of caviar and champagne

I vaguely remember flying business class when my family would travel to Malaysia, but it didn't really matter much to me at the time. We'd get cards and travel chess sets to play with, but I was a kid - leg room only meant more space for me to crawl about on the floor.

But now that I'm older (and a bit taller), I was really looking forward to not being in economy-class for our 16 hour flights. And first-class? Bonus!

I knew to expect roomier accomodations, better food/drinks, and more personal service, but I hadn't realized how much more true that was for international flights. Our seats were big enough to fit 2 people side-to-side, an additional person could have sat in the jump seat facing us, and when the beds were out, we slept flat between soft comforters.

Food was great - there were both Western and Asian options, but Cathay was definitely better at the Asian fare. Go figure. They did provide an enormous amount of food, however, to the point where I skipped some meals or ate only a bite or two of really yummy food served on white tablecloths and with actual silverware. Oh, and yes, we were greeted with a pre-flight flute of champagne, and our first "snack" was caviar and smoked salmon. Mmmm.

Cathay had excellent service. The attendants were, well, attentive, and for the most part not overly so despite there being a 1:1 ratio of first-class passengers to flight attendants. And instead of being passenger 12B, I was "Ms. Ding" as addressed by the flight crew, those at the gate, and by the lounge attendants. They even knew *at check-in* if our entertainment consoles were in any way malfunctioning, and asked us if we wanted to switch to a pair of seats they had already reserved for us. We were impressed.

The problem, as it was so aptly defined by our Toronto-Hong Kong cabin-mate, is that "once you've tried first class, you can never go back." Makes you wonder why we even bother traveling any other way.