CATHAY PACIFIC review : 30 September 2007 - by Tom Hill  (China)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

HKG-LHR. Not bad but not the Cathay we first flew in 1999. Indifferent FAs and older equipment. Uncomfortable seating in 3x4x3 configuration. FA told us she was moving a passenger who allegedly needed more leg room into the seat between us rather than asking. Others were brusque and clearly more interested in their private business than the passengers on this flight. The most uncomfortable seating I have ever experienced. Our Air China flight on the same route last year was better. Only reason to fly Cathay out of China is being able check luggage all the way with Dragon Air.
 

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 30 September 2007 - by C Waugh   (Hong Kong)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Business

HKG-RUH-HKG in business. Generally speaking in-flight service reasonable and FA attentive with an effort made to 'personalise service'. Not sure why, but I generally find CX service to be more 'genuine' than SQ etc. On these flights, service and food lived up to expectations. However, planes are old and business class for long haul is certainly tired and below expected pars. CX considers Hong Kong to Riyadh to be regional, so old, worn out cradle seats are still in use. In both directions (same plane admittedly) my seat had mechanical problems and was generally uncomfortable to sleep in. CX has no real competition on this route, so I suppose they have no incentive to upgrade. I am a CX platinum member, but honestly, if there was another option on this route I would take it simply because the business class is substandard for flights of 8hrs plus. Cannot recommend business class for 'regional' flights of longer than a couple of hours - there are better choices out there!
 

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 20 September 2007 - by C Merchant   (USA)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

Los Angeles–Hong Kong–Denpasar. B747/A330. Cathay isn't bad, but based on my flight, I'd give them the high side of 3 stars. The food was mediocre, service was okay, inflight entertainment abysmal, and seat was fairly uncomfortable. In all fairness, the shorter flights (4.5 hours) were fine, hot food, etc. But the long-haul flights (13 hours) were not that great, particularly the return flight. The inflight entertainment system isn't AVOD, only five new release movies were offered, and two of those weren't working. They inexplicably served breakfast at 1pm (by local arrival time) and the omelet was cold and runny.

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 18 September 2007 - by Mike Kwan   (Hong Kong)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

HKG-TPE-HKG, Y class. The plane is an old aircraft but the food is OK, FA is friendly. IFE is average but it is only a 1-hr flight. Check-in staff is friendly, departure and arrival on-time. The service is considered good for short-haul
 

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 17 September 2007 - by Klaus Ziegler   (China)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

Booking over website very complicated - especially payment procedures make booking for non-Hong Kong resident virtually impossible: Booking requires verified credit cards for Master and Visa - something which is virtually unknown outside A-P area. Booking for trips starting from China use an agent with substandard webpage and poor accessibility (e.g. no firefox). Web-page support not useful as they refuse to make bookings if web-features fail.
 

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 16 September 2007 - by V Heijninck   (Belgium)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

Amsterdam-Hong Kong-Denpasar. Had a very good flight, cabin staff was very friendly and helpful, had very good seats, enough leg room, good food and very good service.
 

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 15 September 2007 - by Gavin Slater   (UK)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

Shanghai Pudong to Hong Kong. Flight took off on time with fairly new plane, good service, hot meal very tasty and drinks. Very good for such short 2 hours flight. Left on time, good information from cockpit and good service. Would use again.
 

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 9 September 2007 - by O Santosh   (USA)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Business

MNL-HKG. The check-in process, including rebooking took only 12 minutes! Lounge CX airside lounge is adequate for 1 flight but not when people are waiting for 2 flights (which seems typical). A larger and more diverse choice of reading materials would have been more preferred. B777-200 : C-class 2-2-2 seating with angled lie-flat seats was comfortable. CX has perfected service on short-haul, high- density flight sectors like MNLHKG - an abundance of staff who know how to work together. Brunch quick. IFE selections very good. Cabin crew were helpful and pleasant. HKG airport arrival procedures are among the best. Luggage reclaim was fast.

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 6 September 2007 - by Neill Bell   (Scotland)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

LHR-HKG-MNL Economy Online check in is no such thing: you cannot print a boarding pass. On the bright side, check in was swift & friendly. Boarding was simple and the flight left on time. Nice to have a printed menu and food was good. Drinks seem to be restricted a lot. A real problem for me was, the flight before 1pm and by 4pm, a bossy flight attendant was telling everyone they had to pull down the blinds! My bedtime is not 4 in the afternoon. Arrived in good time at Hong Kong, transfer was easy and good boarding. Yet again, no drinks, not even coffee this time. HKG-LHR an after midnight departure. Full plane but we got off on time. Meal OK, drinks had to be asked for but the whole flight was ruined for our section by an officious little FA who just rushed to do the minimum required.
 

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 27 August 2007 - by J Stevens   (UK)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Business

LHR-HKG-SYD, CNS-HKG-LHR. The documentation said "new business class" - it probably was in 1983. We travelled in three assorted Airbus and a 747, and the only "new" seats we saw were pictured in the inflight mag. The seven hour flight from Cairns to Hong Kong was mystifyingly classed as a regional flight, which merits clonky mechanical sub 'premium economy' seating with no AVOD, and that flight originated somewhere else in Oz before pickup in Cairns - so beware. On the plus side, the food, service and staff were excellent. AVOD entertainment system was ok. It needed to be because sleep on a seat reclined to the angle of a slide defeated (6ft) me, and I refer here to the full intercontinental sectors and not the thoroughly nasty "regional" one. Until CP actually get a full set of aircraft into the market place with the new seating, I certainly wouldn't use them.
 

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 23 August 2007 - by David Bourke   (Hong Kong)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

ROME - HKG - SYD - Economy. First leg on 747-400 - given bulkhead seats with excellent legroom. However water boiler in the galley started leaking, meaning the carpet in the first 2 rows was soaking wet within an hour of take-off. Cabin crew just shrugged when told, and covered the floor in newspapers. Announcements could not be heard properly due to extremely low volume, and HKG Immigration cards not handed out to any passengers. No AVOD - just old seatback screens - picture quality on most channels was barely watchable. Crew young and very inexperienced, no smiles but provided reasonable service. Food was excellent. Flight from HKG to SYD was on an A330, leg room much tighter than on the 747, same very poor quality AV System, but cabin announcements clear, and crew much more professional. Food again was excellent. This was my first and probably last Cathay flight, they are no patch on SG/BA, or Qantas which is usually excellent (although crew can be either very good or very ordinary). Cathay desperately need to update their planes, Video Systems and crew training!
 

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 18 August 2007 - by Roger Stone

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

Cathay Pacific BNE-CNS-HKG and HKG-SYD Economy Class. Excellent service, good food, but poor check-in service at Kowloon Station, even though we used the First Class check-in facilities there as One World Emerald status. This is a very good initiative whereby passengers travelling from Hong Kong or Kowloon Hotels can check-in at the station rather than going through the herding process at the main airport. However, sometimes, the check-in at this facility can be less than satisfactory due apparent inexperience of the check-in person. On this occasion, someone in charge intervened and sorted out our poor seating arrangements but initial reaction from the Cathay Pacific check-in person was not good. However, onboard service was very good on all legs. Also, the Pier First and Business Lounges at Hong Kong Airport are very good indeed (I recommend the pork buns and the coffee!). Otherwise, I have to agree with other's comments on these pages that seat pitch on Cathay Pacific Economy Class is an issue, especially on the A330s. This issue becomes more of a concern when other passengers invade your space in any way, due to the short seat pitch. I think it's time for someone to write a book on airline passenger etiquette! Otherwise, a good experience generally due to the excellent cabin staff on Cathay Pacific and good on-time performance.
 

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 15 August 2007 - by Reto Wieland

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

HKG-LHR Economy on 747 equipped with the new seats. Interesting concept and a good solution as the seat reclines into itself - opposed to cramping the legroom of the person behind. Don't expect more recline though, and the seats were a bit hard. Larger TV's and much improved Video system with AVOD in Economy. The system is better than AVOD in the current Business class. It is so much faster to respond. One note though, who chose the colour scheme? It is the ugliest looking cabin I have ever seen. Let's hope that it is only because this is a "soft launch"?

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 7 August  2007 - by Mark Freyton

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Business

Bangkok-Hong Kong Business Class. Check in Bangkok was fast and queue free. Rushed to Cathay Lounge for a quick drink but was ushered out to the gate by the lady telling us our flight was closing. However when we got to the gate the flight was not even boarding. Business cabin was full, but was restful. The crew were friendly, but did not seem to have the professionalism that Cathay used to be known for. Seats old style cradle seats, but comfortable for a short flight, and legroom generous, Food adequate although bore no relation to that on the menu. To be fair the Purser did apologise that the wrong menu was on board. Nice to have entertainment on the short flight. We left and arrived on time, and as usual the baggage was on the carousel in Hong Kong by the time we got there. All in all a pleasant if unremarkable journey

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 29 July 2007 - by Mike Tate

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

SYD-LHR return in economy in July. Having flown with Cathay the previous year I was expecting a service of equal quality, especially having seen the Cathay web site advertising the new seats being introduced throughout 2007. Bought the flights well in advance and the flights were a very competitive price. All flights on time, but that was about all I can enthuse. 3 of the 4 flights were on older planes that really should have been refitted by now, the worst being the A340 to LHR. The flight attendants did the bare minimum with most not welcoming us when we got to the economy section. The inflight entertainment system broke down halfway between LHR and HKG - they did offer us a Cathay Pacific voucher worth $25US as compensation, but kept us on the plane nearly 10 minutes as the vouchers hadn't arrived. By then I think most people were just keen to get off the plane and not too bothered about the voucher. Cathay have certainly gone downhill over the last 12 months in their economy service and I will certainly look elsewhere in future, and even consider paying more with other carriers.
 

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 29 July 2007 - by G Kong

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

n/a

Value for Money:

n/a

Cabin:

Economy

FRA-HKG-MEL and back in Economy. I like their selection of movies on their entertainment system although the choices are somewhat limited. I was also impressed that on the HKG-MEL flight, which was totally full, the staff could reserve a particular main course for me served at a later time because I felt sleepy during dinner time. My biggest gripe is the serious lack of leg room on the A330s serving HKG-MEL, but let's hope that the new economy seats will bring about a much needed improvement.

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 27 July 2007 - by L Limacher

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

n/a

Value for Money:

n/a

Cabin:

Economy

BNE-HKG return in Economy. Found crew friendly and attentive. Food better than average with a nice choice of meals. Menu handed out with amenity kit. The seating was quite comfortable if a little cramped. IFE made time pass quickly. Would fly Cathay again

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 27 July 2007 - by Kevin Pullen

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

n/a

Value for Money:

n/a

Cabin:

Economy

BNE to HKG in June in business. Did not realise that this aircraft was regional and seats were not long haul. No angle flat bed and limited IFE. Not really appropriate given that flight, incuding stop was around 10 hours. However, Cathay lived up to expectations in other respects - excellent and responsive service and good food.

CATHAY PACIFIC review : 15 July 2007 - by S Srinivasan

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

n/a

Value for Money:

n/a

Cabin:

Economy

TPE-HKG and HKG-BKK in Business. Check-in at TPE fast enough. The lounge at TPE is alright - a little small, though there wasn't much of a crowd on a Sunday morning, and the free wired internet connection was a nice touch. They did have a decent selection of drinks and a noodle bar. B777-300 in the old configuration, ie. manual controls on the seats and no personal TV. Bags already on the belt by the time we got to the baggage claim at HKG. At HKG, we availed of the city check-in at the Airport Express train station. This is a nice feature, though the lines were longer in the Business Class check-in desk than the Economy desk. Immigration at HKG a long affair, taking nearly 30 minutes to clear the line. Then on to The Wing and its Noodle Bar - definitely worth the visit for the tasty noodles! Wi-fi access was free. HKG-BKK flight on a new-style A340, with personal TVs (not AVOD) and a nearly lie-flat sleeping position - odd for a 2.5 hour flight, but nice. The food quality was very good on the TPE-HKG sector, okay on the HKG-BKK sector. FA service on both legs was excellent, attentive and friendly. Only the uneven food quality prevents this from being a 5-star experience.