Review of Cathay Pacific flight Sydney Hong Kong in Business

Airline Cathay Pacific
Flight CX110
Class Business
Seat 20D
Aircraft Airbus A330-300
Flight time 09:40
Take-off 16 Nov 18, 08:40
Arrival at 16 Nov 18, 15:20
CX   #2 out of 95 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 509 reviews
rays
By 1482
Published on 25th January 2019
Greetings Flight-Report Community!

It has been a very very very long time since I post my last flight report, so it's probably time for me to post several new reports.

In this flight report I will cover CX110 SYD - HKG and also CX312 HKG - PEK (since it was a short flight)

I took this flight on the 16th November 2018, I was extremely busy between October and November (pretty much flying at least once every 3-4 days) so it was like the very first time in my life that I feel I hate flying… But I had to do it anyways..

I was only going to stay in Beijing for 1 day, and then head back to Sydney, but one of my friend in Hong Kong said that we could meet so I added a stopover in HKG, so the whole trip looks like that:

16th November CX110 SYD - HKG (this report)
16th November CX312 HKG - PEK (this report)
18th November CX331 PEK - HKG
19th November CX161 HKG - SYD

I will cover the return flight later.
I booked the flight in the evening on the 15th, and I did not sleep on the 14th, so I quickly went home after I booked the flight and slept for a few hours and wake up to catch the early morning departure.

Because I booked so late, window seats were all taken, so I picked 20D in the rear mini cabin (I always go for 20A on 33K and 33E, but it was already taken, it would be a nightmare if I went 20A on that flight, more on this later)

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Seat map. I think CX is doing okay in the premium cabin on this route despite very poor loading in Y cabin.

I was very tired at that time so no photos for the check-in. But it was all very smooth as you would expect and I only waited 1 or 2 mins before it was my turn. And when it was my turn, the check-in agent waved her hands and said "Mr. rays, this counter please." Yep.. too many flights in two months so the check-in agents even remembered my name..

I skipped the lounge since it was only 20 mins until boarding.

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B-HLS, one of the oldest A330 in CX fleet in long-haul configuration.

Boarding was rather chaotic, so many people was waiting in the business class queue before the boarding was called which was probably caused by the poor design of the airport signage.
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You see, the blue screen was the CX Business Class signage, but behind that blue screen, there was another screen with PEY and Y signage (you can tell it was from another airline from its layout and style etc.) So I guess that's probably the Y boarding queue signage for Gate 37 (we were boarding from Gate 35). But of course if you are not a frequent CX flyer you wouldn't be able to tell it was not from CX, and obviously many Y pax were waiting in the J boarding queue because the J boarding queue would not be that long before the boarding was called, but the staff didn't take any action before it was too late, by the time they guided all the Y pax to the Y boarding queue, the queue had already become so long and it was very chaotic.

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But anyway let's get on board.

All CX's long haul business class seats are in the same design, I really like the design and the consistency across the fleet.

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Because CX110 is operated by an A330, the business class seats in the middle are much narrower than those on the 77W, (not much difference for the window seats I think)

Push back was on time and breakfast was served soon after take off.

Menu on this flight was exactly the same as CX110 November 2017, so if you want to see the full menu, you can view it in this report.

So something happened after take off, my neighbor in 20A found that his seat could not recline! And crews tried to fix it but failed, and the J cabin was completely full on this flight. So he actually just sat in his seat for the whole flight without any recline… I bet even Y seats are more comfortable because they can at least recline a little bit…

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Start with a Mango Smoothie. I really liked it!

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The yogurt was quite good. Croissant was just average.

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For the main course I had the Dim Sum. Was Okay.

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Finish with a HK style milk tea.

Both of the crews serve the left section are from Japan. They offered very good service on this flight.
After breakfast, I quickly went to sleep, and wake up just before lunch was served. The narrower ottoman in the middle seats do make me feel kind of restricted so probably avoid them on A330.

Lunch was served 4 hours prior to landing, which is the normal process for this flight. But no nuts served prior to lunch which was weird. (Big nuts fan there :( )

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Starter. Again.. that mackerel was like a piece of rubber… so hard to bite…

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Kung Po Prawn. I think crew put too much sauce in it, but tasted okay.

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Some fruits and cheese, accompanied with a Port.

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Chocolate mousse for dessert. Very very good. Rich and smooth.

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Finish the meal with a hot chocolate.

I couldn't sleep for the rest of the flight, so I just relaxed in my seat and watched some TV shows.

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Flight map on this aircraft was still in the old style.

We landed on time. For the whole flight, food was kind of disappointing, but crews were absolutely fantastic, every need was addressed friendly and efficiently.

The next flight CX312 was departing from Gate 19 so I went to the Deck Lounge near Gate 16.

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Can actually see the boarding process of my flight from the Deck.

Because we parked at Gate 19, so I knew it would be B-HLS again operating CX312.

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Seat 20A is now blocked.

Loading was very light on this flight. about 30% full in business class, and I was the only one in the rare mini cabin. Does feel very private now xD.

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Pre-Departure drink, Oriental Breeze, one of CX's signature drink. I do like it over Cathay Delight.

Push back on time.

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Some Ramen documentary.

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Coconut water to start. This drink does not appear too often on CX. Especially long haul.

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More Oriental Breeze.

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That tuna salad starter was fantastic, probably the best starter I've ever had on CX.

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For the main course I had the Japanese Miso Chicken, was very tender and delicious.

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Some ice-cream and milk tea to finish.

I found the meal on CX312 much better than the food offering on CX110 despite CX312 was a short flight. Service on this flight was very efficient because the light loading, but not as friendly as the crews on CX110.

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More hot chocolate before landing.

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Not long after the meal, we started our decent, the flight-time was only 2 hr 20 mins on that day.

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View of the cabin after landing. (Can actually see my seat 20D on previous flight)

Thank you for reading!
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Verdict

Cathay Pacific

8.0/10
Cabin10.0
Cabin crew9.0
Entertainment/wifi7.0
Meal/catering6.0

Sydney - SYD

8.6/10
Efficiency8.5
Access8.5
Services8.5
Cleanliness9.0

Hong Kong - HKG

9.3/10
Efficiency10.0
Access10.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness9.0

Conclusion

Overall, I found the food offering on CX110 to be quite disappointing, but the crews on this flight was fantastic.

Was quite surprised that food offering on CX312 was so good.

I will upload the return flight in a few days.

Information on the route Sydney (SYD) Hong Kong (HKG)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 11 avis concernant 3 compagnies sur la ligne Sydney (SYD) → Hong Kong (HKG).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Cathay Pacific avec 8.4/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 9 heures et 24 minutes.

  More information

2 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 485388 by
    JW19 120 Comments
    Seems like Cathy uses a poor caterer at Syd. But frankly they really need to speed up their change of the mains presentation, I find the serving dish more akin to economy or PE.
    • Comment 485581 by
      rays AUTHOR 10 Comments
      I think the poor food offering is caused by the low budget CX gives to the catering company (I believe it is Gate Gourmet at SYD, not 100% sure)
      The new business class service will be rolled out on SYD route from February 2019, and I do have a business class booking in Feb so will be posting that afterwards.

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