Airliners-India.com

[jbalonso777]

INTRODUCTION
Hello everyone, and an official welcome back to my trip reports! Its been a while since I wrote one of these, so I may be a bit rusty in doing so. I hope to make a few changes (and stick to them!) in my upcoming set of trip reports. There will be 3 parts to this, all under the same topic. If I remember correctly, member 'sri_bom' has taken these two flights (710/711), however, on the more popular SIN-HKG-SIN route. This TR will feature the unknown CMB-SIN-CMB route.

BEGINNING OF A NEW GENERATION!
The beginning or the end of anything is a good time to either announce the introduction, or the retirement of anything, let it be the end of Michael Schumacher's long career, or the announcement of Bhuvneshwar Kumar entering the team. I shall therefore use this opportunity to announce the retirement of the Nikon D40, and the induction of the Nikon D7100 (a hideous name if you ask me!). From now on, pictures would be taken with Nikon's new(est?) launch, and hopefully, better pictures! This also means that videos would be taken using that, a realistic chance of shooting full HD 1080p videos. Although, I'm sticking to your votes; videos in the night, shooting in the day.

ABOUT THIS TRIP REPORT
This trip report would be written, along with a parallel extension, review of the D7.1k (that is the short reference to the Nikon D7100, in case any one forget!). This trip report shall feature yet another hurricane trip to Singapore, this time with no specific aim. As mentioned, this will be in 3 parts, under the same topic.

PLANNING
Big brother and Mum had to go Mumbai on the 10th of June, for a long-ish trip. Dad and I decided that we discreetly go to Singapore on Tiger Airways and have a plane spotting session there. This was taken quite negatively by Mum, obviously. Plans of plane spotting were shelved, and instead, just after my exams (05JUN13) we decided to go this 'not so popular', 'not very common', destination: Singapore. The selection of airlines were easy.
SQ (LKR40k), EK (LKR36k) and UL (LKR 33k) were immediately written off. The final battle came down to CX and TR. The fare for both was LKR27k. Oh, that is cheap! However, the TR fare included bags only. On the other hand, CX had free baggage (20Kgs), food, IFE, miles and a Boeing 777. All this for just LKR600 more. We had to be big idiots if we had said no this deal! In contrast, my EK trip back in September 2012 was LKR33k. CX was once again cheaper, but I knew that I will fly CX someday, although, I didn't know it would be this early! I know, its yet another trip report about the 'Big 3 of SE Asia', but then again, its a fifth freedom flight!
CX operates daily flights into Colombo from Hong Kong, either via BKK or SIN. All of these are operated by the old regional Boeing 777-300. Due to the dates, it meant that our trip would be 2 nights long.
Flight details:
CX710 CMB-SIN 06JUN B773 0035 0700
CX711 SIN-CMB 08JUN B773 2130 2240

CHANGES AGAIN!
There came the inevitable moment when there was a change which had to be made. Big brother's course had moved from BOM to DEL, so it started earlier than expected. Dad had accompanied him. His ticket had to be cancelled. This meant going to the Cathay Pacific office, because their website wouldn't allow cancellation. Luckily, the website showed the address.
On a dark and rainy day, Mum and I headed for the office. Located on the rather run down Vauxhall Street in Colombo, we entered the under lit and cold CX office. The office building is a white a structure, with green markings, showing Cathay's livery and some advertisements of HKG. Annoyingly, the security guard wasn't bothered to open the door, which we had to do ourselves.
There was a slightly long wait, because there wasn't any agent in the 6 counters, waiting to help us. Wow. Just to be sure, we were at the office 1 hour after its opening time.
We waited for long. In fact, so long, that I took a picture of B-HNF's scaled down sibling:

Well, after about 20 minutes of waiting, someone finally arrived ( life exists!). He certainly wasn't having the best of his days in office, as he kept sneezing and didn't wipe his hands. Anyways.
I enquired about cancellation, and he quickly removed my brother from the itinerary. He also gave me an email ID to request the refund. A job done in about 3 minutes, but we were the office for nearly half an hour.

The email ID.
(For those interested; following were flown by Dad on his trip to DEL:
VT-JFF CMB-MAA
VT-JBU MAA-DEL
VT-JBS DEL-BOM
VT-JBK BOM-CMB
And for those who are further interested, these were all of award tickets. No issues while booking.)

BEFORE DEPARTURE DAY
It was all rather boring, I prepared for the Physics exam, did nothing much. The four of us went to Yala National Park, where my pictures with the D7.1k were horrendously bad. There I saw the Monaco GP, and the final of the IPL where MI (finally) won (a rather controversial) IPL. (I may get a few smirks for writing this ). Meanwhile, I also did a Manage My Booking check on the CX website, where I changed Mum's food preference to Vegetarian Oriental & Dad's to Indian non-vegetarian for the first flight only (sleep was the top priority, I decided to get him a meal earlier than others, so he could sleep for longer). Seat booking wasn't allowed for this fare, but web check in was 48 hours before flight departure. Fair enough.

WEB CHECK IN
At 0040 on 04JUN13, I did the web check in. An hour later, I was doing the exact same thing! I was doing it from the iPad, so I thought maybe there was some issue there.

Are you serious?!
There was a slight battle which I had to fight to get to the computer: a flying cockroach. Proudly killing it, I headed down to the computer, and the same thing was shown! This was getting really irritating! They promised 48 hours, they are an alliance member. Yet, web check in did not work. Wow. Just wow.
I tried on the computer about 2 or 3 times, however I had to switch off my computer. Not shut down, a switch off from the switch. It was yet another flying cockroach which flew in!
At 0200 hours, I gave up and went straight to bed, hoping no other 'flying friends' would fly in.
Anyways, the sunrise on the same day meant something good: web check in FINALLY worked. Wow.
It was a quick process, however, there were a few random things to do.

The first page.

Second Economy section. I selected seat 48A which is one of the last overwing seats.

Our final seating.

Following this, I had fill details which I had filled in earlier. Ugh.

I updated these in APIS. But no, once again please

Check in ordeal is over! Now, for the confirmations.

Its actually a surprise that CX allows us to change seats after OLCI.
+1.
I also subscribed to the notiFLY service, waiting to see what happens.


Web confirmation

Mobile confirmation.

These confirmations were sent quite quickly, as soon as I updated the emails and numbers. Well done, CX!

Before the trip day, Cathay Pacific had shown its slight inconsistency. The agent at the office was a bit unhygienic, OLCI didn't work to perfection, etc. However, the OLCI process, when it worked, was quite good; responsive and prompt.
My expectations too, were quite mixed. CX uses the old regional B773 with 'tired interiors' and a not-so-good IFE. However, being a part of an alliance and a world renowned airline, the old B773 wouldn't have much impact. I just had to wait and watch. Also, there was a big big chance of delay. Like I keep mentioning, the CX is flight late (enormously late) most of the time. In fact, one of my friends, missed his 2 connections due to the delay of this flight. Would that be the case this time?

DEPARTURE DAY
It certainly wasn't a good feeling before the exam, let alone the flight. I woke up on 05JUN13 with a slight woozy feeling. I went into the exam feeling..er..'high'. Despite the horrible feelings in my head, importantly, the Physics MCQ exam went as planned: slight screw up in Radioactivity and in Magnetism, while the rest was a Sunday Afternoon Drive. I asked a friend to drain the D7.1k's battery, which he gladly did on our last day of school. Good times.
Speaking of the battery, I had a few 'teething problems' with the 'lithium-ion' batteries, when it took 400 pictures lesser before its first charge. Luckily, that got sorted out!
Anyways, the whole day was spent with packing and charging the gadgets while I could not get any sleep: this wasn't very good news considering the fact that we would be going to the Jurong Bird Park as soon as possible. I checked the incoming flight, CX711 from HKG, which was operated by B-HNH, a 15 year old Boeing 777-300.
The evening came, but the dog wouldn't leave home. I felt bad for Dobby, he just went straight down under the sofa with his leash, refusing to leave home and therefore refusing us to leave for SIN. Anyways, with that sorted (which included loud crying howls - I do not like that!) we left home at 1830 hours to pick up Dad's boss. The plan was to have dinner at the Taj Gateway Hotel near the airport and then board our respective flights (Dad's boss was flying UL141 to BOM, departing at 2345).

GETTING TO THE AIRPORT
We had a slightly rugged vehicle to the airport, and a not-so-bright driver. Oh well, I do not blame because his job is to drive the car between CMB City & CMB Airport throughout the day. There was a long long traffic jam throughout the road, due to heavy VIP movement. My head wasn't doing very good too. To make things a bit worse, this is what the status of flight CX711 was on its second leg:


Which meant I had to get back to my friend, informing him that the trend was being followed:


I was supporting CX a bit here. It was my first time so yeah, I didn't mind doing so!
We reached the Taj Gateway Hotel at 2006 hours, on schedule. A big van parked beside us, and there was an airline crew stepping out: Emirates. Yes, the all too familiar Emirates crew had stepped out from the van after EK652, the DXB-MLE-CMB flight, operated by A6-EMN. I had a kind of flashback of the memories of my previous Singapore trip onboard Emirates. I was itching to know whether Cathay Pacific would live up to its name on this 5th freedom flight! The captain looked American, and while the rest of the crew scattered around the lobby, chattering away, the Captain went through the check in formalities for the crew and himself, making sure everyone was in. Certainly, the Captains are the most responsible people, on board, or in the destination!
Dinner I had was buffet, however, I didn't to justice to the LKR3000 cost. I was just too sick even to sip a beverage. Thing's weren't looking good. The EK crew then came down for dinner, wearing their rather Western and catchy clothes.

After this hour long pit stop, we headed for the airport, however, I simply wasn't looking forward to this flight, let alone a new airline or B777. We entered the airport quite quickly, and got separated from Dad's boss. Our check in would open 3 hours before departure, as is the norm for any airline at airports 'away' from the home base. While waiting, I went to the Cargill's Food City Store to buy paracetamol. At this point of time, check in for China Eastern flight MU714 to Kunming was on. By the looks of it, MU was doing quite well out of CMB!





PRE-BOARDING STUFF
2135 came and went. It was 2200 when check in was called, 2hr35min before departure. There were 3 counters for CX: MarcoPolo/AsiaMiles/First/Business, Online Check in Baggage drop and Economy. Clearly you know where we went. Check in was agonizingly long. It took nearly 7 or 8 minutes to get this done. This included credit card verification, and for them to figure out what happened to the fourth passenger.
Ugh. Bummer.


There seemed to be a lot of commotion regarding the extremely excess baggage carried by a few Far Eastern people, and transferring it to Fukuoka (?). Looking at the number of early check ins, this was going to be a full flight.
Baggage weighed at 33.3 kilos, and gate allocated at Gate No.9, we headed off to immigration.
'International criminals are not required to fill departure cards.'
What?
'International passengers are not required to fill departure cards.'
Oh right! Clearly I knew there was something wrong with me, as I read the board in immigration. I just hoped this wasn't going to be a repeat of Bhubaneshwar 2011.

We then headed to our favourite location, the outermost tarmac viewing table in the Palm Strips restaurant. On our way there, Dad & I felt that the A320s were looking a bit too big to our usual sights. Something clearly was wrong!
There was a total of 4 A320s which were either parked, had arrived, or departed. They all looked a bit too big for my usual liking. Even Dad asked 'I think that is an A330' when we saw 4R-ABM come in. ABM had come in from MAA as UL124 and would head out to BOM as UL141. I knew something was wrong with me. The next movement was indeed CX711 from HKG and SIN, that too delayed till 2251. The headache was luckily subsiding.


'LARGE' looking A320s


The ground transport kept fooling us: I confused the lights of the ground transport with that of aircraft taxiing, and the sounds were equally confusing. However, at 2239 hours, I saw a really long and thick fuselage. Was it an A380?
Obviously not!
Remember, I was, for some reason, seeing things 5 times their original size.
This time indeed, it was CX711 from HKG and SIN, just 4 minutes late. This meant on thing: there was a tailwind. So we would be having a lot of headwind, heading the opposite direction.

B-HNH has arrived

A few minutes later, another Chinese Boeing had arrived, this time of China Eastern Airlines. MU714 had arrived from MLE and was off to Kunming. Like I mentioned, there was a large number of passengers checking in for the flight, and now seeing its a B73H, MU is certainly doing well out of CMB.

NAV LIGHT CATCH #1. According to FR24, this is B-5515.

Time was going a bit slow, however, time had come to leave Palm Strips.

UL Branded glass

Documents for tonight/ morning.

Boss' flight back to BOM (how I wish I was on board that!)


Duty free area, with Vesak decorations.

Heading towards gate 9. Gate 9 is the farthest gate from the duty free area, on the right. This usually caters to wide body aircraft.
As you can see from the above picture, there was a large school group, a rural school. They had slight issues coping with the signs, but I'm not blaming them. In fact, they turned into Gate 9 assuming that was their gate, however they were wrong. The security guard in charge of Gate spoke English quite well, and he helpfully guided the group to the adjacent Gate. The group was flying on Malaysia Airlines. I was in a slight doubt of their aircraft, as the MH B73H seemed to have gone tech, and the aircraft was just parked, no vehicles to assist. Security was done quickly, and I was the 69th person to board the aircraft tonight.

!!!DISCLAIMER!!!
1. If you patronize CX, or like them a lot, or have their frequent flyer stuff, or they are your top priority, etc etc, skip the first flight and go through the pictures of Singapore and read through the second flight.
2. Speaking of which, I do not have frequent mood switch issues. It just shows CX's inconsistency. Hence the topic: 'Comprehensively Contrasting Cathay!'

Photography is a no-no in CMB, however, I have been quite lucky in CMB. Same was the case here: the security guard standing close by was called by someone. Dropping my documents and iPod, I stumbled to get my bag and clicked this picture:

Meanwhile there was an A330 with a white tail which landed. It had to be UL, obviously. Strangely, there were cheat lines extending from underneath to the top of the fuselage. What could it have been? I had to wait till take off.

BOARDING
Boarding announcements were soon made.
First up, passengers on wheelchairs and families with infants were invited to board. There were none.
Next, MarcoPolo & Asia Miles members, First Class () and Business Class passengers were invited to board.
First class.
FIRST CLASS.
FIRST CLASS!!
So ground staff don't know what is offered on the one and only flight the airline operates?
Funny.
Oh and by the way, the announcements weren't that clear too. There were a few getting-stuck moments, it was like she was reading off from a paper with some bad writing and was struggling to read it.
Next, passengers seated in Rows 54-70 were invited to board, there weren't too many.
This meant the final announcement, inviting all passengers to board. Clearly low loads this morning!

It was then time to board. I walked towards the second of the aerobridge branch, all of us were. There was the lead purser, who was not really greeting anyone, just showing our way, obviously towards the rear, because we were cattle class passengers. The interior was exactly what I had expected: dull and dark blue, old seats with a hint of green, small PTVs. Anyways, there was only one young FA who was showing the directions to the passengers in the front economy section. As I headed towards my seat, I realised something was wrong. No, it wasn't my illness, that seemed fine. I was now in the region of rows 55-60. If you remember, I selected seat 48A, which according to the seat map was one of the last overwing seats. That wasn't the case. Instead, this was my view:

and the wing.

Its not that I didn't want to sit alongside the RRs. That was the plan for the return. I wanted the wingspan for the pictures with the sunrise. Was this a screw up on my part? Or was this an operational change? I had to wait till Singapore to find out.

Cabin, 3 seats for me!
The doors were armed the aerobridge retracted away. We were all set to depart. However, a certain rival on this route made its presence:

9V-STE, according to FR24.

Headsets were given out, and I took one, just to see whatever StudioCX had to offer. Announcements were made, which weren't too clear, and the Captain's name was inaudible. The Cantonese/Chinese/Mandarin (one of the three) was quite fluent (or that is what I had heard!)
Passengers were obviously required to pay full attention to the safety video, which wasn't possible due to the not-so-brilliant sound system on the aircraft. In fact, there were three instances where I had to tell myself, 'Oh right! The safety videos are on!' Staying with the notion of 'passengers paying full attention' to the safety videos, the crew found this to be the best time to confirm pre-ordered meals from the passengers.
Funny.

So far, I thought CX weren't acting oneworld-ish. This was going to change.
For the worse, of course.
The crew were doing the routine cabin checks.
One of them noticed my bag on the seat.
'Please put your bag under the seat.' she said
'Sure' I said.
I put my bag under the seat. She didn't go.
'And your camera.'
I did so again.
'Sir completely under the seat.'
I bent down to, but due to the seat belt, I couldn't push it in further.
'I cannot' I told her.
'Kick it in.'
Are you serious? Clearly she was out of her mind! Who even kicks a camera under the seat?! Or who even kicks a camera?! That too a big one! Anyways, she went away, keeping me teed off.
There actually wasn't any hope of hope waiting till 'crew be seated for take off' too, because there were the Far Eastern women who kept staring at the camera, and were also staring at it when the FA asked me to kick it in.

Pushback was at 0039 hours and the Rolls Royce engines were brought in to life. However, it distinctly sounded like only one engine had been started up. We slowly taxied out, gaining speed along the tall grass. The Captain aligned B-HNH along Rwy 22. Full power were applied to the RR Trent 800 engines, and oh boy they sounded amazing! Thundering down the runway, B-HNH blasted into the dark skies of Katunayke. Quickly we turned away, and I had an amazing view of the Runway. The new city-airport expressway, still under construction, was brightly lit up. the lights and sound were amazing, so I took more pain in not taking the video.
And just to add more lemon & salt into the wound, there was GF A332 (A9C-KF) in the UL hangar; the grounded MH B73H, the SQ A333, a UL A332, a TG A333 (HS-TEC) and the substituting MH A333 aircraft. Wow. All this I missed. I just missed. Damn you, CX crew!

INFLIGHT
I did not wait until the seat belt signs to go off. I just quickly got my camera out. I could not wait anymore.

NAV LIGHTS CATCH #2
The RR Trent 800 engines. What sounds it was producing!

I was in for a shock when the food came.
But I think that was inevitable.
Snack boxes.
Only snack boxes were distributed for this 3.5 hour flight.
Wow. Just wow.
Before we move in to the sadness of the food box, the headset:


That is...really...weird!

'Snack box for you sir' came a decent sounding voice.
It was time to go through the nightmares of food.

What's in the mystery box?


An 8 year old sandwich (well, maybe not. It wasn't fresh, that is for sure!) with okay tasting ham and cheese, with a disaster tasting vegetable. I couldn't swallow much anyways.

Wheat tasting cookie with hints of sugar. 2/3 eaten.
There was also some fruits. Water melon tasted fine, pineapple was maybe a lemon shaped into a pineapple, grapes were too sour, and muskmelon. No fork or spoon given to eat those.
What?
Oh and as you can see, there was no water served.
Basics gone wrong, Cathay?

Lets put things into perspective, shall we?
-9W & AI are the most bashed up airlines in the forum.
-9W served lunch on a flight lasting 50 minutes, AI served snacks on a flight lasting 2hr05min.
-If time is your argument, 9W served a nice tandoori chicken on a flight departing 0210 hours.
Just observations.

I took my time in eating, and clearly the crew in some hurry. I left my box on the aisle seat, just to see if they even bothered to pick it up, that was unlikely.
I got up, beginning the first of my many walk about's in the B773. First, I went to Dad.
*facepalm* 'Are you sure this is the same Cathay, which impressed you a few years back?'
'Yes' he said. 'This is really bad!'
The Indian option had Chicken ham. So much for that!
I went to the washroom. Hoping to find some kind of humanity there at least.
And indeed, faith in humanity had been restored. The bathrooms very clean, other than those minor dirt patches in the corners.


These were pretty industry standard, finally some good things!

Interesting designs.

I then went back to my seat, and that was the final nail in the coffin.
'Please put down your window shades, the sun will be rising in any minute.'
Not only did that dash my hopes of getting sunrise pictures, it also shows how much knowledge the crew has. Sunrise at 0200 hours?
Wow, just wow.

My view for the rest of the flight.

Lets recap what has happened so far, shall we?
*Slightly unhygenic agent @ city office.
*OLCI worked 39 hours before departure
*Ground staff were clueless about the classes offered
*Below par quality of announcements on board, and safety video.
*Kick-your-camera attitude of crew
*Food made me sick (it did, I skipped a lot in SIN)
*Crew has no sense of time.
3 words to describe the above: Cathay Specific Blunders

With nothing, absolutely nothing to do, I decided to stay put in my seat. And go through the IFE.
Rather unsurprisingly, the only thing that worked was Channel 53: songs in the back ground and the moving map. I think the audio channels were working too, however, there wasn't any video channels working. That I am sure about.

Food box still hasn't been cleared.

Details on the moving map showed that we were cruising at 35000 feet, with headwinds of up to 60 kmph. We had also taken an interesting course, most likely to avoid the clouds. We clearly flew over Yala National Park.

Details were given mostly in Chinese/Mandarin/Cantonese. English was almost rare.

We had taken a double 'S' route, avoiding the clouds. This is the beginning of the first S.


Due to Cathay Pacific Blunders, I have NOTHING to show you, but I can describe the hand controls to you.
(From left to right)
Reading lamp switch->Channel Number->Chaneel/Volume Controls->Flight attendant call
Then the arrows.
On the left of the top arrow is 'MODE' to switch from Video to Audio and v/v.
The 'ENTER' button to Enter Sandman. I think
I do not know what the arrows did.


I then made my bed, not that I was going to sleep. The blankets smelt quite moist, not too much scent was given to them. Oh well, Cathay Specific Blunders.

The cabin was silent. Dead silent. Other than of course, the royal Rolls Royce engines doing their jobs. Crew didn't go around the cabin, checking the passengers. They did so only thrice.

The bed.

Now that everyone was asleep, I decided to take a few cabin shots..

My section of the Y cabin, the last working PTV screen was mine.

View from the rear.
I wonder how CX has this flight going. Surely less than 30% loads to Singapore, let alone Hong Kong!

This walk too, wasn't incident free. Imagine a passengers' horror when they get cold sandwich for themselves and see the crew munching on Manchurian. Exactly what I saw. The were just chatting among themselves and having their own dinner. Wow.
But lets face it, Cathay Specific..



I want to meet the designer of this glass

Turbulence, big big turbulence had arrived. Its usually a fact that the turbulence isn't felt on large aircraft, but this was big. We surely must've fallen by quite a bit. Scary it was. This time, the crew came out and woke all passengers up to be seated.
Just saying, turbulence in EK didn't include waking up of passengers. I'm just saying.

I decided to break the Specific Laws, and opened the window. The lights on the edge of the wings were being reflected on the dense clouds. I also saw quite a lot of lighting strikes. Clearly this was some turbulence!
Oh and it was 1.5 hours from landing, still no sunrise!
I decided to have the last remaining part of the food, Cake Pandan.

God only knows what Pandan is, but this was only green coloured sponge cake. As usual, I abandoned it.
What a waste of airline food I know, but this was just horrible airline food. Just saying, once again, 9W did better.
I was getting sick of the date of the snack box. I went to give it back. One crew member saw me taking this to the galley. HE DIDN'T BOTHER TO TAKE IT! And when I did reach the galley, the FA just took it and dumped it into the bin, no eye contact, so obviously no apologies.
I didn't have any hope in them to change my views of this flight and this airline.
What a sad story.

So the fruit picking thing was tucked away somewhere. How are we supposed to find it?


For your safety, do not fly Cathay Pacific


An hour in the flight remains. Where is the sunrise?

I have broken the rules in the Cathay Specific Law Book.

It was 0610 hours, Singapore time. Just about 40 minutes before landing. Only now I see the sun!

Which meant, cabin was being prepared for arrival, lights on please


Thankfully, a juice (apple/orange/water) were given. I took apple first, and in the second round, water. Finally Cathay Specific Water. Yay!


(FINALLY!) Legroom shot

Sun was now rapidly rising, after the crew made it mandatory to open the window shades. Where was the 0200 hours rising sun?

NAV LIGHT CATCH #3

END OF THE ORDEAL




Marina Bay, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore Flyer.

We are now ready to land

Landing video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZe2ENkXFEc
Full HD please.
As you can see, the landing was smooth and the braking was hard.
We quickly turned away from the Runway, towards Terminal 1. Arrival was at 0653 hours.


NAV LIGHT CATCH #4

Scoot!

SQ B77W

We then slowed down. There was some plane in front of us.
Imagine the smile on my face, when I finally saw a Boeing 787, with my very eyes, SO CLOSE!

NAV LIGHT CATCH #5

NAV LIGHT CATCH #6
What a design. Its great to see her back in the air!
We parked right next to it.


Oh, amazing looks!

It was time to disembark. I was looking forward to getting off this Specific Blunder aircraft ASAP. All passengers, even to HKG, were required to disembark.


Regional J class.

Goodbye B-HNH, sadly, you do have the tag for 'my worst flight ever.'

Now, I think there will be world class service en route to HKG.
There was once again a smile on my face, when I saw an A320 with the sharklets...


The 'not so familiar' Singapore Airport.

Baggage claim.
We left the airport and took a taxi. I was under the impression that they are old red Toyota Crowns with meters that cheat you. I was wrong. That is obviously, HKG.
The only aircraft I saw landing was indeed VT-IWA from MAA.

This shall conclude part 1.
Part 2 will feature Singapore (oh cliché)
Part 3 will feature CX711 from SIN to CMB.

So, oneworld, best Pacific airline, phalana, phalana, etc, were not true on this instance.
I have had 2 real sad flights, this was the poorest of all.

I will have the rest 2 parts in, stay tuned!

Regards
Jish
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

[abhigopal]

Nice report. Sounds like you had a one - off bad experience. IMHO, Cathay have been top class in the many times I have flown them.

Btw - two things

1.Having passengers seated during the turbulence is fairly standard practice.

2. Snack box for a flight that long is acceptable at that hour in the night I think.

[ameya]

Nice TR !

Just glanced thru all the pics. WIll take some time out to read it in detail

[sumantra]

It has been worth the wait, Jishnu. A lovely report, a nice combination of careful observations, witty statements, and nice pictures. The title had a nice alliteration - great!
I have had mixed feelings about CX, and my brief experience with them on their regional product wasn't that bad, but wasn't very good, either.
The CX experience before the flight does not look too good, by today's standards. On the flight, too - food-wise, Hmm... (By the way, the AI 2 hr+ flight with snacks must not have been at meal times. AI's meal-time flights - which I try to choose, given an option, have my favourite in-flight-entertainment. Enter-tainment, yes, food going in.) I like the picture of your notes, next to the cake piece. Does this old regional 777 have power-ports in Economy? I doubt it. Looking forward to the two parts, and much more!
Cheers, Sumantra.

[Theairplaneguy4ever]

Great TR! Enjoyed reading it.

[jbalonso777]

[shivendrashukla]

Hi Jishnu,
Excellent TR as usual by you. I hope you are feeling much better now and not confusing A320s with A330s .

Shame a carrier like CX turing into 9W. Hope your return flight is much better.

Cheers
Shivendra

[Saharsh]

Great trip report! Well such things were never expected from CX.. specially that "kick it in" type of dialogue from Air hostess! Well Bad experiences are necessary so that you can choose the right one in future!
_________________
“Aviation is proof that given, the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible.” - Edward Vernon Rickenbacker

[Karan69]

Jishnu this is by far your best TR,

Shows how your writing skills have improved, and no you dint write to much as anything written from the heart needs to be heard , keep it up

Coming to CX, your first flight echos my experience on similar aircraft and similar flight duration

http://images.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/83320

Had catalogued it way back in 2006,

My return flight was indeed better and then i flew CX again in 2009 this time on a much improved service to HKG,

Waiting to read the much talked about second half

Karan

[me111993]

Excellent Stuff Jinshu! Some excellent pics to go along with it, and with the new equipment, id expect a lot more of that!

[Nimish]

Hey Jishnu - great to see you back in action here - you were missed!

This CX flight seems rather horrible, and your ill-health prior to boarding seems quite horrible too. Overall a journey very quickly forgotten I hope. And replaced with fonder memories.

Asking pax to close all the shades is very common on overnight type of flights. In this case, I guess technically it wasn't needed, given that sun-rise was only around breakfast time. However it's a general "best practice" to ensure all shades are drawn before folks drift off to sleep. And it's also "normal practice" to open them up after the crew's disappeared if you still want to see outside.

The bags are supposed to be entirely under the seat in front of you, or overhead. Again - this is a safety regulation. I normally keep my bags under the next seat (if it's empty), as it gives me more legroom. Some airlines are strict on this aspect, and some are lax.

The snack box had some Singaporean "specialities/ peculiarities". Marigold is a popular juice brand there, and so is Pandan. I actually love the Pandan buns - essentially sweet/ coconut-ty paste in the middle of a bun. Of course this is sub-par for a *5 carrier for a longish flight - completely inexplicable.

Did you get full 9W miles for this flight on CX? Looking forward to the return TR - sounds like it's going to be a better flight than the outbound!
_________________
We miss you Nalini!

[jasepl]

Not surprised.

Cathay's flights between Bombay and Bangkok have been described by many, including myself, as possibly one of the nastiest aviation experiences known to man, in terms of product, service and crowd.

It's not too much of a stretch that all their flights between the Subcontinent and Indochina are just as awful.

[jbalonso777]

Well Hello Everybody once again, and a big big thank you to ALL of you for making my return such a success! I really appreciate this!

[Nimish]

[sumantra]

[jbalonso777]

We reached home. I was in desperate need of sleep. Before that, I figure out what went wrong in my seating. Apparently, this was the 'new' regional class configuration, hence Row 48 is not overwing, and instead it is alongside the engine. I gave Jurong Bird Park a miss, I got some well needed sleep, which was interrupted by the occasional coughs. I joined the action, in the Singapore Zoo...

Smoking in a no smoking zone.


Cotton top tamarin.


Proboscis Monkey








Orangutan






Cheetah it is



Timon & Pumba. Incidentally, they were both kept close together.



Crocodile



Polar Bear is out for a swim!


Ice slush. It helped the cold to stay.





We headed off for the Night Safari straight after. It rained. We went back home.

Day 2 was onboard the Singapore Flyer.
There was an airport like security check for this.
Boarding is a bit dicey, as they got us into the capsule while it kept moving. Not really what the old folks would like..





If you thought this is a non-Formula 1 trip report, wrong you are
This is the final corner and the entrance into the pit lane.

Start/finish line



Turn 1 and the pit lane exit.

My very own Bay Grandstand (or the 'Seating Gallery' when F1 is not on).
Note how the track goes under the grandstand...



Marina Bay



19(8?)60's style eating joint...

Not long before social networking makes its presence....

Once again, I was on the race track..

Exit of Turn 21..

The white van is turning off the road, which is part of the street circuit..
Authorised vehicles are...you know what



An amphibian..


They've made it all around the world!


Outside Somerset MRT

That night, we went back to the Marina Bay Mall, for the show..




I am quite familiar with Korean food, due to friends from S. Korea in school. Therefore, while going through Sumantra sir's TR, I decided to have Japanese food, which was I think with soft crab and salmon...


I love this structure! So many pictures (from the last trip too!) I have of this..



The Marina Bay Sands. I had to turn my head up quite a lot for this!


Does that remind anyone of The Hindenburg??

That is the short and sweet part 2, the final part and the extremely different return flight is up next..

As you can see, the pictures are not all that good. Yes, quality is compromised because of compressing them for Picasa, however, I didn't do quite as well. I am still getting in grips with the D7100, which I hope to be improving for the next trip. Its quite advanced. I do not want to talk about my Yala pictures, those pictures were a disaster!

Regards
Jishnu
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

[jbalonso777]

Before the Flyer, I woke up to the brilliant news that India had beaten South Africa. Strangely, it was a bit too quiet from the people who were so confident India were going to lose. Anyways, I did the web check in.
This time, I hoped that web check in would work. I was doing it from the iPad. Brilliantly, this happened on the first attempt!
Before selecting the seats, I did a careful comparison between the 'Regional Product' and 'New Regional Product'.
Maps can be found here: http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_INTL/whatonboard/ourfleet/b_777_300
I needed a seat behind the wing. The 'New Regional Product' was the seat map. After a careful comparison, I decided that seat 56K was the safest option, in case Cathay do another aircraft switch. Seats 47H/J/K were already reserved for us, luckily, because of the 'change your seat' option after checking in, I could change our seats...


Our inbound flight, correction - 0653 was the arrival. Anyhow, on time it was.


Pre selected seats..



OLCI Screenshots....

The main reason we had planned this trip was plane spotting. So far that didn't happen. We hailed a Mercedes taxi and headed off towards Changi Airport Terminal 1 at around 1730 hours. 3 hours before is when check in opens for all airlines. We took a slightly longer route, so I had a glimpse of the runway, and the terminals, with many tails sticking out. I was relieved to finally see an Emirates aircraft. All trips I have taken since 2010, I have spotted at least one Emirates aircraft. (That was extremely obvious in the South Africa trip and the previous Singapore trip ) That just shows their presence in their world! While going towards the Terminal, the taxi was just so close to a SQ B772. If only I had the camera out! We also passed underneath a taxi way, sadly no aircraft this time.

PRE-BOARDING STUFF
We entered the terminal through Gate 1. All Cathay Pacific passengers were required to enter through Gate 1. However, check in for us was from Row 9, i.e, the other end of the terminal. Oh great.
What was even more shocking was that airlines like Emirates, Qantas, British Airways, China Airlines, JetStar (and Valuair!), Lion Air, etc, had dedicated check in counters. Cathay didn't. Two flights of their's were checking in from two different ends of the terminal. The headache was gone, but I had developed a cold in the nose. So to wipe it all off, I went to the pharmacy. I had to buy a 16 pack Angry Birds Special Edition pocket tissue. I also bought some sanitizer, just in case.
1830 came and went, check in still didn't open for the 2130 flight. An inquiry at the information centre revealed that check in for ALL Cathay Pacific flights open 2 and a half hours before departure.
Okay.......


Terminal 1..

FIDS.
We would be flying American Airlines flight AA6076 to Colombo.


Skytrain


Kinetic Rain

Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=802aioAdvxo


Skytrain and the Hotel Dad and I were supposed to stay in, if we had managed to discreetly pull this trip off.

Check in opened at 1900 hours. The sun was quickly fading away, so were my hopes of any decent photographs. For check in, MarcoPolo members, Asia Miles members, FIRST CLASS (again!) passengers, Business Class passengers and online check in passengers were given top priority. So we were the one the first ones to be checked in. Friendly staff, however, they were a tad too slow. We also requested her to keep our rows empty, if it was indeed a low-load flight.


Immigration had slightly long lines, but they were moving quick. Typical efficiency.


I saw the massive tail of a Qantas A330. I was itching to get a picture before the light went away. As we all went through immigration, I hurried my way to the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf shop to the large glass.

There she is!

And the Jetstar A320

NAV. LIGHT CAPTURE #7

More narrow stuff..

NAV. LIGHT CAPTURE #8

Air Nig..... I had to find out what it was.

We then decided to head for the Cactus Garden. Hopefully some shots from there!

That is a rather sweet shop!



Up in the cactus garden, all I heard was the sound of auxiliary units running. All of different aircraft. There were also the sounds of the reverse thrust of arriving aircraft, or the vivid sounds of departing aircraft. It feels really uneasy when you hear all these sounds, but you cannot see anything. I still managed to get a few shots though..





That is quite a collection!

The only set of SQ B744s which fly: The Freighters.

We were then treated to the brilliant sound of the GE90 engines being fired up. They are two completely different sounds when you are on board the B77L/W or outside. There was a moment, just a split second, when the 'Mooooooo' was unbearable. These were amazing to hear.
Gate D34, our gate, was seen from the Cactus Garden. I did a quick check on Google, regarding the flight status of B-HNJ operating CX711 from HKG. 'Landed' it said.
It took me a minute to process that I can capture its arrival.
Rather unsurprisingly, I heard the trademark sound of powering up of the Rolls Royce engines.
'It's here,' I said to myself.
I made a quick dash for it, and caught it on video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0vpUBPhV1c


There she is..
NJ has arrived!

The Jetstar A320 departs..

And a LionAir comes in.



We realised, it was getting late.


A quick glimpse of at the FIDS suggested that the 'Last Call' was given. We made a quick dash to Gate 34, which was far far away. A walk which was estimated to be around 14 minutes, took us less than 5 minutes.
Its like breaking rules on the Bandra-Worli Sea link
This though, didn't stop me from firing the shutter away..



Gate D32, we are almost there!

2011, Delhi T3, I tried to overtake a travelator. I couldn't. However, here in SIN, I was easily quite quick! Dad too, had his childish mode activated and walked quickly on the travelator. Despite me slowing down to point out a French A380 (it was of Air France anyways!), I still beat the travelator, twice. Victory is mine!

SIN, like CMB, has separate security for all gates. I prefer the common security actually, because a fully loaded A380 will cause long lines, blocking passengers going to their own gates.

Security was quick. However, boarding had not begun, despite last call warnings. A quick glimpse of the holding area once again suggested a very low loaded flight.

BOARDING
The same mistake of calling first class passengers were made. Dad and I, however, decided to take pictures of B-HNJ.








And this is one of many pictures Dad took.

This is where photography is interesting. Dad and I had completely different point-of-views of clicking pictures of the same object. The results above are shown

I slowly started going towards the aircraft. Once again, boarding pass stubs weren't torn out.


PRAYING that this flight would be much better, I saw a very friendly looking young FA who was greeting all passengers onboard. This sign was already quite positive.


When I walked in, I was in a state of shock. Big big shock. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. While I waited in line to go to my seat, I shut my eyes tightly and opened them. It made no difference. What I was seeing was: THE NEW REGIONAL PRODUCT ON BOARD THIS 14 YEAR OLD B773!! The dark blue and green shell seats were very easy to differentiate from my inbound flight!
As I walked a bit more, I saw the seat back PTV's, and they were indeed, AVOD!!! Not even a minute I spent onboard NJ, and I had positive vibes all over!


The surprise package: SHELL SEATS!


My seat for tonight: 56K.
Ehm, why aren't the blankets wrapped?


Legroom shot.

As many of you would know, CX has rolled out a new Economy product. Therefore, this Economy (on board B-HNJ), is the second newest one, introduced when the B77Ws first came into the fleet. These oldies would be retired soon, so it makes perfect sense to names these old economy seats as the 'New Regional Product'.


AVOD for tonight!


Wing shot.


What a camera! Wow!


The only downside of this seat was the seatbelt. What is this?!

I got up from my seat and headed down the aisles to show Mum and Dad the fantastic camera. They too, were impressed by this.
On my way back, one the FA's smiled and asked me, 'Care for a headset, sir?' I smiled back and said, 'Yes please, thank you.'
I returned to my seat and fastened the annoying seat belt.

Full boarding pass and a much modern headset.

She came in from TPE.

I opened the tray the table, and found this:

That is a very convenient place to locate this! Flawless, absolutely!

Coat hanger..


I got a similar shot of a EK B77W on the previous trip

Overhead compartments were once again closed quite early, and oh my these were some dismal loads! It sure was less than 30%! Maybe more, I do not know.

A few pictures which Dad took from the third last row:




DEPARTURE
At 2126 hours, all doors were armed, and pushback began. Quality of announcements were much clearer, Captain Park was in command for tonight's flight. The safety video too, was much crisp. I also realised the crew took their positions near exits, because they had to point the nearest exit for us passengers, going with the video.
Shots from the safety videos:


Dad's shots..





It once again sounded like only one engine was fired up, you can find the video here:
http://youtu.be/2R5HQaDgDCU


Flaps lowered, engines running, we are ready to go!

And a few from Dad too:



The extremely long taxi towards Rwy 20C began. Lucky for me, there was enough of aircraft for me to picture. In case you are wondering, yes, I had timed this to perfection. Luck was with me, as the all the cabin crew members took their stations rather early. All this time, the D7100 was hiding under the blankets of seat 56J. When they took their stations, I woke the D7100 up, switching it to 'quiet' mode and started clicking away. Ironically, the quiet mode is still quite loud.


Air Niugini it is!

The French A380 I was talking about.

Raikkonen air! And another JAL B787.

I finally capture VT-IWB.

Another whale jet!

The Swiss A340, and our Arabic parent..


Taxiing was long, however, it was non-stop. The only time we stopped was while holding short of the runway.


The B77W is getting a nice bath

Long live the Graceful Queen!

And another set of pictures from Dad:

A fresh looking Cabin








Holding short


We turned onto the Runway. Captain Park gently applied power to the RR Trent 800 engines and soon we were thundering down Rwy 20C and gracefully entered the thundery night sky skies of Singapore, heading west wards to Colombo.

Take off video: http://youtu.be/qu-IjS-1pdo





INFLIGHT
There was a rather large 'thud'. That was the sound of a tray table falling off:


Dad's final set of pictures:

As you can see, the maps are quite old. I don't think these were updated while the interiors were re-done.

Mood lighting effect

The final lights of Singapore.

We took a bit of time to reach our cruising altitude of 36000 feet. This was partially due to the heavy turbulence.
Announcements were made. First of all, they announced that beverages & hot meal would be served (WOOOHOOO!!!!), however there would be a delay in starting the service due to heavy turbulence. It was also announced that StudioCX would now be turned on. And indeed, the second announcements were done, the Welcome page of StudioCX popped up.


I must say, the content on this was amazing. In fact, this does give I.C.E a run for its money. Most of the songs, movies, TV shows, etc, are latest and up to date. This is surely enough to keep a passenger entertained for a ULH 15 hour flight. Impressive. Very impressive. The only drawback? The touchscreen was more of hammer screen, so I had to apply a lot of force to actually select something. And also, the maps, they were too old.


Lights on, service is about to begin.

A crew came down the aisles giving us a freshener, peanuts, and a paper towel..



9W has Metallica (Death Magnetic)
EK has Metallica ('Metallica' - The Black Album)
Its just an observation, not a complaint, no minus marks for CX
They did have a lot of other stuff, including Foo Fighters, and a few more things I cannot remember. It was actually an amazing collection, that is what I am saying.



The lost Cathay Pacific seemed to get themselves back to shape here.
Good stuff.

While I listened to Uno by Green Day, the drink service had begun. I opted for a Coca Cola. I tried my luck by asking for another one, however, this was declined with a smile. Apology accepted. What a nice crew

Cup holder and the drink.

I kept switching between the latest Top Gear episodes. I eventually settled for the one with the old-people friendly car creation. And in between the changes, the album I had selected kept playing.
Neat.




While browsing through the StudioCX guide, I noticed Kick Buttowski in the kids section of the IFE. I hurried and quickly changed to the kids section. Yeah, please don't judge me, I do like that TV Sow


Interesting to note that there was one trolley which went ahead to the front of the cabin, and one coming from the last row towards the front. I was the last passenger to served from the trolley which went in front.
Fish and chicken were the options.
I went for the chicken.


Also took a coke again to wash it down.
Bun was hot and nice, given separately.
Fruits actually tasted like fruits
Dessert was something I could find in sugar and spice, a slight let down.
Chicken was also pretty much industry standard and tasted quite good.
Just a point out, there was no started/salad/appetizer, as compared to the two most compared airlines in this TR.
Cutlery was plastic, yes, but of good quality.
All the lids, cups, glasses, cutlery, etc were CX branded. This is good...

Half way into the flight, the trays were all collected. The crew did a few duty free runs, about 3 or 4 times.
I went to the washroom at the end of the aircraft. Sadly, just then, (after I did my P1), the aircraft shook. Unsurprisingly, the second round of turbulence had begun. The red 'please return to your seat' signage came on. Just after the Cantonese/Mandarin/Chinese annoucement was done, I exited the washroom. The FA then lost her balance and set her foot on my shoe. She apologised to me, and with a smile, asked me to sit wherever in the end of the aircraft, as soon as possible. I obliged, with a smile back.
Dad was on 74K.
Mum was on 76K.
Therefore, I sat in 75K.
It was amazing to see how much Dad was enjoying his black and white movie (I'll confirm which one it was).


Turbulence or not, the D7100 will still do its job.





Row 77! That is out of my comfort zone

Turbulence here is common!


The remote for IFE. I used this more than the touch(hammer)screen.

I think it was once again 20 minutes of intense turbulence, and tailwinds reaching a whooping 90kmph! Once the seatbelt signs were out, I hurried towards my seat.

Rear Economy Cabin

How just HOW does Cathay manage to sustain this?!

Middle Economy section

Wing shot

This passenger too, was asked to take his seat wherever.

Once again, I had laid out a bed. However, due to that weird seat belt, it was surely quite uncomfortable. I passed the time by going through the videos I took, then listening to some of my own songs, eventually falling asleep.


ARRIVAL
I was woken up by another gentle drop, this time we were on approach. I quickly made another washroom visit.

More floral designs!


Front Economy section.

Emergency exit.

The other half..

Almost there! (Damn it! )

Captain Park gently glided B-HNJ onto Rwy 22 at the Colombo Airport. However, despite being smooth, my tray table fell off. Anyways, once again we taxied quite quickly, and parked at Gate No. 9 as usual.

Parked up, engine cut off.

The last of the Economy Class passengers, already!

Oh, the much more happy looking J class!

The crew thanked me, and I thanked them.
It may have been a rather uneventful flight, but hey, compared to CX710, this was brilliant!

Vesak Decorations

Immigration took a while. I felt sorry for the First Officer: he was a young Britisher. They rest of the crew were far eastern. Captain Park too, was engaged in their conversations and shared jokes among themselves. A few minutes later, he started talking to the first officer. That was a relief for him!
Bags had also arrived quickly.


Duty Free



Out we go. I'm back, Sri Lanka.



Renovation is complete.

We drove back home, safely. Dobby's wagging tail wasn't visible, it was enough to generate electricity. I entered my room, it was kept the way I had left it: books on the table, pens and pencils everywhere, papers on the floor. It was time to clear up.

IN SUMMARY
I have heard good things about Cathay Pacific Airways. I have seen their horrible side, and their good side. I will fly them again, only if there is a desperate transit through HKG. They did what I expected them to do on the return flight. In today's cost cutting world, they did a commendable job . I'm not even to compare CX with EK, because we more or less know what the result what would be. We must not forget the fact that CX was good in their own small ways. I'd also like to thank you all for reading this TR and going through it in detail. And thank you too for the support from the first half. I hope you enjoyed reading this TR as much as I enjoyed writing this (except CX710 and the illness, of course!)

Upcoming flights/TR:
CMB MAA 9W253 0410 0530 13JUL13 B738
MAA DEL AI430 1045 1330 13JUL13 B788 (hopefully!)
DEL BOM 9W334 1635 1845 13JUL13 B73X
BOM CMB 9W256 0230 0500 29JUL13 B73H

Regards
Jish
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

[Nimish]

Great return TR - thankfully CX seemed to have done far better on this sector. One question though - why were you refused a 2nd coke? Was this cans of coke or a glass filled from the bottle?
_________________
We miss you Nalini!

[sumantra]

Jishnu, thanks for a nice part 2 and part 3. We missed your long TRs, lovely pictures capturing `the moments', and pithy humour for a very long time. I am glad that you are back with a bang
Your pictures of the Singapore zoo brought back sweet memories of 2004. These were my pre-Minolta Maxxum 50 A-SLR days, I had a Minolta P&S then, which gave some ghastly pictures in the dark and dingy weather. I will try to scan them in, and put together some semblance of a trip report, some time. I need to clear my backlog now, by the way.
the Orang's actions, the butterfly on the bolt, the fruit bat eyeing a treat - were really well-captured. Some of the sights were not around in 2002/4 I guess, so much of this later part is new for me. Or I may have missed them, owing to lack of time. Actually, I haven't been to Marina Bay. The Hindenberg point is interesting - what a scary thought!
Both you and your papa are good photographers, and writers - once again, can we request you to get him also on this forum? It will be simply excellent. You are lucky to have your father as much of an avid plane enthusiast as you are - such enthusiasm among generations is not very common. It is nice that you got the `new regional product' over the old one, which was reasonably out-dated. Good that you found a power-port - I am quite sure you had my usual question in mind while clicking this picture. From a user's perspective, the power-port on the seat-back may be fine, but the sever disadvantage is for an aisle or middle-seat passenger, to have his/her window neighbour get up to the aisle. From that point of view, Air India's below-the-seat one is ergonomically better. I appreciate the thought that went into all this! I liked your part about the `quiet mode', and the build-up to it. What - only one Coke? Good that you got the AI A332 IWB at SIN. The food part looks a bit short on quantity (as you mention, too), and it is nice that the quality was good.
Dobby's tail wagging fast enough to generate electricity! Ha ha!
You are about a month from the next exciting trip...do oblige us with some lovely TRs!
Cheers, Sumantra.

[Spiderguy252]

Top TR Jishnu! Took a while to read it, but was well worth it.
_________________
Yeah.

[sri_bom]

Good report Jishnu and thanks for remembering my CX report which I wrote some years ago when I flew to Hong Kong. To be honest nothing much has changed on CX as I have been doing the SIN-HKG route quite often and the service can be great to mediocre.

Terminal 1 from where Cathay departs in Singapore has been recently renovated and I will be covering this on my next trip report shortly. I agree the most touch screen IFE’s are like hammer screens and once you are used to an I-Phone touch screen everything else pails.

On turbulence I have seen that in my recent trips the frequency has gone up, even when the weather is fine. I read somewhere this is because of global warming and will get worse in the coming years. Only time I do not like turbulence is that I find myself and the plane in the middle of the sea on the moving map with the nearest airport a good three hours away. 

Now a days I am using Thai Airways as it is cheaper for long haul, and I find both the service and food is top notch and on par or ahead of SQ as well. Although the crew on Thai struggle with English language.

Sri_Bom

[sabya99]

Yes, this is one of the best trip report posted by you, both text and picture wise.
_________________
Sabya99

[sumantra]

[Nimish]

[sri_bom]

[sri_bom]

[sumantra]

[jbalonso777]

When I flew Emirates in 2012, I wondered why they were the 8th best airline in the world.
The recent Skytrax awards proves what EK is worth.
They are 2013's World's Best Airline.
Congratulations to Emirates for their giant leap from 8th to 1st.
Cathay, unsurprisingly, fell to 6th, but they still won the best crew award.
Whoa!

Anyways, thanks to all of you for reading this TR, especially the final two segments.

[shivendrashukla]

So the return trip seems to have gone well Jishnu. CX perhaps coming back to its original glory. Nice TR. Keep up the good work.

Shivendra

[jbalonso777]

[stealthpilot]

There's a lot of choice on CMB-SIN ... any idea of the airlines/frequency/aircrafts? Must be the same for CMB-MLE ?

I'm glad the flight back was much better (I guess it had to be better because it couldn't get any worse..... ) That's the thing with air travel, one bad experience and it can stick for a long time.
_________________
eP007

[jbalonso777]

Stealthpilot sir, let me get back to CMB and I'll give you all details.
I am in BOM right now on a holiday.

Yes, like I said, the return flight could not get any worse to be honest!

Regards
Jish
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

[jbalonso777]

I bought a bit of time so might as well tell you all!

Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300 operates 4 times a week.
Emirates Boeing 777-300ER operates daily.
Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-300 operates daily.
SriLankan Airlines Airbus A320 operates twice daily.
Tiger Airways (?) Airbus A320 operates 4 times a week.

And basically there are 2 departure banks: Late night/early morning, or afternoon.

And for MLE? A wider choice!
5 SriLankan Airlines flights a day, onboard an A320, A330 or A340
Korean Air A330-200 3 times a week
British Airways Boeing 777-200 3 times a week
China Eastern Boeing 737-800 3 times a week
Emirates Boeing 777-200 operating daily.
Strangely I do not see the Turkish Airlines flight!

Regards
Jish
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

[jbalonso777]

[sumantra]

[jbalonso777]

[jbalonso777]

Hey everyone,
sorry to bump up this extremely old (just under year ) TR, but I guess its good to highlight flaws of massive airlines, such as Cathay Pacific here, no matter how successful they are, or whether or not they're 5 star.

Its a rainy day here in Colombo today, and I remember 1st of June 2013 being equally rainy, the day when I had to go the shady CX office to cancel my brother's ticket, as he wasn't able to join us for Singapore, since his new course in DEL was starting soon.
CX's cancellation rule was reasonable: LKR4000 will be deducted from the original fare. Fine by us.
Here was the catch: it won't be done without the written permission of the credit card holder. Dad did the needful, and a year later, Cathay Pacific has made an extra LKR20700, by not refunding a single rupee. Granted, the load factors which I experienced both ways were under 30%, but really, not a very nice thing to do. More so because its 'oneworld' and 'Skytrax 5 star' and whatever.

LET ME GET PHILOSOPHICAL! OR NOT?
While there is no denying that this airline 'made by the people' (I wonder the wisdom of the brains behind my experience) has reached an all time low in my books, I must say: I regret nothing.
There is a reason why we're aviation freaks, nuts, or the more common: #avgeeks. We always want to try out new stuff, keep adding to our books.
I did it this time: I had the opportunity of flying on a Boeing 777, on a world-renowned airline at a bargain price. While my expectations were low, Cathay made sure they went below that as well. So yeah. All said and done, its a learning curve, and what I learnt from this is: stay away from Cathay Pacific Airways. (But that's just me! Surely there are better experiences others' have faced, but I'm done with this airline. Solely based on one experience alone. No second chance. There are better options out there!)

Regards
Jish

[becofuan]

[jbalonso777]