[cwoodward]

@Kopite You are of course absolutely correct re dates.Tks
Cathays first flight into LHR was “30 April 1991 – London Heathrow commences”

I had totally forgotten that those earlier flights went to Gatwick.
Cathay kept the free car transfer going for a few years after the LHR started and we used it many times into the city and down to Newbury.
Yes, The ground staff were great as were the staff at the CX London office who seemed able to perform miracles to find seats on full flights. The flights were almost always full weeks ahead with civil servants and such going on ‘home leave’

[MartynSinclair]

“Superb impression – best short haul flights” – every time I use Cathay business short haul from / to HKG & including the HKIA airport experience. Getting to from HKIA, cheap and fast, staff who are very polite, courteous and helpful. Able to pass through HKIA security, immigration and boarding gate procedures without even opening a passport (all on facial recognition / and or a bar code). Superb lounges, especially for BAEC Emerald. Proper business class seats, lovely welcome from the cabin crew and being addressed by name, food offering even on 1 hour flights, excellent – 2 hour plus flights, lunch / dinner service, with at least 3 choices.

Every short haul flight I currently take with CX leaves a superb impression, ESPECIALLY when compared to the hard and soft product offerings by European carriers and airports.

[Montysaurus]

My best short haul flight was an overbooked Heathrow to Glasgow in the late 90s. I and other person had both been assigned seat 2D on a full B757 and I offered to take the flight deck jump seat. The captain agreed and so it was the only flight I have done from pushback to parking on stand in the cockpit. It was worth missing my dinner and some wine!

[basslines66]

My Top 3 best short haul flights were all ones thaht exceeded expectations of just getting from A to B:

1 (bronze medal) LHR-LIS on BA (Y) in March 2022, when covid was deemed to be over and masks were for the cautious, not for the rules. the staff on BA treated the flight and all passengers like we were on board the opening ceremony of a big happy event. Several of us in economy were given mini bottles of champagne on account of it being our “birthday”. Magic atmosphere and just the right tone to end covid and welcome back fearless air travel.

2 (silver medal) HEL-LHR on AY (J) 2023 – when the aircraft being used was the 787 for some reason, a full lie down bed and full meal service for the 2.5 hour flight felt like a massive luxurious upgrade. Have flown AY long haul in J several times since, but is the expectation mismatch thath made this one a joy.

3 (gold medal) EZE-RIO (J) on Cruzeiro in 1991 – although the direct flight was 3 hours (thus qualifying for this forum), I opted instead for a 7 hour, 3 times stopping service (Ezeiza-Porto Alegre-Foz de Igacu-Sao Paolo-Rio) just to get some lazy sightseeing in and to try a new airline. As the only passenger in the business cabin, the quality of the coffee and the personal service could not have been better or more private-jet like, despite the complete language barrier and the strange looks from the only stewardess when I kept not disembarking. So, it really counted as an amalgam of 4 short haul flights. Sadly no more Cruzeiro or Varig for that matter.

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sparkyflier

[David L]

With lockdown and ill health I hadn’t flown BA for a few years until last week and after reading a lot of bad press about BA I had my concerns. We flew Newcastle to Stuttgart via Heathrow last week and returned on Tuesday this week in Club Europe using Avios. The cabin crew on all 4 flights were brilliant, especially Ryan on the LHR-NCL leg. The meals were all fresh and tasty, we even got printed Afternoon Tea Menus. The flights were so much better than I expected and better than I remember pre lockdown

[occasionalpremium]

A flight on TAP (operated by Portugalia) in J from Manchester to Lisbon in April 2023 particularly stands out. Although TAP don’t block the adjacent seat in Business, I was lucky enough to have two seats to myself on the Embraer 195. The chef de cabine was assigned to the five of us up front and was outstanding in every respect. She provided friendly, unobtrusive service and was proactive in offering drinks refills after the delicious meal service. I use TAP to fly between Manchester and Madeira and I have never had a bad flight.

[PatJordan]

My recent DUB-LHR on an EI A321 NEO was an Aerspace seat: 3K.

The front rows of these aircraft are full business class seats….fully lie flat. 3K is a “throne” so acres of space!

On a short early morning trip stretching out my (oldish) legs was divine. The Aerspace product includes food and drink too. On this occasion, I indulged in a cooked breakfast with a snipe of prosecco.

I certainly enjoyed this touch of luxury!

Safe travels all,

Pat

[MartinJ]

Alright, here’s my top three:

3. Air Asia Seoul to Manila. Lousy service, no frills, BUT … five people on the plane and lots of space and quiet to catch up on much-needed sleep.
2. South African Johannesburg to Cape Town. Factory-fresh A330 with full-flat seats and a wonderful SA wine selection, plus a delightful crew who seemed genuinely excited to be serving passengers.
1. Can’t remember the name of the airline, but it was run by a husband-wife team, with the wife doing office, sales, customer service and check-in and the husband doing the flying and maintenance side. Seven-seater from Adelaide to Kingscote back in the 1990s. Cramped flight but it was only 20 mins, great views, and I loved the novelty of flying a family business.

My take: friendly crew who go out of their way, extra space and quiet, and a few thoughtful touches are what make flights memorable.

[esselle]

I used to sit on boards in both Qatar and Dubai.

Flying in J on QR MAN-DOH-DXB-DOH-MAN meant that the DOH-DXB-DOH sectors were in F (even though it was effectively a business class product on narrow bodies).

This meant access to the Al Sawfa first class lounge in DOH for a great pre flight meal experience, and Krug on board during the 40 minute hop over to DXB.

I always looked forward to those trips.

[Inquisitive]

Short haul definition could be different for everyone, assuming up to 4 hours is short haul, following are my experience:
In business class most airlines do well. Most Asian airlines that I travelled like SQ, CX, MH, Thai, Air India, Air China, experienced decent full service.
Even in USA, United, Delta and American do very good in business (their first) class.

But I will say superb impression are during travelling in economy class (considering the fare I paid) where full services were provided with consistent quality even for a flight of 1.5 hours. Vistara and Kingfisher (now out of business) comes in top; I was amazed how they managed full service in economy including short chat with passengers. SQ, MH and Thai do a decent job as well. Now I am travelling extensively in China, and noted Air China and small airlines like Shenzhen and Juneyao airlines do a decent job in economy in 1.5 to 3 hours flight.

Besides the impression from service etc., my most memorable flight was in small propeller driven aircraft (did not check the make or model) – one from New Orleans to Lafayette and the other one Charlotte to Greenville Spartanburg. I do not recall actual airlines, these were code share flights. The bucket type seat, pilot chatting with passengers before flight and the noise and real flying experience (the aircraft swaying time to time) that will stay in my memory for ever.

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Woodpecker, sparkyflier

[cwoodward]

A unique experience from the early nineteen nineties.me
I was booked to return from Sydney to HKG on Boxing Day with Cathay (I needed to get to the UK in a hurry for a family emergency) and had only made the booking the day prior managing to get a seat at the last moment on a full aircraft due to status.

Unknown to me at the time Cathay had 2 X747s in Sydney having put on an extra flight on Christmas eve that had seemingly’ gone technical’ in Sydney. They booked me onto this aircraft that left an hour prior (as I recall) to the scheduled flight.

I was the only passenger….
….. and had total choice of where to sit and drink plus a great food selection. About four of the full crew were on duty including the ISM the rest were ‘resting’.

A very unusual experience but a pleasant one…….never ofcourse repeated

It’s possible that I posted this story many years back when I was posting as “oldchinahand”

[Sanran]

Surely Zurich-Lugano with Crossair in 1986: my first flight with my father. 30 minutes but had the possibility to sit in the cockpit, eat chocolate and drink orange juice with the captain!

[ASK1945]

“I was the only passenger….
….. and had total choice of where to sit and drink plus a great food selection. About four of the full crew were on duty including the ISM the rest were ‘resting’.”

OK – I am cheating, as this topic is not about long haul, but 35 years or so ago, shortly before the airline closed down, my wife and I travelled on PanAm from SFO to LHR overnight in “Y” with just 3 other passengers in that section and a handful in J. There were more onboard crew than passengers and we were able to stretch out across the seating to sleep. We were served J-class meals for dinner and breakfast and were well looked after by the crew.

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cwoodward

[Remo]

During ’80 yeras of XX century I used to fly every week back and for Milan Linate and Zurich in F class with Swissair. 50 minutes flight, superbe service with champagne and smoked salmon.

[nevereconomy]

Of course CX F with freshly fried eggs and all kinds of lovely accompaniments, but always stuck in my mind the days of the BA MAN-LHR shuttles – 767 where every passenger got a very acceptable cooked breakfast in a wonderfully choreographed service – of course those great Manchester crews who knew how to do it !

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DerekVH, esselle

[Author]

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