Cathay Pacific is one of the most recent airlines to begin operating the A350, which is one of my favorite planes in the sky. I had the chance to take the first ever commercial A350 flight with Qatar Airways from Doha to Frankfurt early last year, and was amazed by how quiet the plane was — personally I prefer it to the 787.
Presently Cathay Pacific has their A350 scheduled to a few longhaul destinations, including London Gatwick and Auckland, in addition to several intra-Asia routes. However, Cathay Pacific has just announced their first North American route to be operated by the A350.
Cathay Pacific will commence 3x weekly A350 flights between Hong Kong and Vancouver as of March 26, 2017. The new flight will operate with the following schedule:
CX856 Hong Kong to Vancouver departing 11:00AM arriving 7:55AM
CX855 Vancouver to Hong Kong departing 9:25AM arriving 1:45PM (+1 day)
The flight will operate in both directions on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
This additional frequency complements Cathay Pacific’s existing two daily flights between Vancouver and Hong Kong, meaning they’ll now offer 17x weekly flights between Hong Kong and Vancouver.
Inventory for the flight seems to have just been loaded, and all A350 flights between Vancouver and Hong Kong have two business class award seats, best I can tell.
Cathay Pacific’s A350s are in a three class configuration, with 38 business class seats, 28 premium economy seats, and 214 economy seats. The business class product is just a slight update of their “standard” reverse herringbone business class product, so it’s very good. Perhaps most exciting is that the A350 is the first plane in Cathay Pacific’s fleet to feature Wi-Fi (which I know I value more than many others do).
In terms of snagging an award seat on this flight in business class, your best bet is either to:
- Book through American AAdvantage for 70,000 miles one-way
- Book through Alaska Mileage Plan for 50,000 miles one-way, and you can even do a stopover in Hong Kong enroute to another destination in Asia (keep in mind Alaska is selling miles at a discount right now)
Bottom line
While I’d choose Cathay Pacific first class over business class, this would definitely be my first choice for Cathay Pacific business class to Asia. Not only do you have a brand new, quiet plane, with an updated seat, but there’s even Wi-Fi on it. The A350 is an awesome plane, so if you haven’t had the chance to fly it yet, this is a great opportunity to do so.
Does anyone plan on taking Cathay Pacific’s new A350 flight between Vancouver and Hong Kong?
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