Yes, you’ve heard me right! With the summer holidays in full swing, I decided to head back to my favourite city, London.
I’ve already written several articles about flying from Kuala Lumpur to London, so be sure to check those out if you’re looking for an airline that doesn’t break your bank (and doesn’t have a terrible product) in economy class.
Last I checked, Malaysia Airlines was charging over RM8,000 for a return economy class ticket from KL to London!!! You must truly be a special kind of weird or simply too rich for your own good if you choose to fly with MAS to London.
Anyway, I recently spotted an excellent return fare from Cathay Pacific, and I decided to jump at the chance and book my flight. If you’ve been reading my blog for some time, you know that I highly favor Cathay Pacific—it’s one of my favourite airlines in the world, alongside Qatar Airways, which I also frequently mention on my blog.
Now, I acknowledge that flying to London via Hong Kong is a very strange route. The flight time would be at least 4-5 hours longer than having a stopover in the Middle East, and that’s because Hong Kong is northeast of Malaysia. So why did I decide to book this flight?
Well, it came down to two reasons. First, the return flight ticket was dirt cheap, and I mean really cheap. As I was booking a last-minute return flight, the cheapest return flight I could find with a stopover in the Middle East was at least RM4,800+. This Cathay Pacific return flight cost me only RM3,400+!!!
In fact, I was able to find the same pricing for a later return flight as you can see below. It seems that Cathay Pacific is looking to compete with the rest of the Middle Eastern carriers for passenger traffic from KL to London.
Secondly, I thought this was stunning value, especially given that I am an Enrich Platinum frequent flyer, which meant that I had access to the Cathay Pacific First Class Lounges at Hong Kong International Airport via my Oneworld Emerald status.
I took the liberty of visiting as many lounges as I could during my layover, including some hidden gems, so be sure to subscribe to my newsletter to know when I publish these reviews!
First Leg: KL-Hong Kong
My first leg from KL to Hong Kong was uneventful, but I wanted to point out several things I noticed that were honestly a pleasant surprise. First, Cathay Pacific treats Oneworld Emerald frequent flyers very well.
At KLIA, your check-in luggage is tagged as a First Bag with a First Class baggage tag. This is a great small move for me, because even a top-notch airline like Qatar Airways doesn't do the same for Oneworld Emerald members.
I was given a lounge pass for KLIA and Hong Kong International Airport. Note that you don't need these lounges passes to visit the lounge itself, but it is rather more of an informative pass so that you know where you're going.
I visited the Malaysia Airlines Platinum Lounge at the Satellite Terminal before my flight. My Cathay Pacific flight departed from Gate C34, so I was able to catch an hour or two in the lounge for a quick brunch.
As expected, the food in the Platinum Lounge continues to be terrible, but I’ll save my comments for a later article.
At the gate, I was pleasantly surprised to see how Cathay Pacific segregates boarding groups based on your frequent flyer status and cabin of travel.
Economy class passengers with no status were directed to the main seating area of Gate C34, while frequent flyer status holders and those flying in Business Class were directed to a special seating zone.
Once boarding was announced, I was given priority boarding in line with Oneworld Emerald frequent flyer benefits. I have to say, this was great operational management in my opinion, something that many Oneworld airlines get wrong.
While Malaysia Airlines follows procedure by calling Zone 1 flyers for boarding first, you’ll always see passengers with no status rushing towards the gate and causing a jam, blocking the status holders from boarding the plane. Even Qatar Airways has the same issue. Hence, I was pleasantly surprised at how well Cathay manages its boarding process.
My 4-hour flight on the Cathay Pacific A330-300 was great. The purser greeted me once I boarded the flight and thanked me for being a Oneworld Emerald frequent flyer. She even pointed out that this was my first flight with Cathay Pacific in more than 5 years! I didn’t even know this fact, so it was amazing that this could be known to the purser on board.
The rest of the flight was uneventful. The meal on board was actually quite bad for Cathay Pacific’s standards.
I’ve read about Cathay Pacific’s downgraded meals in Economy Class for some time, but I did not expect it to be this bad. It’s still miles ahead of Malaysia Airlines’ inflight meals for economy class, but definitely falls short of the Cathay Pacific experience I used to know.
I was seated in the front row of the Economy Class cabin. Oneworld Sapphire and Emerald frequent flyers are given the opportunity to select these ‘Preferred’ seats even before check-in, so be sure to snag up these seats if you are flying Cathay Pacific and have some Oneworld frequent flyer status.
WiFi is also available on board, but at a fee. It costs $19.95 for a full in-flight WiFi experience. I did not purchase a subscription as this was a short 4-hour flight, but did so on my Hong Kong to London leg.
Second Leg: Hong Kong to London
My 14-hour flight on the Cathay Pacific B777-300ER didn’t start too well. There was an airport incident on the runway at Hong Kong International Airport earlier in the day, and this caused many flights to be delayed. As such, my flight from Hong Kong to London was delayed by about two hours.
As this was a redeye flight, not much can be said about the in-flight experience. Contrary to my great experience on my KL-Hong Kong leg, this flight was actually pretty bad in terms of expectations.
There was no greeting from the purser on board, although this wasn’t an absolute necessity for me, but it was surprising nonetheless.
Cathay Pacific offers a menu on long haul flights, even in Economy Class.
The food, while tasty, had poor portions, and very unappealing sides.
This was shocking to me, as I had thought that my less satisfactory in-flight meal on my KL-Hong Kong flight was due to it being a regional flight.
I did not expect long-haul flights like my Hong Kong to London flight to also serve the same types of meals with the same portion sizes. This was truly a disappointment from every angle.
The only positives from my flight were that it was a relatively smooth journey and that heavy turbulence was limited to flying over the Himalayas, which was to be expected.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this was a mixed bag of a flight for me. Did I expect too much from Cathay Pacific? Personally, I don’t think so.
Believe it or not, my fondest memories of flying are always on a Cathay Pacific aircraft. There’s honestly nothing like flying an airline that is both safe and has great hospitality. I do feel my flight fell short in several areas.
The cabin crew on both flights, while friendly and accommodating, were slightly robotic in their interactions with passengers. In fact, I’d say that Malaysia Airlines cabin crew hospitality is miles ahead of Cathay Pacific’s, which was to be expected, but I definitely did not expect such a big gap.
I do hope my return flight in a few weeks is better, as I already have several flights on Cathay Pacific booked for December 2024, and it would certainly be a shame to experience the drop in service that I had during my recent flight.
I hope you've enjoyed my first ever flight review! Stay tuned for my full reviews of the lounges at Hong Kong International Airport and feel free to drop me an email at kingsley@refinedpoints.com if you wish to know how to obtain the crazy return ticket price of RM3,400 on my KL-London trip.
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