Cathay Dragon A320 Economy Class: Hong Kong to Shanghai
I was originally scheduled to take KA876 departing Hong Kong at 8:25am on an Airbus A321. However, due to the bad weather brought by the typhoon in the region, I decided to head to the airport early to try to hop on an earlier flight to avoid any potential delays.
I have already checked in online for KA876 before heading to the airport. Security was a breeze given how early it was. Once I arrived at The Wing, one of Cathay Pacific’s lounge in Hong Kong, I asked one of the attendants at the desk to see if I can change to KA802, the 7:25am departure to Shanghai. She picked up her phone and quickly released a seat for me without asking further questions.
This is in line with my previous experience flying to Shanghai to Taipei. With some many departures a day to these destinations, staff are usually happy to put you on earlier flights with no extra fees.
Unfortunately I was told that it was a full flight, and therefore I was given a middle seat. At least I get to fly out earlier with less risk of a delay!
I quickly sat down for some Dan Dan Noodles and Wonton Noodles before heading off to Gate 509 at 6:45am.
Gate 509 is located at the North Satellite Concourse, therefore I had to take a shuttle from the main terminal to get there.
I arrived at the gate at 7:00am. This is when the flight just started boarding.
This flight is operated by an Airbus A320, with the economy class cabin in a standard 3–3 configuration at 30-inch pitch.
I was assigned Seat 23B, which is one of the middle seats in the second row of the economy class cabin. The pitch is definitely fine for me with quite a bit of knee space.
The seat is well-padded and come with a four-way adjustable headrest, which is comfortable enough for a 2-hour flight. The fabric of the seat does give you a more premium feel compared to a regular economy class seat.
In front of the seat, you can also find the standard tray table and cupholder as well as the literature pocket underneath.
However, Cathay Dragon decided to not install inflight entertainment screens on the A320. Instead, passengers can stream entertainment onto their own laptops, tablets or mobile phones.
One interesting feature of this aircraft is the overhead bins. From the lock position, the bin is released by the push of a button. There is also an LED light on the button itself. White denotes a secured overhead bin, while red denotes an opened overhead bin.
Door was closed right on-time at 7:25am. I was glad to see 23C ended up being the only unoccupied seat in the cabin. I swiftly moved across to sit in the aisle seat to get some extra space between myself and the passenger seated in 23A.
After pushback, the aircraft taxied out and held short of the runway. The captain then made an announcement that we needed to wait for another 10 mins for a patch of weather to pass through before we could takeoff.
As the aircraft was holding short of the runway, it was vibrating quite violently as the wind was quite strong on the outside. By 7:55am, we finally entered Runway 07R. After a short takeoff roll, we took off at about 8:03am.
Breakfast was served about 20 mins later. No menu was given out. Instead, flight attendants asked passengers which of the two choices they want for breakfast as they rolled the cart down the aisle. The choices were chicken congee, or omelette with sausage.
I went for the omelette with sausage option. It came with a packaged bun, a side of fruit, a bowl of yoghurt and a cup of water. The meal itself tasted fine, besides the omelette which was very blend.
About 15 minutes later, flight attendants again came down the aisle serving coffee and tea for passengers.
After flight attendants cleared out my breakfast tray, I tried streaming entertainment content from the Studio KA iPhone app. The content is essentially the same as what you would otherwise find on aircrafts with personal entertainment screens.
Quite a number of Western movies and TV shoes were available. There were also the flight map, as well as a wide range of on-demand music. I ended up watching a bit of the movie Crazy Rich Asian via the app.
At 9:42am, the captain again came onto the PA and told us that we were starting our descend into Shanghai Pudong. At 10:15am, we touched down at Shanghai Pudong International Airport.
We arrived at the gate at 10:30am after a 15-minute taxi from the runway.
All in all, it was a short and comfortable hop from Hong Kong to Shanghai. Despite the bad weather in Hong Kong, we managed to still arrive in Shanghai just 20 minutes behind schedule. I would not hesitate taking Cathay Dragon over other airlines on this route again, despite Cathay Dragon usually being the most expensive option of all.
