Review of Cathay Pacific flight Zurich → Hong Kong in Business

Hi guys, back here for my latest report, which is for my return trip from Europe to Hong Kong.

Part 1 HKG-FRA (Econ class):http://flight-report.com/en/report-13781.html
Part 2 ZUR-HKG (Business class): You are here :)

Video version of this flight review: (Kindly watch and comment!)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch'v=ohUOvGz7oQM)


I usually take economy class because it obviously is cheaper and I am not those kind of people that requires a large amount of comfort so…but this time I am taking business class because we would be arriving Hong Kong in early morning the next day and I would be directly heading back office to work so…let me spoil myself a bit before the official end of the trip lol


It was so sad to be the last day of the amazing Europe trip and we were taking the train from Zurich city centre to the Zurich Airport


Arriving at the Terminal building, walked around a bit before going through security


the Departure floor


Cathay's counter. Cathay Pacific started its Zurich service in March 2015, making ZUR still a pretty new port for Cathay. It currently runs one service per day.


Our flight. It was on time!


Before the security check. Zurich Airport uses automatic gate for scanning the boarding pass before passengers get to the security.

The airport is good enough to provide security lane for first and business class passengers specifically.


Getting to the airside. The terminal building actually is not very large but the design is pretty modern and it looks nice


Zurich Airport in German on the glass wall


Going to get onto the train to reach the gate


On the mover. Not a lot of passengers which is a good thing


Saw our plane today :) Its B-KPW by the way


The aisle across the gates. The design is just neat, modern and beautiful


Our gate today is E56. The boarding had already started and we were walking pass to the business class queue haha


Boeing 777-300ER is a must fleet for Cathay's long haul flight, until it receives its A350 later this year and uses it in the new London Gatwick service starting in Sep 2016


Getting to my seat. The business class seat is equipped with a touch-screened 15 inch PTV


Welcoming screen on PTV. Cathay's long haul class is equipped with the well-perceived flat-bed seat ;)


Looking out of one of the two windows at my seat. What a giant GE90 engine :)


Later the purser serves me the welcoming drink, the amenity kit and the oshibori


The safety video (2016 edition). Good animation but umm…a bit bland tbh


The control, small lamp, AV input panel and a socket. Very handy and good equipment


We started pushing back


You can see obviously a lot of space at the seat as the seat can be extended to make it a long flat bed


The seat across the aisle is not occupied, so to give you guys a look how the seat looks like


The earphone equipped at the seat. Much more advanced than the handy econ class one


Taxiing to the runway. Cathay's 777-300ER is equipped with an outside cam at the belly of the aircraft


Very soon (not that soon but I took the video instead of pic…) we were in the sky already! We were making U-turns over Zurich city


And then we were above cloud layers and flying over the snow mountains. This was also the time the ISM greeted the passenger one by one holding the iPad Mini which has info of the passengers on the plane


"Daytime" mood lighting of the business class.
By the way this is a 4-class plane with 6 first class, 53 business, 34 premium economy and 182 economy class seats


The business class menu. Instead of the single thin piece of two-side paper distributed at the Econ class, we get a booklet, including the lunch, snack and breakfast menu and also the drink/wine list


It was a busy airspace and it was my first time seeing two other planes flying in the sky, and they seemed not that far away (Although I know they are)


Start of the lunch service. First coming the drink and the nuts


The appetizer includes vitello tonnato, marinated beans and spianata romana, with mixed salad, balsamic and olive oil dressing, and also garlic bread


For the main, I chose the steamed John dory, clear ginger sauce, broccoli and steamed jasmine rice. The other three choices are roasted chicken breast, asparagus, grilled polenta and tomato compote; braised lamb shoulder, roasted vegetables and grain mustard mash; and strozzapreti, vegetable brunoise and lemon cream sauce respectively.


Afterwards I get the cheese plate which includes Aarenberger, Bergkase and Urner Brie


Then the pineapple coconut cake and currant coulis

Overall the meal was quite good, and in sum it was quite a heavy meal. It was just that the rice was a bit dry and I could feel every single piece of the grain instead of more moistened one.


After the meal the purser served every pax a bottle of Evian. Business class pax can ask for Evian water on demand. The perception is good, compared with getting water from the water tank and I have to either prepare an empty bottle or ask for small cups from time to time over the 12 hours.


The mood lighting turns to the resting mode.


Ice cream time of course! Instead of coming with the meal as in the Econ class, in business class the ice cream is asked on demand as for other snacks. They got my three favours to choose from and I chose the cookies & cream :)


Flying high in the sky


Still around 8 hours to go


We were entering the Middle East Region. We took this route instead of flying over Russia as my flights from HKG to Europe did typically


I was still a bit full from the huge lunch and ice cream but it was already 6:30pm in Zurich and out of curiosity, and also to make my Business class ticket worth, I ordered the won ton noodle. It was a bit bland but with the chili sauce the scent pretty much stimulated the entire cabin, esp those sleeping passengers haha


The lights were turned back on around 2 hours before arrival to prepare for the breakfast service. Quite some passengers were still sleeping and skipping the meal


The breakfast consists of juice, banana smoothie (I didn't take it because the FA was asking me whether I want it and I actually couldn't hear what she was asking me in English…I only revealed this later when I read over the menu again), fruit and bircher muesli & mixed berries (Err…the texture was a bit weird actually….highly sticky and bland while carrying an artificial flavour…), as well as bread (I chose the chocolate croissant)


For the main I picked the egg and spinach roulade, streaky bacon, tomato, mushrooms, sauteed potato and Hollandaise sauce. Other two options include chicken and black mushroom congee, and blueberry and mascarpone pancake

The main was pretty delicious by the way


Another look of the seat. So comfortable when making it half-flat for watching the TV and even making it fully flat for sleeping. By the way there is one flaw of the seat: The PTV is fixed and there is no adjustment of angle so it is a bit tough when you wanna relax a bit and adjust the seat to semi-flat level. (Heard they will turn this around with the new A350 cabin seats)


Another mood lighting after meal


Time for sunrise. So beautiful


Arrival gate and baggage claim info


Transit info for connecting Cathay Pacific and Dragonair flights in the morning. Mainly SE Asian flights


30 mins to go


The sky is getting brighter and brighter


Starting to dip down across the cloud layer…HK weather always sucks…


(Landing in the video) Landed…racing with another Cathay plane..


Arriving at the gate!


Arrived safe and sound :)

Scheduled departure: 1330 CEST
Actual departure: 1346 CEST
Scheduled arrival: 0705+1 HKT
Actual arrival: 0650+1 HKT

And Hong Kong airport now sucks in getting baggage coming out. Average waiting time is 20-40 mins. It is useless even though we were entitled to priority luggage arrangement. HK airport just sucks in terms of such efficiency I am sorry.