Off to Hong Kong and Australia
It's been a year since our first Cathay Pacific (CX) flights and I am so excited to be back flying one of the world's great airlines. This time, we're on a Cathay Pacific 744 for the first time. And Mrs. SFO and I are taking one of our sons to Australia. Until now his idea of a great plane ride had been an exit row on Frontier Airlines. While Sydney-Los Angeles First Class award seats were surprisingly easy to find, Los Angeles to Sydney was impossible. The solution was to spend a few extra AAdvantage miles and route via Hong Kong, one of our favorite cities.
-Cathay Pacific First and Business Class Lounge at SFO
-Cathay Pacific First Class SFO-Hong Kong
-Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong
-Hong Kong
-Qantas First Class Lounge at HKG
-Cathay Pacific "The Wing" First Class Lounge at HKG|
-Qantas First Class Hong Kong-Melbourne
-The Lyall Hotel Melbournce
-Melbourne
-Yarra Valley Wine Country
-Qantas Business Class Lounge at MEL
-Qantas Business Class Melbourne-Sydney
-Shangri-La Hotel
-Sydney
-Qantas First Class Lounge at SYD
-Qantas First Class Sydney-Los Angeles
-Qantas A380 First Class Sydney-Los Angeles
-American Flagship Lounge LAX
-American First Class LAX-SFO
-Cathay Pacific First Class SFO-Hong Kong
-Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong
-Hong Kong
-Qantas First Class Lounge at HKG
-Cathay Pacific "The Wing" First Class Lounge at HKG|
-Qantas First Class Hong Kong-Melbourne
-The Lyall Hotel Melbournce
-Melbourne
-Yarra Valley Wine Country
-Qantas Business Class Lounge at MEL
-Qantas Business Class Melbourne-Sydney
-Shangri-La Hotel
-Sydney
-Qantas First Class Lounge at SYD
-Qantas First Class Sydney-Los Angeles
-Qantas A380 First Class Sydney-Los Angeles
-American Flagship Lounge LAX
-American First Class LAX-SFO
Although I had checked in online (OLCI) two days earlier, we stopped at the check-in counter for the doc check and to get "real" boarding passes. With Korean Air and Asiana departures, the A pier security was pretty busy with at least 100 passengers snaking their way thru the regular non-priority queue. But with only 5 passengers ahead of us in the Priority queue, we were through security in less than 5 minutes.
