This is a dialogue transcript of a YouTube video by Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting extended stays in airport lounges across multiple airports. They report having lived in airports/airplanes for over 40 hours, describe choosing a shuttle between New Jersey airports to save time, and then spend many hours in lounges. The bulk of the excerpt is a guided tour of Cathay Pacific’s four business-class lounges in Hong Kong (the Pier, the Wing, the Deck, the Bridge), enumerating amenities (food hall/buffet, noodle bars, tea room, bar, showers, nap rooms, yoga studio), views of the tarmac, and their subjective rankings: Kara favors the Pier as top, Nate ties the Wing and the Deck for second, and the Bridge is seen as the most crowded/least distinctive. The tone is conversational, travel-focused, and experiential; the transcript includes repeated subtitle lines and on-the-ground logistics (showers, coffee, sleeping).
Chapters
Also, we have now been living in airports or on airplanes for over 40 hours and it's really starting to catch up with me.
Has it really been over 40 hours?
We saved a lot of money.
Quick.
Nap and we will be in New York.
All right. Two and a half hours later, made it to New York and some coffee.
I think we're following this guy. Last time we transferred between EWR and JFK we did public transportation which required four different trains and ended up costing us over $50. So now we're paying $10 more to take a shuttle directly from one airport to.
That was well worth the extra money.
So easy.
Get in the car, don't think about where you're going. Show up at the airport.
Well, so far so good. We just successfully got through security with all four of our carry ons about nine hours before our flight takes off.
We used to do this all the time. We'd come to the airport like as early as possible just to spend the entire day in the lounge. But we haven't done it in a long time cuz our carry ons have pretty much like doubled in weight and so we're like kind of breaking the rules. But we had this awkward 12 hours today, so feels like old times. We still have to get into the lounge and we're not sure if they're going to let us in this early or not. Tell them we connected really early. We didn't come from a separate airport today.
Yeah, we've been here a long time.
Wow.
We are calling the American Airlines flagship lounge home for the next nine or so hours.
The biggest thing that sets the flagship lounge apart from the other American airline lounges is definitely the food.
There's also an upgraded drink selection and just the overall aesthetic of the entire lounge makes it feel so fancy.
As an added bonus, it has excellent views of the tarmac.
So this lounge is actually split into two different sections. We've been sitting in the giant room with the buffet, but next door.
The other side is more like a restaurant. They have these menus where you can order these little small plates. We've got the Korean short rib tacos and Flatbread Bianca, which is like pizza and it is delicious. This is actually our second order of tacos. They're not like regular taco shells, they're like fried and crunchy and so good.
Okay, so I am a 9. If you don't know what that means on the personality test, the enneagram, I am the peacemaker and I'm pretty happy in whatever environment I'm in. Even if I'm in the same lounge for over nine hours, I'm still not ready to leave.
Me, on the other hand, I am a seven, which means that I always assume that the future is brighter. So I'm ready to go to Hong Kong, which we've already done this exact flight three times if you watched our other videos.
So see you in Hong Kong.
16 long but very enjoyable and sleepy hours later. We've made it back to our favorite airport in the world and we have some big plans today.
So Cathay Pacific has four different business class lounges just in this airport. And since we have eight hours here today, we are making it our goal to see all four of them, starting with the people. All right, we are going to show you around the lounge but first.
And that coffee has given me the energy for a much needed shower.
Pretty small.
It'll do.
Okay, now we're ready to show you the lounge. It is massive and beautiful and we're going to start from the front and make our way to the back. Entering the lounge, the first room you come to is what they call the food hall, which is basically a really fancy buffet.
Next is the bar area. It's a big beautiful room overlooking the tarmac with tons of seating options. And they serve my favorite cocktail, espresso martinis.
And next up is the noodle bar. Dandy noodles are calling my name. So the way it works is you go up to the bar, you order your food, they give you one of these and it buzzes when it's ready. Does it get any better?
We went with Dan Dan noodles, which are my fave pork buns which are also my fave, especially with all the little toppings. And we got the other bun that we've never heard of before.
It's just with a bun, nothing in. And moving on to the tea room.
We don't know much about tea, but we ordered the vintage Imperial Pu erh because it sounded fanciest.
It's hot.
That's pretty good. I prefer coffee here at the end of the lounge we have the shower rooms that we used earlier and there's a room just for napping.
They even have a yoga studio in the lounge.
So that might be the best business class lounge we have ever been to. Last time we were in this airport we went to the pier first class lounge. So we had temperate expectations for the business class lounge. We thought it wouldn't be quite as.
Good, but it turns out it's just as good. It basically, basically just has a yoga room instead of a Massage room and a noodle bar instead of a sit down restaurant. No complaining here.
All right. And now we're gonna check out the bridge.
Love how bright and shiny it is in here.
So this pretty much feels like a smaller, more cramped and more crowded version of the pier. When you're flying business class, you get access to all four lounges. So I'm not sure why you would spend your time here as as opposed to there. Maybe if this was closer to your flight. You only had a few minutes, but. Oh, there's also pizza, so if you're into that. Doesn't look very good though.
Honestly, it's really not a bad lounge at all. If that lounge was in another airport, we would be talking about how incredible it was.
It's all relative.
You just have so many good options here in Hong Kong.
Moving on.
Now we have a very long walk to the other side of the airport to check out the deck.
We could use a good long walk at this point. Got a lot of sitting and a lot of eating the last 24 hours.
Oh, my goodness.
Wow.
The deck has a deck. And there are a lot less people here with all these seats.
So the deck is definitely the smallest of the lounges that we've been to. But I really like the vibe here. It's much less crowded than anywhere else we've been. And it's surrounded by windows on three sides, so it's just like really bright. You can see tons of airplanes taking off, landing. This one might be my favorite.
And just like the pier, there's a noodle bar with dim sum, but they had different choices, so rating again, the.
Only thing that this lounge doesn't have that the pier has is a bar with a bartender. So you can't, like, order fancy cocktails.
Here, but there's a port yourself bar.
It's also on the opposite side of the airport. So it probably just really depends on where your gate is on which lounge you want to go to.
I just really can't go wrong.
I really like this one. For some reason, I haven't figured it out. I feel a little bit like I'm sitting outside. There's plants.
Yeah, it is a great view.
Tons of incredible views of airplanes.
All right, now we're heading to our fourth and final lounge.
We have now been living in airports or on airplanes for over 40 hours, and it's really starting to catch up with me.
And last but not least is the wing, which is the lounge that we spent all of our time in last time we were here.
The wing is Definitely the shiniest and the fanciest feeling lounge. But with that being said, it took us a while to find two seats together.
It's beautiful, but it's crowded. It's crowded for a reason.
I love it here. And now we're going to try not to to fall asleep and enjoy our last couple of hours in this airport. Cuz we don't know when we'll be back.
I really want to make the most of our time and like eat something else. But I feel like all we've done is eat for the last two days.
We should get some more noodles.
Can't do it. I think I've hit my limit on noodles.
Ow.
Mission accomplished. All four Cafe Pacific business class lounges in one day. So real quick, final thoughts.
So first place. Definitely the pier. I could spend all day in there. It's so big. It has so many options. Has a great view.
I think there's a tie for number two, the wing. It's like the flashiest, but it's also really crowded. And so that for me would be tied with the deck, which is the smallest but also the least crowded. And I just really enjoyed the vibe there.
The bridge definitely gets sports place.
I don't think super crowded. I think it's like the least hidden. It's like boom, the bridge. Here I am. So that's where everybody goes. Yeah.
And there's no noodle bar.
All in all though, you can't go wrong with any of the lounges if you have a very short layover. Except the bridge. I would just like go to whichever one is closest.
They all have a shower, they all have great food, they all have a great view. You really can't go wrong.
If I had eight hours to do all over again, I would would split my time between. I'm getting them all confused. The pier and the deck.
It was a great day. I'm sad it's over, but ready to get in bed.
One more flight.
I think the rain is very fitting for the end of this journey. We're going to end the video here. We have one more flight, which we filmed several times. And I just realized that I've slept for six of the last 46 hours. So if this video started going downhill towards the end.
Korean short rib.
Okay, so I'm a nine.
Service to Jordan. Please proceed immediately to gate number 47.
She didn't even say thank you.
All right, we're going to show you around the lounge.
But first.
We need coffee, if we're being honest. Kind of tastes like grass. Well, kick it to the bridge. Go ahead, girl. Go ahead be gone and go ahead be gone. It.
