PaulST
Established Member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2014
- Posts
- 1,196
Good morning all, I was fortunate enough to get an award business class ticket with Cathay Pacific in a new A350-900 from Hong Kong to Auckland earlier this week and here’s a few of my thoughts.
I’m OWE so arrived 6hrs early (after dropping my bags off in Kowloon station) to check out all of the (F and J) lounges, and my word, the Pier (F) is impressive. It didn’t feel like any airport lounge I’ve visited. It was so quiet and had a very exclusive feeling. The business class ‘The Pier’ was also rather impressive, and the cabanas in The Wing (F) were pretty amazing.
The suite. Is fantastic! There’s plenty of storage space and when the seat goes flat, the ledge becomes an extension of the bed so you can actually properly bend your knees when you’re sleeping. It offers the perfect compromise between privacy and space as most reverse-herringbone layouts. I’m a bit of a Qantas fan-boy, but this J suite is incredibly good (even when compared with QF’s new suite in their A330s and due to be slightly modified and introduced into the 789s.)
The IFE. Unlike a few other airlines, the IFE screen can remain ‘out’ during takeoff and landing so you can continue watching it (otherwise you have to watch it on a big of an angle). The screen quality is good and the touch feature is fairly responsive. My biggest complaint is that there 4.5 minutes of advertisements before every video!!!
Food/drink. Was reasonable.
The service. Wasn’t impressive. I had heard mixed reports about CX service but was expecting to be treated fairly well as an OWE. Other than the introduction by the CSM at the start, the service was fairly poor. One of the two FAs who served me was particularly cold and I had to flag her down after my call bell was ignored for 10 or so minutes. For comparisons sake, I was referred to by name during the entire flight with Qantas in premium economy to Hong Kong, but barely got a smile with CX.
The aircraft. The A350 is really quiet and provides a pleasant level of humidity. My nose tends to dry out in older aircraft (747,777s, A330s) in flights longer than 8hrs so I really appreciate the increased humidity in the newer aircraft.
In summary… the hard product is absolutely fantastic, while the soft product is much less-so. Given the fact that CX are usually quite expensive to fly with x-Australia, it’s unlikely I’ll be flying with them again in the near future.
[video=youtube_share;4UkCsna_ZtU]https://youtu.be/4UkCsna_ZtU[/video]
I’m OWE so arrived 6hrs early (after dropping my bags off in Kowloon station) to check out all of the (F and J) lounges, and my word, the Pier (F) is impressive. It didn’t feel like any airport lounge I’ve visited. It was so quiet and had a very exclusive feeling. The business class ‘The Pier’ was also rather impressive, and the cabanas in The Wing (F) were pretty amazing.
The suite. Is fantastic! There’s plenty of storage space and when the seat goes flat, the ledge becomes an extension of the bed so you can actually properly bend your knees when you’re sleeping. It offers the perfect compromise between privacy and space as most reverse-herringbone layouts. I’m a bit of a Qantas fan-boy, but this J suite is incredibly good (even when compared with QF’s new suite in their A330s and due to be slightly modified and introduced into the 789s.)
The IFE. Unlike a few other airlines, the IFE screen can remain ‘out’ during takeoff and landing so you can continue watching it (otherwise you have to watch it on a big of an angle). The screen quality is good and the touch feature is fairly responsive. My biggest complaint is that there 4.5 minutes of advertisements before every video!!!
Food/drink. Was reasonable.
The service. Wasn’t impressive. I had heard mixed reports about CX service but was expecting to be treated fairly well as an OWE. Other than the introduction by the CSM at the start, the service was fairly poor. One of the two FAs who served me was particularly cold and I had to flag her down after my call bell was ignored for 10 or so minutes. For comparisons sake, I was referred to by name during the entire flight with Qantas in premium economy to Hong Kong, but barely got a smile with CX.
The aircraft. The A350 is really quiet and provides a pleasant level of humidity. My nose tends to dry out in older aircraft (747,777s, A330s) in flights longer than 8hrs so I really appreciate the increased humidity in the newer aircraft.
In summary… the hard product is absolutely fantastic, while the soft product is much less-so. Given the fact that CX are usually quite expensive to fly with x-Australia, it’s unlikely I’ll be flying with them again in the near future.
[video=youtube_share;4UkCsna_ZtU]https://youtu.be/4UkCsna_ZtU[/video]
I have a flight booked for next year on CX A350 so nice to see your review.
