Introduction
The 7 days in Tokyo ended in a breeze and it was time to head back to Hong Kong :(
I had great fun enjoying long-awaited Japanese food and being surrounded by all sorts of Japanese, as well as shopping till my legs hurt lol.
Anyways, CX505 is the last Cathay flight to depart from Narita for the day with a departure time of 18:30 JST, which meant we could enjoy our last moments in Tokyo.
Flight routing
- 1
- 2CX505 - Economy - Tokyo –> Hong Kong - Boeing 777-300
Getting to the airport
We took the famous Yamanote line and Skyliner train (which costs around 2500 yen per person – a bit pricy if you ask me!) which got us to Narita from our hotel in Akihabara within an hour. The Skyliner is the fastest non-shinkansen train in Japan, reaching a top speed of 160km/h on the way!
After arriving at the airport, we spent the remaining balance on our "Welcome Suica"s in a convenience store before heading to Aisle I for check-in. Cathay only opened a few desks, however it was completely empty when we arrived.
We got our boarding passes and were airside within 10 minutes. Kudos to the extremely efficient NRT security!
P.S. We bought a spatula for 100 yen and put it in our handcarry luggage, which caused our bag to be re-checked for dangerous goods. It was only when our bags got inspected further by the security staff did he realise that we had a spatula with us and not a weapon. We all laughed really hard xD.
Departures board that evening. Our gate tonight is 92, accessible via a bridge which I will check out later.
Lounge
Since my dad is a Gold member and can bring 1 guest with him into the lounge, I took advantage of the opportunity and went in with him.
The lounge is actually the ex-American Admirals Club which Cathay only took over in February 2023. The interior hasn't been changed at the time of writing, though CX promised a refurbishment sometime in 2024/2025.
Usually, I don't include lounge reviews as they're not part of what you get in Economy, but thought I would review this fairly unique & new lounge this time around.
The lounge feels cozy with nice interiors though it was nothing compared to CX's lounges in HKG/elsewhere in the world.
Food selection was pretty bad. Included in the picture here is almost every single food item you can find in the lounge. I did however, find the miso soup and chicken curry to be tasty. The apple juice, just like other apple juices in Japan, was also amazing.
Boarding
After grabbing a quick bite, it was time for boarding and I headed over to our gate via the bridge.
Quite surprised to see an American plane here as I thought they shifted all Tokyo flights to Haneda…? There was a healthy number of JAL planes though, with most being 767s and 787s.
We got to the gate in which boarding was handled efficiently. In total, CX only spent 25 minutes to board a 438-seater 777-300 regional. Impressive efforts from the Japanese side!
B-HNS, an interesting 777-300 (non-ER), will be taking us to Hong Kong this evening.
This plane is an ex-Emirates plane, in which CX acquired in 2018 to help with the departure of 5 777-200s and some older A330s. It has the same configuration as the other planes though. It is virtually impossible to tell apart the differences between it and a regular 777-300 owned by CX from the start. This particular unit was 21.2 years old, though still kept very clean and in good working order. In contrast, the A350s which are significantly younger, are all worn out and dirty + have numerous technical problems.
Seat features
We boarded via Door L2 and were greeted by the very warm & welcoming senior purser, who appeared to be Indian. Though she looked cold at first glance, whenever she spoke with passengers/served us, she had a big smile on her face. I immediately knew it was going to be a good flight!
My seat today is 49H, again in the foremost section out of the 3 economy sections on this aircraft. Be aware though as you will have 1 missing window if you select this row.
I will skip the seat & IFE tour. If you are interested, feel free to check out my outbound review here.
I must, however, mention that since this plane has been acquired from Emirates, Cathay didn't retain the screens before they refurbished the plane. Instead, these units have brand-new screens and are significantly smoother than the last-gen product. The size is still at 9 inches though, most likely for consistency. I do find Cathay's decision to install smaller screens on newer planes when they could've gone for better interesting.
The front camera was thankfully working on this flight (as opposed to my outbound). The resolution though, is questionable and definitely worse than the A350 ones. (You will see why when we land at night)
A seat feature I forgot to mention is the phone/tablet holder, useful if you would like to watch your own entertainment instead. There is also a cup holder present next to the phone holder.
There is also a USB-A port for charging, though mine broke midflight.
Takeoff
We were ready for departure at an astounding 9 minutes before STD. Captain Sham got on the PA and welcomed us on CX505, citing a flight time of 3 hours and 49 minutes. We ended up pushing back at 18:28 JST, 2 minutes ahead of schedule.
Can't miss the amazing sunset while taxiing!
Passed the ANA A380s, exclusively used on flights to Honolulu while we do our lengthy taxi. It took us 32 minutes from the gate to get airborne!
Thanks to the lengthy taxi, we enjoyed more than half of the sunset on the ground.
We tookoff at 19:00 JST.Due to protests from farmers living in Narita, the Japanese government had to carefully put runways and terminals at NRT. As such, the taxi took even longer than the boarding process.
I also checked the toilet (thrice throughout the flight), which was sparkling clean each time I went in. A bit small though within expectations for Economy.
Food and drink
40 minutes after takeoff, we got a snack and drink service consisting of peanuts and a drink of your choice. I went with apple juice. I was extremely excited to see the return of CX peanuts on this flight!
1.5 hours after takeoff, dinner was served. Another apple juice for me!
My meal consisted of pork curry with rice, cold soba noodles, a bun and Haagen-Dazs ice-cream (Strawberry). I promise that the meal tastes better than it looks. I enjoyed the meal as it was flavourful and tasty, with the soba noodles being the highlight of my meal. The only complaint I have is that the bun is cold :(
Inflight
I spent the first half of the flight watching "A Guilty Conscience", a film about lawyers helping a mother with a disabled child win her case.
After the meal service, lights were turned off for rest. Contrary to the A350s, the 777s don't have mood lighting installed.
I slept a while and watched some family guy.
Service
The cabin crew were friendly and attentive. When someone vomited around the galley (didn't bother to check), 2 cabin crew raced down the aisle from the back and went to help the passenger. One of them later brought the passenger to the back to rest while letting him hold onto her arm. A pretty heartwarming gesture if you ask me!
Outside of that, they still disappeared when the meal service ended though still responded to call bells, just like how it normally goes on CX. I do advise you to not be afraid to use the call bell as CX cabin crew are used to requests made with the call bell (unlike some other US carriers).
One small complaint though, is that the personal greeting for my dad (CX Gold/Oneworld Sapphire) was missing once again :/ Maybe they were really understaffed as this flight, along with many other CX flights, are operated with minimum crew.
Landing and Disembarking
Captain Sham came back and informed us of our arrival into HKG a quarter before 10.
We touched down at 21:45 HKT in the end, with a flight time of just 3 hours and 45 minutes. Sorry for the extremely blurred photos at night!
Night sights of HKG! It took us around 10 minutes to taxi to gate 48, though I stayed much longer on the plane after that. Stay tuned for more!
The IFE changed to this screen after we landed, displaying beautiful pictures of HKG.
BONUS!!!!! Cockpit visit
I decided to ask the ISM to visit the cockpit. After my failed attempt last time when coming back from Seoul, my request was finally granted this time!!
It was my first cockpit visit and the 2 Australian pilots spent some time with me chatting. They are both very nice people and we had a great time together. I also learnt more about being a pilot in particular in Cathay. Thanks to the pilots of CX505 for the amazing flight!
And that marked the end to my wonderful journey in Tokyo.
Very consistently good experience with CX on this route.
Haha yes it is a little overrated, but it's one of those things you have to do when it Tokyo. It's like Times Square in New York haha. I don't care for crowds so Shibuya at rush-hour was definitely stress-inducing for me, especially the JR train station (I got some pics from the exact same spot as you haha).
I didn't notice on the previous review, but it seems a lot of people not wearing masks on this flight. I had assumed masks were still mandatory on CX, but it looks like that's not the case? I think Japanese carriers finally dropped the requirement a few months ago. When I was there in February, everyone wore masks, everywhere, even outside in the middle of nature--it looks like that's eased up from your bonus pics.
Thanks for sharing!
Haha yes, it's one of the more "premium" regional routes CX do and earns them a decent amount per year.
I learnt about this spot from other travel blogs! I think it's one of the bridges used to transfer between lines and as such didn't have too many tourists. I do agree that it's an iconic part of Tokyo though - just that I expected more people through the crossing!
As for masks, HK dropped the mask mandate in March of this year and thus CX doesn't require any masks on flights anymore - Personally, I still wear one as I still view the situation as a bit risky (so do most FAs), but yes you don't have to wear one anymore. In Japan, I'd say only 5-10% of the population was masked? Nobody seemed to care about covid anymore which is a good sign.
Thanks for reading!