Heading home to visit Australia, I decided to take Cathay Pacific as they were offering a decent fare out of Stockholm in business class. Having sampled the product before on the Vancouver to New York route, I was eager to try it on a longer sector.
After switching terminals at London Heathrow, I relaxed in the excellent Cathay Pacific business class lounge in Terminal 3. Eventually, it was time to head off on the long walk to the gate to board.
CX254 – London Heathrow to Hong Kong (LHR-HKG)
11 November 2019
Boeing 777-300ER – B-KPV
Seat: Business Class 11A
Departure: 22:05 Arrival: 18:05+1
After a short wait in line, boarding was announced and I was soon on board. Seat 11A is in a mini-cabin, right behind first class and contains just two rows of seats.
Cathay Pacific’s Business Class Seat
The seats are quite spacious and are set up and ready for you once you arrive. The menu and breakfast card is at your seat, with the amenity kit, Evian water and headphones in the convenient locker beside you.
Pre-Order Your Breakfast
Breakfast cards are included with the menu and are hotel style. You tick the boxes for things you want, write in anything additional and then hang it for the crew to collect.
Supper Service
There were six choices for the meal, comprising Wok fried cod with supreme soy sauce, Braised Scottish prime beef cheeks with horseradish dumpling, broccolini and potato mousseline, Shrimp wonton with egg noodles in soup or a Beef burger. Lighter options were a pea soup or Pumpkin quinoa with grilled eggplant involtini and tomato sauce. I selected the cod.
Bed Time
Putting the seat topper on is very simple as it has a part at one end designed to slide over the top of the seat. From there, you just put the seat into bed mode and spread it out. A no brainer really!
A Pit Stop
The Cathay Pacific business class toilets are located behind the mini-cabin, as it’s just not done to go forward through first class. These are a decent size and I liked using the baby change table for my clothes when swapping in and out of my pyjamas.
Breakfast Before Landing
Two hours before landing is when the mood lighting approximates dawn and people are encouraged to wake up. Breakfast service begins shortly enough, and I had chosen the Chinese breakfast, comprising of Salted chicken and mushroom congee, pan fried turnip cake with XO sauce and fruit. Other options are Western, Continental and Express, which is just pastries.
Overall Thoughts
Cathay Pacific business class is an excellent way to travel. I appreciated the lighter supper meal after take-off, rather than having a multi-course feast that late at night. My only minor gripe was how warm the cabin was when it was time to sleep. It became cooler later on, which is far more conducive to sleep.
The entertainment options are great, with a wide selection of things to watch. I checked out the film Easy Rider as I had heard about it but never seen it. There literally is something for everyone in the StudioCX system.
When it comes to the bedding, I found the seat topper made the seat less firm and more comfortable, while the duvet and big pillow were perfect. An interesting thing to note is the bin for the hot towels is located just ahead of the seat, so seeing the crew dumping trays full into there for wash and re-use was unexpected yet interesting.
From the food to the service, it was pretty much a flawless flight, with a seasoned cabin crew who knew what they were doing. I was very impressed! Have you flown Cathay Pacific business class before? What did you think? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image via Cathay Pacific
Your comments about having to ask seem pretty right based on my recent experience. I’ll need to make sure I do it next flight. My western meals ex-BOS were great, but the service ex-HKG let me down even though the food was good (selected Chinese for this sector). They even forgot to offer me dessert (which I probably didn’t need after 24 hours of travelling, but anyway…..)
I found the cabin way too hot on the “sleeping” part of my recent BOS-HKG sector, and with no individual vents, there was little I could do about it. The mattrrss topper does work well, but I noticed many people didn’t realise what it was
Interesting they forgot the dessert, it’s quite unusual for them to forget things, I’ve found. However you’re right, always ask. They will happily get something for you if you need it. I also have noticed the cabin is warmer rather than cool, but I just put my feet out of the duvet and it seemed to work well. You’re correct on the mattress topper too as I noticed people sleeping and not using it. Perhaps the crew should go around and tell people what it is for, because it wouldn’t be immediately obvious when you find it in the bag. Good points all, thanks for that!
I was really looking forward to flying Cathay Pacific biz class Shanghai-Hong Kong-SFO last month. It was OK. I don’t sleep on airplanes, and other than the meal service, the FAs (all female) paid not the slightest bit of attention to me. They’d whiz up and down the aisles, never looking at the pax, not to mention actually asking if I needed anything. My husband was sitting next to me (1-2-1) and the purser took very good care of him for the whole flight. I found this hilarious; apparently chauvinism is alive and well in Asia.
That’s definitely an interesting one! I do find it’s handier to proactively go and ask them for whatever you need, rather than waiting for them. Whenever I go to the galley, they either give me what I want immediately or tell me they’ll bring it to me, rather than have me standing around. I find good British Airways crews to offer things proactively, while others don’t. The best crews I’ve ever had for that kind of thing are on Qatar Airways. Enjoyed reading your experience, so thanks!
Hi, I like you report. Thanks for sharing
Never flew CX so far. But I expect to do it next year in F.
Seems a great expirence
Have a great time experiencing Cathay Pacific in F next year!! Glad you liked the report – thanks for the comment!