Avis du vol entre Hong Kong et Beijing en classe Economique avec Cathay Pacific

Hello and welcome to this review of the flight from Hong Kong-Chek Lap Kok Airport (HKG) to Beijing Capital Airport (PEK), which I took on 7 October 2024 as part of a family trip in China.

Unfortunately, since this trip was with my family, I did not take many pictures of the flight.

BACKGROUND

During much of October 2024, me and my family (my parents, my siblings, and myself) went on a three week trip to China, visiting Hong Kong (2-7.10.2024), Beijing (7-13.10.2024), Xi'an (13-14.10.2024), and the Guilin area (14-18.10.2024) (the Guilin portion of the trip included an night in Guilin city proper (14-15.10.2024), and visits to Ping'an Village (15-16.10.2024) and Yangshuo (16-18.10.2024)). Although we originally planned to fly from Israel immediately to China (TLV-ZRH-HKG), and back from China immediately to Israel (HKG-MUC-TLV), we had to change our flight plans due to the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East which happened around the same time, resulting in us extending our trip to include stops in Athens (30.9-1.10.2024) and Larnaca (19.10.2024).

This was not only my first time ever in Hong Kong and China, but my first time anywhere east of Tbilisi. The trip was overall very enjoyable, though I did find the increased surveillance and police presence in Mainland China bothersome: I had to carry my passport with me, instead of leaving it at a safe in my hotel room like I'm used to do in the west (and like I indeed did in Hong Kong).

Internet censorship in Mainland China was less of a problem than I feared: my mobile data package gave me uncensored internet access, while as for Wi-Fi networks, I installed a VPN on my devices in advance. The VPN worked well overall, only having some hiccups in the afternoon.

The final flight itinerary for the trip was:

The itinerary also included high-speed trains G307 (Beijing → Xi'an) and G319 (Guilin → Hong Kong).

HONG KONG-CHEK LAP KOK AIRPORT

Thanks to the phase-advance jet lag, I had trouble sleeping during my stay in Hong Kong, alternating between sleepful and sleepless nights every day. The night of 6/7 October was one such sleepless night. I pretended to wake up at around 8, and joined the rest of my family for having breakfast and checking out of the hotel. We made it to Chek Lap Kok airport at around 9:25, and received our boarding passes by 9:35. From there, we proceeded to the terminal, and had the (excellent) dim sum at Duddell's - me personally, I had some cha siu bao, a family favorite.

From there, we went to the gate (which I'm ashamed in myself for not taking any decent pictures of; it had a pretty electronic frame which contains information about the destination, with a background that resembles the outside sky at the destination).

THE FLIGHT ITSELF

Aircraft information:
B-KQI [Not named, but bears the "Cathay Pacific - Member of oneworld" special livery]
Boeing 777-367ER (serial number 41429, line number 1139)
Delivered new to Cathay Pacific on 30 September 2013; 11 years and 1 month old at the time of the flight.

This was my first (and as of the initial writing of this report, the only) time flying on that plane.

The seat was the usual economy class fare, which I fit in easily, though in this particular case, it felt a bit cramped. I later learned that this due to the HJK seats in rows 40 to 46, which included my seat (46H), having a 31-inch row pitch, as opposed to 32-inch pitch in the rest of Economy class.

Each seat is equipped with an IFE screen, an AC plug, and a USB-A plug.

Lunch was served around an hour after takeoff. Since I was flying in economy class, it was nothing special: bread and butter; a main course of chicken, rice, and broccoli; and fruit salad and ice cream for dessert.

The meal was pretty okay, albeit basic. Nothing outstanding in the realm of economy class-meals.

The in-flight entertainment system was excellent, and offered an abundance of movies unmatched by any airline I flew in before or since - 928 distinct titles, if my memory serves me right. I'd even say that this is the amount of movies that should be standard on IFE systems!

The pictures below represent just the tip of the iceberg:

Because of the sheer abundance of movies, I wondered whether the system would carry a favorite of mine, This is Sodom (זוהי סדום), an Israeli comedy movie from 2010 based on the myth of Lot's escape from Sodom. My rather foolish expectation of seeing an Israeli movie on a non-Israeli carrier was quickly met by a reality check:

Around an hour after I was served Lunch, I was issued an arrival card, as part of the formalities for entering China. This arrival card demanded more and more personal details than its Hong Konger counterpart, and I could not fill it alone but had to get help from my dad:

The landing in Beijing was uneventful, though the IFE screen did show camera views of the runway before switching to this splash screen:

BEIJING-CAPITAL AIRPORT, TERMINAL 3

Terminal 3 of Beijing-Capital Airport was large, imposing, and impressive. After disembarking, we went to one of the many stations around the Arrivals level, which contain stands for filling in one's arrival card (which was not necessary, as we filled in our cards onboard the plane) and performing a self-service biometric border control. The process did not go smoothly, however, as we had to go to a manned entry desk and repeat the biometric entry procedures there.

Terminal 3 is divided into three buildings linked by a people-mover, though it is more accurate to describe it as a "partitioned" singular whole rather than a main building and two satellites: section 3C contains all the landside facilities (such as check-in, baggage claim, customs, car rental, public transport), as well as domestic gates; section 3D contains more domestic gates; and all international gates (and therefore the passport control) are located in section 3E.

After collecting our baggage, we went to where our local guide and local driver would pick us up; for me, the drive seemed to consist mostly of urban roads (albeit some with an elevated section), not unlike the drive from Heathrow Airport to Central London.