Cathay Pacific
 

As promised, we are planning a return to BKK in Feb. Has anyone used Cathay Pacific from LAX - HK -BKK? Does anyone (and I am positive at least one person does) have an idea of the seat pitch/comfort factor of their 747's? Although we REALLY like Singapore, the CP flight connections cut about 5 hrs of the outbound trip! To say nothing of being about $500 cheaper!! Money I can spend in BKK!! Thanks to all..

Your experience on CX's 747 should be similar to SQ's 747. Video screens for all seats, same standard ~32" pitch, decent food, decent service.

One frequent annoyance of the LAX-HKG flight is that in winter time (which definitely includes FEB), the west-bound flight has to refuel in Taipei (or occassionally Seoul) quite often, which may affect your connection to BKK.

Also, if you can fly SQ's LAX-SIN non-stop, then THAT flight on the A340-500 has Executive Economy with more legroom and wider seats.

Thank you for your prompt info.. we had previously used SQ's A340-500 and thought it great. Yes, if we were just comparing 747's we would probably go with CX.. but given the info about the refueling we probably would not save that much time. Before SQ had the A340-500 we actually did come back on a 747 and landed at Taipei where we were made to take everything off the plane and walk up and down corridors (about 7:00am and nothing was open!) and then go through security again to get on the plane.. at the time we did not understand what was happening!! Pennsylvania Dutch expression "Too soon old - too late smart"!! It is a big shame that SQ cancelled their Las Vegas - HK flight with the A340-500!! Ah well, will just think about it some more..

www.seatguru.com has good info on seats if u know what plane model u ar flying for a bunch of airlines...

Actually, I believe SQ used the 777-200 for HKG-LAS before it was cancelled. They might have used the 340-300 on that short-lived route before, but I'm not certain about that. All the 340-300s were traded in to Boeing for new 777s.

The 340-500s are brand new, and have only been used for break-in runs and now the ultra-longhaul SIN-LAX and SIN-EWR. No other permanent routes for these new planes.

ive flown cathay pacific 3 times and the seats are pretty basic but the srveice is outstanding! ive never flown sngapore and ive heard great things about them too!

CP Biz Class is great.

However, Economy/Coach looked to be very cramped especially on the 747 series based on my walk throughs. Especially bad are the middle row off seats which have 5 seats per row. You are better off on either window side. BTW, they've gotten a little less generous with meal portions lately. So, you may want to pack some extra.

Check out the EVA-Air option. They have Evergreen deluxe Class that is close to Business Class at a much lower cost. We flew them to Bangkok and it was great and not much more that regular coach.
They go thru Taipei.

There were never any 5-abreast seating on any of CX's planes. Not now, not before.

Currently, their 747 is 3-4-3, their 777 is 3-3-3, and their 330/340 are 2-4-2.

Before 777/340, they use the Lockeed L1011, which has very cramped 3-4-3 seating.

Those are only widebodies they've used. Earlier 707s are 3-3.

I to have flown Cathay Pacific several times and have never seen 5 seats in the middle of the 747. I have only ever seen the 3-4-3 combination.

Cathay Pacific are fine. But I don't think they are as good as they used to be.

Have you checked the Prices for Malaysian Air? Seat pitch of 34", Seat back videos, award winning service - usually very competitively priced AND they fly from LA. There are very good connections from KL to Bangkok (every couple of hours and ridiculously cheap Duty Free to snap up at KL). I think Malaysian Air beats the regular Economy product offered by Cathay Pacific and Singapore Air

Whoops! Relax everybody. I meant to put 4-across in middle coach, not 5. Hit the wrong key!

Ecomony on Cathay is about the same as every other plane in terms of the seat. The service is excellent. Food to me was not as good as on other asian flights but still better than any american one.

I don't like Cathay Pacific in Economy, Singapore Air is much better if your on one of those new airbus with the Executive Economy. Cathay Pacific is a cattle car.

I would not fly Cathay Pacific again unless necessary. My husband and I flew this airline 3 years ago to Thailand. On our return trip a passenger became very ill and I'm an RN, the only medical person on board with emergency background. I could have had plane turned around but determined through my experience and after discussing with MD it would be safe to continue. I stayed with passenger the entire return trip which I would have done for anyone. I stewardesses were very grateful but I never received a thank you from Cathay Pacific until I contacted them concerning passenger. I received an upgrade for next flight with them but have decided not to use this airline. I would recommend Thai Air. Food was excellent and seats very spaceous.