Review: Cathay Pacific A350 Business Class

Why would any airline serve a main meal in the middle of the flight when you are trying to sleep? It makes no sense to me.

@Ben one thing to note is that the middle seats can be moved forward about 6 inches or so, which makes conversing with your seatmate a little easier. I cannot recall if this is a unique feature for CX but I have noticed it on the 777s and a350.

Not surprised that CX J food falls short. The worst catering I’ve ever had was on CX in J; doorstop level pork cutlet that was gross.

Not-logical food service seems to be a thing for both CX and SQ, eh? You had similar complaints about SIN-EWR.

I flew AKL-HKG a few days ago on one of their A350-1000. The flight departed mid afternoon and arrived about 9pm local time in Hong Kong but the second meal service, a couple of hours before landing, was breakfast. I thought that was a bit odd.

Like you, I thought the meal service was a bit slow and, now that you’ve mentioned it, I don’t recall being offered a refill of my glass at all.

The hard product tho. It was a much more pleasant flight than the 777 I took to LHR a few hours later.

I can’t speak to your circadian rhythms but it seems to me the meal times roughly correspond to either lunch and dinner HKG time. Or dinner and breakfast YYZ time.

But I agree the dinner service time is way too long.

In my opinion, food in CX its business never stands out. That's also the case for veggie meals, ordered in advance. They could learn so much from Qatar Airways or Turkish.

I get a complaint about service being slow, but on a route this long I think thats a relatively minor issue. If this was a 6 hour redeye I'd have a totally different reaction.

@ Evan -- To be clear, I actually don't mind a drawn out service on a flight this long departing early in the day. That's to say that if there are many courses, constant drink refills, etc., I'm totally fine with it. My issue here was that it just felt like a lot of waiting, and wasn't much of an experience. The food was mediocre, and it seemingly took forever between courses. In other words, I don't consider sitting with an empty plate for 20 minutes to be part of a good drawn out dining experience.

@ Pete -- It's tricky to figure out the right approach to meal service on a flight with a 13 hour time difference. But there's fundamentally an issue when there aren't more than four (or so) interrupted hours of sleep on a 13 hour flight. Personally I think they should have the first meal be at the beginning of the flight, and then just do dine on demand for the rest of the flight, and also add some breakfast options. That seems like a win-win.

I find the cabin to be quite sterile in contrast to the 77Ws and A330s. The loss of the blue fabric in the inner shell of the seat as well as the artwork made a difference.

What they should do in my opinion for upcoming business class seats is ditch the champagne and green color palette altogether and "mimic" the palette of what you'll find in the redesigned lounges. Like some faux wood on the bulkhead perhaps?!

On my LAX-HKG roundtrip in October I got to experience the new Cathay soft product in business, but not on the A350. While I agree the meal service was a little clunky, it didn't bother me as much as you (and we did not have a major meal service mid-flight, so sleep went uninterrupted). But the food I had was, across the board, excellent and well presented. The warm "salad" of broccoli, spinach, peas, almonds, preserved lemon, and goat’s cheese is one of the best things I've ever had on a plane -- I wanted a second serving but they ran out.

My AA EXP status ends in January. Without SWUs to coddle me on AA flights to Asia, I expect I'll be using Cathay more in the coming year -- and I'm looking forward to it.

Question: How does Cathay business compare with Japan Airlines?

Is it my imagination or does it seem that traditional breakfast choices are becoming scarce on Asian trans Pacific flights? I love my omeletes, toast, marmalade croissants, muesli etc. I had a very similiar experience earlier this week on the JAL NRT-SEA flight with their total lack of breakfast service.

The seats look amazing! Why the heck would they fall short on the soft product!?! I mean, its Cathay Pacific! I think so highly of the airline until the past 2 years. What is happening with these Oneworld carriers. BA and AA have already fallen short, and I hope CX isn't next.

Thanks, great review. I have a couple of questions that have probably been answered on this blog a million times before, but here they are anyway: 1) when you book a flight like this on a partner airline with Advantage miles, does the award get you only the partner's flight or the entire itenerary? In other words did your 70k get you to Toronto or all the way to Miami? 2) Is there an easy way to see these on line or do you have to call American? I'm looking to book Raleigh to Tokyo in Business with Advantage miles and I want to use JAL for the long haul leg. I'm not seeing those options on line. Thanks

WOW, did they really serve so little Cathay delight as your pre-departure drink. Let's be positive the glass was a quarter full rather than 3/4 empty!!

Review was on point. Optimizing uninterrupted sleep should be top priority for ultra-long hauls, and a meal interruption mid-flight makes absolutely no sense, especially when the first meal takes 3 hours.

Hi Ben - great review, thank you. Slow service and average food don’t make for compelling reasons to fly business Cathay. They used to be the benchmark (a long time ago). There are plenty of better options.

Before the rise of the Gulf airlines Cathay and Singapore were regarded as unmatched across the world and while both had their fan base both were absolutely excellent.

IMO Cathay always had the edge and certainly in business class IMO they still do. On the very long haul routes where you really see service in action they still have a strong edge over Singapore on all fronts.

Just flew sfo-hkg on A350 a few days ago. My worst Cathay flight ever. Normally I avoid the A350 option simply because I don't like the late morning departure...hard to get any sleep, but decided to try it out.

You neglected to mention two incredibly annoying aspects of the J seats on the A350:. First, no privacy divider between middle two! A small 6 inch divider is all that kept me from playing footsies with my neighbor. I could also see his screen all flight, especially troublesome when trying to sleep. Second, the side cutout makes the screen opposite the aisle within view when reclined, again disrupting sleep. I hate wearing the blindfold masks, but was forced to because of these two poor seat designs.

I also had a really poor crew for the flight. Unfriendly, non-proactive, and talked loudly in galley all flight when people were trying to sleep. Cathay is losing some lustre in my eyes.

Great review Ben, I have the exact same opinion about this product having flown CX830 and CX841 a couple of weeks ago. Both of them are flights blocked at 16 hours and I really don't understand why they have their main dinner service 8 hours into the flight..? It doesn't make any sense.. Anyway, the crew on both flights were excellent!

And I do envy you, the Cathay Delight drink is amazing; they didn't serve that one on my flights. They served the Oriental Breeze drink instead..

You should have compared notes with the kid behind you. Maybe he reads the blog!

Most interesting tidbit was that Alaska miles failed you. Woof!

AS never has the same availability as OW.

As an aside - I was arranging a flight from CPT-LAX-SEA a few years back. AS could provide J on CX to LAX but their own AS flight to SEA was blocked in main cabin (call me basic economy). AA provided J on QR to LAX and "F" on the very same connecting flight to SEA

Needless to say I chose QR. What is so surprising is that AS never seems to provide a "J" connect for their long haul rewards. (AS F is no better than PE or weak J on any half decent airline). This is becoming so irritating that my future travel is tending toward other carriers.

"and my gosh, is it pretty or what?!"

After 30+ years as an ATC at ATL I can actually say, who gives a F#÷$, it's an airplane.

I just don't get the enamor, maybe I'm biased.

Not surprised at all about about the food...

I lived in HK for 5 years and flew them (exclusively in C/F) numerous times to Europe, BKK and SFO. I never once had a decent meal. Probably because everything was already cooked and already on the service trolley - so all the choices are readily available.

To make matters worse, my tour of the catering service put me off airline food coming out of HK altogether! Thank good the tour happened the last year of living there.

@Ben
"Then there were a pair of alright headphones. The one oddity was that whenever I plugged my phone into the outlet the headphones would make a horrible buzzing noise at the same time, to the point that I just didn’t charge my phone while watching TV shows or movies."

As a vendor of this equipment that competed on the tender where these items were selected, I can tell you that these (inadequete) noise-cancellation headphones were purchased purely on the basis of lowest price, much to the frustration of the CX IFE team (the airline had lost a bucket load in the financial year when the tender was issued).

The noise that you heard is the fact that in order to save cost the selected h/p manufacturer did not use cable that is shielded from the EMI (electro magnetic interference) that is generated by having the 'phone plugged-in. It's a simple recification that quality h/p manufacturers ensure is standard design.

The old saying, "You get what you pay for", I guess!

"Cathay Pacific has also introduced new table-wear (sic)"

Should read "table-ware"

"While the crew wouldn’t have been kinder..."

I think you mean, "while the crew couldn't have been kinder." "Wouldn't" suggests that they were actively resisting being kind, i.e. that that they were deliberately grumpy. "Couldn't" suggests that they were as kind as humanly possible.

Lovely review, but you need a proof reader to take this to the next level.

@Ben... Did you guys hold departure 15 min. due to slot restrictions at YYZ? It certainly couldn't have been due to availability of Customs due to your mid-day arrival

Just an FYI, all Cathay pilots are based in Hong Kong these days and have been for some time, maybe 5-10 years or so. It’s one of the primary drivers of high expat turnover. Reopening of bases is dangled like a carrot in front of new starters (spoiler alert: always returning to basing “soon”)

I can never understand how some airlines have great food in J but some, like CX and BR have horrific food. CX in my opinion has the worst food of any airlines I've ever flown in and BR comes second. Can't they call up Turkish or Emirates and ask them for the name of their caterer?

Captain Pringle?

Maybe the kid behind you can be the next OMAAT a decades or two later 😉

As for the signature dish, I'm very sure it must have tasted excellent to the executives when they taste tested this dish: when it was cooked fresh in a relatively small quantity. However it doesn't really work when cooked in a mass production manner to be used for reheating on a plane. <-- this is something I think CX often overlooked when they design their menu. Of course everything would have tasted great during their taste testing when they got Chefs and stuff cooking the food fresh and serving it hot.

@YULtide

proofreader

Guessing you had the Impossible burger at the Pier As the first burger? I have it each time I’m there 🙂

Thanks for the detailed review.
Absolutely loving your comment........."The crew uses tablets for taking orders and throughout the service, which allows them to address passengers by name pretty easily (and they do so in a natural way, not like at some US airlines where they stare at the screen to try to pronounce your name)."
I think it makes such a big difference to be addressed by your name in a natural way. If you feel the crew has to make too strong efforts to call you by your name, better they just don't do it.

@ YULtide -- Isn't that what you're here for, though? 😉

@ Dangerous Dave -- I actually had it at the Plaza Premium First Lounge, and enjoyed it. Then saw it on the menu at the Pier again, but figured I shouldn't have it a second time. Was quite good. 🙂

@ Charlotte -- Hmmm, are you sure about that? I'm 99% certain they at least still have pilot bases in YVR, JFK, and LAX, or at least did as of last year. I know because I flew next to a YVR based CX pilot just last year. I know they're basing new hires in HKG, but maybe they're still keeping the bases for existing pilots? Curious if this changed very recently, or if I'm missing something...

@ Always Flying Somewhere -- Best I can tell it was neither a customs not slot restriction, but rather they just made the decision they'd rather wait than arrive too early. Customs was indeed quiet when we arrived.

Ben, you’re right this is a great seat and the best J-class seat out there. I don’t think I need a door at all. I’ve experienced it on EWR-HKG and IAD-HKG (on A350-1000, which is really a stunning plane.) The seat and WiFi make me seek out the EWR, IAD and YYZ routes. I fly most between NYC and PVG and spent the last few years trying out F and J on JL, NH, BR, CI and CX (obviously) and this is the best transpacific option. (No reason to fly through the Middle East or Singapore, IMHO).

The food has always been CX’s achille’s heel. I did experience a great lamb chop that was First-Class quality, though sad you did not get that on this flight.

@Ben It was actually myself and my son that were seated behind you.
I do apologize if his excessive movie watching disrupted your flight in any way. His excitement in the features of the seat are twofold. Firstly as the A350-1000 has just started the non daily YYZ route he had only ever been in the B777 before as we travel this route a fair bit home from HK to Canada, and this was his first time onboard one. Secondly it was also a bit of a dig to me in age old Airbus vs Boeing, as I fly Boeings for CX.
I’m glad you enjoyed your flight on us and were very complimentary of the product. I will pass on your comments on the Service. As a note evening Long Haul departures have a meal after Takeoff followed by a meal before Landing, while daytime departures usually have meals at normal meal times. Perhaps I’ll be flying next time when it comeS time for you to review our 777X in the not so distant future, no spoiler alerts but I hear even better cabin enhancements to come.

@ Embarrassed Dad -- Nothing at all to be embarrassed about, his enthusiasm was adorable, and reminded me so much of me at that age (and heck, probably still me right now). Honestly made the flight all the better. Hope to fly with you some day. 🙂

What a great way to begin and end your flights to and from Toronto on the Airbus A350-1000s.

That Business Class main meal looked like they scrapped the remnants out of the wok onto that plate, before throwing the pan into the sink to be washed. Pathetic. And to think people may $$ for a J Class fare.

I flew the A350-900 from HKG to LGW last month. I loved the seat and how it fits into the surrounding ledges to make a larger bed space when the seat is fully reclined into a bed. There's even an extra bit by the seat entrance that I missed. The things I didn't like were the pillow - so thick that I couldn't use it - and the meals. On both flights they kind of forgot to offer dessert until I asked for it. Was a bit weird the first time but twice in two fights felt like it was a a deliberate thing to cut costs. Neither dessert very interesting either. Great airline though.

No need to put down Fresh Off the Boat.

I flew the CX A359 to IAD about a month ago. If I could only fly one a/c type it would definitely be the A350. The service was also underwhelming to say the least. They never even bothered to collect my glass or empty water bottles before landing. I felt like they were quite inattentive.

It is weird reading this review and realizing that I have had a consistently better experiences on United Polaris between HKG and EWR. From the seats to the food to the service to the amenities, CX would rate lower across the board. I find the seats offer more privacy, the food offerings are at least comparable (and the services are relatively quick and at reasonable times), the flight crew has always been pleasant and addressed me by name, and the amenity kits, bedding, and pajamas are a notch better. Plus, there are air nozzles overhead each seat.

I think US carriers get a lot of flack for terrible service and offerings, particularly for premium classes. While they may never reach the level of excellence shown by the ME or some Asian carriers, United and Delta are really solid products these days.

There are things CX does that are awesome, like their airport lounges, the hard product is really good, and I have never had outright terrible service. I do think CX could really step up their game however, particularly in the catering department.

Thanks for the review- I think that seat looks amazing and like they really thought of how to maximize space for side sleepers. Query- are the footwells in the middle seats as close together as they seem in the pictures?

I find food makes or breaks a flight this long. And this looks awful and the vegetarian or lighter options seem repetitive (pasta and pasta annnnnd pasta). Also, why no breakfast options? It seems odd indeed.

I do not mind trolley service for appetizers and desserts a la Turkish, that way I can see things and it feels very personalized.

I'd eat a veggie burger with cheese and fries any day on a flight rather than the lame remix pasta dish (or south asian dish you usually get when ordering vegetarian ahead).

Why don't you eat pork? Religious or dietary thing, or just don't like it?

@ echino -- Neither. I think pigs are cute and smart animals, and view them no differently as dogs for those purposes. So I just make the choice not to eat them.

@Ben (and @Embarrassed Dad) - based on the fight map photos, "we were crossing over from Russia to Alaska" didn't actually happen. It appears that this flight took a detour east of Japan and Kamchatka, avoiding Russian airspace. Was it just the wind pattern that day, or is there something else going on?

I was led to believe so but could have failed to consider North America. There may also be a small number of very senior commuting pilots remaining? It would be good if you could get a definitive answer though as the party line is “no overseas based pilots, bases opening soon!”

@ Charlotte -- Maybe Embarrassed Dad above could chime in? 99% sure they still have at least a couple of North America bases.

I flew the exact flight a few days after. I totally agree with the comment about the limited choices and the signature dish being somewhat underwhelming. Trying to hard to be very Cantonese?
The roast duck noodle was certainly a much better choice when I ordered it between the 2 meal service. I was surprised that the dessert and cheese was not offered unless I asked.
The bedding was a major improvement over the older planes, which I flew over from YYZ to HKG for the first leg of the two way trip. Eventually, it is a much better option than Air Canada and the airlines based out of the U.S.
I will have to try Singapore airlines on the next long haul transpacific journey.

@SBS This is usually a flaw in the moving map display. It does know attitude, speed and time left to fly and where you are in the world, however it doesn’t know the planned route. Therefore it traces the route you have flown and projects forward a great circle track the rest of the way to destination, which may differ significantly from the planed route due to winds, turbulence etc.

@Charolette Yes we still have pilots based outside HK, in USA, Canada, Europe and Australia and NZ

I flew HKG-SEA on A350-900 about 2.5 weeks ago in J. The A350s are definitely better in terms of comfort for passengers than the 777s. I agreed everything you have to say about the seat. I've had the best quality sleep on CX's F and J; better than Emirates' A380 First and Korean 777-300ER First in my opinion. They served pretty quick for the Seattle flight, but then, it's a shorter flight (just over 10 hours). For food, I found CX catering to be good, but have room for improvement. I usually picked the Cantonese options and I found them fine, but I have to say the presentation of the wok-stir fry you had was bad. I like CX food because they are not salty like most airlines, and they tried to use more spices instead. I remember one time I used the Chinese hot sauce provided (I just like spicy food), and they make sure I got the hot sauce on my next meal. Also, I really appreciate that CX always serve hot/warm bread in ALL classes. No one wants to be served stone cold roll.

I like they are using the tablet to take order; however, I found that when you order dinner, you need to order everything (from starter to main to dessert). They are all listed in the menu, but if you skipped something, they assume you don't want them. So take your time and look through the menu and make sure you order everything that you want. They are pretty good at responding when you press the call button though. I am guessing that they may have pull your soup from First Class (outside of main course, the choices for some starters are sometimes the same between J and F). CX flight attendance seem to try their best to meet your request, unlike those US carriers, in which I got "no" a lot without any attempt to even try.

And note to self, try the Cathay Delight next time. I do enjoy the Betsy though.

Thanks for the reviews! I enjoy your site!

I just flew roundrip between ORD and HKG a couple weeks ago on CX and was surprised by the mid-flight meal service. It is a terrible time to force wake travelers to feed them. It really disrupted the ability to sleep a few hours straight to hedge off jet lag. It was not as bad going to Asia, but the return flight was especially miserable. A week later and I'm still not acclimated to the time changes.

The last time I flew CX (before this most recent flight), I was fortunate enough to fly in First. It was dine on demand, so I was not woken up by the FA's to eat. And the past couple years, I had flown multiple times to HKG on AA (connecting in either LAX or DFW), and they also do not serve the second meal in the middle of the flight. They serve the second meal a couple hours before landing - which seems to make the most sense.

The long-haul J product on A350 and the 777 is fine. The PE product on the 350 is great (the best IMO). However the PE and Y product on CX's 777 is cr*p. The pitch on the 777 for both PE and Y has been reduced greatly. I've flown plenty on CX the last 20 years, mostly in J but occasionally in Y and W. I've moved my Y/W bookings for myself and my co to JL/BR for Asia/Americas and TK for Europe.

Lucky, I know its tough, but try a review of CX's 777 Y product sometime...inquiring minds want to know!... 😉

Very nicely written and detailed report! Cathay Pacific hard product has always been impressive...
Regarding your main dish, I guess you didn't like it as it had 'dried fish'. I don't know if you had had dried fish before or not but it requires an acquired taste and won't be pleasing to majority trying it for the first time.

I flew CX PE long haul+ (UK>Aus)
a couple of days ago. Flown CX Biz before.

In PE they also have this strange service flow on a 12h flight - first meal, five hours later second meal, then nothing for the remainder. Could it be due to crew breaks or rest time? It’s highly annoying.

Agree with previous poster - PEY on the new A350 is fab, nothing to write home about on the 777. As for Y - 10 abreast looks utterly dire.

@ Ben, do you know when the new Bamford business class amenity kit will be making it’s debut?

@Edd M, As I remembered, the reason why CX does the meal service that way is due to laziness and cost control. For a long haul flight, if they served a meal after takeoff and second meal before landing, there is a 8 to 9 hours gap between meals. And most passengers will get hungry midflight and asked for cup noodles and other snacks. To save cost, CX decided to move the second meal to midflight and nothing prior to landing.

On average, this can save them over 100 cup noodles a flight. Multiply that by 365 days. That can be substantial savings. Not to mention, the time saved for crews not having to make 100 cup noodles each flight.

Most airlines nowadays talk about consumer centricity. However, most of the service flow still used, do not focus on consumers’ needs. Hope for the better soon!

Totally with you on the service flow issue. My recent BOS-HKG-SYD flights were OK on the first sector but the second - a daytime flight - seemed to have the meals at odd sort of times, and there seemed to be up to half an hour between the table being prepped and any food or drink appearing, even having pre-ordered at the beginning of the flight. And no follow up on servcie offers.

actually, according to cathaypacific.com, the a350 wifi is offered by panasonic and the 777 and a330 wifi is gogo