Cathay Pacific A350 Economy Review (Sydney-Hong Kong)

After COVID-19 severely disrupted its operations, Cathay Pacific is returning to Australian skies in force. The Hong-Kong based carrier currently operates flights to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Cathay Pacific technically competes with Qantas on Australia-Hong Kong, with Qantas flying A330s from Sydney and Melbourne.

From Australia, travellers can transit onwards to Europe, the USA or other destinations in Asia. You can also simply visit Hong Kong, which Cathay attempted to encourage with its recent “World of Winners” promotion.

I had a week free to travel and was looking forward to putting my newly-minted Qantas Gold status to use. In the end, I booked flights to Taipei, with a stopover in Hong Kong on the return.

So how was the Cathay Pacific experience post-COVID? Find out as I review Cathay Pacific Economy Class on CX110…

Flight Details

Flight number	CX110
Route	Sydney (SYD) – Hong Kong (HKG)
Aircraft type	Airbus A350-900
Class of travel	Economy
Seat number	60K
On-time performance	We arrived 5 minutes early
Star rating

The route

Flight Cost

I paid $1,027.98 for a return Sydney-Taipei Economy Lite ticket on Cathay Pacific, with a four day stopover in Hong Kong on the return. On the dates I was looking at, direct flights to Hong Kong were retailing for around $1,400 return. So, because of the premium on non-stop flights, it worked out far better to enjoy both Taipei and Hong Kong!

Note that Qantas Frequent Flyer members don’t actually earn any status credits or points for many Economy fare classes on Cathay Pacific. My fare coded into “V” class, which is ineligible for earning miles on both Qantas and American Airlines, although it does earn miles on other Oneworld airlines such as British Airways or Alaska Airlines.

I kept my Qantas Frequent Flyer number on the booking as it allowed me to easily access my Oneworld Sapphire benefits including seat selection, lounge access and priority boarding.

Airport Experience

I arrived at Sydney Airport at approximately 5.30am, to find a reasonably quiet check-in line. I jumped into the Business Class queue, but there was really no need for this.

Sydney Airport immigration and security is often super fast, although this time my carry-on bag went through the x-ray machine 3 times! My best guess was a 100ml tube of shaving cream conspired with a shift change to ensure a thorough screening.

As a Qantas Gold member, I had the choice of using the Qantas Business Lounge or The House Lounge, with this confirmed on a printed invitation. The latter is Cathay Pacific’s contracted lounge at Sydney Airport. I decided the Qantas Lounge would be my destination mainly for the known quantity of barista-made coffee, although in hindsight I’d probably visit The House.

At the Qantas Business Lounge, there was an uninspiring buffet of hot food, as well as a little pastry display next to the barista station.

As I planned to eat on the plane, I only grabbed a couple of pastries, a coffee and a glass of orange juice to watch the sunrise from the lounge.

Boarding began on time at 6.55am from gate 25, although a lengthy queue had formed prior to this. Boarding commenced on time with priority boarding working well.

The Hard Product

Cathay Pacific offers a relatively standard setup on their A350-900s, with 214 Economy Class seats arranged in a 3-3-3 configuration.

Thanks to my Oneworld Sapphire status I was able to select 60K, an extra-legroom seat, for free. Neither 60A nor 60K have a seat in front of them at all due to the exit door in front, leaving me free to completely stretch out.

Of course, as there’s no seat in front I did have to store all my bags and personal belongings in the overhead compartments. Attached to the cabin wall is a literature pocket, although it was only good for storing, well… literature.

For what it’s worth, the extra legroom seats would have cost $280 without status on an Economy Lite fare from Sydney to Hong Kong.

My seat was probably one of the most comfortable Economy Class seats I’ve flown on. It had great padding, a seat width of 18 inches and 6 inches of recline. Even the standard Economy seats had ample legroom at 32 inches of pitch:

Cathay Pacific has a wide range of movies and TV shows available on its inflight entertainment system. These included Hollywood releases, boxsets and live TV, as well as Chinese-language content. It even had Star Wars movies 1-9!

Available on most A350s are exterior cameras, which are always great to watch on takeoff and landing.

Wi-Fi was available for a fee, with either a 1-hour pass for USD9.95 (~AU$15) or a full flight pass for USD19.95 (~AU$31). I purchased the full flight pass, but unfortunately, the speeds were not fantastic.

Also, every seat had a USB-A port connected to the entertainment screen, as well as an AC power outlet below the seat.

The Soft Product

The Cathay Pacific staff were fantastic, both at check-in and in the air. Despite having a rather large cabin to look after, the flight attendants in Economy were extremely helpful and professional.

Flight attendants came around while were still on the ground to distribute menus and Hong Kong arrival cards, for those who needed them. The menu for this flight was as follows:

Flight attendants handed out water bottles shortly after takeoff. The breakfast service commenced soon after, about 70 minutes into the flight, beginning with tea and coffee.

I chose the congee for breakfast, as I much prefer Asian dishes when flying – especially on Asia-based carriers. Accompanying this was some fruit, a yoghurt and a bread roll.

I quite enjoyed the congee – the ginger combined well with the mushroom and chicken to really give it some flavour. The crew came by shortly after I had finished to clear away all the rubbish and offer any more tea or coffee. Overall, it was a perfectly decent start to the day!

The lunch service began about four hours prior to landing. There were three choices here, so I went with the stir-fried chicken. This was accompanied by a smoked salmon and pearl couscous salad, a Tim Tam, a bread roll, some cheese and crackers and a vanilla ice cream.

Again, this was a very satisfactory meal. The salad tasted great and felt fresh, while the chicken had some good flavour.

Once more, the crew were quickly making rounds, offering extra drinks and then clearing the tray tables.

We began our descent at around 2.20pm Hong Kong time. It was an overcast day in Hong Kong, with plenty of low-level clouds.

Wilson McTaggart

Wilson's love of travel started from a young age, but his love for points developed after figuring out ways to travel on a gap year for less - leading naturally towards Australian Frequent Flyer! Wilson's hobbies include skiing, cricket and planning trips, both with and without points.

Wilson posts on the AFF forum as @WilsonM.