Taipei Taoyuan International

I took a taxi from the Sheraton Hotel to the airport which dropped me at Taipei’s Terminal 1 at the counters of Cathay Pacific. Cathay Pacific operates a number of flights, which stop in Taipei and continue on to various destinations in Japan and Korea. In so far, Taipei is an important destination for Cathay Pacific and they have a large presence there but flights in and out of Taipei are also well known for equipment changes on a short notice. There was an aisle with counters only serving Business and First Class Counters. A short line of passengers had formed, but with all counters staffed, the waiting time was not long.

The agent retrieved my booking from the system and checked my luggage to Frankfurt. He also issued an invitation for the TransAsia (GE) lounge in Taipei, which was used by Cathay Pacific among two other lounges (China Airlines and “The More Lounge”). I also received an invitation for the lounge in Hong Kong and information about the transfer. Further the agent highlighted, that due to an aircraft change, I had now another seat. The flight was now operated by an Airbus A 340-313 instead of the Boeing 777-300ER. I had booked a seat in the small front cabin to experience this, as these seats are usually only available to Oneworld Emerald or Marco Polo Elites. But this was not going to happen; instead I was going to experience another time the older Olympus Business Class.

I took the escalator up, where security and immigration counters are located. Security had only a short line, but immigration was longer. I approached the counter to the far right next to the people for elderly people and ASEAN Card holder as well as for crews. In my experience, those two counters quite often call passenger over, which means that the line usually is quicker unless crew appear frequently, as they have priority. And I was lucky; I was called to the crew desk. The agent checked my boarding pass and stamped me out of the country and addressed me by name as he gave back my passport and wished me a good onward journey.
I took the stairs up and walked towards to GE Lounge, which was very busy with a delayed Cathay Pacific flight and passengers of those still in the lounge as well as a delayed GE flight to Macau. But after 15 minutes both flights were boarding and the lounge became in less than five minutes nearly empty. The crew used this time to clean up and restock the buffet.

I moved over to another seat and got me a glass of champagne from the buffet. The wine selection was actually quite good as well with a Californian Sauvignon Blanc (Crawford) and another one from Italy as well as a French red wine. I had dim sum with the champagne and other than that drank tonic water and continued to update this report and also checked my e-mails. I was again able to set up a stable VPN connection using the free WiFi of the airport as the Trans Asia lounge does not offer WiFi.
A few minutes ahead of boarding time, I decided to stretch my legs and walk a bit through the terminal before I approached the gate at the scheduled boarding time. I did not use flightradar24 to research which plane would fly us to Hong Kong and so glimpsed out of the window to look for the registration. It was again the Airbus A 340-300 B-HXD, the very same plane, which flew me to Taipei the day before. This was a nice coincidence.
The lounge was really nice and is also available to holder of a Priority Pass.
Boarding started slightly delayed at 18:30 with passengers in Business Class and oneworld elites. I was among the first passengers to board the plane.

18 August 2015
TPE – HKG
[Taipei Taoyuan International – Hong Kong International]
CX 473 (Cathay Pacific); Airbus A 340-300 (B-HXD)
Gate B 5
18:45 – 20:30 [effective19:00 – 20:48]
Business Class
Seat 16 A

Both jet bridges were attached to the plane and I entered the left one which led to front door for the Business Class Cabin. I stored my belongings in the overhead bin and under the ottoman. Business Class was full on this flight with many passengers having connections to other flights.

Pre Departure Drink

Billecart-Salmon Brut Champagne

Pre-departure drinks were offered by a flight attendants passing through the aisle. The selection was the usual one with a choice of champagne, orange juice, apple juice and water. A hot towel was offered as well and the purser greeted the oneworld emerald members personally on this flight, which I did not notice on other flights, but maybe I missed it. Another flight attendant was distributing the printed menu. The second jet-bridge leading to the Economy Class cabin was already pulled away from the plane as the captain came over the microphone and welcomed us on board. He mentioned that we would be delayed due to a very busy airspace in regard to in- and outbound traffic at Hong Kong. The flight time would be a short 1:10 and we would 15 minutes late in Hong Kong. After the captain finished his welcome speech the purser welcomed us as well and announced the safety video. Like on the previous flight with the old Business Class, the in-seat monitor was not pulled out of the wall of the seat. I did not think that anybody in the Business Class Cabin did this himself or herself and the crew seems again not to care.

Finally the front door was also closed and soon later we were pulled back at 19:00 exactly 15 minutes behind schedule. We taxied to the runway 05R but had to wait behind an Eva Airways “Hello Kitty” 777-300ER. At 19:22 the captain powered the four engines. While we accelerated, I noticed that behind us were already three other planes, among those a MD 11 of FedEx. We turned towards western direction and the Street of Taiwan before another turn towards Hong Kong.

I decided to read the menu (click on icon, opens new window).

First Course

Smoked salmon roulade and cream potato salad
Still Water

Main Course

fried halibut, sweet corn sauce, broccoli, egg fried rice
Sparkling and Still Water

At 19:26 the crew went to their station and the service began. The service started in the K-Aisle with the cart. The delivery of the first course followed a beverage service. Doing it this way, it took a while, before the cart arrived us in the other aisle. All available main courses were presented to the passengers and two flight attendants were constantly bringing new dished to the cart. I choose a sparkling water with the meal and resisted the temptation of another glass of the Australian Sauvignon Blanc on this flight.

Thirty minutes ahead of our arrival time, the captain updated us about our arrival time in Hong Kong. There would be no further delays and we could fly straight into the airport without need for waiting patterns. He also announced the remaining flight time with 30 minutes. And now, when many other airlines would begin to prepare the cabin, the crew started the coffee and tea service. Despite it was quick round and I skipped the offering for tea or coffee, it was done in 10 minutes. Used and empty mugs and glasses were cleared by flight attendants passing the aisle and the cabin was very busy. Ten minutes later, the captain asked the crew to prepare the cabin for the arrival.

These short flights are from my point a much tougher job for the crew than a 12 hours long-haul flight with ‘only’ two meal services.

Flying this configuration the second time, I tried to compare my expression of both flights using the Olympus seats. Some reports of this configuration point out, that the crew tend to use the aisle at the K seats on the right side of the plane more often as the egress of the centre seats (D) it to the left and share the aisle with the A seats. Given that this flight was fully booked, I think the flight attendants passing the cabin from the back to the front tend to use this aisle. Personally, I also do not think the shoulder room of the seats is to narrow. I possibly may see this different on a longhaul flight in these seats. As I usually fly alone the added privacy is something, I like very much.

Finally, we touched down on runway 25 R and taxied to our gate 33.

I could quickly disembark via first door and walked to the security checkpoints next to gate 27, which was empty and I passed it in less than a minute and was on the meet a friend in the First Class Section of “The Wing”.

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