Cathay Pacific recently unveiled its new Aria Suites business class, which is progressively being introduced on the carrier’s Boeing 777-300ER fleet. While we know Cathay Pacific is introducing a new first class product, it’ll take some time before we see that in service.
Continue reading: New Cathay Pacific “Halo Suites” First Class For Boeing 777-9s
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I'm only curious the safety issue of the ladder for the bunk bed. This is very very impressive by the way.
Has CX said anything about whether they plan to restore more F offering to the US with the 779? I imagine its greater fuel efficiency compared to the 77Ws would make it more viable than now, where they have largely moved to the A350s on US routes.
It looks great. Target date: 2032 - if the dunces at Boeing ever even get the 777-9 certified.
I sort of wonder if the single aisle in first will create any certification challenges in terms of emergency evacuation tests.
The product itself looks fantastic, though, for sure!
2032? wow by then all airline miles are sky pesos.. may need 500k+ miles to redeem these
Best to take their time and avoid a crash. The public has no tolerance for aviation accidents and the airlines want the fuel efficiency target met.
It is a buetiful layout. I dont see how they are going to generate the revenue to justify the price. The .01% who can afford to travel in this comfort are used to flying private. I cant see the airline discounting these seats to people who want to redeem miles or travel vloggers who want to pay pennies on the dollar to video the experience.
I work with the clientele you are referring to and while they typically fly privately, they absolutely fly commercially with some frequency. Especially if it's ultra long-haul and/or they are traveling solo. This will be a terrific product.
Wow! So timely. But update your photos of current CX First. No Orchids in seats. Sad!
Just Flew JFK HKG HND for 160,000 Asia Miles transferred from bank card. Long Haul was great short! flight to HND seemed like business +.
Did get the Trifecta for Lounges. Wing Cabana, Pier foot massage, and Pier Day bed. While CX lounges closed overnight I had a Plaza Premium sleeper with toilet shower. View was up close to nose of CX A350.
Chase Sapphire lounge was open to Priority Pass, also Kieru (sp?) lounge, AmEx Centurion both packed Plaza premium near the Y had line of dozen people waiting to get in.
Spending HND overnight at Villa Fontaine Premier using Citi credit and non transferable Thank you points. Price point close to DEN Westin but Super jr suite (Executive room) Now headed to Onsen for sunrise
Safe Travels!
Good hope! I just transited JFK HKG HND for 160,000 AM snagged when CX announced First Class return to JFK! Keep searching! 😉
Brian,
Long haul private, in something like a G550, might be $200k round trip. A seat like this might only be $20k. There are orders of magnitude more people that can swing $20k than $200k.
Already there now. Delta is literally asking for a million miles, for round-trip Business between LAX and Australia, departing 26 Oct - 02 Nov.
I wonder if Boeing could stockpile 777x before certification and release a bunch of them right after certification? In principle this would keep currently paid workforce occupied and ensure a cash infusion rohjt after type certification.
Anyone has knowledge as to how active the 777x assembly line is ? It feels like it's idle.
I assume a reason for not doing this is they deem pre building frames as risky as they would need to rework them if the certification process requires them to change stuff. Which gives a sense of how little confidence Boeing has the 777x certification will be a smooth ride?
I think people discount the probability that there will never be 777-9 entry into service too much. If the strike continues and the engine mount problems aren't easily resolved, and if other problems emerge, Boeing might be forced to drop this product and cease to be a manufacturer of very large airplanes, at least until it finds a partner that can successfully build them. This is a small probability, but it is certainly a non-zero probability. I'm not counting on flying on this plane at all, and certainly not in 2026.
The books on the bookshelf are a nice touch, but those have got to be ornamental, right?
As someone who does it, if this comes to fruition, it's better than flying private long-haul on a G550/650 / Global 5/6000. The fact is they are not great when you convert it to sleeping configuration and the entertainment (unless you want to go cinema-mode for the whole cabin sucks). The G7500 has a great sleep cabin, but only two if you squeeze can make that work. I would take this any day, long haul, than private.
Wow!!! Cathay is seriously upping the ante. This will worry a lot of competitors.
The Halo Suites branding has been scrubbed if IIRC.
From what I've read, they're planning to release a teaser by the end of this year. Seems like a perfect time to steal the spotlight from Singapore! 😉
On the same vein as Cathay, I could see an announcement of a refurb for the A350 early next year with the project to start shortly thereafter; both the A350 and 779 could have the same product just like the 744, A340, 77W and select A330 had the same exact product back in the day, but I can see the seats (suites) being tweaked even more from its current iteration.
Lastly, they've expressed a desire to order more medium sized long-haul aircraft. So more A359s or 789s for a change. The A339s will most likely just fulfill the role of the ceo.
It’s a shame Cathay no longer makes F or J awards available to AA members. Had a few memorable flights for 2 in F back in the early 2010s. Even during Covid, was able to book J seats to DPS but since HKG and Indonesia were closed due to Covid, I had to cancel.
Woah, those Peacock Suites do look epic. Looking forward to Ben’s ‘completionist’ review once this is live!
Sign-me up! Looks amazing. Really hope this comes to fruition.
Only the starboard suite will have the bunk bed.
One can only imagine how hard this will be to book with points, but a man can still dream.
Here’s hoping it’s not worse than it is now to book CX F awards: rarely available but there’s occasionally a dump of awards made. Then just a matter of timing.
We're seeing a lot of airlines (Emirates, Air France, etc) recently limit F redemptions to top-tier elites only.
So it won't be surprising if only the highest tier Cathay frequent flyers would even BE ABLE to redeem, let alone what the cost in miles/points would be.
Just when I checked CX F off my list…
If this new product is anything like that Peacock concept, I will definitely make plans to try it out again someday, though I’ll wait until it’s fully deployed. There are enough other products for me to try in the next few years.
with all the delays going on with seat certification, i doubt CX will introduce anything out of the ordinary. I see them introducing something like ANA F.