Hi everyone and welcome to my very first trip report. Apologies in advance if its not up to scratch! :)
Trip Overview
1. SIN-HKG (A330-342)
2. HKG- TPE (A330): Trip Report writing in process
SIN- HKG | A330-342 | CX650
Background
This trip to Taiwan was planned quite some 7 months ago, serving as a short (but well deserved) family vacation. Chose CX over other airlines because of the cheap airfare on offer at that time. I paid only around $400+ per person so it was a pretty good deal for a full service carrier.
Pre-flight
Since flight time was 6.50am, we checked in at Changi Terminal 1 at around 4.30am.
Through immigration with a breeze and did some window shopping at DFS before heading towards the gates.
Some images of the static display of UK after immigration. PRETTY AREN'T THEY?
Spotted a Thai 777 on the way!
Cleared security and into the boarding lounge. Looks like today will be full load.
Our plane for the day
6 December 2015
Cathay Pacific
CX 650
Singapore (SIN)– Hong Kong (HKG)
A330-342
B-HLF
Economy Class
ETD:0650
ATD: 0727
ETA: 1045
ATA: 1043
Boarding soon commenced and since I was sitting near the tail end of the plane, I boarded rather quickly
The economy seats in this A330 are all fitted with the older generation of hard shell seats. What this means is that instead of reclining backwards, the seat actually slides forwards, creating a slouching effect. Whilst certainly uncomfortable, it was bearable for this short hop of 3+ hrs to Hong Kong. For longer flights, definitely pray you do not get this configuration, if not be prepared for a back-ache when you disembark.
Legroom wise was not a problem for me since I am pretty short, even for asian standards.
We soon took off and entered cruising altitude. Inflight service started shortly. One thing I noticed was Cathay stopped giving out peanuts during its initial service, not sure if its because of it being a morning flight or if its a cost cutting measure.
Anyways, breakfast was soon served and I chose the omelette with hash-browns and bacon. The other option was prawn congee. I found the meal to be pretty average, a noticeable drop in quality and standard from the last time I flew CX back in 2014.
View of the cabin while waiting for the washroom
Washroom was standard but was rather well stocked and clean despite it being halfway through the flight.
Nothing else eventful happened in the flight and we soon landed in HKG. Due to the weather conditions in Hong Kong being cloudy, landing was rather turbulent and the plane was crabbing on finals and touchdown.
Spotted a China Airlines B777-300ER while taxing towards our gate.
Thanks for sharing and welcome to the site!
CX's quality has eroded in recent years, but they still have some good aspects. I'm surprised you had this dinosaur of an A333 on this route. I've had these seats before on a NGO-TPE flight and found them to be acceptable. You'll never see this plane on a flight longer than 3 hours so it is acceptable, the IFE is still fairly decent on these older seats.
Catering is where most cutbacks have been on CX, the nuts are gone (except on long-haul). The meal didn't really look that bad relative to some other CX reports recently.
As a recommendation for the future, please put the text before the pictures so it is easier to read the reports.
Thanks for the comments NGO85! Just wanna confirm something that I had heard from many people, is it true that the customer service aspect of CX has indeed declined as well as their flight scheduling is something of a problem nowadays. Thanks again!