Trip Report: Saigon to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific Business Class (A330-300)

2024-04-21 by John Johnson

I once again got to fly on Cathay Pacific on my way to Japan. I bought this ticket for 32,000 Asia Miles and 110 USD. If you want to do the same, you could read my previous post where I describe how to get 37k MR points in just 5 minutes: https://taxwriteoffblog.com/blog/earn-37609-amex-mr-points-in-5-minutes

My flight was delayed by 35 minutes, but I didn’t mind as I only arrived at the airport 2 hours before departure. I was really stressed and only have Ho Chi Minh City traffic to blame.

Check in was a breeze, and seemingly for economy passengers too. I mean, the checkin area was literally empty. This is just like when I flew on Cathay last year from Hanoi.

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Cathay Pacific check-in area at Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN) - Seriously, where is everybody?

To my dismay, Tan Son Nhat airport does not have any sort of priority immigration line. Fortunately I only had to stand in line with the commoners for 10-15 minutes, but gosh what a horrible experience. I don’t necessarily blame Cathay Pacific, but this just adds to the reasons of why SGN is such a bad airport.

Fortunately there is a priority security area, and I think it took less than 2 minutes from walking up and putting my shoes back on.

Now the lounge situation at SGN is a bit dire. The check in agent recommended going to the Le Saigonnes lounge, which was very disappointing. It’s the same food as the other PP lounges and it was quite crowded as it seems to be the only contract lounge for OneWorld airlines. This lounge makes you feel like you’re taking a domestic flight in economy. Nothing comfortable about it. I’m so glad I bought this flight with miles rather than wasting my cash money on it. The contract lounge in Hanoi was way better and less crowded than this.

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Some soundproofing materials would be beneficial so it’s not just a big room with tons of people talking. The decorations were nice, but walls separating the sections would make this much better and more private. Also despite how crowded the lounge was, there was only 1 toilet for the men’s section — and it’s tiny.

I wanted to be out of this amateur lounge so I went to board on time.

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The boarding area was like a holding cell in Guantanamo bay. It was cool that they had a separate line for first class passengers and OneWorld Diamonds.
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The business class line

How luxurious!

Don’t get me wrong, the staff were friendly and perfect when checking my boarding pass, but man does this airport suck.

It also looks like Premium Economy boards in the Economy lane 💀

The seat was as expected. I just settled down to play some video games while waiting to depart.

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No toothbrushes in bathroom; that’s kinda lazy. Blanket available on request.

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My vegan special meal

Overall, this was okay. You don’t receive any priority service in Hong Kong like when going through immigration, but the wait wasn’t that bad. (Although I had to fill out a form on arrival, why didn’t Cathay hand out this form during the flight??)