Review: Cathay Pacific First Class 777-300ER New York to Vancouver

Introduction
Planning & Booking
Cathay Pacific 777-300ER First Class New York (JFK) to Vancouver
Fairmont Pacific Rim
Shangri-La Vancouver

Due to weather in Chicago, my flight to New York was delayed about 2.5 hours.  I had built in plenty of time so it wasn't a big deal.  I landed in Terminal 8 and took the AirTrain over to Terminal 7 for our flight to Vancouver.  Emily had flown in to La Guardia about an hour earlier and was waiting for me as I entered the terminal.

Our timing was actually perfect as the Cathay desk was just opening up for check-in to Vancouver as we arrived.  Check-in formalities were processed in a couple of minutes and we were handed lounge invitations and shown to fast track security.  Ten minutes later we were in the British Airways First Class Galleries Lounge.  The lounge was nothing special (we actually preferred the lighter, larger business class section) but was perfectly acceptable for a shower, fast wifi, and some decent food and drink. 

Around 9PM we made our way down to gate 6.  It is a pretty cool feeling to be at JFK around this time.  It is transatlantic "rush hour" and there are over half a dozen flights leaving within an hour to cross the pond.

JFK rush hour

We wandered around the terminal for a bit and then they called first class boarding.  We headed down the jetway and entered my favorite aircraft (777-300ER) through the middle door.  This meant we got to "turn left" to head up to the first class cabin.  Like our flight back from Hong Kong on Cathay, this first class had been recently updated.  The cabin crew introduced themselves and offered a pre-departure beverage (Krug please!).

Happy place

Amenities were handed out and we scored another pair of Cathay's amazing PYE pajamas and brand new amenity kit.  

Emily enjoying seat 1A

The door was shut and 5/6 of the first class seats were occupied.  The flight time is about 5.5 hours so the meal service is considered "supper" and not dinner.  Thus limited meal choices and no caviar.  I opted for the prawn appetizer, soup, the entire bread basket, and dessert.  Everything was excellent and the service was efficient without being too rushed.

Krug, nuts, and Charlie Sheen

Prawns, bread basket, and Krug

Cathay Pacific First Class dessert

After dinner, I watched a couple more episodes of Anger Management and asked for my bed to be made.  Cathay has one of the best beds in the sky.  It is hard to beat the Singapore Airlines A380 double bed but this comes pretty close.  I was able to get about 3.5 hours of sleep waking up with about 40 minutes to touchdown.  We landed in Vancouver just after 12:30 AM PDT.  

Touchdown in Vancouver

After saying goodbye to the crew, we were the first people off the plane and through Canadian immigration (where we got the third degree because we are super scary) around 15 minutes later.  There were plenty of cabs waiting at the curb and we made it to the Fairmont Pacific Rim around 1AM.  Little did we know how awesome our suite was going to be!!

Fairmont Pacific Rim

Yes we went out of our way to take this flight.  Yes we burned 65,000 BA miles to do so.  Was it fun?  Absolutely.  Was it worth it?  Yep.  This is one of the best ways to get from coast to coast.  If you have live in NYC and want to head to Vancouver for the weekend, this is the way to do it.