Trip Report: Hong Kong and South Africa on Cathay Pacific (CX) First | Part 7

Part 1: How I booked it

Part 2: Kingston YGK-Toronto YYZ-New York City JFK AC Y

Part 3: New York City JFK-Hong Kong CX F

Part 4: Life in Hong Kong

Part 5: Hong Kong HKG-Johannesburg JNB CX F

Part 6: South Africa

Part 7: Going home! JNB-HKG-ORD CX F and ORD-YYZ AA Y


Cathay Pacific uses the Shongololo lounge at JNB. A number of other airlines use the lounge, and it’s a Priority Pass affiliate lounge. It was truly the nicest contract lounge I’ve been to. There was a good variety of alcohol, yummy and hot food, and there was ample seating throughout the lounge. There were shower rooms (which I did not use), and the bathroom was impeccably clean. Really an A+ lounge.

Our flight from JNB-HKG on Cathay Pacific was very similar to the flight to JNB. Again, we were seated at the nose of the 747. This was one of the last CX 747 flights!

In HKG we used The Wing lounge, where we were lucky to get a Cabana. The lounge was extremely busy (as OneWorld Emerald members get access, not just F passengers). We ate in the dining room, where I ordered Chinese-style noodles which were so-so.

Our next flight was HKG-ORD on a 777. The F cabin was completely full, but we had seats 1A and 2A. 1A and 2A are more private than the rest of the cabin, as the other four seats open up to each other, whereas 1A/2A just face open to themselves. That is, they have their own aisle.

This was an excellent flight, with on-the-ball flight attendants. They even (happily) made us mimosas with Krug… I know, I’m terrible, but it was delicious. The food service was top notch, though they ran out of the Hong Kong Egg Tarts before I could get one (only catered two), which was disappointing.

On landing in ORD, we picked up our bags, and dropped them off. They were through-checked to YYZ. We didn’t really have time to use the lounge, but we did grab a quick drink.

Our ORD-YYZ flight was in J on AA. It was a normal domestic J service without any real service. What was kind of neat is that the plane was 3 weeks old, and still had the new-plane smell. It was a really pleasant ride.

Well, that’s the end folks… thanks for reading!

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