After a wonderful trip in Seoul (5 full days in reality), it was time to head back to Hong Kong. The trip did remind me of times where covid didn't exist and we also got to see snow for the first time in my life. Stay tuned for the tourism bonus at the end where I'll include photos of where we went.
Arriving at the airport
We totally underestimated how long walking from Seoul Station (Line 1) to Seoul Station (AREX) would take. Thanks korail for turning off ALL the baggage conveyor belts! We really enjoyed moving a 19kg bag up the stairs.
Anyways, we missed the 07:30 express train to ICN, which would've given us around 1.5 hours at the airport before our flight departed.
We ended up taking the 07:44 all stop train and when we arrived, half the check-in counters were already closing.
Only 7 counters were opened. I suppose that it would be a problem if Cathay sent larger jets into ICN, but with the 280 seater A350-900s, it's not that bad (compared to Jeju air next door ;) )
Since we arrived so late, the check-in agent gave us an "urgent" sticker on our passports but they didn't end up being useful as the queues were simply extremely short.
We made our way to gate 48 after a short toilet stop to see B-LRE waiting at the gate.
In no time boarding was announced and we boarded shortly. The flight was about 85% full (I saw a sheet of paper at check-in with the load factors of all classes listed:
J 19/38 occupied
W 16/32 occupied
Y 200/214 occupied
Seat
This time we were seated in the port side of the plane. I was in 60C and as usual, 60A is another emergency exit row seat we were able to select for free due to status.
For more details on the seat, press here to see my trip report on the outbound flight.
The IFE was already on and displayed some beautiful photos of Hong Kong.
Great selection as usual and the entertainment system was in good condition this time! The system was also incredibly smooth and kept me entertained. I ended up watching TV shows since I wasn't really into movies. As it was an early morning flight, I felt pretty tired and fell asleep midway.
Legroom was great! (FYI my height is around 175cm)
Wing view from our gate! (Rip the dirty wing, at least the cabin was clean)
I appreciate how large the windows are on the A350!!
View from my seat. I love how CX turns the tailcam on for the bulkhead TVs! As such I was able to enjoy 2 channels (entertainment from my own TV and the bulkhead screen) at once ;) Perks of sitting such close to the bulkhead.
Not long later, the safety video was screened and we pushed back 1 minute early, at 10:09 KST. The captain also came on the PA and informed us of the flight time of 3 hours and 2 minutes, slightly longer than the outbound due to the Northern Pacific Jetstreams.
After waiting for a few planes to takeoff, we also did at around 10:35 KST.
I checked out the toilet and much like the outbound, it was a bit dirty :( I also specifically chose the disabled toilet this time but it wasn't any larger in terms of area inside.
I did notice some worn out bits of the seats but they were acceptable.
Food and drink
As the plane flew into Incheon the day before and parked overnight at Incheon, catering was provided by Incheon rather than HKG. Therefore, I was looking forward to the meal a lot.
Sadly, no nuts and only 1 round of drinks again. Hot drinks were available after the meal though, as opposed to the outbound flight. (The FAs made it clear this time).
There were 2 options, the beef with rice and the chicken with rice (technically it's fried rice?). I chose the latter and the meal was excellent! The fried rice wasn't mushy, alongside with the chicken stir to perfection and vegetables tasting fresh, it was easily the best meal I've ever had on Cathay. I would still approve this meal had it been served in a restaurant on the ground. The fruit (1 orange slice, 1 apple and 1 watermelon chunk) provided was also extremely tasty and sweet. Well done Incheon catering!
The bun was cold and was a letdown to the whole meal, but it still tasted alright. Chocolate ice-cream from Haggen-dazs was also served.
For my drink, I went with orange juice.
After clearing everything, we were approximately halfway through. I made use of the openable compartment to store my juice and unused utensils (metal again, which were not collected after the flight – ended up being our souvenir!)
I checked out the tail camera as well.
Wing view still the best!
Crew
The cabin crew mainly consisted of Cantonese-speaking crew from Hong Kong with only 1 Korean crew on the port side. They were experienced and extremely friendly, such as helping my sister in the bulkhead seat take out her TV when none of us could. They had a smile on their face and clearly enjoyed their job. Kudos to the crew on the flight!
Landing and disembarking
Not long later, we start our decent into HKG at around 12:20 HKT. We landed at around 12:50 and followed by a long taxi from the newly opened 3rd runway, we arrived at Gate 30.
Runway in sight!
View of the skybridge I took a look at in my outbound review!
Parked next to multiple Cathay planes. B-LRA, the first A350 delivered to Cathay was parked next to us for a flight to Bangkok later.
I tried to ask for a cockpit visit but the request was denied by the captains, sadly.
Welcome to Hong Kong!
View of B-LRA parked next to our plane.
Immigration was incredibly quick by using the e-channels. It took around 50 seconds for me to pass immigration and 12 minutes in total from disembarking to collecting my bags, largely due to the extremely low demand at HKIA at that time.
We also got our bags quickly thanks to the oneworld business priority tag obtained from Cathay status. However, the ground crew handling our luggage broke it and we had to report the case to Cathay. Thankfully, Cathay has a thorough system to deal with damaged luggage and they arranged someone to pick it up and fixed it for us.
Hi there!
Nice opportunity to tone up those muscles! Haha
I remember having to drag a huge, heavy bag around the airport and the subway in Madrid decades ago, and almost killing a little girl when the bag slipped from my hands as I was going down some stairs. It glided past her at full speed. The mere memory gives me the shudders! I didn't end up in jail for just about two centimeters!
That curved winglet looks really handsome
"The port side" is the left side when you're looking towards the front of the ship, right? I think I finally got it when I learned the origin of the word "posh": "Port out, starboard home." Those where the most expensive tickets when traveling from Britain to India, I think. I my country we would say "the driver's side" but I doubt this would work in every country... or on a plane!
Impressive legroom!
Ew! Either you have bad luck with toilets, or CX's toilets need to be cleaned more frequently.
I see they have not discovered the "duct tape" trick used by airlines in South America!! And I certainly hope they won't!
Not a big fan of rice, but that meal looks very appetizing for an in-flight meal!
Weeee!!
I'm happy to know that you had a great time in Seoul! What a beautiful view of Nami island! Thanks for sharing it with us in yet another superb report!
I remember having to drag a huge, heavy bag around the airport and the subway in Madrid decades ago, and almost killing a little girl when the bag slipped from my hands as I was going down some stairs. It glided past her at full speed. The mere memory gives me the shudders! I didn't end up in jail for just about two centimeters!
Woah :O I understand that Seoul's metro system isn't new to begin with, but having so many stairs and not escalators/moving walkways is just simply not acceptable in a tourist-filled station.
One of the reasons why I like the A350 so much!
Yep! Even in aviation we use port and starboard sometimes but I should probably stick to left/right next time lol
Glad to see CX still sticking with 32 inches as opposed to some other full service carriers like Qantas only giving 31! The extra inch makes a difference on every flight.
I am not too sure why but I think all the toilets were pretty dirty. I did reflect this to the customer service team but again, they haven't replied yet.
Same! They just use handwritten notes for broken parts of the toilet and completely ignore the worn out bits, which is still better than duct tape in my opinion.
Indeed! Restaurant class presentation and quality!
We sure did! Nami is really beautiful with snow and had a great time skiing as well! It was our first time seeing snow in our lifetime so this trip was extra speical to us Asians living somewhere relatively hot.
Thanks for another nice review! It's surprising to once again see so much wear in the cabin of a relatively new aircraft, especially considering that they've had 2-3 years with little activity or were parked in many cases. Other than that, everything looks fantastic.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for stopping by! To be fair I think these jets have largely been so-called "active" during covid (but they operated like 4-6 flights per month...) so I suppose that's why CX just completely ignored maintenance on these planes? I've also been pretty disappointed about how worn out the plane is and have reflected the problem to CX. Again, no hopes on my feedback actually getting through to CX thanks to their horrible customer service these days but I have done what I can.