A couple of days ago, Cathay Pacific officially unveiled their new business class product, which will begin to pop up in March of 2011 with the delivery of some new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Apparently London, Los Angeles, and New York will be among the "launch" cities, and the longhaul Boeing 777 and Airbus 330 aircraft…
Continue reading: Cathay Pacific unveils their new business class product
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
@ Nadia -- Nope, I'm saying first class *is* attainable, which is why I won't be flying business class. Their first class remains unchanged and has fairly good award availability.
Gary, as British Airways only charges 50,000 miles for a one-way in Cathay Pacific business class, this seems like a pretty nice product, and a good use of miles, no?
@ Matt -- LOL! Yes, absolutely, though Cathay Pacific business class award space can be pretty tough to come by... much more so than first class on most routes. But for 50,000 miles one-way, it's a steal.
BA is 50k for business 25k for first .. of course you cannot add flights on another carrier to get to the gateway city or else you're using BA's multi-partner award chart where the mileage prices really skyrocket.
I find business easier than first from LAX and JFK.
And first in pretty good abundance ex-SFO.
Business and first availability are both really good ex-YYZ.
So, THERE, Gary answered also!!
Cathay invited me out to the product unveiling in HKG, couldn't make the timing work with other commitments. But it is pretty crazy, US did a nice job with their new seat such that Cahty would adopt it!
Call me crazy I'm one of the few that actually liked the Cathay business seat traveling solo. Certainly good privacy if nothing else.
But of course the F seat is wonderful, the F service is great (even if the food is only 'meh'). So for awards I'll still be traveling F...
Lucky, do you think it's a good deal to spend 70,000 Marco Polo miles for a first class roundtrip between JFK & YVR? Thanks.
Hi Lucky,
I was there ( http://boardingarea.com/centeredeast/2010/12/07/cathay-pacifics-new-business-class-uniforms-light-up-the-sky-on-location-coverage/)...got to try it out, and it was quite comfortable.
My understanding is the first delivery is of an A330 in February.
Of course, there are two perspectives when getting a seat in CX business class. I wholeheartedly agree with you that when a J seat is just a smidgen below an F seat for award inventory in terms of redemption cost, then always go for F. However, from a paid travel perspective, plain out buying F is not an option for many, as the lot of us end up in economy (leisure) or discounted business (work). That said, the product then ends up being pretty competitive in the "I can sleep" department, so is definitely worth taking.
Cheers,
Rob
I love it how US Airways introduces it as their premium class (they call it business but they really don't have any higher class) and then CX just says "Nah, we can do better than that" and introduces it as their actual business class, with an astounding first class that's so good they didn't have to update it. And, anyway, it's a sin to even try to compare the service of CX to any airline from the US. 😉