nicetrywilliams

My husband and I are looking to take a honeymoon over to Hong Kong and Tokyo in December (flying from NYC). We found amazing tickets on Cathay, on the cheap (but again, basic basic coach). My husband, who is an anxious flyer and recently has been struggling with ear issues on flights, is concerned about not being able to choose his seats (and ultimately, not getting an aisle seat).

Is there another airline that's comparable to Cathay with generally good reviews? Or, what level do we need to reach in order to choose seats for Cathay?

First flight for both of us at this length. Any encouragement/advice is appreciated. Thanks!

Gardyloo

Provided your ticket isn't in some sort of strange fare class, you should be able to request seats online. See http://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_U...-requests.html

doug_stallings

You could also try JAL. I found their economy class quite acceptable during my trip to Japan and the Philippines this spring. But you always have to be careful when booking the cheapest fares. Many airlines restrict seat selection on the cheapest flights until you check in. However, I checked in for my JAL super-cheap flight exactly when I was allowed and had no problems getting my seats of choice, but I was not able to request seats before check-in. Of course, that might not work for you.

rkkwan

Main problem with flying CX only for your trip is that you will be back-tracking to Japan. Using an itinerary flying NYC-Japan-Hong Kong-(Japan)-NYC will save a lot of flying and traveling time, as compared to using CX only flying NYC-HKG-Japan-HKG-NYC.

DonTopaz

You'll be backtracking -- and adding several hours to the amount of flying -- if you fly round-trip from NYC to the same Asian city (either Tokyo or Hong Kong).

American Airlines offers code-share flight on both Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific, which means that you can fly non-stop NYC to Tokyo, Tokyo to Hong Kong, and then Hong Kong back to NYC on flights with American Airlines flight numbers, but actually flown on Japan/Cathay planes. The pricing is very reasonable.

As for the airline to use, flying from NYC to Hong Kong you have only two non-stop choices: Cathay Pacific (from JFK) and United (from Newark). Cathay Pacific is preferable to United from every possible perspective (comfort, reliability, convenience, service, attitude).

nicetrywilliams

Thanks all for your help. We ended up choosing a direct flight to Japan with ANA- we found two seats in their own row, which helps calm husband's flight fears. We're going to stick to JUST japan in order to keep travel to minimum.

@Dontopaz- that's the exact issue we were struggling with: we didnt want to add any additional unnecessary time to travel.