

Flight Log 18 : CX830

Hong Kong (HKG) - New York Kennedy (JFK)

Until within a week of travel, my booking had been on CX888, the 747-operated service with a stopover in Vancouver. This is because Cathay had been withholding A-class availability in the hope of selling all 8 first-class seats at full F fares. The downside of the move was that I was unable to secure a window seat, but not to worry. I was one of the first to board the aircraft, only to find a maintenance worker attending to my seat. Apparently the privacy divider between 2D and 2G was jammed in the down position and, indeed, that's where it would remain, as the fault could not be fixed. The Captain announced that there would be a short delay to departure as we had a no-show passenger whose baggage would have to be located and off-loaded from the flight. He also mentioned that we would be taking a southerly track via Vancouver rather than the usual polar route, in order to take advantage of prevailing wind conditions. This was good news, as I had been aware that the polar route would spoil the true round the world nature of this part of my trip, as there would not really be a Pacific crossing. But, in the event, the integrity of the RTW concept was to be kept intact   I had a Cathay Delight to pass the time.

We eventually pushed back at 1028 and made our way to the runway. As this was to be one of the longest flights in any commercial airline's timetable, I thought it might be interesting to time the take-off run. I made it 55 seconds from standing start to rotation, or 45 seconds from the point where the engines were at full take-off thrust. We left Hong Kong behind at 1045 local time, which in New York terms, equated to 2245 on Tuesday 02 May. Yes, that's right : New York was a full 12 hours behind Hong Kong. There would be no need to change watches; it was a complete flip-over between night and day

Once properly underway, the crew wasted no time in getting the service underway. The menu was as follows :-

LUNCH		WINES
Caviar and Balik Salmon Delight		Champagne
Caviar and Balik Salmon "Tsar Nicolaj", served with Warm New Potatoes and Crème Fraiche		Krug Grande Cuvée Champagne
Soup
Pea, Bacon and Mint Soup served with Mini Garlic Baguette		White Wines
Salad		Frei Brothers Reserve Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2003
Caesar Salad		Puligny Montrachet Les Grandes Marches 2002
Main Courses
Pan-fried Blue Cod Fillet with Mustard Cream Sauce, Parsley Kipfler Potatoes and Roast Mixed Vegetables		Red Wines
Sautéed Beef with Assorted Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce, Steamed Rice and Choy Sum		Carlton Grand Cru Louis Max 1996
Red Curry Prawns with Steamed Rice and Sautéed Vegetables Thai-style		Foley Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir 2002
Garganelli with Olive, Caper and Tomato Sauce		Chateau Lynch Bages 1995
Cheese Board
Fresh Seasonal Fruit		Port
Dessert Selection		Ramos PInto Quinta da Ervamoira 10 Year Old Tawny Port
Bread and Butter Pudding
Ice-chilled Mango, Sago and Pomelo Dessert
Vanilla Ice Cream with Raspberries and Waffle
tea and Coffee
Pralines and Cookies
REFRESHMENT		SNACKS
Appetizer		Shrimp Wontons in Noodle Soup
Fresh Seasonal Fruit		Wild Mushrooms Ragout with Fresh Asparagus on Baked Sourdough with Olive Oil
Yoghurt Selection		Plain Congee or Congee with Assorted Seafood, accompanied by Spring Onion Pancake
Natural or Low Fat Fruit-flavoured		Hot Pot Rice with Steamed Sliced Pork with Yunnam Ham, Dried Shrimps and Pak Choy, served with Dried Scallop with Fish Maw Soup
Cereals		Ice Cream
Muesli, Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies		Tea and Coffee
Main Courses
Scrambled Eggs
Dim Sum Selection
Omelette with Ham and Mixed Pepper
Accompaniments
Grilled Ham Slices and Pan-fried Nürnberger Sausages, Home Fried Potatoes, Vine Ripened Tomato and Sautéed Fresh Mushrooms
Selection of Pastries
Tea and Coffee
Pralines and Cookies

I had some Champagne and some warmed almonds and garlic bread to start with. As I listened to the Mozart Piano Concertos Nos 20 and 27 on the AVOD system, the first course arrived. Imagine : feasting on smoked salmon and caviar, sipping Krug and listening to Mozart. I've been to Heaven and it has a CX flight number   I was surprised to find that my Caesar Salad arrived next; the penny hadn't dropped that the seat belt signs were on. With the salad out of the way, the crew explained that they were not allowed to serve soup while the signs were on and asked whether I wanted to wait or carry on with my main course. I opted to have my main course, which turned out to be absolutely delicious. I'd noticed that Chateau Lynch Bages was still on the wine list and, remembering how much I enjoyed it in 2004, I decided to have it again now. I still liked it just as much   The crew offered to serve my soup after the main course, but by now I was feeling quite full, so I decided just to have some cheese, which I didn't even manage to finish, and some Earl Grey tea.

The meal over, I decided to spend some time watching a movie. Having missed it in the cinemas, I finally got to see Ang Lee's controversial masterpiece Brokeback Mountain - a film I'd previously thought managed to achieve the unique distinction of being, at one and the same time, the movie everyone was talking about (according to the media) and the movie hardly anybody was talking about (according to personal observation of day-to-day life in Scotland). Anyway, I thought it was a superb piece of cinematographic art, although the on-board video screens probably did not do justice to the North American mountain views.

After that, I changed into my sleeper suit. Full marks to Cathay Pacific on this : the old rhubarb-and-custard colours are out, replaced by a very stylish design in black and yellow. And what an excellent idea it is to provide a pair of in-flight slippers   The only problem was, I didn't actually sleep much at all : I'd guess an hour of real sleep and then two or three hours of just lying there, resting. It just wasn't the right time to try to fool myself into believing that I was tired. I eventually gave up and, just to emphasise the point, changed back into my day clothes and had a pot of Earl Grey and some biscuits. I then spent some time updating my diary, had a very nicely presented won-ton soup as a snack, and then watched my second movie of the flight, King Kong. It was OK, but I thought it owed a lot to Jurassic Park and at times the special effects were just too obvious as being exactly that.

Eventually, it was time for what the menu curiously called a 'Refreshment', but which sounded much more like Breakfast. I had some apple juice, a fruit starter, corn flakes, then scrambled eggs with ham and potatoes. I also had some toast and marmalade and - I think you've probably guessed this bit - another pot of Earl Grey tea. There was also another hot towels service at this stage. I was now listening to a selection of piano music by Chinese pianist Lang Lang.

We touched down at JFK at 1355 local time, bringing an extremely long and at times very bumpy flight to an end. We were on stand by 1359 but, rather annoyingly for those up front, disembarkation was by Door 2 only, meaning that the whole of Business Class got to go first

My latest experience of Cathay Pacific's first class service had been exemplary. However, be warned : this is an EXTREMELY long flight, at the limits of what is possible on a commercial service. At the risk of sounding precious, I'm not sure if I could contemplate it anywhere other than in that front cabin

Date: Wed 03 May 2006
Aircraft : Airbus A340-600
Scheduled dep : 1015
Actual departure : 1028
Scheduled arrival : 1400
Actual arrival : 1359
Cabin : First Class
Seat : 2D





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