Cathay Pacific first class

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  • icenspice
    Participant

    The two lounges I did visit were The Pier – close to where I got back to the departure gates – and then The Bridge (much busier) on my way to Gate 47. Obviously, I wasn’t hungry at all after breakfast before landing so didn’t eat a bite.

    I am interested in the triple 7 variant used to Taipei. I travelled in Business in 15K. The seats were upholstered in green and the flight was going on to Narita.

    Again the service was excellent but slightly rushed on such a short sector (90 mins), let down only by the main course of braised chicken.


    EruditeSheep
    Participant

    icenspice – if you look at Seatguru via the following link, can you identify which 777 variant you used? Presumably the seats were the so-called angled-flat type.

    http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Cathay_Pacific_Airways/information.php


    icenspice
    Participant

    Thanks EruditeSheep

    It was definitely a B77Z New Regional, as noted above by Senator.

    I am just wondering which is the longest route this aircraft flies?


    IanFromHKG
    Participant

    EruditeSheep, the seatguru site is misleading, as CX doesn’t have any angled-flat seats on any of its aircraft. They are either the new Cirrus fully flat seats (long-haul A330 and B777-3), the old “coffin-style” fully flat seats (B747 and A340, not being upgraded because they are to be retired) or regional “lazy-boy”-style seats (regional A330 and B777)


    EruditeSheep
    Participant

    Ian, thank you for pointing this out. I guess this leads to the question as to what airlines (and indeed Seatguru) regard as “angled-flat”. Certainly I have seen instances where airlines sometimes regard seats offering less than 180 degrees recline as flat-seats, yet trying to get a good sleep is almost impossible, since you keep on sliding down. In these cases it’s the contour of the seat that matters. Indeed on older UA aircraft, before they transitioned to fully flat seats, the old-style business class seat reclined so far (e.g. upper deck B747), your back was almost flat, and since the seat cushion wasn’t sloping forwards, you could sleep successfully. This was never possible on the B777, since UA appeared to set the limits on recline differently on that aircraft.

    Your “lazy-boy” style looks rather like the old BA “cradle seat”. So indeed, Seatguru is misleading.


    IanFromHKG
    Participant

    This is the regional business class:
    http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2012/09/25/cathay-pacific-introducing-new-regional-business-class-product/
    Can’t compare with BA’s cradle seats or UA’s (although the writer does) as I didn’t experience them
    As to the meaning of angled-flat, seatguru themselves have an accurate description – they just misapply it to CX’s regional seats, which are “recliners”:
    http://www.seatguru.com/charts/longhaul_business_class.php

    icenspice, IIRC, regional is up to five hours (might be five and a half). Over that flight time per sector you will definitely get long-haul fully flat seats. Under that could be either – CX use long-haul aircraft quite extensively on regional routes to improve utilisation


    icenspice
    Participant

    Thanks Ian

    I love the ‘lazy boy’ expression, something I hear daily at home!


    KSHaggag
    Participant

    I am more than DELIGHTED to be given the chance to sing praises of CX over and over again .I am a crazy fan of European airlines generally but I managed to make some space in my heart for CX since 1998 !!
    CX is still the airline ( outside Europe ) with which I have so sweet memories of a fantastic service ( seating ,ambience ,crew ,crew ,crew ,crew ,food on board ,lounges ,etc ..)
    If I need to praise an airline for its outstanding standards of service in Business Class on long and medium legs both in the air and on the ground it will definitely be CX ..It is not the right space here to share my experiences with CX in business class on long haul legs over the last 15 years and counting but I would always commend their crew s know how ,gracious and superb service and attitude and the fantastic service on board and in their WING lounge at HKG airport ..I do fly CX to BKK ( COMING FROM THE MIDDLE EAST VIA HKG ) for the sake of spending a few hours at my second HOME ( The Wing lounge ) and I make sure to book my onward connection with a few hours layover to have time to enjoy all the facilities at the lounge .
    Appointing the Peninsula Hotel HKG to prepare the catering at the lounge was a fantastic idea .
    CX ..please keep flying for me as long as I am alive to enjoy great moments in life on board your flights and in your lounges ..


    ExecPlatAA
    Participant

    KSHaggag – have you flown Qatar or Etihad business? The on board product, meals, lounges, limo service (Etihad) leaves CX far far behind. Was a time when the Asian airlines were aspirational, now it is firmly the ME3. Even SQ comes across as a cost cutting business class by comparison – CX is way behind. They need to up their game big time, to compete with the ME3.


    ghlotus
    Participant

    I agree with ExecPlatAA. Except for somewhat narrower seat and lack of caviar, Qatar Business Class (with latest seats, as on A380s) is equal to CX First Class. Qatar less impressive on older planes, however, such as A340s. Must be careful when booking, as some Qatar routes are served by two or three different aircraft types and seats.


    ExecPlatAA
    Participant

    agreed 100% ghlotus.


    CathayLoyalist2
    Participant

    Like KShaggag I have been with CX for 25 years so my observations are based over the long term and across the entire offering. CX have been consistently very good to great and I don’t restrict those comments to just the hard product. Have there been those occasions where CX got it wrong, yes of course, but unlike comments here about other carriers who ‘disappeared’ when a complaint surfaces CX have always stepped up and resolved the issue quickly without any excuses and you can’t say fairer than that. Other matters for example , and this was my fault, I let some miles expire so they were out of date. I called CX and made a polite request if I could still use them on an upcoming trip and within 24 hours an email came back saying ‘happy to help please call us to book the ticket. Now to Oct 2012 returning to SIN via HKG somewhere over Moscow the Inflight Services Manager came up to me and asked if I was aware I had just gone through the 3 million miles milestone. I had to say I hadn’t. She then produced a huge card signed by the entire crew saying “Thank you”. Only last week returning to HKG from JFK I felt compelled to approach the ISM to congratulate him and his crew on an exemplary service level and I have since written a letter to that affect. My 25 years with CX has been littered with those sorts of nice volunteered touches so I haven’t felt the need to ‘jump ship’ so to speak. So whilst I haven’t flown with the ME3, save Emirates, CX have kept me happy. To the comment that CX is ‘way behind’, given ExecPlatAA’s bad experience a while back, might have coloured his view of CX, that comment is in my opinion an exaggeration but hey everyone will have a different perspective. We will se whether the ME3 can deliver the consistency that CX has over 25 years.


    ExecPlatAA
    Participant

    You have a valid point CathayLoyalist2, I readily admit my POV is indeed colored by my experience with CX in First and then in business, a few weeks back. That said, its not an exaggeration that the ME3 have innovated their hard and soft products to a level that significantly surpasses the likes of even CX and SQ. The Wing was the de facto standard for First lounges, and Qatar surpassed that easily even in business, at Hamad Intl. Etihad business lounge in AUH is far superior to any CX business lounge at HKG (The Pier is a disaster – more like AA in DFW D Terminal). When one travels with hard earned $’s, it is hard to justify legacy offerings and take in consideration service over a long continuum – it is the flight you are on that counts. If anything, SQ and CX are closest in offerings to the ME3, and rather than rely on their past glory and current dated offerings, they would do well to accept the challenge and up the ante. My 2 cents.


    conc001
    Participant

    Never understood all the fuss about Hkia I personally find it one of the poorer airports in the region. Main reasons being no fast track security long lines at trasfere lines and very averages lounges. Personally I’d take lhr t5 and day day over it.


    KSHaggag
    Participant

    Thank you Cathayloyalist …I can share many other experiences with CX in Business Class on longhaul flights to Frankfurt ,Sydney ,Dubai as well as on shorter ones to Bali ,Kuala Lumpur etc to the extent of admitting that their care and exemplary service enticed my tears to run down my cheeks ,…..the compliments I have received from CX on board no other airline even my beloved Swiss managed to come close to ..
    Cathay is there when you need it …always with utmost care and love ..
    I did fly QR and EY in Business Class on longhaul flights several times and I am telling you that I admit QR A380 in Business class is great to London and Paris …fly it to BKK and watch the difference …QR is still convinced that segregating passengers based on the region you are flying to/from won t be noticed ..Etihad is a very good ,innovative airline that I go out of my way sometimes to fly with as I love their approach to expansion by partnering with other carriers like Darwin and Air Serbia ..a great value added for me ..Etihad just needs to have a better hub in AUH ..hopefully in 2017 with the Midfield Terminal …
    I love you CX ..

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