Review of Cathay Pacific flight Hong Kong → Chicago in First

Unfortunately I wasn't able to visit the Pier First or Wing First. Really this was the only disappointment of my whole trip. My departure gate was about as far away from these lounges as you can get and I didn’t have a wide connection window in the first place. I entered the Dragon Air lounge across from my gate for 5 minutes. It was nothing special.

Maybe it was all the hype about how great Cathay Pacific’s first class product is that made entry into the cabin a let down for me. There is nothing wrong with the cabin, I just wasn’t wowed. It’s plain, one tone and nondescript. But then when you consider CX’s livery I guess it’s to be expected. Take for instance the white flower. Nice touch but again very bland versus say the red rose of Lufthansa that pops. Ok, enough of the whining, this is Cathay Pacific First Class!



First class has 2 rows of 3 seats. The seats are semi-enclosed “suites” which are well documented. They are nice, but not great in my opinion. To make the cabin more spacious the overhead bins have been removed and each suite has a cabinet to hold your carry-on, assuming it fits which mine did not. In that case you can place it under the ottoman which I did and was fine. The cabin on this plane had seen better days. Some of the trim was cracked, there were a lot of scuff marks. It just looked a little worn which happens with constant use. What was most noticeable were the lavatories that were standard 777 size. Smaller than EVA Air business class lavatories.



Seatguru has 1K yellow for possible galley noise. I ignored it. They are right. While I had a fantastic crew, for some reason it was important to rearrange the silverware in the galley for the couple hours I tried to sleep. If you get to travel on Cathay Pacific in first, try and avoid 1K. The other issue is I was never offered a mattress pad. I was given a blanket but not the pad. Apparently on CX you have to request the mattress or to have the bed made.



The best seats in the first cabin are probably 1A, 2A and the rest of row 2. However if you call for 2A, which I did, the agent I spoke with told me that 2A has a bassinet and if someone in first class was carrying a baby they would get that seat and I would be moved. So I passed on the seat, foolishly.

For those interested in business, the mini-cabin rows 11 and 12 looked pretty private. But if you want open space this is not for you as with the privacy comes confinement. Cathay reserves the first class cabin seats as well as row 11 as priority seats, so a call to them direct is necessary to procure one. Row 11 also has the bassinets. And once my seat was assigned, neither the mobile app or the website would allow any change.

Amenity kit:
The pajamas are super comfortable. They are tailored by a company called PYE. The pajamas are delivered in a cloth sac. Be sure to keep the sac and read the tags. There is a coupon worth 500HKD or a special gift from any PVE store in Hong Kong or China. Another FC passenger showed me the gift he received, 6 beautiful handkerchiefs. And the coupon is good until 2025! The pajamas run large in size so if you are borderline L, get the M. With regard to the amenity kit, it was nothing special. Just the essentials.



The champagne on board was Krug Grande Cuvée. And if that sounds familiar it is because EVA Air business class served it as well. Cathay had a nice selection of wines too, mostly french, 4 reds and 3 whites.



Great selection of food, both International and Chinese cuisines. The bottom line is the amount of food served on this flight was unbelievable




After suggesting you shouldn't order steak on a plane in the United review, I ordered the steak. Without going into all the details, I will say that the steak was worthy of being served in a fine Chicago Steakhouse. When I asked for it medium rare the Flight Attendant looked at me like, hey buddy you’re on an airplane, that’s not possible. However she pulled it off. The steak was excellent as was every dish. Rating the food quality on this flight is quite high, with the only negative being the accompaniments to the steak which were just ok.



Mid-flight soup


Breakfast: LH was much better!



IFE:
Bose noise cancelling headphones, huge monitor, large selection of current and classic movies and TV shows in English and Chinese along with an air show made this a very enjoyable flight. AvGeeks have to like the outside camera!



Flight Crew:
While I could nit pick and say there were a couple missteps, this flight crew was actually fantastic. They didn’t hovering over you every few minutes, but would come instantly if you rang the call button and would regularly drop off a fresh bottle of Evian when needed.

The prior night an Air Canada flight from China to Toronto hit a patch of severe turbulence caused by mountain waves over the coast of Alaska and 20 some people were hurt, requiring the plane to divert to Calgary. This crew was aware of the incident. As we approached the same area with the slightest bump, the seat belt sign went on. Then it got bad, severely bad. In fact the my FA who has been flying for 23 years said it was the worst he’d ever experienced. But this flight crew reacted quickly and no one was hurt. Lesson, always keep your belt on.

This plane was fairly new having been delivered in September 2013, so slightly more than 2 years old. As mentioned the cabin was showing some signs of wear and tear and I’m sure this was the original cabin. It really didn’t matter, other than the 10 minutes of turbulence it was a smooth, pleasureful 14 hours in the sky.





link to rewardflying blog for this flight