After flying from Osaka to Hong Kong via Tokyo, I connected on to this flight from Hong Kong to Beijing. It turned out to be a very long day of travel all round. You can probably tell from the generally terse way I wrote this report back in 2005.
CX312 – Hong Kong to Beijing (HKG-PEK)
4 April 2005
Airbus A330-300
Seat: Business Class 17K
Walked kilometres from my plane to my next plane. It could have been the same one for all I know, as I went back to the same place, only a floor higher. Again, boarding was on time, and we were in the air on time also.
Sustenance and Libations!
Our salad course was a Seasonal Salad with Balsamic Vinegar dressing. It was uninspiring, and I only ate a little of it. It contained tomato, lettuce and not a lot else.
For an appetiser, we had Balik Salmon with Aubergine Mousse – perfectly presented. The salmon and the mousse were delicious, and the portion size was lovely.
Drinks wise, I had champagne, water, and a bloody mary. White with came with the main course. I chose the Grilled Beef Fillet with Bearnaise Sauce. This came with Buttered Romanesco and Roast Carrots with Parsley and Black Pepper. It was quite good, except the meat went from medium rare to still twitching on the inside, which wasn’t so good. I left some of it. Garlic bread was my bread du jour 🙂
Other choices were Sauteed Shrimps and Jade Melon with Marinated Pork and steaming rice, or you could get Fried Rice with Shredded Conpoy and Egg White and Barbecued Pork.
Of Movies, Sweets, Duty Free and Crew
Happily, the movies were available on this flight, and I watched Closer with Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Natalie Portman. It was a bit too much, and I spent the final 5 minutes of the film filling in my landing card for China. Dessert was served next, and I had ice cream, plus a cheese plate which was delightful in every way. Pralines (chocolates) were offered at the end as well, and I didn’t have any of those.
Duty Free was offered on all flights, and there are two things I really want – an Emporio Armani side bag, and a men’s necklace. The bag I can afford, but justifying $2,800HKG (around $US400 – roughly) for a necklace is difficult, but I am trying.
I still can’t get over how attentive the Cathay crew are – like you’re addressed by name by them all, all the time, and they are always refilling drinks and things like that.
One of them spilled a coke over a passenger and didn’t apologise, so the head of the flight staff came back and spoke to him. I saw her filling out a voucher for him as well as compensation, and then just after landing, the F/A who had spilled the drink (accidentally when she was giving back the coats I think) also apologised to the man.
Overall Thoughts
Disembarked, and that was that!
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And that’s the story of the flight from Hong Kong to Beijing in 2005. The city at the time was preparing for the 2008 Summer Olympics which made it interesting. Air quality was not great, unfortunately.
You can read about the return flight here. What did you think of the report? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by lasta29 via Wikimedia Commons.
