As old as the Angkor Wat! Cathay Dragon Business Class from Hong Kong to Siem Reap on an Airbus A320

Описание: This is a video of me flying with Cathay Dragon in Business Class from Hong Kong to Siem Reap in Cambodia on an Airbus A320-200 that is as old as the Angkor Wat. Cathay Dragon is a regional airline of Cathay Pacific which specialises in short haul routes to mainly offbeat destinations around Asia. I went on an extra trip right after Boxing Day with my relative and decided to visit the Angkor Wat. The flight was scheduled very early in the morning, so we had to get up early and take a taxi to the airport as the Airport Express had not started running yet. Once we reached the airport, we had to undergo additional security checks before we were allowed into the terminal due to the ongoing social unrest.

We quickly checked in and cleared immigration. For the first time, my flight would be departing from the North Satellite Concourse, which can only be reached by shuttle bus. However, there was still a little time to use a lounge. We used the Wing Lounge because that is the closest to the boarding point of the bus. I had some breakfast consisting of Dan Dan Mien (担担麵), yogurt and pastries.

In the meantime, I sorted out our upgrade request to Business Class. I originally bought a pair of Economy Class tickets to Siem Reap, which I tried to get upgrades for. We were put on a waitlist and was told at check in that we had to wait until an hour before the flight departs before we knew whether there were seats available. In the end, we got our upgrades confirmed at the reception of the lounge. Since our plane only had 8 Business Class seats in total, we were really lucky.

We made our way to the North Satellite Concourse as quickly as possible. We had to take an escalator down a level and walk to the boarding point of the shuttle bus. This bus is prone to delays because it had to stop to give way to passing aircraft. It took 8 minutes to get to that concourse and we boarded just as the ground crew were about to close the gate. I must be the last person to board the plane! In conclusion, I will recommend that you start making your way to your gate an hour and a half before your flight departs if it is in the North Satellite Concourse just to be safe.

This is the first time I have flown on a narrow body aircraft with Cathay. The plane is equipped with regional Business Class seats as expected. I had a glass of orange juice as a welcome drink before the plane taxied for take off. You can watch the full footage of the take off here:    • Early morning take off at Hong Kong Airpor...   The crew also gave me the menu, an immigration card and a customs declaration form. I also got an iPad which serves as the entertainment system for the flight, because TV screens are not installed on the seats on the Airbus A320-200.

Breakfast was served shortly after we took off into the rising sun. I had a mushroom chive fritata because the plane had run out of the other option. What a pity, maybe the plane was not very well stocked as no one expected us to get a last minute upgrade. In addition, the crew overlooked a small detail when serving my breakfast: They forgot to give me a small spoon to eat the yogurt with. I still enjoyed a nice cup of Hong Kong Style Milk Tea though!

The iPad was rather unresponsive and awkward to use. While it did not matter much because the flight was rather short, I think Cathay should simply install proper TV screens on the seats so as to be consistent with their Airbus A330-300s.

We landed at the Angkor International Airport in Siem Reap on time and took a shuttle bus to enter the terminal. Cambodia requires anyone not from an ASEAN country to get a visa before they could enter the country. We paid a little more for eVisas from the official government website to save time from getting visas on arrival at immigration. Feel free to watch this video if you would like to learn more:    • How to get a visa to Cambodia online  

Once we have cleared immigration, we got on a free shuttle van provided by our hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Somadevi Angkor Boutique and Resort and were treated with welcome drinks as we checked in.