The Cathay Pacific Experience.
Flying out at 1:40 am on a Sunday morning is actually a very good flight if you can get it.
When booking the flight, I remember taking this route to Indonesia many times. I had no need for a return ticket, so I booked Toronto to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to Denpasar Bali.
Pretty much the shortest trip one can book unless you get a shorter layover. Previous experiences have been great, so I tried my luck.
Checking In.
I had already booked my seats when I booked the flight and I managed to snag a premium economy ticket for a decent price.
Checking in online didn’t turn out to be smooth. Every time I tried; I had an unfixable error message. Hop on Google and check things out real quick. I had to go back and confirm for the second time my Cathay membership. Even though the system allowed me to check in, I had another error saying more info was requested.
My address, name, passport, and reward points were all up to date there was still an error.
The chat is redundant because it is a stupid robot replying so I took what I had and hoped for the best. The worst part about flying for me is the check-in and security process.
Check-in was easy.
My son dropped me off and after a short but meaningful bye, I headed to the counters. Having no baggage just a backpack, I went to the kiosk and slid in my passport. Once again, I got an error for needing more info, but the machine spit out boarding passes for both of my flights. Oddly enough this took 5 minutes and in the next two I was past security and on the way to the gate.
My dad called and we chatted a bit and, in the process, I lost my passport and boarding passes.
In a panic, I headed back to retrace my steps. No more than 30m later, I bumped into an airport worker who had my documents. I thanked him repeatedly since I would have been in deep shit if he was not on the ball.
At the gate, they announced a 40 min delay, so we left at 2:20 am instead of 1:40.
The Flight.
While rather eventless, the nearly 15-hour trip went by quickly. I watched Shazam and Dungeons and Dragons which were both ok.
However, the headset didn’t work so I had to get a new one. The one washroom sink was out of order, so they had wet wipes. The seat I was in had a remote control that was stuck and could not be removed. Plus, my seat footrest and back didn’t always want to cooperate. Nevertheless, I made it to Hong Kong. Let’s see how the next leg is going to Bali.
