Cathay First v Business on 77W

[thehound]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking at burning some QF points for CX HKG to SFO or LAX next year. Can anyone comment on J vs F for Cathay's 777s? Since we'll be taking our infant, and infants are taxes only on QF bookings, and there's no difference in $ cost between J and F, I'm considering stumping up the extra points for F.

For anyone who's been in both cabins, is it worth it? And is the F Wing lounge anything to write home about?

Many thanks.

 

[wopcg9]

First on CX is definitely worth the extra. Massive seat and bed. Also great for dining as a couple with the ottoman being v comfy and fitted with seatbelt!
Travelled in F with an infant and crew also great helping look after the little one.
J is obviously great but F a real step up and much better than F on QF or BA (old and new) or AA.

 

[vantage03]

F is definitely a big step up from J in CX, however IMO it's a little underwhelming compared to F on SQ 777 or QF A380 (better than 747 though).

 

[christopherc]

Choose F directly and you will see what a real F class is especially on a long haul flight like that. The wines are excellent, the bed is wonderful...

 

[clarmich]

The Wing in HK is a good F lounge but I wouldn't get too excited about that. But CX F Class on 77W at three abreast is comfortable, great service and plenty of room for parent and infant to sit, sleep and play. Much more so than J. So I'd go with that. Just make sure when selecting seats you go with either 1D & K or 2D & K because 1A and 2A aren't accessible across the aisle as a wall block access from 1D or 2D. In terms of service, it is outstanding - the way the crew look after children IMHO is on a par with SQ and beats all other carriers hands down. Let us know what you decide!

 

[thehound]

The Wing in HK is a good F lounge but I wouldn't get too excited about that.

Was only wondering about the lounge in terms of ability to put the baby down somewhere quiet pre-flight (especially if it's the 0100 to SFO). Those cabanas sound like they might fit the bill. Are they popular and hard to get into?

 

[clarmich]

Tricky to get into but even if you don't, you will be able to find a corner for bubbs - that's exactly what we did and it was fine. Ask the staff for a blanket or two aswell - although they got them for us without even asking!

 

[Melburnian1]

Oh dear, travelling with an infant in F. That would have to be unpopular with many other passengers, especially the rare beast who is paying out of his or her own pocket for the air travel experience of a lifetime. I know the subject is controversial and while most of us love children, it's contentious whether they belong in the two or three higher cost fare zones on aircraft.

 

[ashleyn]

Oh dear, travelling with an infant in F. That would have to be unpopular with many other passengers, especially the rare beast who is paying out of his or her own pocket for the air travel experience of a lifetime. I know the subject is controversial and while most of us love children, it's contentious whether they belong in the two or three higher cost fare zones on aircraft.

As I've said before Melburnian when this topic has been discussed, it is usually the parents who are inconvenienced if there is in fact any inconvenience and if the infants do 'arc up' thats what NC headphones are for. Generally, pax in any cabin don't like children running up and down the aisles, kicking seats or making a nuisance of themselves. I can't recall very young children ever doing that.

 

[thehound]

F is definitely a big step up from J in CX, however IMO it's a little underwhelming compared to F on SQ 777 or QF A380 (better than 747 though).

Thanks Vantage. We've flown from LHR to SIN on QF A380 and it was awesome. Which part of CX F didn't you find as enjoyable?

 

[Diesellife]

I actually enjoyed CX F better (long haul only) than QF A380.
Hard product is better, bigger and more comfortable.

Also, I found the food on CX generally better than QF. Did I mention the caviar too? Lol

 

[vantage03]

Thanks Vantage. We've flown from LHR to SIN on QF A380 and it was awesome. Which part of CX F didn't you find as enjoyable?

CX is very good, don't get me wrong. But SQ (being the most similar hard product on the 777) is outstanding and exceeds expectations on every flight.
I found the food choices LAX-HKG to be limited on CX (sure they had caviar - yum - but so does SQ), but the rest of it is really the more intangible "special" feeling that CX doesn't really give, but SQ does.
For the record, I really like CX and will fly them again - but when comparing to SQ, SQ is the winner in my books.

 

[thehound]

The Wing in HK is a good F lounge but I wouldn't get too excited about that. But CX F Class on 77W at three abreast is comfortable, great service and plenty of room for parent and infant to sit, sleep and play. Much more so than J. So I'd go with that. Just make sure when selecting seats you go with either 1D & K or 2D & K because 1A and 2A aren't accessible across the aisle as a wall block access from 1D or 2D. In terms of service, it is outstanding - the way the crew look after children IMHO is on a par with SQ and beats all other carriers hands down. Let us know what you decide!

Clarmich, when you flew in CX F were there any spare seats? I guess the holy grail would be a spare seat next to one of ours to pop him into as required/desired. He'll be 17 months at that stage so a bassinet might be pushing it.

 

[legroom]

This thread causes me to think about the choices for my upcoming booking.

I have the choice to consider SQ (777 or A380), CX 777 or QF A380 - all in F.

Currently, I am leaning towards CX simply because I had done QF and SQ already.

What would the gurus here suggest ?

It's long haul to Europe.

No, I'm not thinking of BA or MH.

Stick with SQ because it has been so good ?

? Help out AJ

? Try another pasture

Welcome your thoughts

Thanks

 

[knasty]

Slightly OT but I preferred CX F in 747 over 77W. Both were great of course but I do love flying in the nose of a 747 (especially on a day flight as the visibility is excellent), and there are few choices left to get a top tier product in the nose of a 747. The caviar & St Emilion Premier Grand Cru made the 77W more than comfortable though .

 

[clarmich]

Clarmich, when you flew in CX F were there any spare seats? I guess the holy grail would be a spare seat next to one of ours to pop him into as required/desired. He'll be 17 months at that stage so a bassinet might be pushing it.

On the way out we were on a 744 in F and there was a spare seat but we didn't use it. On the way back the 77W was full (not surprising I guess with only 6 seats). It didn't matter as we had plenty of room. With a 17 month old you will be fine. But I would recommend phenergen in case you need to encourage your little one to sleep - but make sure you try it out on the ground before you g ... in 10 per cent of kids you get the contra reaction which means they're wired for up to 24 hours! I take it that you've booked in F then?

 

[thehound]

On the way out we were on a 744 in F and there was a spare seat but we didn't use it. On the way back the 77W was full (not surprising I guess with only 6 seats). It didn't matter as we had plenty of room. With a 17 month old you will be fine. But I would recommend phenergen in case you need to encourage your little one to sleep - but make sure you try it out on the ground before you g ... in 10 per cent of kids you get the contra reaction which means they're wired for up to 24 hours! I take it that you've booked in F then?

Not booked yet, seats will become available in about 4 weeks for our dates next year. F seats only seem to get released for HKG-SFO on Wed/Thurs/Fri/Sun, but we should be right for availability. The only choice in the end is more about flight timing than J or F - the 1410 service to HKG doesn't have F whilst the 0030 service does. 0030 isn't a very appealing time for departure but I'm sure with a late hotel checkout of 6pm we can have a meal and relax in the lounge and the little guy will have a chance for a snooze. Good tip on the phenergan We're deliberately splitting our itinerary into PER-HKG with a stop of 2-3 nights to spread things out since it will be his first flights over 5-6 hours. Thanks for the advice.

 

[thehound]

So following up on this thread, I went to book some seats this evening, 2 x adults, 1 x infant. We altered our dates and even our destination - PER-HKG, stopping for a few days, then HKG-JFK. I've been watching JFK seats in F only show availability on Mondays, so went to book that leg first. The Qantas website kept allowing me to get to inputting passenger information but then came up with a 'database error'. The same error kept appearing, so I eventually called Qantas and the rep let me know the bad news - it was all phantom availability and he couldn't book it since it didn't exist.

So I got off the phone feeling pretty annoyed, but tried one more time to book the F seats with only two adults, no infant - and it went through fine, including receiving ticket numbers on email. I called Qantas back who have added the infant on to the booking ($125 in taxes for him to fly F for 16 hours, bargain!), and the rep then booked our PER-HKG leg with the infant included, waiving the 6000 pt assistance fee since the website wasn't playing ball.

I'll be completely happy when I see the ticket number issued for the infant on the JFK leg, but that appears to be quite a success given the original rep couldn't see a single F seat available on his system for the whole month!

 

[ermen]

Also, I found the food on CX generally better than QF.

Wow.. really? You could be one of the rare few to think that...

 

[Nizar]

This thread causes me to think about the choices for my upcoming booking.

I have the choice to consider SQ (777 or A380), CX 777 or QF A380 - all in F.

Currently, I am leaning towards CX simply because I had done QF and SQ already.

What would the gurus here suggest ?

It's long haul to Europe.

No, I'm not thinking of BA or MH.

Stick with SQ because it has been so good ?

? Help out AJ

? Try another pasture

Welcome your thoughts

Thanks

I've only tried QF A380 from the choices presented. My next F trip will probably be with CX. There are some excellent trip reports about on the internet and as the 77W has only six seats, it is probably the most exclusive F cabin in the skies. I haven't tried SQ yet, but would like to, to see how it compares to EK and EY, which I have flown in F.

I've heard so many good things about CX that I would suggest to try them.