Sunday, May 18, 2008

Cathay Pacific

So we arrived back safe and sound. For our flights to and from SFO, we took Cathay Pacific which was awesome.

Great things about our flights:
1. Cathay Pacific gives you (in economy): socks, toothbrush/toothpaste, two mints, and eye masks upon request. They are one of the few airlines to still give amenity kits to economy passengers.

2. Ice cream, sandwiches, and cup noodles upon request. Love it!!!

3. They upgraded both of us to business class for the MNL-HKG leg. Yes, I realize it is only a little over an hour flight, but man! It was an awesome hour. On the way back (HKG-MNL), they only upgraded me (I think because I have ruby status with One World...albeit the lowest status one can have). Ado took the business class seat on the way home because she appreciates the nicer airline food more than me. I was so tired, I slept and skipped the meal.

4. The flight attendants will give you lots of ginger ale upon request (I drank four cans on the SFO-HKG leg).

5. The flight attendants are really, really, really nice.

Bad things about out flight:
1. On the way back, the man sitting next to me had the worst body odor and breath you can imagine. This was not normal bad breath, but dental emergency bad breath. I spent the whole flight with a blanket over my mouth. Ado wanted to say something to him in Manila (thankfully he was not next to me on the second leg) but I stopped her because I did not want his feelings hurt. She didn't think he realized how bad he smelled, but I think he had to of. We will never see him again, and he was a really nice guy.

One the way back, we had one of the newly configured airplanes. The video on demand was awesome but I am not loving the seats. Instead of reclining, they slide forward which leaves you feeling like you are slouching the entire time.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

glad you posted again after a few days. I was reading your blog for a week now and all i can say is "i conquer" and yes i read all your post. take care... glad to see a blog like this :-)

kikas_head said...

I am the worst blogger in the world. This is due in part to my horrible ISP (SmartBro) which is so slow, I have to be really patient to actually do it. I will try to be better!!

Jonnifer said...

European airlines (e.g., Air France, all we ever fly now) are also WAAAAAYYYY better than any American air carrier. If you ask me, American airlines should all go out of business and take their cracker mixes with them.

Unknown said...

This comment is just to say that jonnifer is also currently online and is beating me to the punch on commenting by a few minutes...

kikas_head said...

Seriously!! The staff are way nicer on international carriers. Also I heard that just about all US carriers are now charging for the luggage (American will charge for the FIRST bag, not just the second). That would never work for us. We were overweight for our recent flight here (3-4 kilos over per bag). We had so much stuff, the two guys in front of us were heckling us (in a nice way).

anna d. said...

I took Cathay Pacific too, in Jan/Feb. It was really nice on the way back, I had that same new plane with the funny seats and really nice entertainment system. Yeah, not that comfortable "reclining" them, but I still prefer the freedom to decide if I want to be smushed or not, instead of the person in front of me deciding.
My way over was not nice though! Old plane, not nice staff, lack of service and totally screwed up entertainment system. We were also delayed 6 hrs, bad weather, and the staff were rude, unhelpful and had no info at SFO. I had to call the 800 # to get the help I needed with connecting flights. I told myself I'd never fly them again, but I guess it's hit or miss. You guys definitely had it good, I'm jealous!

Anonymous said...

Jonnifer's right, most airlines still have good service here in asia and europe. It's only those cheap american airlines who don't provide good service. All they think about is consolidation, monopolies and their bottom line. With E-tickets finally taking over, Next thing you know, americans and canadians are going to be the ones loading their own luggage on to the plane. So sad...

Jonnifer said...

We could probably do a better job at it too.