Review of Cathay Pacific flight from Singapore to Hong Kong in Business

The Platinum Pursuit: 3,000 Miles, A Trio of Lounges, and the Hammer Blows of Mahler - Part 1

This weekend trip to Seoul was a significant milestone for me.

After a decade as a Qantas Gold member, I am finally qualifying as a Qantas Platinum member in the upcoming membership year. Qantas Platinum also translates to oneworld Emerald membership, which effectively opens the door to oneworld First Class lounges worldwide – From the Qantas First Lounge in Singapore to Japan Airlines’ First Class Lounge in Tokyo.

This wasn't just about the prestige; it was an expedited step toward my ultimate goal: Qantas Lifetime Gold. This requires 14,000 Status Credits (SCs), which usually means re-qualifying for Gold for about 23–24 consecutive years. After a decade of travel, I was still looking at another 10 years to reach the target.

After discussing it with my wife (we travel together, so these perks are shared), we decided the best way to accelerate the process was to hold Qantas Platinum for the next 4–5 years, effectively halving the remaining time to reach our "target."

This milestone was achieved as I completed these two Cathay Pacific flights from Singapore to Incheon via Hong Kong. By the end of this trip, I had accumulated over 1,400 SCs for the year, qualifying for Platinum for the first time!

In This Report…

> Chapter 1: The Pre-Flight Ritual (Singapore Changi T1)
> Chapter 2: CX714 SIN-HKG – Always Feels like the “Shortest” Flight to HKG
> Chapter 3: [Next FR] The Hong Kong Transit (A Test of Patience)
> Chapter 4: [Next FR] CX410 HKG-ICN – The "Sofa" in the Sky
> Chapter 5: [Next FR] The Incheon Dash with Mahler at the Finish Line

Chapter 1: The Pre-Flight Ritual (Singapore Changi T1)

My journey began at Changi Terminal 4. Check-in at the Cathay counters was completed in under 10 minutes. I know the exact timing because I drove myself to the airport (with my wife planning to drive the car back), parked at T4, dashed to the counters, grabbed my boarding passes, and made it back to the car within the 10-minute grace period. It was a minor "mad dash," but the free parking made it worth it. Little did I know, this would set the theme for the rest of the journey.

Why the complex check-in? I wanted to double back to Terminal 1 to visit the Qantas Business Lounge. After parting ways with my wife, I cleared immigration into T1’s airside.

At the Qantas Lounge, the service remained as warm as ever. This includes a gentle reminder from the staff to head back to T4 about 90 minutes before departure.

One surprising observation: I spotted a few flies around the lounge; something I don’t recall seeing here before. That aside, it remains a top-tier lounge.

I started my visit with a Singapore Sling ordered from the bar.

This version was less sweet than the one served on Singapore Airlines, with a much stronger alcohol profile. Interestingly, the colour of the drink resembled grapefruit juice, and even the taste carried a similar citrusy flavour.

The laksa remains a highlight: rich, flavorful, and satisfying. The portion felt slightly larger than usual, and while the prawns had a "previously frozen" texture, it was still a heartwarming bowl of local comfort.

Before the trek back to T4, I used the showers. There are 20 shower suites here, so there’s rarely a wait.

While the towel showed some wear-and-tear (a little torn at the corners), it was clean and had that pleasant, fresh-laundry scent.

Heeding the advice from the lounge staff, I left early, well before the recommended 90 minutes, to head back to Terminal 4. The shuttle bus to T4 departs from Gate C21; interestingly, Changi Airport deployed a mini-bus for this route today instead of the usual larger coaches.

Upon arriving at Terminal 4 with time to spare, I squeezed in a quick visit to Cathay Pacific’s own lounge to kill a bit more time before finally heading to the gate at 12:50 AM.

You can read more about SIN's CX lounge in one of my previous reports here.

Most of Cathay's flights to Singapore are operated by their wide-body aircrafts, and at Terminal 4, the only four wide-body gates are at the tail-end of the corridor of gates. Here's a view of this looooong corridor.

When I arrived at the gate, boarding was already well under way.

Chapter 2: CX714 SIN-HKG – Always Feels like the “Shortest” Flight to HKG

I have a love-hate relationship with CX714. Many Singaporeans likely feel the same: we love the efficiency but hate the 1:30 AM departure and 5:30 AM arrival. Though blocked for nearly 4 hours, actual flight time is often just over 3 hours. Even with gate-to-gate rest, you’re looking at only 4 hours of sleep.

However, it’s the ultimate time-saver. You head to the airport after work and start your trip early the next day. CX714 connects to almost everywhere in the Cathay network; this was my 12th time on this specific flight.

On this trip, I aim to still eat the in-flight meal (got to make my money worth it) and then catch at least 1.5h of sleep before touch-down in Hong Kong. Let’s see how successful I get.

The crew usually have similar objective onboard this flight – To expedite meal service and then dim the cabin lights as fast as possible. Consequently, they are usually super-fast and furious (efficient) when performing CX714 duties.

Bottled water, menu, pillow and blanket were preset on the seats prior to boarding. I got myself champagne as the welcome drink – Cathay was serving Ayala Brut Majeur from France in March 2026.

Orders of food and drinks were taken on the ground, and options available on this flight included: Barbecued Pork Ribs and Grilled Beef Tenderloin. Wasn’t too sure if I wanted to deal with overcooked airline beef onboard a super red-eye like this, and hence chose the pork option.

CX714 is quite notorious for delayed departures, this flight was no different – With push back only taking place 20 minutes after schedule.

We eventually took off from Runway 02C at 1.59am.

I took a short toilet break just before the meal was served.

Back at my seat, the meal service was provided on a single tray 30 minutes after departure. Impressive efficiency.

It was a decent meal. And, at the same time, a really heavy supper served right smack in the middle of the night at 2.30am.

The ribs were tender and well-seasoned. However, the liquid from the steamed vegetables mixed with the rib sauce, creating a slightly odd flavour. I mixed it all with the white rice and finished it anyway (though the bread was quite stale).

I also ordered a Cathay Delight to go with my meal, which was “a delicious combination of coconut milk, milk, kiwi juice and mint”. [Source of Drink Description: https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_SG/inspiration/membership/oneworld-cocktails-first-class-lounges.html]

And yes, it was delicious indeed! I finished everything on the tray, except the stale bread.

For dessert, a pleasantly light and nor overly sweet strawberry cake was served on the same tray. Finally, the fruits – fresh and sweet, a refreshing end to this heavy supper.

I managed to sleep from 3am to 4.45am, beating my 1.5h goal by 15 minutes!

The cabin lights and seatbelt signs came back on at around 5am. And, the crew was asked to be seated for landing around 10 minutes later at 5.10am. We touched down smoothly at Hong Kong another 10 minutes later 5.20am.

CX714 on this trip eventually clocked a 15 minutes delay, arriving at the gate at 5.25am.

I disembarked at 5.30am, hoping to clear transit security quickly before heading to Cathay’s lounge for further naps.

My hopes were shattered…

(To be continued in Part 2: CX410 HKG-ICN…)

Flight # 469