After a brief visit to The Bridge, we headed towards The Wing, which houses one of Cathay Pacific’s first class lounges at Hong Kong Airport. I’ve reviewed The Wing First Class Lounge before, so I’ll keep this review brief.
I really planned the order of our visits poorly. The Wing is located just past immigration, while The Bridge is located near gate 35. Our flight was leaving from gate 43. So really we should have visited The Wing, then The Bridge, and then gone to our flight, rather than The Bridge, then hauling back towards immigration for The Wing, and then to the gate.
If it’s any justification, I was hoping to have lunch in The Wing, and they weren’t yet serving that when we cleared immigration.
While there’s a train running between gate 1 and gate 35 at Hong Kong Airport, it’s one-way, so you can’t take it in the other direction. So we made the roughly 15 minute trek between lounges, which is always a nice walk.
Hong Kong Airport terminal
The Wing has both a first and business class section, and the first class section has a side entrance on the second floor, so we took that. If you enter through the ground floor entrance you’d have to take the elevator up a level, so I find going directly to the second level to be faster.
Entrance to the Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge Hong Kong Airport
The Wing First Class Lounge reopened last year after a lengthy renovation. The lounge isn’t huge, and does tend to get crowded during peak periods.
Keep in mind that not only first class passengers are eligible for access, but also oneworld Emerald members. So there are lots more passengers than you’d otherwise have in a first class lounge.
Closest to the entrance is the champagne bar, which features two types of champagne and rose. It has plush leather chairs, though usually I just grab a glass or two and then head somewhere else.
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge Hong Kong Airport
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge Hong Kong Airport
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge Hong Kong Airport
Then there’s a long, sleek hallway which leads to the rest of the lounge.
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge seating Hong Kong Airport
There’s a fair amount of seating, though during peak times most seats are occupied. In fairness, the seating is nicely spread out, so that even when the lounge is full it doesn’t feel too crowded. There are servers roaming the lounge to service drinks, and they’re usually quite good at staying on top of things.
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge seating Hong Kong Airport
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge seating Hong Kong Airport
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge seating Hong Kong Airport
If you do want to pick out your own drink, the bar is at the opposite end of the lounge as the champagne bar, and features a good selection of booze and cocktails.
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge bar Hong Kong Airport
The Wing is “open air” in the sense that it’s on the second level and overlooking the rest of the terminal. As a result you do hear a fair amount of terminal noise.
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge view Hong Kong Airport
In this case we didn’t have much time, so we headed straight to the dining area, which is catered by Peninsula Hotels.
The lounge features both individual tables along the center of the room, plus some booths along the side of the dining area.
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge restaurant Hong Kong Airport
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge restaurant Hong Kong Airport
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge restaurant Hong Kong Airport
As we arrived they were just clearing breakfast. The dining area has both a buffet and a la carte menu. The breakfast menu read as follows:
At 11:30AM they switched to the lunch menu, which read as follows:
In addition to the excellent a la carte options, the buffet is quite good. It’s not huge, but well prepared and nicely varied.
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge buffet Hong Kong Airport
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge buffet Hong Kong Airport
In terms of cold options, they had several types of salads, salmon, etc.
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge buffet Hong Kong Airport
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge buffet Hong Kong Airport
Then there’s a nice sushi spread.
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge buffet Hong Kong Airport
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge buffet Hong Kong Airport
And then they have more than a handful of hot options, including Western and Asian options.
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge buffet Hong Kong Airport
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge buffet Hong Kong Airport
The dessert spread is possibly the best part, though, with fresh fruit and all kinds of stuff I shouldn’t be eating.
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge buffet Hong Kong Airport
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge buffet Hong Kong Airport
Service in the dining area is generally attentive and friendly, so it’s a really solid dining experience.
While I didn’t have time to use it this time around, a highlight of the lounge are the cabanas. They have well over a dozen shower rooms, though only a handful of cabanas, as pictured below. While you can usually get a shower without a wait, the cabanas do tend to have a queue during peak hours. So if you want one, be sure you get on the list as soon as you arrive at the lounge.
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge Cabana Hong Kong Airport
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing First Class Lounge Cabana Hong Kong Airport
Given our 1:30PM departure time, we left the lounge at around 12:45PM, given that it would take about 20 minutes to get to our gate. We took the train to gate 35, and then walked from there.
Hong Kong Airport terminal
Hong Kong Airport terminal
Hong Kong Airport terminal
Hong Kong Airport American departure gate
By the time we arrived at the gate boarding was well underway. While our boarding passes were quickly scanned, there was a further security checkpoint on the jet bridge, which took about 10 minutes.
Hong Kong Airport American departure gate
American 777-300ER Hong Kong Airport
Cathay Pacific’s The Wing bottom line
The Wing First Class Lounge is definitely the nicest lounge at Hong Kong Airport, and a solid oneworld first class lounge. Ultimately it’s not quite to the level of the top first class lounges in the world, like the Air France First Class Lounge Paris, Emirates A380 First Class Lounge in Dubai, Lufthansa First Class Terminal in Frankfurt, and Thai Airways First Class Lounge & Spa in Bangkok.
But in terms of the showers and dining area, I do think the lounge deserves high marks, especially when accessing it as a oneworld Emerald member. In terms of the experience from the perspective of a Cathay Pacific first class passenger, I really do wish they’d spruce up ground services aside from the lounge (like a dedicated immigration and security channel, for example), but that’s a whole different story.
If you’ve visited The Wing First Class Lounge, what was your experience?
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