[Anonymous]

[scott66]

Cathay Regional Business Class 777-300

SIN to HKG CX710

The check in at Changi was straight forward, followed by a swift progress through security, I’m very impressed with the efficiency of Changi airport, that said, the flight was scheduled to depart at 0800, so this would have been around 0545, most airports work well at this time in the morning.

Cathay don’t operate their own lounge at Singapore, so was directed towards a shared service lounge. The lounge was quiet with a number of different areas. I go the feeling it was just running up. The breakfast offerings were sufficient I had an orange juice a pastry and a couple of cups of coffee whilst I sat back and enjoyed the end of a thunderstorm outside. The gate for the flight had been assigned when I’d arrived at the airport, I find this comforting and don’t feel the need to keep checking the board. When I made my way to the boarding area it was the usual sterile set up of rows of seats after a check in desk. Shortly Business was called for boarding.

This flight was fitted with the 2-3-2 regional business arrangement, more than adequate for a three hour flight. Having been directed to my seat, my jacket taken taken, I was allowed to settle and offered orange juice. Once all were on board we were invited to spread out as the cabin was about a third full. I stuck with my window seat. We were underway and took off to the north over Jahor, then on over the Gulf of Siam. The flight was initially bumpy, not unrelated to the earlier thunderstorm.

Menus for breakfast were distributed and as is the Cathay custom the trolley came round and you could choose by sight. My neighbour had made a special arrangement for breakfast and received an aromatic veggie curry. My breakfast was off the menu, I’m minded to say the choice was uninspiring, but just checking the menu. Fresh fruit – fantastic, Fruit yoghurt again good, I skipped the cereals.

Main course I chose the Pork Congee and rice. I’d have been delighted with this, if my neighbour hadn’t had a curry for breakfast. During the meal I was kept topped up with coffee. Once breakfast was out the way I settled into the IFE, and found Kes an early seventies brit flick that I’d never had a chance to watch although I’d read the book as one of my set books for English Lit. The plane continued bouncing around above the thunderstorms below.

Now the upside of the regional business class is the uninterrupted view from the window seat, the down side is the aisle access that involves not a skip over the legs of ones neighbour, but him having to curl his legs up onto chest.

It was becoming clear following an over indulgence the evening before, generous supply of coffee on the ground and during the flight I wasn’t going to make it to terra firma. Having extracted myself from the seat, all the facilities at the front of the plane were occupied. The cabin crew recognised the look of a desperate man and very discretely stood door guard until one became vacant. Once I’d made myself comfortable I returned to my seat to enjoy the rest of my flight.

Landing at Hong Kong was through the clouds and rain, I didn’t catch a glimpse of the view down Victoria Harbour. Transit through security to the lounge was again straight forward and again my onward connection had already been assigned a gate.

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