Cathay Pacific: Birmingham to Cebu

Date: 2018-12-06

---

Departure: Birmingham at 5:30am

An Uber to Birmingham Airport at 5:30am. The Philippine trip begins in earnest with a 23-hour journey door to door.

Flight 1: Flybe BE103 — Birmingham to Amsterdam Schiphol

Departure: 8:00am. Operated by Flybe on an Embraer 195 — a narrow-body regional jet with 120 seats in a 2-2 configuration. No middle seats on any row. Short hop across the North Sea; unremarkable but efficient.

Amsterdam Schiphol: Dragon Pass Lounge

Transit time at Schiphol before the long-haul connection. Used a Dragon Pass card to access an airport lounge. Schiphol's lounge had a solid spread: salads, soups, and other hot and cold options. A quiet couple of hours before the main event.

Flight 2: CX270 — Amsterdam Schiphol to Hong Kong

Departure: 12:45pm. Cathay Pacific CX270 on a Boeing 777-300 — 244 seats, economy cabin. Flight time: 11 hours 10 minutes.

First meal (served shortly after takeoff):

• Option A: Pork, Chinese-style, with rice
• Option B: Chicken with herb butter and mashed potato

The pork with rice was the right choice — properly seasoned, a credible long-haul meal.

Dessert: Movenpick ice cream. A Cathay Pacific signature — handed out mid-flight, reliably good.

Second meal (pre-arrival): Yakisoba noodles. Light, appropriate for a meal before a short onward connection.

Arrival in Hong Kong: 7:00am local time (Hong Kong is 8 hours ahead of the UK in winter).

Hong Kong Transit: Sprint to the Gate

Under one hour between landing and the next departure. No time to linger — cleared transit security and moved directly to the gate at pace. Made it with minutes to spare. Hong Kong Airport is efficient; the terminal layout helps.

Flight 3: CX921 — Hong Kong to Cebu

Departure: 8:25am. Cathay Pacific CX921 on an Airbus A330-300 — 251 seats. Flight time: 2 hours 15 minutes.

Breakfast: Chinese congee with chicken and mushrooms. Warm, filling, exactly right for the time of day and the climate at the destination end.

Arrival in Cebu

Descent into Mactan-Cebu International Airport. Through the window: a clear blue sky, the Philippine sea below turning from deep blue to emerald green over the shallows around the islands. Cebu's emerald coastline from the air is one of those sights that makes a long journey feel worthwhile.

Total journey: 23 hours from home to hotel.

First Meal in the Philippines

Checked into Bai Hotel Cebu and immediately walked across the road to the Park Mall shopping centre.

Mang Inasal — the Filipino BBQ chicken chain. Ordered the standard set: BBQ chicken (breast and wing) with garlic rice and a side, 143 pesos (¥307). Followed by a small Halo-Halo, 75 pesos (¥160) — shaved ice in coconut milk with sweet beans, jelly, tapioca, and purple yam ice cream.

After 23 hours in the air and in transit lounges, BBQ chicken and shaved ice in 30°C heat was exactly the right arrival meal.