Cathay Pacific will launch Dallas service four times a week with an Airbus A350-1000 starting April 24, 2025.
- Dallas – Fort Worth to Hong Kong, 11:55 p.m. – 5:05 a.m.+2, CX897 (Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays)
Hong Kong to Dallas – Fort Worth, 4:05 p.m. – 5:55 p.m., CX898 (Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays)
It’s a flight that should have been added years ago,
- when Cathay could codeshare with American Airlines on routes that took them over Russia,
- and when Hong Kong itself mattered more as a destination from the U.S.
That was before Hong Kong – and Cathay – turned inward towards the mainland. It was before China’s safety regulators forced out Cathay Pacific’s chief executive for failing to crack down on employee participation in pro-democracy activism. New leadership helped the regime ferret out disloyal employees.
And it was before jailing dissidents for speaking out about their city’s future with retroactive application of ‘national security’ laws that China committed would never be applied retroactively, and which renege on commitments the country made when Hong Kong was handed over by the British. “Do You hear the people sing,” by the way, is banned in China.
More than thousand HKers sing Les Miserables' 'Do you hear the people sing?' at HK international airport with their calls for free election and democracy. Here is the Ground Zero in the war against authoritarian rule. That's the reason for us never surrender. pic.twitter.com/1MkTp4BkVg
— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 (@joshuawongcf) August 10, 2019
Since American Airlines no longer flies to Hong Kong, and Dallas offers the greatest connectivity, this new flight would seem to be a strong bet as Cathay Pacific rebuilds its U.S. route network. It even makes sense, most likely, prior to restarting flights like Washington Dulles. But the flight and airline no longer matter nearly as much as they did until 5 years ago.
Larry Ellison says that AI will force everyone to behave in line with social norms because they’ll be constantly monitored. Maybe that’ll make the U.S. more like China.
At the same time, maybe the AI race will make China more like the U.S., because they can’t train as-effective AIs behind the Great Firewall without as much access to knowledge, and once AIs run on personal devices rather than central servers. So how long this difference between the Hong Kong of old and today even matters is an open question.
Orwell was an optimist. But nothing lasts forever.
It is too late. I loved old HKG. I would use my systemwide upgrades and pay as low as $350 for a business class seat LAX-HKG. I went annually; took friends. It was a real treat. I was there with my then boyfriend now spouse when the last notable protests broke out that inspired the PRC crackdown.
People and companies from or connected to Hong Kong still have a lot of global relationships that mean not all demand for HKG-related travel will disappear. And geopolitics can be a rather fickle game at times where bedfellows change only to change again and again. Would I trust the Chinese government to keep its hands off me were they to discover all my criticism of the PRC and its Communist Party? No, especially when we can already see that the US doesn’t alway prioritize getting out American hostages as much as it cares about having good relationships with a foreign government for political or economic reasons.
I love Hong Kong and can’t wait to go back in February. All the changes related to China may matter to you but I don’t care. I don’t base my travel, purchases or investments on politics or any other similar reason. It is an amazing place. IMHO no reason to not visit due to views on China.
Visiting next as part of a cruise from Taipei to Singapore but proving took the DFW-HKG flight. Can’t wait to book same flight on Cathay.
Sorry typo – previously not “proving” in last sentence of previous reply.
The CCP blames Hong Kong’s downturn on Covid, which is a very CCP lie.
Hong Kong, as a global financial hub, is very much diminished, and less relevant than ever, but not entirely off the table either. it remains a gateway into China. Today, Hong Kong is all but just another city in China, a place where corporate expats broadly don’t want to live unless they absolutely have to, and slowly, Hong Kong is being overtaken by Singapore and eventually, Taipei as Non-Japan Asia’s economic power houses, alongside South Korea when it comes to trade and finance and manufacturing, with Vietnam having to some extent replaced a lot of what China was pre-pandemic.
The route sort of makes sense, but also shows the limits of it, at only 4 per week, and ensures, for the most part, that AA will not return to HKG for the long foreseeable future.
Come back and check out Hong Kong. It’s changed, but is still itself and I’d not bet against it!
The demise of Hong Kong is greatly overestimated by many people in the USA. People who live in and regularly visit Hong Kong know that they still have vastly more freedom, liberty, and incomparably more personal safety than Americans, and don’t want the right for ne’er-do-well vandals posing as protesters to engage in destruction sprees that destroy their city the way that “demonstrators” burned down Minneapolis and Kenosha, and destroyed a great many US inner cities. Unlike Americans, Hong Kongers prefer having some social norms against anti-social behavior like the robberies, assaults, and vagrancy that have become so commonplace in the United States.
Cathay Pacific is controlled by Swires of the UK, while the United States lacks the environment of economic freedom for foreigners to own, much less run, an airline. To the significant extent that CX was harmed it was from Hong Kong following China’s harmful Covid overreaction, and is now struggling to regain it’s footing as a premium airline amidst a permanent decline in business travel left by Covid restrictions and the xenophobic atmosphere in the USA that has reduced trade with China and rendered Hong Kong’s unique place as a hub somewhat superfluous.
This route makes a lot of sense. The HKG airport has been making an impressive recovery.
While Hong Kong’s democracy and freedom have been taken away, Hong Kong is still a major financial hub.
If Hong Kong truly did not matter, Cathay would not be having full flights to the US with that frequency. 3 full daily flights to New York is a lot given the distance.
Well @Mak, I agree with you on one thing: Kenosha wasn’t that far from me and I truly wished that our authorities had dealt with the rioters in the same manner that the PRC deals with Hong Kongers who dare to protest their policies. We wouldn’t have needed Kyle to take out the trash.
I flew from LAX to BKK via YVR and HKG several times in the late 1980s. What made me consider visiting outside of the airport then no longer does. Hong Kong is becoming just another Chinese city with millions of people but one with a colonial past (which is probably not celebrated by China).
@jns If you never step outside the airport because you’re relying upon what western media tells you, you’ll never know whether it’s true or not. Like almost every city in the world, Hong Kong was better before Covid, but it is still one of the top handful of cities in the world and remains completely unique, not only from Chinese cities but from any other place in the world.
@AngryFlier The permissiveness of Americans for deviant behavior will never cease to amaze me. Not only did the government not stop the riot, not only didn’t they not arrest the vandals, but they celebrated the destruction and pretended that it was all for some greater purpose and Congress bowed to them and the Vice President of the USA started a campaign to bail out the few miscreants who were arrested – and yet seems likely to be the next President of the United States. In Hong Kong, decency prevailed while in the USA the vandals won a resounding and long lasting victory that has rewarded their destruction. The ultimate irony is that the victory of the destroyers in the USA is somehow portrayed as liberal and enlightened and Hong Kong is loathed for not letting it happen there. It’s just endlessly shocking.
The US has plenty of problems but at least we’re not bootlickers lol
Lol @mak / CCP agitator
The US is so terrible that millions of people attempt to get here every year, risking life and limb in the attempt. And yes, those include people from Hong Kong and mainland China.
Love HK – my favorites city in China. But no way I will visit when there is always the risk (however small) of chicom detention because they take offense at my criticism of dictator Xi.
China is shooting itself in the foot with US biz and leisure customers.
It’s good that someone re-launches this route. Even better that it’s CX. I do not like the timing with the early morning arrival. I preferred AA’s timing of evening arrival. Let’s also make it daily please.
AA should launch LAX-HKG or SEA-HKG.
@Boraxo It takes some stunning grandiosity to think that you will be detained by the “Chicoms” on visiting Hong Kong because of your views on Xi. Why do you think they care at all about what you think, much less enough to detain you? I know of 467 federal defendants presently in US penitentiaries for nonsense non-violent “insurrection” claims, but Americans are worried about going to Hong Kong because of what they think about Xi. It’s comical.
@Paul I don’t think this route is likely to work out for them, but at least it should be an easier redemption than on CX’s NY or California flights, rather like the Chicago flight.
I will not enter into the discussion on HKG today, save to note that it was my favorite city in the World bar none, I had residency rights there. Although, sitting here in my UK place, it is impossible not to notice the number of migrants from HKG that have moved here (we have good schools in our area).
On the flight: Well no First Class on that aircraft and it’s a loooooong flight from DFW to HKG. Trust me, I’ve done it more than a few times.
The times on those flights absolutely stink. You’ll be turfed out of the Flagship lounge at 10:15pm. Arriving HKG at 0505??? That leaves you paying for the previous night’s hotel room if you need to rest, which you will.
Arriving DFW at 17:55hrs? Best book a room at the Hyatt then, since DFW’s glacial baggage claim from HKG, and the possibility/probability that flights will be backed up during the day mean I wouldn’t bet an getting anywhere. Especially if it’s raining. DFW ramp workers don’t getting wet.
Good news on the flights, but I won’t be rushing to book.
hkg advanced 2 places to #4 in the latest HDI list while singapore dropped 1 place to #9. go figure.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index
I liked the old Hong Kong. Sadly, it’s gone. After the Brits handed over HK in 1997, it was supposed to be run as HK for 50 years under the principle of one country, two systems. The CCP has largely reneged on that deal. Protests abound and many locals have moved.
I actually took advantage of the protests by treating my family to HK Disneyland back in January 2020. We enjoyed a once in a lifetime experience as there were virtually NO Lines and we had the park to ourselves! All the protests were keeping the other tourists away.
I anticipate this flight route will be cancelled due to lack of passengers.
This route probably had more demand before but that’s no reason not to have it now. It’s only 4 times per week.
There are cities and airports who are not at their former peak…Rio de Janiero, Buenos Aires, Pittsburgh, Leeds, etc.
@Mak Cathay is run by Swire. Cathay is CONTROLLED by the CCP in Beijing. Swire bows to their will and really no longer calls the shots. Swire control really ended when their Chairman and CEO were both sacked, on the orders of Beijing, for showing support for staff protesting the National Security Law.
The route will work fine, eventually, as commerce and travel USHK slowly returns to normal. It’s too iconic a place to be kept down forever no matter how many bankers Morgan Stanley et al order home.
China will also return to the “light touch” sooner or later unless they want to wreck their own economy, which they certainly do not. There’s only so far dogma and hardliners will be allowed to go. THEN, tourism will come back. Until then, even though they have no reason to detain me I am wary of setting foot in China anymore, just like I feel about Russia and its satellites. Very sad, but there you have it. I’m not going to be the next political hostage. There are just too many places in the world to travel and spend money, and not enough time. I avoid certain neighborhoods if I don’t want to play, anywhere. .
Hopefully, HK will return to the amazing dynamism that made it a unique fun visit instead of a subdued city. My very first trip, there were still rickshaws on the island, and of course they’re gone too: change is inevitable, and it’s OK. What is not OK is worrying about safety and security when you travel.
@OnePatriot77 It’s utterly ridiculous to say that China reneged on the 1 country 2 systems deal because Hong Kong has a National Security Law, which is in some ways more liberal and in other ways less, than similar laws like the Patriot Act in the USA, but it’s an even more risible claim given that before Hong Kong was ceded to China it was run as a colony without much pretense of democracy. Hong Kong still has it’s own system, with free-wheeling free market capitalism of the sort that has been unknown in the United States for generations, and on the order of say only Switzerland, Singapore, and Taiwan.
@Rupert Like private companies in the United States, private companies in Hong Kong have public relations and government relations needs. Boeing fired Dennis Muilenburg and Dave Calhoun for these reasons as well, but nobody would claim that Boeing is “controlled” by the US government. All of the CX Board seats that mainland interests enjoy has been bought buying shares as any private entity may do.