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Have you flown on a Cathay Pacific All-Asia pass?

post #1 of 3
7/6/05 at 11:28am
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Although I've flown to Asia (specifically Thailand) a few times, I've yet to explore the rest of the continent. Since I've just about had it with working at my current job (read: boss is an absolute lunatic who deserves a thread of his own) I, and my girlfriend, are planning to go over there mid-August.

Specifically, we want to go to Korea, Bali, Thailand and Japan.

The All-Asia pass that Cathay Pacific offers seems like the best option for the trip. For an extra $300 (Can. $) we can extend the period of travel from 21 to 45 days which will give us the time to fully take in each place we visit. Before any applicable taxes, the total for our trip would be $3698 (Can. $). Seems like a complete bargain to me considering that we can visit up to 17 locations for that price.

Sadly, I'll have to get used to travelling economy, since upon leaving this company I won't have the luxury of booking first-class flights on points. Oh ... what's the opportunity cost of my sanity?

What I'd like to know is your specific experiences with travelling on the pass, or if you have any other options that I should be looking at. If you live there, we'd love a place to crash for a night or two in various places, too.
"Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so." - Bertrand Russell
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"Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so." - Bertrand Russell
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post #2 of 3
7/6/05 at 11:49am
  • e1618978
  • will burn in the Fiery Pit of Hell.
I have flown economy on Cathay Pacific from LA to Hong Kong (just regular tickets, not allpass). It was fine - except that they ran out of fuel, and had to turn back and re-fuel in Seattle (adding 10 hours to the flight).

Besides that, they are not as good as Quantas or British Airways, but better than any US airline.
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post #3 of 3
7/10/05 at 6:14pm
Pity you can't do business class. The claims regarding Cathay's business class (service and comfort) are well deserved. They will do everything to make your trip as comfortable as possible.

As for economy on Cathay, I have done three sectors on Cathay in economy. Their Airbus A340-500 are very cramped (and I am only 5'5) and rock hard. Food was okay, nothing to write home about. Staff are okay depending on the season. No AVOD. Two of three sectors were around the toilet, even though we checked in as soon as it opened and specifically asked not to be put near the toilet. The last trip I had to have quite a few glasses of red wine because some young lady was suffering from travel sickness and spent copious amounts of time on the toilet. At intervals, she would open the door whilst on the toilet. For more reviews of Cathay, see The Skytrax Airline Passenger Forum

One other note, Cathay usually heavily overbook their flight. This happened to me on my second flight from HKG to London. In return for agreeing to jump on the midnight flight, we received HKG$1500 each, business class upgrade on another flight, business class lounge passes both ways through HKG and extra weight (which we needed after shopping in HKG).

The $300 extra sounds pretty good to travel around SE Asia. My recommendations from the places I have visited in Asia are at least 3 days in Phucket, 3 - 4 days in Hong Kong (depending on how much shopping you plan to do - cheapest place in Asia to do electronics shopping especially at the Mongkok Computer Centre), 3 - 4 days in Bangkok, at least a week in Japan and probably some time in Korea, the beaches in Malaysia and Vietnam (those are next on our list). I found Singapore a bit dull but some people love it.

My suggestion would be if there is a small difference between Cathay and Singapore Airlines economy, I would do Singapore Airlines.
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