Cathay Pacific Airbus A330-300. Photo / Supplied
The plane: Airbus A330-300.
My seat: 68C.
Service: Excellent. The staff were attentive, polite and sincere. And my requests for green tea were no problem.
Class: Economy.
Price: Cathay Pacific offer daily connections from Auckland to Seoul via Hong Kong. Visit cathaypacific.co.nz for special airfares.
On time: We left a few minutes late but made up the time in the air before an impressive (almost imperceptible wheel touch) landing at Incheon, Seoul.
How full: Economy Class, with capacity for 175 passengers, seemed about three-quarters full.
Entertainment: A little under four hours was scant time to survey all of the options, but I did my best. I watched the Robbie Fowler episode of Premier League Legends, which cheered me up after Liverpool's FC dreary end to last season. La Isla Minima was next - a Spanish thriller and it was a beauty. Foreign language movies are often a good choice in the air; there's a decent selection, the subtitles mean you don't have to rely on airline headphones (though Cathay's were quite good) and European or South American films are less hit or miss than Hollywood fare. It's not strictly entertainment, but I also enjoyed the yarns of a fellow passenger, a fair dinkum Aussie bloke called Kevin, with his tales of running a trucking company across Europe.
Food and drink: Vegetarian noodles were tasty enough, washed down with apple juice and followed by some biscuits which reminded of Krispies.
Luggage: 23kg.
Toilets: The usual mix of cramped and not so cramped, especially for someone who is 1.85m tall. But they were clean and well-stocked.
Airport experience: Pretty seamless. I enjoyed wandering through Hong Kong Airport before the flight, and the late departure meant queues through security were almost non-existent. There were plenty of electric sockets for phones and laptops at the gate lounge - always a bonus.
Would I fly this again: Yes. Smooth as silk.
Step aside Bali, this spot is just as beautiful and off the beaten track.