(Please read this post from the bottom up.)
This concluded our trip report. It was just an amazing trip enjoying all the luxury and special attention traveling First and Business class. I had never dreamed of traveling First Class in my whole life, but with God's grace and my brother Tim's advise, we got in with British Airways credit card/mileage program which in turn gave us this opportunity to experience this once-in-a-lifetime first class trip. Thank you, Tim!
I don't know if I will ever have another opportunity traveling First Class again, but this was certainly a great way to celebrate my retirement. I have to say, it will be awfully difficult going back to economy again!
Minutes before arriving LAX, the beautiful First Class flight attendants came to have a picture with me. Another flight attendant from the other cabin helped take this picture. It was very nice of them. After this they rushed back to their seats for landing. Thanks, Jaja, Siky and Nancy, for a memorable flight!
The 'bamboo' steamer was actually made with ceramic.
Dim Sum--shrimp and pork dumpling, crab meat with asparagus and pork basket, chive and pork dumpling, chicken and ham wrapped in bean curd sheet, mushroom and vegetable dumpling.
Berry smoothie
And then about two hours before arrival we had breakfast. This time we did not eat together so I don't have pictures of MOR's breakfast. First, the fruit plate.
This hot pot rice was very good. It even had burnt rice at the bottom.
Then the flight attendants made our beds and we slept for a couple of hours. Seven hours into the flight it was time for snacks. We ordered the Hot pot rice with spare ribs in black bean sauce and choy sum, served with pork soup with carrot and buddhist palm melon. We also ordered some Hong Kong style egg tarts which were very good but I didn't take pictures of them.
Hot green tea and jasmine tea.
MOR's doubled boiled fresh pear with Chinese almonds sweet soup. I skipped dessert again.
MOR's Sitr-fried fresh water garoupa with superior sauce, served with steamed jasmine rice and stir-fried pak choy with pork shank terrine with black vinegar as cold plate.
My grilled U.S. striploin with herbed butter, roasted portabello mushroom and vine ripened tomato, medium rare.
Pork soup with marrow and red dates
Mixed salad with balsamic vinaigrette
O.K., one more Cathay Delight.
Chateau Lynch Bages 2004
We were having lunch together at 1K.
Caviar and Balik salmon "Tsar Nicolaj". Notice that hand-written "Bon Appetit" note from the flight attendants?!
Lunch time (or was it dinner?)
Enjoying another one of those delicious Cathay Delight with warm nuts.
"Leaving on a jet plane"
It was so neat sitting at the front of the plane and able to see where the plane was going.
Ready for take-off.
A Dragon Air plane
The plane on the map looked like it was going the wrong direction.
slowly moving, there was a small China Airlines plane getting ahead of us.
Pushing back
Safety video started.
From my seat peeking through to business class mini-cabin.
Shanghai Tang pajamas and amenity bag. This time I got a size M and MOR got a size L.
2K
MOR was in 1K.
Pre-flight drink--Krug.
My suite 2K
This is 1D, my original seat but I asked to change it to 2K when we were in the lounge. I prefer to be able to see outside. An elderly couple actually asked to be in 1D and 2D (middle suites) instead of their original 1A and 2A after boarding because they didn't want to see outside the window. They went to sleep right away and didn't get up until like 3 hours before arriving LAX. The other two passengers must have been op-up at the last minute. Otherwise how could we change seats like that? But then I guess getting 1A and 2A are always better than 1D and 2D.
There are only six seats in First Class on this Boeing 777.
Turning left here at the first door.
Got in the 'special line' and boarded the plane. We were the 3rd and 4th passengers to board.
This is gate 4. Look at that view!
I neglected to have my Cream Soda when we were in Hong Kong. This was the first and last Cream Soda I had on this trip.
The Noodle Bar at the far end.
That's our plane!
The last time of their won-ton. So good!
Then we decided to move to the business class area where it was easier to get FOOD!
Cathay's Solus Chair
The Atrium (First Class area)
The Long Bar
We arrived HKIA at gate 36 and we were to leave from gate 3, so we decided to take the people mover to the Wing--the biggest lounge for Cathay. Unfortunately their first class lounge is under renovation, so we missed out on that part. This is the Atrium, temporary first class lounge area where nothing is served except drinks. It has an excellent view though.
A little Hong Kong TV--cooking with May.
I was actually too full from the breakfast buffet at the hotel and the noodle at the lounge to finish this.
It's early in the morning, so it's breakfast time, again!
Raining again, as it was in San Francisco when we started this trip.
Good-bye Taiwan!
Pre-flight drink, I requested for the Cathay Delight which they were not bringing out, it was delicious!
The ottoman got a little too old on this regional Airbus.
Three rows of single seats. That's the Flight Service Manager from India. She went around to all the passengers and greeted everyone in person.
Business class with the old seats. Still comfortable. It's like a mini suite.
At least we didn't have to wait in line to board, so we were first to get to our seats.
Bye, lounge! Time for us to board our plane to Hong Kong. We had to go back downstairs to the departure gate which took about five minutes of fast walking.
She is at every entry way of all the Cathay lounges.
I had the staff change our seats on the plane for us while in the lounge. We were assigned 12D and 14D which would be in the middle. We ended up with 16A and 17A window seats.
This is the quieter part of the lounge where the computers are at but it is farther away from the food. There was only one person using the computer.
Muffins, croissants, sandwiches, drinks were set out on the counters.
It does not have the famous won-ton noodle at the noodle bar but beef noodle, shredded pork noodle, etc. mostly 'northern' style. The beef noodle tasted good though.
It's an OK lounge.
We started early this morning because our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:55AM (and that was why we had to stay overnight at the airport hotel). We got up at 5:00AM. Had breakfast at the hotel at 6:00. Caught the 6:45 hotel shuttle to Terminal 1. Other than trying to get some compensation for being downgraded from first class to business without success, check-in was a breeze. After that we headed over to Cathay First and Business VIP Lounge.