Review: Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300 Medium Haul Business Class

Travel-Dealz editor Dennis had the pleasure of testing Cathay Pacific‘s business class enroute to Bali. How was the business class compared to for example EVA Airways’ business class that he reviewed earlier this year? Find out more and continue reading.

Booking

I have booked this flight with Asia Miles by transferring American Express Membership Rewards Points. The German Amex allows transfers at a ratio of 5:4. This flight costed 25,000 Asia Miles, therefore I had to transfer 31,250 Membership Rewards points. Taxes were pretty low with HK$446 (~€53).

Check-In

I checked in online, but unfortunately Cathay Pacific was not able to issue a (mobile) boarding pass – I am not sure why this happened. Maybe it has to do something with security regulations right now, as these are turbulent times for the city. Because of that, be aware of the fact that you have to be able to show a valid ticket to enter Hong Kong airport. Either have your booking receipt ready for inspection, or print the ticket before your journey. Expect a queue in front of the terminal building and a waiting time of 5-10 minutes.

The bag drop and check-in was done via the B check-in counters. They were completely empty and I was done in less than 5 minutes with everything. I have also received an invitation to the Cathay Pacific lounges.

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Lounge

I am a bit confused by the concept of differnet lounges with different names by Cathay Pacific. Do they differentiate or are they the same? That’s what I asked myself. Therefore, I wasn’t sure which one to choose. A quick research with Lounge Buddy also didn’t help since they recommended all four lounges.

So I decided for the closest lounge after passport control, which apparently was “The Wing”. I must say the lounge was only ok in my opinion. I expected a little bit more. It was basic and pretty crowded. The food selection was quite limited.

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Some of the seats were pretty worn out already and need replacement in my opinion. The Coffee Loft was a bit disappointing. More marketing than anything else. Due to Cathay’s advertisement for The Coffee Loft, I expected a Starbucks-like café. But in the end, it was just a seating area with a waiter using a coffee machine and an espresso machine. No fancy coffee variations and my Americano was not even done with the espresso machine.

One thing I also didn’t consider was the way from the lounge to the gate. It took me 10 minutes with very, very fast walking. With normal walking it would have probably taken 15-20 minutes. When I entered the lounge, there was no gate assigned yet for my flight. A little bit inconvenient, I would say.

Boarding

Once I finally arrived at the gate, the boarding was uncomplicated and quick. Business class passengers and status holders (including Oneworld Sapphire) were able to board first with economy class following after that.

Cabin & Comfort

The cabin has a very modern and clean feel. I actually really like it. It consists of a 2-3-2 configuration, so middle seats in the middle and the window seats don’t have direct aisle access.

The seats themselves are pretty comfortable at first and offer enough space for a 5 hour flight. However, be aware that these seats are just angled and not lie-flat. They are actually quite far from lie-flat. It didn’t bother me in any way because this was a day flight, and I wasn’t planning on sleeping. But after some time sitting on this seat, I noticed a lower back pain. The pain got worse over time unfortunately. Due to the limited configuration options, I wasn’t able to solve the problem and just had to accept it.

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As mentioned, the seat didn’t have much configuration options. Literally 3 buttons. Storage space at the seats was very limited too. The only storage space I could see was in the middle between both monitors. It was unfortunately too small for my phone, although it looks like that is the purpose of that space. The only other storage space I could see was below the middle console. My 15″ laptop almost fitted there but in the end the space was too small for that.

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The toilets didn’t differentiate much from economy class toilets to be honest. Except that maybe the soap was a bit nicer and there was body cream available.

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No amenity kits were provided on this flight.

Food & Service

The service was good and flight attendants were friendly. The one time I pressed the “service” button, a flight attendant helped me immediately, it didn’t even take a minute.

After boarding, I was offered a welcome drink. I had the choice between champagne, orange juice and a mocktail. I decided for orange juice.

After that I received a small bowl of salted and smoked nuts which was followed by a small plate of salmon, fennel and salad.

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A few minutes after that I received my main meal. I actually decided for scallops and prawns in sambal oelek with jasmin rice and okra on the side. But here is the full menu, so you can see the other options too:

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The meal itself was pretty tasty. But the presentation wasn’t great unfortunately. And the worst part: The food was almost cold, only slightly warm. After that I decided for fruits as dessert. Even here the presentation could have been nicer. The fruits however tasted pretty fresh.

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Before landing, the crew handed out glasses with water which I found was a very nice thought.

Entertainment & WiFi

The screen was in comparison a bit small. You often get screens with this size in economy class. But the movie selection looked very good. Lots of new and interesting movies from 2019.

The WiFi costs were acceptable for this flight. It costed me US$13 (~€12) to use the WiFi for the whole duration of the flight without any traffic limitations.

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I must say, I was pretty impressed by the download speed of the WiFi. Everything loaded quickly during the whole flight. However, I was trying to work on the review you are just reading and uploading media was just a pain in the ass. So, as long as you only need a download functionality, I can fully recommend the WiFi. If a good upload speed is mandatory, forget about the WiFi. Then it won’t be for you.

Conclusion