Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok International

This flight was the most problematic one on my journey, as I had already mentioned in the report about the flight from Taipei to Hong Kong. The reason was Mother Nature, as Mt. Raung on the island of Java showed increased activity and was blowing ash in the atmosphere. Mt. Raung is a so called strato volcano with an altitude of 3332 metres. The crater rim measures 2280 metre x 1760 metres and the caldera is 500 - 600 metres lower than crater rim and quite step. There are a number of other volcanoes nearby.

Mt Raung increased activity on June 24, 2015, and began to eject material on June 29, 2015 causing a dust cloud. At this time, it caught my attention, as the eruption caused disruption to flights in and out of Surabaya but also of nearby Bali. According to satellite images in early July 2015, a new lava pool on the mountain has been created, giving the volcano now two lava pools.
From July 9, 2015, several airports throughout Indonesia -- including on the popular holiday island of Bali and in Surabaya -- were closed due to the ash being produced by the eruptions and flights had to be re-scheduled. The explosive ash emissions stopped during the afternoon of August 14, 2016. It appears that the eruption has more or less come to an end but there might be another eruption in the near future.

In so far, you learn some new facts about volcanoes and Indonesia has got quite a number of active ones given the location of the many island on the Pacific Rim. Of course there are far worth places to be stranded than Bali or in my case Surabaya, but nevertheless if you have a schedule and appointments, this is not really what you would like to happen on such a trip.

As a matter of precaution I have already monitored the flight times before I started the journey. The flight to Surabaya was re-scheduled to a departure time of 03:45 the next day and an arrival of 07:25 at Surabaya. The return flight was usually performing as scheduled. There were a few exceptions, when the flight departed around 08:05 and arrived at 11:40 at Surabaya. In this case the return flight was changed accordingly to a departure around 12:50 and an arrival back in Hong Kong around 19:05. But it seems that the flight was operating, though arriving and departure into Surabaya had to be done in daylight.

It was much easier to track CX 780 (SUB-HKG) as CX 781, as this flight received a new flight number (CX 781 D) which could not be tracked by any of the tools like flightaware or flightstats. In so far I relayed on tools like flightradar and used the return flight as an indication when CX 781 left Hong Kong.

I had booked a hotel in Surabaya for an arrival at August 13, 2015, but had postponed any booking for arrangements for the drive from the airport to my hotel in Surabaya till I had a confirmed schedule change of Cathay Pacific. There was not much I could do, because Cathay only operates one flight in and out of Surabaya.

Taking into consideration that I think I am an experienced traveller who can manage situations like this, a cancelation of the trip was not an issue. And given that I would have booked a hotel anyway for the night before if arriving at 07:25, I would not lose anything. And otherwise, I have travel insurance which covers situations like these; I have access to a Galileo system and thus am able to research my options much more professionally. However, this ticket was booked via Cathay Pacific in Taipei, as it had to be issued with point of sale Taiwan and not Germany.

A few days ahead of my scheduled departure I noticed that the booking on the homepage of Cathay Pacific had been updated. However, Cathay did not update the booking in the Amadeus System. The text message with the announcement of the schedule change arrived soon later and a day ahead of the departure, I also got two e-mail informing me about the schedule change. Cathay sent the text message to both of my mobile number, I have stored as contact details. I am not sure, if a call would have been necessary, as there was certainly not much to be discussed.

As I had arrived from Taipei, I had made a visit at the ticketing desk of Cathay Pacific, who finally confirmed the schedule change and since I was flying on a paid Business Class Ticket and holding Oneworld Sapphire Status with British Airways was offered a room a Regal Airport Hotel to spend the time between scheduled departure time and actual departure. This was a nice gesture as Cathay Pacific could not be made reliable for an erupting volcano.

I had not slept very much the day before, as I had to partake in a conference call in the middle of the night Hong Kong Times for my travel related Business and meet with a friend in the afternoon. I decided to use my tiredness in my favour and try to get some sleep before my flight and stay awake for the rest of the day and catch up with some work during the flight to Surabaya. The fact that it was raining cats and dogs in Hong Kong did help, as it was for sure not the weather for walking around a city, despite it is one of my favourite ones.

I took the Kowloon Airport Express Shuttle buses from the Sheraton Hotel to the station. Unlike on other occasion, when I used the Shuttle departing from the back of the Peninsula I took the regular one serving the Sheraton. With not many passengers at other hotels and also traffic not as worse as during other times of the day, the ride to Kowloon Station was not much longer than I had expected.

A short wait and a 20 minutes train ride later I was at Hong Kong Airport. I checked my luggage and walked over to the Regal Airport Hotel. A number of people were queuing with voucher of various airlines because of irregular operations. The hotel assigned me a standard room with a view to the courtyard, which is nothing special, but provided a bed and bath. Thankfully the curtain blocked out much of the light and I used my mobiles as alarm clocks and set the alarm to 00:59, which would give me roughly seven hours of sleep.

I was able to get some interrupted sleep until someone at 23:00 decided to call my room. The person dialled the wrong number and apologised, but as I was now awake and knowing me well, was sure, I would not rather get much more sleep anymore. So I decided to take a shower and head over to the airport.

Access to at least the “The Wing” Lounge would be available during the night, as I was told during check in. And since the film “Terminal” we all know, that it is possible to live in an airport ...

I paced myself down from my usual fast walking style to slowly walking over to the main terminal. I used the security and immigration on the north side of terminal next to check in aisles. Security was empty and I passed it quickly and even without need to be padded down. Immigration was a bit surprised about the date on my boarding pass, which showed the August 13, 2015 but departure time of 03:45, despite the fact, that the flight was leaving on August 14, 2015. But after some additional information about the delay and the fact, that the flight was scheduled to leave at August 13, 2015 and therefore the boarding pass indicate this date and the officer doing a research of the flight information on his system, was granted access to the terminal.

I walked over to the “The Pier” Lounge, where I was able to get a noodle soup from the buffet before it closed down for the night soon later. It was tasteful, spicy and hot. Later I moved to the main part of the lounge closer to the entrance and began to catch up with some work and read in one of the European papers which were available. I was also monitoring the screen with the departures and gate information regularly. Time passed quickly and soon we had 02:30 as my blackberry and my US Mobile announced the arrival of a text message – both numbers which are stored in the Cathay booking. The content was what I had feared: My departure was again re-scheduled to now 08:05, adding another 04:20 to the delay of 12:10 hours and extending it to 16:30. This is a new personal record for me ...

Well, this gave me more time to catch up with work but before this, it was calling and e-mailing my hotel in Surabaya and let them know, that I will be further delayed and also a e-mail to the Bluebirdgroup. I had decided to use their Goldenbird Car Service for the transfer from the airport into downtown. Both replied within one hour and confirming that they had received and adjusted the check in or pick up times.

I have to admit, that I was surprised, how busy the airport of Hong Kong is in the night. Maintenance work is done, cleaning and restocking of the many shops and also some construction work. Cathay Pacific also did a very good job to accommodate me and around 20 other guests in the lounge. There were one other flight with a delay; a Cathay Pacific flight to Tokyo, which was delayed from 01:45 to 06:05. Passengers of this flight were also accommodated in the lounge. The was also an Air France flight to Paris, which was delayed from an scheduled departure time of 22:25 on August 13, 2015 to a new departure time of 12:25 on August 14, 2015; I had noticed some of passengers on this flight in the Regal Hotel.

Round about 90 minutes ahead of our scheduled departure time, I decided to slowly walk over to our gate 45. I decided to pay another visit to “The Bridge” Lounge before it was finally boarding time.

Hong Kong Airport was widely “awake” now with passengers transferring or waiting for their early morning departures.

“The Bridge” was less busy than during my last visit and unlike during this visit the left wing was this time the busier one. So I remained in the right wing and enjoyed another cup of Espresso, before I finally walked after what I think was the longest time I ever spend at an airport to our gate.

Boarding had not started yet, but soon later the pre-boarding announcement was made and the passenger began to queue up. Business Class was invited to board ahead of Economy Class after one passenger in a wheelchair was brought on-board.

13 August 2015
HKG – SUB
[Hong Kong International – Surabaya Juanda]
CX 781 (Cathay Pacific); Airbus A 330-300 (B-LBE)
Gate 45
15:35 – 19:15 [effective 08:18 (+1) – 12:02 (+1)]
Business Class
Seat 15 K

I boarded the plane and was greeted at the entrance by a smiling flight attendant. I went to my seat in on the right side of the Regional Business Class. I stored my luggage in the overhead bin and my small shoulder under the small part at the bottom of the seat in front of me.

Pre-departure drink

Water

The remaining passengers boarded the plane and it happened that there were only 14 passengers in Business Class, while Economy Class seems not to be full either. Economy Class Passengers boarded through the second door, so they had not to pass Business Class. The second jet bridge was also pulled back earlier than the first one, which was used by ground staff bringing the necessary and final documents to the plane. Unsurprisingly the most passengers were on board quickly and there were no late comers. This of course makes it easier for flight attendants to serve us pre-departure drinks. We could choose among orange juice, apple juice and water. Champagne was not offered at this early time of the day and after a long night I would not have opted for Champagne anyway. We also received a hot towel on the ground by the flight attendant, while we were also welcomed by the purser, who announced the safety video, which was shown while we were at the gate. According to the new schedule we should depart at 08:05 but it was meanwhile 08:10 and the cargo door was still open. Luckily the cargo door was closed while the safety video was shown.

We were finally pushed back at 08:18 and taxied to our runway 25 L, where we had to wait close to ten minutes before we finally cleared to enter the runway.

During our wait I noticed an Orient Thai 747 which had still the Saudi Arabian livery visible. A quick research later revealed that the plane was a Boeing 747-412 delivered to Singapore Airlines in 1992 with then registration 9V-SMN, before it joined the fleet of Cathay Pacific in 2004 under the registration B-HKD. In November 2009 it was stored at Goodyear (Phoenix) for WFBN Wells Fargo Bank Northwest and received the interim registration N548MD. Round about a year later in November 2010 it was leased by Orient Thai and is wet-leased by Saudi Arabian Airlines regularly for pilgrim flights. It is always interesting to follow the history of a plane, though one does not always want to know all the details and especially how old the plane actually is.

On our flight, the female captain powered the engines at 08:36 and we left Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok airport for Surabaya Jaunda International Airport. We made a few turns before we finally flew toward the South Chinese Sea,

Our flight was operated by an Airbus A 330-343 with the registration B-LBE. The plane was like the one for my flight to Hong Kong quite new and delivered as new plane to Cathay Pacific on June 16, 2014 after its first flight on May 19, 2014. It was equipped with 42 seats in Business Class and 265 seats in Economy Class. The Business Class is the new Regional Business Class, I had also experienced on the flight from Hong Kong to Taipei and from Taipei to Hong Kong.

Like all Airbus A 330-300 in the fleet of Cathay Pacific, it was powered by two Rolls Royce Trent 772B-60 engines.

The seat belt signs were on for a longer time as usual, but it was not bumpier than usual while we climbed into the morning sky above Hong Kong. At 09:00 the seat belt signs were switched off and the crew began with the preparation for the service. The purser welcomed us on board and offered the printed menu. Like usual, I was addressed by name and welcomed on board. Five minutes later the tray tables were laid with linen. As the load on this flight was quite low, there was not cart used and the tray were brought individually.

Time to look at the menu , which was changed in regard to the delayed departure (click on icon, opens new window).

First Course

Fresh Fruit
Cathay Delight

Main Course

Stir-fried sa-cha beef with noodles and vegetables (?)

It was a bit strange to hand out the menu but to serve different dishes than those shown in the menu, basically the printed menu did not make any sense at all and was pretty useless. The purser did not mention this but the crew serving the first course actually did and told me, that a modified breakfast service would be done instead of the dinner service.

After the first course was served the crew came with the beverage cart starting in the C/D aisle from the front toward the middle galley and then in the aisle G/K from the back to the front. The beverage cart followed a cart with muesli and yoghurt. I declined on this offer and received shortly thereafter my main course. I did not get the full information, but it should be beef. In so far it paid off to actually see all three available main courses, but would have preferred to have some more information than just “beef”. Might it as it be, the beef was actually quite good, not to dry and the noodles were also quite good. While the meal service was done, the female captain came over the intercom and welcomed us on board. She apologised for not welcoming us on the ground, but they were busy and trying to get us off the ground quickly. We could expect an arrival around 12:00 at Surabaya Jaunda and should expect a smooth ride with no turbulences except maybe for the approach.

My tray was cleared at 09:35 Hong Kong Time and I passed on the offer of coffee and tea but lowered by sea in a more comfortable position and tried to doze for some time. I must have been asleep for round about 90 minutes and listened to music for the remaining flight time. I had hoped to get some work done, but with the time at the airport and the opportunity to work there, I thought I gave up on my plan and instead decided to relax during the flight.

Flight time passed quickly and we had already passed the island of Borneo as the captain came again over the intercom and gave us an update of our arrival time (still around noon) and the weather in Surabaya (27° C with scattered clouds). She announced the remaining flight time with 40 minutes. I asked one of the crew members passing the aisle for a coffee which was brought to my seat soon later.

As usual the captain announced if the remaining flight time was 20 minutes and the crew began to prepare the cabin for the arrival. Actually, I think it is very good to have an announcement with round about 40 minutes before touch down. I used the time for a quick visit at the lavatories and exchange the money in my wallet from HKD to IDR. I also put the confirmation for my car booking in a pocket of my shoulder bag, so that I could get it easier in Surabaya and also put 35 USD in my travel wallet just in case I have to pay the visa fee, despite this is should now be waved for non-business trips.

We approached the airport from the West and touched down on runway 10 at 11:55. We taxied to our gate, where we arrived at 12:01. The jet-bridge was attached to the first door, which meant we could disembark quickly.

I had to buy a visa on arrival for 35 USD, despite this should not be necessarily as the purpose of the trip was not merely a business trip, but I did not argue with the agent. I passed immigration quickly and had to wait four minutes until the luggage arrived on the belt. The Priority Tag worked and my luggage was the fifth on the belt.

Customs was also passed quickly and I approached the Bluebird Group Counter and after the formalities were done was in the car twenty minutes after I stepped off the plane.

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