Cathay Pacific

Mushy

Am just wondering, has anyone here had any experience of flying with these before? I'm not necessarily looking for horror stories, just general comments about time. Looking to book flights to Oz very soon, and these are cheapest on dates I'm looking at going, so don't want to dive in and find out they aren't that good.

Just wondering is the in-flight entertainment and service decent? The flights go Dub->Amsterdam->Hong Kong->Sydney, the first leg being Aer lingus operated. Also, its a Boeing 747-400, which seems decent based on their pics of it, but I'll remain skeptical. Is there enough leg room essentially too, am 6'2", so don't want cramp too early on.

Cheers for any info, would be greatly appreciated.

lady_j

Mushy wrote: »

Am just wondering, has anyone here had any experience of flying with these before? I'm not necessarily looking for horror stories, just general comments about time. Looking to book flights to Oz very soon, and these are cheapest on dates I'm looking at going, so don't want to dive in and find out they aren't that good.

Just wondering is the in-flight entertainment and service decent? The flights go Dub->Amsterdam->Hong Kong->Sydney, the first leg being Aer lingus operated. Also, its a Boeing 747-400, which seems decent based on their pics of it, but I'll remain skeptical. Is there enough leg room essentially too, am 6'2", so don't want cramp too early on.

Cheers for any info, would be greatly appreciated.

I didnt fly with them on that route but I flew with them in south east asia, easily the best airline I have ever flown with. I was on a huge plane though, so tons of leg room, and there was 3 course meal on a 4 hour flight!

benny73

Cathy are ok, being an aussie living in Europe for a long time, hear is my advice.

Best is Singapore Air, usually get the cheapest out of Amsterdam or Frankfurt, but now also London on the A380 as they are struggling to fill it, best going direct to their site for the deals. They have the most leg room hence it popularity in Holland being tall an all. So get a cheap deal on Aer lingus and book leaving from Amsterdam.


Other options would be air asia X if you want super cheap, there is the middle eastern airline that flys direct from dublin, can't remember the name, its weird but has deals for 700 euro.

BA and Qantas are always good, flight entertainment is good, service and food are ok, not the total package as singapore, NB: you can get very cheap deals on BA flying to oz via Los Angeles, but ads about 3 hours flying time and customs are a pain in LA.

Also can be a really good idea to get a OneWorld round the world ticket, then you can stop off every continent in the same direction eg, London, NYC, LA, Auckland, SYdney, Singapore, Londong. basically costs the same as a return sometime cheaper, you need to speak to OneWorld airline ticket centre eg, BA or Qantas or others.

You will find these days that you will find most of the good deals directly on the airlines sites.

Mushy

benny73 wrote: »

Cathy are ok, being an aussie living in Europe for a long time, hear is my advice.

Best is Singapore Air, usually get the cheapest out of Amsterdam or Frankfurt, but now also London on the A380 as they are struggling to fill it, best going direct to their site for the deals. They have the most leg room hence it popularity in Holland being tall an all. So get a cheap deal on Aer lingus and book leaving from Amsterdam.


Other options would be air asia X if you want super cheap, there is the middle eastern airline that flys direct from dublin, can't remember the name, its weird but has deals for 700 euro.

BA and Qantas are always good, flight entertainment is good, service and food are ok, not the total package as singapore, NB: you can get very cheap deals on BA flying to oz via Los Angeles, but ads about 3 hours flying time and customs are a pain in LA.

Also can be a really good idea to get a OneWorld round the world ticket, then you can stop off every continent in the same direction eg, London, NYC, LA, Auckland, SYdney, Singapore, Londong. basically costs the same as a return sometime cheaper, you need to speak to OneWorld airline ticket centre eg, BA or Qantas or others.

You will find these days that you will find most of the good deals directly on the airlines sites.

Wow, thanks for all that. Have definitely heard that about Singapore airlines, altho they are a bit more expensive where I was looking, and now it transpires same on their site.

Think the other one you were thinking of was Etihad, which I am looking at alright. But am still looking, hopefully something decent will come up.

La La

cathay is great, have never had a problem. when i was living in HK i flew with them all the time. only thing i;ve noticed is since flying to toronto this winter with BA, the cathay seats seem way more cramped in comparison and the pitch in economy wouldn't be as generous. but for a good all round safe airline, you can't go wrong with them. singapore airlines are cool too. try air new zealand though - they operate some good deals on that route.

Rabies

I've flown to NZ with Cathay, Emiretes and Singapore Airlines.

SA is by far my fav, I'd put Cathay at the end of the list from those three.

Hunter S

Asia Air, dirt cheap if you dont mind stopping off and you can pay 20 quid extra for leg room

The Sweeper

Flew with Cathay once, never again. We were in the middle of a range of seats, a location that meant we were at the end of the supplies on the food trolley. Not a problem, because we're easygoing, but there were no meals left when they got to us, and the air hostess went off to find two meals for us. Brought them back, I picked at mine, himself ate all of his. This was two hours into the London - I think it was Hong Kong or Singapore, can't remember the stopover airport.

Upshot: food poisoning. You try flying 9 hours of the London to stopover with food poisoning, followed by another 10 hour or so flight to Melbourne with shakes and grey-faced, having finally gotten rid of the dry retching.

They didn't want to know. We practically lived in one of the aisle toilets, throwing up. Himself was worse than I was because he'd eaten all of his meal, I had just picked at mine. I was starting to really worry about him. Asked them for something to help, they grudgingly gave us something that made no difference whatsoever - and this may sound ridiculous, but a hostess took a two-pack of pills and the chief hostess took them back and gave us one each. I couldn't help feeling that the dose was meant to be two pills each. (Paranoid? Maybe.) They didn't check on us, didn't offer us an extra blanket - we had to ask for everything, and they treated us like an inconvenience.

The airline staff were total and utter bastards. When the drinks trolley came around, hours later, when we were at the dry retching stage and could barely stand, we asked if we could have a coke and a water each - the coke was for the sugar, the water was to rehydrate us. She looked at us, handed us one coke and one water and said "I think just one each is enough for now."

The upshot - I wouldn't fly with them again if they were the last airline on the planet. The plane was on time, the price was fine, but I wouldn't treat a dog the way they behaved towards us.

In terms of pleasant staff, on another occasion I found Malaysia Airlines to be marvellous. And here's an odd observation - Thai people are polite and lovely, and flying with a plane full of them is mainly a really good experience. I've flown China Eastern too, as the cheapest solution out of London, and the planes are ancient and cramped, and you can also virtually guarantee the tiny 4ft 11" chinese girlies in the seats in front of you will recline their seats right back into your knees within 10 minutes of take off and leave them like that for the entire flight.

nicker_s

Alright mate, I'm also 6"2, flew with them a few months back to Sydney via Hong Kong. I was in an aisle seat for the first flight then a window after that. The window seat got really uncomfortable after a few hours. I had stopped off in Hong Kong for a few days, i'd say if it had of been a connecting flight I would have lost the plot. I got a reasonably cheap flight through some Oz travel company up near the VHI on Abbey St, not the Oz travel place down at the epicurian food hall, they gave me all sorts of prices. If you go directly through the etihad website u can get a good deal. I would have but the site wasn't working properly and I gave up on it after a while. Cathay were nice and helpful, I asked them if they could put me in an exit seat but they couldn't get any one to move, leg room wasn't an issue for most of the passengers from Hong Kong, if u get what I'm saying.

Mushy

Saw the flights, think we might pay the bit extra and go with BA. Cheers for all the advice though, it will still be kept in mind till exact booking time though.