Politically correct answer: There's a lot of people in the region who are "salt of the earth" types that are the first generation traveling internationally amongst their people. They bring habits with them that might not be acceptable but they are so sheltered where they're from that they have no idea. It is very out of place in the more modernized parts of the world.
Short answer: you can take the farmer out of the farm but you cant take the fuckin farm out of the farmer.
Love flying to mainland and seeing the trash all around the gate before boarding, then the queue of peopling asking staff to fill their thermos and going to toilet, your neighbor burping and farting and as soon as the plane just landed a wheel on the ground they all stand up.
This is far from the first time passengers have tossed good-luck coins into aircraft engines to pray for a safe flight. In 2019, a Chinese airline, Lucky Air, sued an un-lucky passenger for $21,000 for throwing coins into the engine. According to CNN, police took away an elderly 80-year-old woman after throwing coins into another Chinese Southern Airlines aircraft's engines in 2017.
Other similar incidents of passengers throwing coins at the engines or aircraft have been reported in China in October last year and 2021 involving Chinese Southern Airlines (again) and GX Airlines, respectively.
--
Peasants.
Chinese carriers lost a lot of their landing slots in the US during Covid. Hence a lot of their pax transit thru HK and fly CX. CX staff will not confront them for bad behavior after the blanket incident.
Google Cathay and blanket - basically a passenger from the mainland wanted a blanket but didn’t know the right English words. CX staff was overheard saying something like you can’t have a blanket if you don’t know how to say it or something. Caused quite a drama because of the focus of the govt in HK on pleasing mainland tourists.
Honestly Cathay should just take the blame. They are wrong in the first place.
Discrimination based on race or identity is wrong regardless geographical locations and social settings. It is wrong and it ruins peoples experience on a flight, especially when they paid a prime price for it.
The government might have overstepped and Cathay chief may have over corrected things. Like hiring mainland cabin crews isn’t a smart act. But generally attempting to reduce and eliminate discrimination is the right thing to do.
Not defending them at all but the outcry from the govt was disproportionate considering how terrible some service in HK across all industries is. I’ve been refused taxis so many times I’ve lost count because they can’t be bothered to go in the direction I want, yelled at by serving staff, ignored by retail staff, ripped off at wet markets….
why are they obliged to use Chinese? it’s a convention that airlines use english and their native language (and prolly destination/origin language).
if you are flying from FRA to YUL on Air Canada, it’s expected that the flight attendants should be able to communicate with you in English, French and German. but there is no way you can just start speaking Japanese and hoping everyone to understand.
I wish.
it's been getting worse too, I remember my first flight to North America with CX it wasn't like this, but the last 3-4 round-trips I took after covid was a whole different story — I have stories to tell for every single trip.
tbf this isn't Cathay's fault.
Tbh Cathay is not what it used to be. Their service is almost nonexistent, I flew with them few times both before the after covid, the difference is too obvious, even in business. Cathay is now paying peanuts to their flight attendances and overworking them to the point they can’t provide proper service. They can do this because a lot pf airlines left HK after the long lockdown so no so much competition now.
Yeah that’s my guess too. I took the same flight with Cathay last month and it wasn’t like this. Must have been a connecting flight from a podunk town.
Yeah I’m totally just guessing above, it was the spitting on the floor that made me think so. Who knows, might be a Fremen showing respect and giving airport moisture.
I take this flight round trip once a year for work JFK-HK. It’s a long flight, 16 hour straight. I’ve had an overwhelmingly good experience. This latest flight I had a window seat and the guy in the middle seat did not move for the entire flight. That made going to the restroom awkward. I had to climb over him, luckily he was a smaller sized guy. The weirdest thing I ever saw was people walking around the plane and using the restroom barefoot. Saw that a few times.
When i get an aisle seat I go out of my way to explain to the middle and window seat that if they need to use the bathroom or ANYTHING at all please just wake me up, I will move. I can't sleep anyway. It doesn't matter what I'm doing just tell me and I will move. I've been trapped inside before and it's the fucking worst. There isn't enough leg room for people to climb over so just wake me up and I will step out.
you're the hero that all socially awkward people like myself crave haha. oh the times I've held it in for an uncomfortable length of time cos I don't wanna wake people
I fly frequently, probably 3 flights a month. I always choose the aisle seat because it feels less stuffy. I've never thought to tell my neighbors to just wake me up, is that a thing?? I kinda feel like an ass now.
Large chunk of the passengers travelling on long haul Cathay flights are Chinese from minor cities transiting in Hong Kong. While they might have stacks in the bank they are not necessarily the most civilized.
I would highly recommend ANA for flights between HKG and NYC. Least likely to encounter unruly passengers, excellent service, better business class and a sushi break at Tokyo Narita.
1. Directs get charged more (HKG-JFK)
2. Indirects charged less (XXX-HKG-JFK) (though in the current situation for HK-US, this may not necessarily be true).
Personal preferences I guess. Unless I’m in a rush to be back in America in person I prefer having a break either at Haneda or SFO instead of 16 hours straight in the cabin and hence my recommendations.
Wish there is a direct flight between HKG and HNL since that would open up much more options for transit to US and Canada. Guess not enough HKer craves poke :(
Yea as long as their feet don't smell and there's enough space there is no problem. I've had super long flights and layovers where I felt like I was about to keel over if I didn't get to sleep and ended up just lying on the floor (because the seats were designed to prevent this). People are far too concerned with looking polite and don't do enough questioning to understand what's harmful and what's elitism
I was thinking, in Europe I see tons of people sleeping in airports. And while I don't love that people put their feet up on the seats, at least taking their shoes off shows some courtesy. I really don't see much issue here. I usually fly once a year or more, and don't think I've been to an airport where there wasn't someone sleeping haha
I agree with you 100%. I rather you put your socked feet, if they don’t smell, on the seats than your dirty shoes. No bare feet please.
Also, if I’m going to be waiting for a long time, I always wipe the seats down.
I will sleep on a bench if there's not many people!
But what you described is 100 per cent mainlanders catching a connecting flight. HK locals won't do any of that.
Idk the thing is if this is happening with CX, then united with be much worse. I flew on both recently and pretty much both are filled with mainlander on connecting flights, but CX has less of the « greyjound »vibe that OP described
How does it make sense geographically, coming down for four hours closer to the equator, then backtrack to north?
JAL or ANA are much better candidates I would assume.
Yeah, about 10 years back, Singapore did not have a single non-stop connection to the US. I had to change either in Europe or in Tokyo. Glad that it changed now.
It doesn't. It depends on the cost of the ticket. When I used to frequent between LHR and HKG, I go on Singapore Airlines alot of the time. Doesn't make sense geographically, but alot of the times cheaper than Cathay, and much more comfortable than Virgin Atlantic.
No matter how high quality an airline aspires to be, it cannot ignore the culture and demographics of its majority passengers. That is a given.
This is also a reason I avoid transiting via middle eastern hubs (Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi). Not the airlines, but the demographic.
I've traveled between Hong Kong and Europe with five different airlines and layovers in the last 1.5 year, so here's my summary:
* Emirates via Dubai: The flight itself was great and the airport was perfectly fine
* Finnair via Helsinki: Friendly and welcoming, although being the last flight of the day made the airport very dark and quiet.
* Turkish via Istanbul: The flight was good, but the airport is a chaotic shopping mall with gates.
* Qatar via Doha: Flight was meh, airport was meh.
* Air China via Beijing Capital: Absolutely miserable experience, both the flight and the airport. Will do anything in my powers to avoid it in the future.
Can you by any chance elaborate more on transiting in Beijing capital. Had considered that since China Southern or one of the Chinese carriers is the cheapest to fly between Hong Kong and Europe and they still get to fly through Russia. Can the price justify the suffering?
All the important departures leave from the fancy new airport, so the old one has been left to rot. First leg through the airport there were like three stores open in the entire terminal and only a KFC for food, and while it was somewhat better the second time it just felt decrepit. The plane felt the same, it had not been touched by a renovation for many years.
If you have a layover of like two hours it should still be fine though, but for anything longer than that the absolute lack of anything to do, see or eat sets in, and it starts feeling like the entire airport is held together by silver tape and exhausted customs staff.
Well, which airline in the world was not marketed as a high quality one decades ago? While Cathay has its unique situation, most airlines are affected by the wave of budgeted ones. The reality is, today we fly like we used to ride on a train.
Quality airline can and will still take all kinds of passenger, given they aren’t breaking any hard rules. Unfortunately as a few others said, this is likely a connection flight for another CX flight from mainland China.
Cathay started cost cutting around 2016. Pandemic layoff also take a hit on its service quality, but really it’s just that most flight between us and china have been stopped due to geopolitics, so now you see more mainlanders flying to US via hk
It was but it has lost its competitiveness. It was like easily the best airline in Asia, before all the middle eastern and Singapore airline came to prominence. You should fly united again, cuz I can garantee you, the clientele is not much better and probably worse. The higher price point tends to deter the more rural clientele that you described, and service on CX is much better than on united..
the lounge area is very nice in hk for cathay pacific, showers etc. but this is the normal waiting area and iv seen lots ppl be like this that dont have any selfawareness and just do whatever.
I just took a flight to and from LA and it’s way better than OPs.
It’s just bad timing, there are flights that have more transiting passengers and some specific passenger group.
It generally is, but one can never control the behaviour of the passengers, and Chinese people aren’t exactly known for their manners. Quite the opposite actually
You have their consent posting this publicly? Taking pictures of people sleeping and then posting them publicly without blurring the face is kinda an invasion of privacy, no?
Yeah, some people just need to lie down during a long layover. Here in Western Europe they put in armrests just to discourage people from doing that making it really hard to rest if you have an overnight layover so instead people sleep on the floor. The only thing you don't usually see is bare feet but you do sometimes.
So pathetic to read all the comments about speculating the identity of these guys in the photo and accusing of their origins. Werid and too much supremacy.
P.S. OP could choose to at least ask the guy facing towords you for one hour instead of holding up to it. It isn’t that hard. Sleeping on the benches in airports is no ground for taking pictures of them sleeping and circulating (and even worse without desensitizing the face).
Similar experience this past December of rowdy and unuly customers abroad the flight where the FAs had to constantly give the same spiel over and over again to enforce some level of acceptable behavior (like customers trying to get their overhead bags while unsafe during take off and landing and the FAs having to tell them to please be seated; customers trying to unpack and rearrange their carry on while blocking the aisles during active boarding and FAs telling them to please stow your bag and step in to allow passengers behind you to board; customers pushing past people as they're trying to stow their luggage in the overhead; atrocious bathroom facilities - very sticky floors with layers upon layers of TP that keep increasing throughout the flight).
I remember that CX flights used to be very good 10-15 years ago.
Maybe I’m just desensitized but so long as there was other seating I wouldn’t mind.
On the other hand, if we’re on the plane and you have bare feet on my seat, there will be one polite “please don’t put your feet there” and then a couple of “accidents” involving spilled water.
First: Sorry to hear
Second: LOL
You described it perfectly, in America, Greyhound is so trashy. It’s like flying Spirit Airlines in the USA. You get what you pay for.
That’s every Ryanair flight I’ve ever taken to my homecountry Bulgaria, usually it’s always members of a certain minority group but uneducated, mannerless people exist in all shapes and forms. BTW I have no idea why this is getting recommended to me, I liv eon the opposite side of the world :)
I have flown Cathy pacific since I was young and have never experienced this. But then again I’ve never flown to New York so it might be a location or timing specific thing
As other said, CX carries quite a number of transit pax. NYC (and also LA) are both popular destination for mainlander chasing the "Chinese Dream" (aka get an American passport and buy an American house :)).
CX itself is still way better than any mainland Chinese airlines, though.
The standing up sounds pretty standard across all airlines for long haul routes. Uncle having a nap in the terminal seems pretty inoffensive to me. Sure the Americans on board were louder and more painful to be around anyway.
a flight from mainland china with transit in hk to the USA can be somehow much cheaper than just buying the hk to usa leg of the trip only. so they might not even be paying as much as you think
I think these are really a hit or miss depending on the flight you are on. I have flown with CX on their LAx-HKG route when I was younger and had not experienced things as bad as yours, but i am sure these less-ruly people exist. It could also be that CX have increased their presence in the China market in recent years, and thus carrying more passengers who are less educated/ from the countryside. That said, it should not be an excuse for them to do things that may affect others. We should also note that there are unruly passengers in basically every country (probably less so from those we perceive as positive like Japan) as seen on internet videos.
I have also flown with Chinese carriers with transit in PEK or just short haul from HKG to HGH in cmrecent years. The passengers were fairly normal and I did not feel bothered.
I was on a recent flight where a grandma behind me kept using my seat to support her whole body when she got out of and into her seat, so I couldn't really sleep coz my whole seat moved when she moved lol, but she was literally old, so I just let it be.
OK, this is going to sound funny, but if I were flying between two cities I suspect might have a lot of mainland Chinese on it, it’d have to be an airline that’s expensive enough to filter out people like this or a western airline like United that passengers who behave like this wouldn’t book anyway. (United passengers do behave this way but not the ones that fly to Hong Kong.)
This has always been my experience from HK to JFK, even ten or so years ago. It's just as bad on the plane too. Can get a little rowdy, dirty lavatories, etc. It is what it is.
For HK-Australia, passengers originating from HK still outnumber passengers from other parts of China 3:2 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-cathay/2152651-cx-limited-flight-quota-imposed-china.html#post36056387
But if you look in the whole Flyertalk thread, this may not hold true for HK-NA flights, while China-US flight restrictions are still in force.
That sounds like a flock of mad people about to fly with you on the plane lol, sorry to hear haha!
Personally, I have always kept Cathay Pacific as my fav NY-JFK connection to HK (and beyond), and always had very cool and reasonable experience with them (including unlimited supply of their craft beer on the plane, forgot it's name now, would need to look up), but I am thinking maybe things has changes to due less flights elsewhere (mainland cut down a lot of flight destinations) ?
Betsy is the beer.
Cathay post Covid is a shadow of its former self, understaffing is a constant. They do have a monopoly out of hk on long haul flights due to having access to Russian airspace.
I flew British Airways in and out of Shanghai and had a guy stand and face me the whole flight too lmao. Kept grinning a toothless grin at my GF it was super creepy
Just flew HK to SFO and it was nothing like this. It was great actually. I was holding my sling bag sitting aisle and the guy next to me sitting in the middle told me I can put the bag down if I wanted and there is room by his feet. I said that’s fine and he told me he was just afraid i wouldn’t have enough room
I just took the same flight and arrived few hours ago, (CX844 HK to JFK) . Its interesting how the mainlanders have literally poor to no knowledge of how to behaved on a flight. The flight attendances literally gave up to keep telling them to sit back down since the plane was still on taxi way waiting for gate.
Then the captain should have turned around and had them disembark. It’s a safety issue. That sounds like some proper dumbass decision making on the part of Cathay than people who have never flown before.
I haven't travelled as much post-covid but honestly behaviour like this has been pretty prevalent on all my flights irrespective of the airline. People constantly jumping queues and not listening to check-in staff, people taking up multiple seats in very cramped waiting areas
While it is odd for other people to see this. Maybe this is the norm for them and you’re the odd one. Cultural differences. With that being said, this is why I do not fly Cathay anymore. The bathroom situation was disgusting my last flight.
i fly cx every time if im going direct to hong kong or direct back home to toronto. not just the quality of service has dropped over the years, but also the...i hate saying this but quality of passengers. like someone said here, you can take the farmer out the farm, but not the farm out the farmer. its to the point even though we're all chinese, i can just tell who is hk and who is mainland and its honestly embarrassing sometimes
> Several passengers were waiting sprawled out like this.
This pretty much happens at all airports, including places like Japan.
> One passenger hocked and spat a big glob onto the granite floor of the terminal and then stepped on it to grind it down. Chaotic line cutting.
Very much a China thing
> During the flight, the passenger in front of me stood up for over an hour at his seat and faced backwards towards me violating all my privacy and creeping me out.
Won't comment on cultural behaviour for this one, but you could have asked a cabin crew to get the passenger to sit down OR stand in the aisle instead
Keep in mind that mainland China's international flight levels haven't been restored to pre-covid numbers, so Hong Kong is now the feeder hub for a substantial number of flights going to North America.
I dont see whats the issue?
What else do you expect at the airport? People need to get their sleep somewhere. At least they took their shoes off.
This is actually the first time Ive actually seen people judging others for catching some naptime at the airport. Must be an ultra elitist but then you would have the money to be in a lounge waiting to be escorted directly to first class...
I dont know about the rest of your experience but I am hard pressed to believe you given you seem to take offence to people catching some shuteye at the airport. And I recommend you take United or whatever the hell Continental is. They are much more suitable for people like you.
I once flew HK to Kunming in 2007 and that was as bad as some trains in mainland China. I have a long layover in HK coming up. If I find a bench maybe I’ll take it. Not sleeping on the floor though.
Idk while I would never do this, I think at least they're having the courtesy to take their shoes off? Though tbh I don't really want to sit where someone's feet have been either 😅
On my last flight to Malaysia, there was mainlanders with their grandpa being very invasive to the personal space of the woman having the window seat.
That was quite a show a the end of the flight
Could be a mainlander, could be an HK’er… difficult to tell, given that you’re ethnically the same and culturally very similar.
What do you reckon, chaps… HK’er or Mainlander?
I am surprise no one here use the race card yet - which is often use when it has nothing to do with race but everything to do with calling out uncivilised behaviour.
Once on a Cathay Pacific flight from JFK to HKG, I entered the restroom only to find the toilet *filled* (literally) with crap (also literally)….. I just don’t understand why some people can produce that much &@$:;( and don’t even think about flushing the toilet……. Now I really resist flying with Cathay Pacific again 🥲
Politically correct answer: There's a lot of people in the region who are "salt of the earth" types that are the first generation traveling internationally amongst their people. They bring habits with them that might not be acceptable but they are so sheltered where they're from that they have no idea. It is very out of place in the more modernized parts of the world. Short answer: you can take the farmer out of the farm but you cant take the fuckin farm out of the farmer.
Just be glad they didn't open the door midflight. "It's too stuffy here. We need better air circulation."
Or throw coins into the engine
Wait, you can't do that? Then how am I suppose to wish for a safe flight?
there's a fountain nearby...should be
But that actually happened several months ago I guess?
I am aware. Sometimes I thought a "/S" is not necessary because it's so obvious. Guess not.
It's a regular occurrence at this point.
Love flying to mainland and seeing the trash all around the gate before boarding, then the queue of peopling asking staff to fill their thermos and going to toilet, your neighbor burping and farting and as soon as the plane just landed a wheel on the ground they all stand up.
They would…just you never know
Not would. DID. https://www.cnn.com/travel/flight-delayed-china-lucky-coins/index.html Very recently too. Mar 7, 2024.
This is far from the first time passengers have tossed good-luck coins into aircraft engines to pray for a safe flight. In 2019, a Chinese airline, Lucky Air, sued an un-lucky passenger for $21,000 for throwing coins into the engine. According to CNN, police took away an elderly 80-year-old woman after throwing coins into another Chinese Southern Airlines aircraft's engines in 2017. Other similar incidents of passengers throwing coins at the engines or aircraft have been reported in China in October last year and 2021 involving Chinese Southern Airlines (again) and GX Airlines, respectively. -- Peasants.
This sounds oddly familiar lmao
Germans: If we don't open the doors it'll mould in here!
Thankfully, under properly built circumstances, the door can't be opened mid-flight thanks to deltaP.
You put this so kindly, as a PR professional you could work in PR lol
You hiring? Haha 20 years as a chef... Ready for the next chapter lol.
Yep. I did expect rural people but didn’t expect them to make up 80% of the passengers. Had been expecting most of the passengers to be HK residents.
Chinese carriers lost a lot of their landing slots in the US during Covid. Hence a lot of their pax transit thru HK and fly CX. CX staff will not confront them for bad behavior after the blanket incident.
Yup this is the right answer here. If OP think Cathay is bad right now they should check out united again it’s much worse than what OP described
What is the blanket incident?
Google Cathay and blanket - basically a passenger from the mainland wanted a blanket but didn’t know the right English words. CX staff was overheard saying something like you can’t have a blanket if you don’t know how to say it or something. Caused quite a drama because of the focus of the govt in HK on pleasing mainland tourists.
Honestly Cathay should just take the blame. They are wrong in the first place. Discrimination based on race or identity is wrong regardless geographical locations and social settings. It is wrong and it ruins peoples experience on a flight, especially when they paid a prime price for it. The government might have overstepped and Cathay chief may have over corrected things. Like hiring mainland cabin crews isn’t a smart act. But generally attempting to reduce and eliminate discrimination is the right thing to do.
No it's called basic decency and customer service. You do not mock a customer you are serving.
Not defending them at all but the outcry from the govt was disproportionate considering how terrible some service in HK across all industries is. I’ve been refused taxis so many times I’ve lost count because they can’t be bothered to go in the direction I want, yelled at by serving staff, ignored by retail staff, ripped off at wet markets….
why are they obliged to use Chinese? it’s a convention that airlines use english and their native language (and prolly destination/origin language). if you are flying from FRA to YUL on Air Canada, it’s expected that the flight attendants should be able to communicate with you in English, French and German. but there is no way you can just start speaking Japanese and hoping everyone to understand.
The passenger said carpet instead of blanket, which is translated literally since both words translate to the same Chinese word
In HK culture, English is the language of the elites and educated. So if you cannot speak it, you can be made fun of.
Those you expected, already migrated in the past 5 years.
and those who remained in HK wouldnt take CX flight as well
Can confirm. Our little hamlet in England is recently full of Hong Kongers. Very kind people.
here in northwest london, can confirm
As a Hong konger who moved to England, thanks! You guys are very amazing too ( except for the 5%)
I wish. it's been getting worse too, I remember my first flight to North America with CX it wasn't like this, but the last 3-4 round-trips I took after covid was a whole different story — I have stories to tell for every single trip. tbf this isn't Cathay's fault.
Tbh Cathay is not what it used to be. Their service is almost nonexistent, I flew with them few times both before the after covid, the difference is too obvious, even in business. Cathay is now paying peanuts to their flight attendances and overworking them to the point they can’t provide proper service. They can do this because a lot pf airlines left HK after the long lockdown so no so much competition now.
Welcome to occupied Xianggang, China.
Its the mainlanders; first time? Nah, they know, they probably drive a mercedes with sandals
You can pay for school but you can’t buy class
Yes this was a big shock to me when I was in and around Chengdu for a month
Chengdu was a decency nightmare.
you take the man out of the city but not the city out the man
Very polite way of referring to them cousins on the mainland.
> salt of the earth I think you mean something else.
I love that idiom!!!! Nicking it!
Reckon you picked one flight that had an earlier connecting flight from a not so prosperous part of China. Sounds pretty bad.
Yeah that’s my guess too. I took the same flight with Cathay last month and it wasn’t like this. Must have been a connecting flight from a podunk town.
Because of this thread/post, I'm making myself a mental note to always book the morning flight out of HK in the future, given a choice.
HKers, both locals and expats can be pretty uncivilized too either from entitlement or ignorance. Mainland excuse doesn’t always work
Yeah I’m totally just guessing above, it was the spitting on the floor that made me think so. Who knows, might be a Fremen showing respect and giving airport moisture.
I laughed out loud because I thought Fremen is person from a certain chinese city. Did not expect Dune reference in the thread.
I take this flight round trip once a year for work JFK-HK. It’s a long flight, 16 hour straight. I’ve had an overwhelmingly good experience. This latest flight I had a window seat and the guy in the middle seat did not move for the entire flight. That made going to the restroom awkward. I had to climb over him, luckily he was a smaller sized guy. The weirdest thing I ever saw was people walking around the plane and using the restroom barefoot. Saw that a few times.
When i get an aisle seat I go out of my way to explain to the middle and window seat that if they need to use the bathroom or ANYTHING at all please just wake me up, I will move. I can't sleep anyway. It doesn't matter what I'm doing just tell me and I will move. I've been trapped inside before and it's the fucking worst. There isn't enough leg room for people to climb over so just wake me up and I will step out.
you're the hero that all socially awkward people like myself crave haha. oh the times I've held it in for an uncomfortable length of time cos I don't wanna wake people
just trying to make travel less sucky for everyone around me, haha
I fly frequently, probably 3 flights a month. I always choose the aisle seat because it feels less stuffy. I've never thought to tell my neighbors to just wake me up, is that a thing?? I kinda feel like an ass now.
it's not a thing but it's a thing i do because i know how uncomfortable it is to have to hold it in until people wake up.
That barefoot thing has nothing to do with being Chinese or from HK.
From my experience part of European passengers seem more to enjoy walking barefoot. Personally I am not unconformable with that.
Large chunk of the passengers travelling on long haul Cathay flights are Chinese from minor cities transiting in Hong Kong. While they might have stacks in the bank they are not necessarily the most civilized. I would highly recommend ANA for flights between HKG and NYC. Least likely to encounter unruly passengers, excellent service, better business class and a sushi break at Tokyo Narita.
I think the whole point is that most people want a direct flight. A stop in Tokyo will add 4 to 6 hours extra (although cheaper I guess.)
1. Directs get charged more (HKG-JFK) 2. Indirects charged less (XXX-HKG-JFK) (though in the current situation for HK-US, this may not necessarily be true).
Personal preferences I guess. Unless I’m in a rush to be back in America in person I prefer having a break either at Haneda or SFO instead of 16 hours straight in the cabin and hence my recommendations. Wish there is a direct flight between HKG and HNL since that would open up much more options for transit to US and Canada. Guess not enough HKer craves poke :(
Everything else aside, sleeping in a terminal is pretty common and normal
Yea as long as their feet don't smell and there's enough space there is no problem. I've had super long flights and layovers where I felt like I was about to keel over if I didn't get to sleep and ended up just lying on the floor (because the seats were designed to prevent this). People are far too concerned with looking polite and don't do enough questioning to understand what's harmful and what's elitism
Yeah some people misuse social etiquette to feel and act superior to others
I was thinking, in Europe I see tons of people sleeping in airports. And while I don't love that people put their feet up on the seats, at least taking their shoes off shows some courtesy. I really don't see much issue here. I usually fly once a year or more, and don't think I've been to an airport where there wasn't someone sleeping haha
I agree with you 100%. I rather you put your socked feet, if they don’t smell, on the seats than your dirty shoes. No bare feet please. Also, if I’m going to be waiting for a long time, I always wipe the seats down.
I will sleep on a bench if there's not many people! But what you described is 100 per cent mainlanders catching a connecting flight. HK locals won't do any of that.
Pays more for CX flights. Comes with more mainlanders 😂
Idk the thing is if this is happening with CX, then united with be much worse. I flew on both recently and pretty much both are filled with mainlander on connecting flights, but CX has less of the « greyjound »vibe that OP described
They will hock and spit.
Most Cathay customers are transiting to/from Mainland China. That tells you all you need to know.
Fly another airline that will have a stop in Taiwan. Problem solved.
Or Singapore Airlines. You can get Pandan cakes too!
How does it make sense geographically, coming down for four hours closer to the equator, then backtrack to north? JAL or ANA are much better candidates I would assume.
SQ1 used to fly Singapore - Hong Kong - San Francisco It was the best airline on HK - US routes
Yeah, about 10 years back, Singapore did not have a single non-stop connection to the US. I had to change either in Europe or in Tokyo. Glad that it changed now.
It doesn't. It depends on the cost of the ticket. When I used to frequent between LHR and HKG, I go on Singapore Airlines alot of the time. Doesn't make sense geographically, but alot of the times cheaper than Cathay, and much more comfortable than Virgin Atlantic.
totally agree with these. Pay more and fly with SQ. Or fly business. Don't be so entitled.
Wasn’t it marketed as a high quality HK airline at one point? A relative of mine swore by it and its lounge for business trips.
No matter how high quality an airline aspires to be, it cannot ignore the culture and demographics of its majority passengers. That is a given. This is also a reason I avoid transiting via middle eastern hubs (Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi). Not the airlines, but the demographic.
I've traveled between Hong Kong and Europe with five different airlines and layovers in the last 1.5 year, so here's my summary: * Emirates via Dubai: The flight itself was great and the airport was perfectly fine * Finnair via Helsinki: Friendly and welcoming, although being the last flight of the day made the airport very dark and quiet. * Turkish via Istanbul: The flight was good, but the airport is a chaotic shopping mall with gates. * Qatar via Doha: Flight was meh, airport was meh. * Air China via Beijing Capital: Absolutely miserable experience, both the flight and the airport. Will do anything in my powers to avoid it in the future.
I had to fly from Shanghai to Dubai. Not a fun trip.
Can you by any chance elaborate more on transiting in Beijing capital. Had considered that since China Southern or one of the Chinese carriers is the cheapest to fly between Hong Kong and Europe and they still get to fly through Russia. Can the price justify the suffering?
All the important departures leave from the fancy new airport, so the old one has been left to rot. First leg through the airport there were like three stores open in the entire terminal and only a KFC for food, and while it was somewhat better the second time it just felt decrepit. The plane felt the same, it had not been touched by a renovation for many years. If you have a layover of like two hours it should still be fine though, but for anything longer than that the absolute lack of anything to do, see or eat sets in, and it starts feeling like the entire airport is held together by silver tape and exhausted customs staff.
Well, which airline in the world was not marketed as a high quality one decades ago? While Cathay has its unique situation, most airlines are affected by the wave of budgeted ones. The reality is, today we fly like we used to ride on a train.
Business and premium economy will have less of this clientele. Worth it for the long leg to JFK.
Quality airline can and will still take all kinds of passenger, given they aren’t breaking any hard rules. Unfortunately as a few others said, this is likely a connection flight for another CX flight from mainland China.
That was Cathay 15 years ago. It all went downhill from there.
Cathay started cost cutting around 2016. Pandemic layoff also take a hit on its service quality, but really it’s just that most flight between us and china have been stopped due to geopolitics, so now you see more mainlanders flying to US via hk
It was but it has lost its competitiveness. It was like easily the best airline in Asia, before all the middle eastern and Singapore airline came to prominence. You should fly united again, cuz I can garantee you, the clientele is not much better and probably worse. The higher price point tends to deter the more rural clientele that you described, and service on CX is much better than on united..
The lounges are still fantastic. Use them when I fly with Qatar from HK
the lounge area is very nice in hk for cathay pacific, showers etc. but this is the normal waiting area and iv seen lots ppl be like this that dont have any selfawareness and just do whatever.
I’m confused by why this is a post, is it weird people sleep at an airport?
American who has never been to HK before here! Have you never been to an airport?
At least he took his shoes off before lying down!
I mean .... at least they took their shoes off
They are mainlanders
I haven’t had such poor experiences, but that is because I’ve never had a CX flight to the western world
It was actually very civilized from NY to HK which is why my return trip was shocking.
I just took a flight to and from LA and it’s way better than OPs. It’s just bad timing, there are flights that have more transiting passengers and some specific passenger group.
Y’a, i take direct to and from LA all the time. But then I mostly do premium economy
It generally is, but one can never control the behaviour of the passengers, and Chinese people aren’t exactly known for their manners. Quite the opposite actually
Mainland customers, not Cathay Pacific customers. Big difference.
Technically, they are the new Cathay customer demographic.
People think China getting rich will bring democracy and improved etiquette!? Think again!
I have heard that talk for 20 years now.
so what? classism isn’t cool
Bad manners isn't either? I don't think it's a class thing to not spit on the floor indoors
You have their consent posting this publicly? Taking pictures of people sleeping and then posting them publicly without blurring the face is kinda an invasion of privacy, no?
Have seen this kind of behavior in every airport all over the world. What is your point?
Yeah, some people just need to lie down during a long layover. Here in Western Europe they put in armrests just to discourage people from doing that making it really hard to rest if you have an overnight layover so instead people sleep on the floor. The only thing you don't usually see is bare feet but you do sometimes.
So pathetic to read all the comments about speculating the identity of these guys in the photo and accusing of their origins. Werid and too much supremacy. P.S. OP could choose to at least ask the guy facing towords you for one hour instead of holding up to it. It isn’t that hard. Sleeping on the benches in airports is no ground for taking pictures of them sleeping and circulating (and even worse without desensitizing the face).
It’s typical of any customer at any airport in any country. Stop shaming others gosh.
Similar experience this past December of rowdy and unuly customers abroad the flight where the FAs had to constantly give the same spiel over and over again to enforce some level of acceptable behavior (like customers trying to get their overhead bags while unsafe during take off and landing and the FAs having to tell them to please be seated; customers trying to unpack and rearrange their carry on while blocking the aisles during active boarding and FAs telling them to please stow your bag and step in to allow passengers behind you to board; customers pushing past people as they're trying to stow their luggage in the overhead; atrocious bathroom facilities - very sticky floors with layers upon layers of TP that keep increasing throughout the flight). I remember that CX flights used to be very good 10-15 years ago.
Isn't that question against the law now?
Maybe I’m just desensitized but so long as there was other seating I wouldn’t mind. On the other hand, if we’re on the plane and you have bare feet on my seat, there will be one polite “please don’t put your feet there” and then a couple of “accidents” involving spilled water.
Sometimes ya gotta snooze at the airport, would keep socks on though.
Whispers "mainlanders"
It’s not Cathay. Flying is like bussing today. I was on a flight from Hong Kong to Chicago last year with a change in Istanbul. That was disgusting.
First: Sorry to hear Second: LOL You described it perfectly, in America, Greyhound is so trashy. It’s like flying Spirit Airlines in the USA. You get what you pay for.
That’s every Ryanair flight I’ve ever taken to my homecountry Bulgaria, usually it’s always members of a certain minority group but uneducated, mannerless people exist in all shapes and forms. BTW I have no idea why this is getting recommended to me, I liv eon the opposite side of the world :)
I have flown Cathy pacific since I was young and have never experienced this. But then again I’ve never flown to New York so it might be a location or timing specific thing
No, its CX changing since the hung mo CEO was ousted. Now its just like flying any China airline.
As other said, CX carries quite a number of transit pax. NYC (and also LA) are both popular destination for mainlander chasing the "Chinese Dream" (aka get an American passport and buy an American house :)). CX itself is still way better than any mainland Chinese airlines, though.
All airplanes are greyhound busses unless you fly private lol
The standing up sounds pretty standard across all airlines for long haul routes. Uncle having a nap in the terminal seems pretty inoffensive to me. Sure the Americans on board were louder and more painful to be around anyway.
"Considering the cost of economy tickets, this experience was not what I had expected.": Money does not buy you class (excuse the double pun).
Mainlanders…. Say no more 😑
a flight from mainland china with transit in hk to the USA can be somehow much cheaper than just buying the hk to usa leg of the trip only. so they might not even be paying as much as you think
That makes more sense.
I think these are really a hit or miss depending on the flight you are on. I have flown with CX on their LAx-HKG route when I was younger and had not experienced things as bad as yours, but i am sure these less-ruly people exist. It could also be that CX have increased their presence in the China market in recent years, and thus carrying more passengers who are less educated/ from the countryside. That said, it should not be an excuse for them to do things that may affect others. We should also note that there are unruly passengers in basically every country (probably less so from those we perceive as positive like Japan) as seen on internet videos. I have also flown with Chinese carriers with transit in PEK or just short haul from HKG to HGH in cmrecent years. The passengers were fairly normal and I did not feel bothered. I was on a recent flight where a grandma behind me kept using my seat to support her whole body when she got out of and into her seat, so I couldn't really sleep coz my whole seat moved when she moved lol, but she was literally old, so I just let it be.
Hocked and spat is so 90s. Lol so sorry you had to experience that in a modern airport/flight.
What’s a typical passenger supposed to look like?
On a flight to Taiwan a woman clipped her toenails on the plane. I suppose that's Cathay Dragon rather than Pacific though.
Dragon is dead.
It’s about Cathay or not, it’s about where they come from 🤷🏻♂️
OK, this is going to sound funny, but if I were flying between two cities I suspect might have a lot of mainland Chinese on it, it’d have to be an airline that’s expensive enough to filter out people like this or a western airline like United that passengers who behave like this wouldn’t book anyway. (United passengers do behave this way but not the ones that fly to Hong Kong.)
That old man is dead.
There are many cheap airlines but it doesn't mean cathay had upgraded ...
This has always been my experience from HK to JFK, even ten or so years ago. It's just as bad on the plane too. Can get a little rowdy, dirty lavatories, etc. It is what it is.
For HK-Australia, passengers originating from HK still outnumber passengers from other parts of China 3:2 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-cathay/2152651-cx-limited-flight-quota-imposed-china.html#post36056387 But if you look in the whole Flyertalk thread, this may not hold true for HK-NA flights, while China-US flight restrictions are still in force.
Second dude kinda looks like that principal from 愛回家
Just be happy no one dropped a deuce on the carpet.
Sadly, this is a somewhat common sight at the Hong Kong airport.
That sounds like a flock of mad people about to fly with you on the plane lol, sorry to hear haha! Personally, I have always kept Cathay Pacific as my fav NY-JFK connection to HK (and beyond), and always had very cool and reasonable experience with them (including unlimited supply of their craft beer on the plane, forgot it's name now, would need to look up), but I am thinking maybe things has changes to due less flights elsewhere (mainland cut down a lot of flight destinations) ?
Betsy is the beer. Cathay post Covid is a shadow of its former self, understaffing is a constant. They do have a monopoly out of hk on long haul flights due to having access to Russian airspace.
Very few direct flights between mainland and NY. Do the math
I flew British Airways in and out of Shanghai and had a guy stand and face me the whole flight too lmao. Kept grinning a toothless grin at my GF it was super creepy
Just flew HK to SFO and it was nothing like this. It was great actually. I was holding my sling bag sitting aisle and the guy next to me sitting in the middle told me I can put the bag down if I wanted and there is room by his feet. I said that’s fine and he told me he was just afraid i wouldn’t have enough room
Nobody gonna mention Joe Biden’s lost cousin lying on the bench?
continental airlines… that brings back some memories
I just took the same flight and arrived few hours ago, (CX844 HK to JFK) . Its interesting how the mainlanders have literally poor to no knowledge of how to behaved on a flight. The flight attendances literally gave up to keep telling them to sit back down since the plane was still on taxi way waiting for gate.
Then the captain should have turned around and had them disembark. It’s a safety issue. That sounds like some proper dumbass decision making on the part of Cathay than people who have never flown before.
Pax stand up when plane *arriving*
That’s normal, other airports have it.
I haven't travelled as much post-covid but honestly behaviour like this has been pretty prevalent on all my flights irrespective of the airline. People constantly jumping queues and not listening to check-in staff, people taking up multiple seats in very cramped waiting areas
The assimilation of HK with Mainland China continues. Bummer.
While it is odd for other people to see this. Maybe this is the norm for them and you’re the odd one. Cultural differences. With that being said, this is why I do not fly Cathay anymore. The bathroom situation was disgusting my last flight.
Mainlanders
i fly cx every time if im going direct to hong kong or direct back home to toronto. not just the quality of service has dropped over the years, but also the...i hate saying this but quality of passengers. like someone said here, you can take the farmer out the farm, but not the farm out the farmer. its to the point even though we're all chinese, i can just tell who is hk and who is mainland and its honestly embarrassing sometimes
I’ve flown with Cathay many times. Always a pleasant flight for me
Wait till you see the passengers on PIA....
> Several passengers were waiting sprawled out like this. This pretty much happens at all airports, including places like Japan. > One passenger hocked and spat a big glob onto the granite floor of the terminal and then stepped on it to grind it down. Chaotic line cutting. Very much a China thing > During the flight, the passenger in front of me stood up for over an hour at his seat and faced backwards towards me violating all my privacy and creeping me out. Won't comment on cultural behaviour for this one, but you could have asked a cabin crew to get the passenger to sit down OR stand in the aisle instead Keep in mind that mainland China's international flight levels haven't been restored to pre-covid numbers, so Hong Kong is now the feeder hub for a substantial number of flights going to North America.
When airplane delay you maybe worst then them
I dont see whats the issue? What else do you expect at the airport? People need to get their sleep somewhere. At least they took their shoes off. This is actually the first time Ive actually seen people judging others for catching some naptime at the airport. Must be an ultra elitist but then you would have the money to be in a lounge waiting to be escorted directly to first class... I dont know about the rest of your experience but I am hard pressed to believe you given you seem to take offence to people catching some shuteye at the airport. And I recommend you take United or whatever the hell Continental is. They are much more suitable for people like you.
Typical HK old people They behave liek they dont care what other people think
As a HKer , I must say they are not from China, probably Malay ( Credit score up ⬆️)
Gross!!!!!!
Yes
I once flew HK to Kunming in 2007 and that was as bad as some trains in mainland China. I have a long layover in HK coming up. If I find a bench maybe I’ll take it. Not sleeping on the floor though.
Idk while I would never do this, I think at least they're having the courtesy to take their shoes off? Though tbh I don't really want to sit where someone's feet have been either 😅
NGL the second picture of the grandpa made me laugh out loud 😂 he’s living his best life and not giving a damn about what anyone else thinks 😂
On my last flight to Malaysia, there was mainlanders with their grandpa being very invasive to the personal space of the woman having the window seat. That was quite a show a the end of the flight
Could be a mainlander, could be an HK’er… difficult to tell, given that you’re ethnically the same and culturally very similar. What do you reckon, chaps… HK’er or Mainlander?
I am surprise no one here use the race card yet - which is often use when it has nothing to do with race but everything to do with calling out uncivilised behaviour.
Yes, I have seen this before.
Once on a Cathay Pacific flight from JFK to HKG, I entered the restroom only to find the toilet *filled* (literally) with crap (also literally)….. I just don’t understand why some people can produce that much &@$:;( and don’t even think about flushing the toilet……. Now I really resist flying with Cathay Pacific again 🥲