Cathay Pacific Airways Passenger Reviews and Customer Trip Reports

At Delhi airport, I got transferred from a BA flight due to heavy local weather in London to a Delhi-Hong Kong-Chicago-Miami itinerary (my connection to Miami was on risk). They put me in Premium Economy, and I must say, it was a pleasant experience. Fair enough for a 15 hours flight, straight from Hong Kong to Chicago. Food OK, seats very comfortable.

JFK-HKG-SYD in Premium Economy. As Oneworld Emerald members we had very little seat choice, were lucky to get an aisle seat and one beside (initially assigned seats in Economy). Lounge at JFK is the BA lounge, staff unhelpful and rude, in fact BA staff did not know the difference between the Cathay and All Nippon reps in lounge. Boarding was a nightmare, someone was in one of our seats, and the passenger in 32F had placed half her hand luggage under one our seats, then refusing to move her bag. When suggested she place her bag in an overhead locker said claimed they were all full. BA the handling agent in JFK did zero enforcement of hand luggage sizes and quantities. Biggest problem was the Cathay Cabin Crew who seem to have no empowerment to deal with irregular situations. After paying for Premium Economy it is not an unrealistic expectation to have the space under the seat in front of you free from baggage (esp bags that are not your own) on a 16 hour flight. Seat comfort ok, IFE good, but disappointed that an issue that could've nipped in the bud quite quickly turned into a major drama.

CX234 (Milan-Hong Kong) on a 777-300ER. The plane looked new and clean. The food was not as good as it used to be, however, you can have unlimited drinks and snacks (if available) during the flight. Staff were helpful and friendly. The seat pitch was excellent, especially for me since I am quite slim. A personal screen with a USB port, however there was no AC plug in economy class. The movie collections were satisfactory. In general, I would highly recommend Cathay.

Biz class from SIN-HKG-YYZ, round trip. Experienced their new international business class for the first time and I am suitably impressed. This is the best business class seat in the market right now, in terms of both comfort and inflight service.

MEL-HKG-NRT-HKG-MEL in December. Boring A330 plane, bland colours (grey) with seats that slide forward to recline. Flight left at midnight, first drink at 2 am, food at 2.30 am, scraps picked up at 3.30 am. Why so late with service. Not impressed on first leg. Japan service in daytime OK. Back from Japan on old 747. Bigger seats so good journey. Back to Melbourne overnight. Same plane, same deal - kept up all night waiting for drink or food and then locked in seat until scrap pickup over an hour later. Good pilots, good service staff but bad planning of service. Would not fly again at their prices. Let down from expectations.

Bahrain-Manila. This time I encountered a problem with the touch screen TV, first the language was set in Korean but I was able to easily re-set it to English, the second problem was, after an hour it wasn't responding anymore. I asked for an assistance and the cabin crew responded immediately and asked if I wanted to transfer seats. Luckily there were vacant seats at the back which were nicer as we had more room to recline. I still enjoyed the experience of flying with CX and overall, it was a pleasant journey. I might try other airlines in the future.

JFK-HK-CGK in Premium Economy twice in 3 months (09.12 and 12.12). Most comfortable seats in this cabin are 31 A-C and any seat on row 30 for 777-300ER. 31C does not have any storage pocket so you have to keep your in-flight convenience items in the overhead bin at all times. Other passengers will walk in front of you if you are seated on row 30 to get to the toilet. However, the space in front of those 4 seats are still spacious enough for pedestrian traffic. I can't comment on their other aircraft's since I have only flown this type of aircraft. Those seats I mentioned earlier have foot rest extensions unlike the rest of the PE cabin. It makes such a big difference on a direct 14-15 hour flight. Food is good and service a tad higher than economy with more snacks, bottle water and better choices on the menu. I have flown the same route in Business and keep in mind that PE is more of an economy plus as supposed to a downgraded Business class. The dedicated toilet is good. However, if the PE cabin is full, it gets very crowded. CX offers dedicated check-in for PE passengers if you are not a Marco Polo member. Overall cabin experience is good, not great. PE seats are double if not more than Economy. Get those seats I mentioned above to fully take advantage of this cabin.

They have the worst seats on their Airbus 330 from Chicago to Manila via HK. Their in-flight entertainment is excellent, with personal controls and an extensive library of movies and television shows. The food is merely OK, while the service is decent. But the seats ruin the experience. I could barely sleep and I definitely needed to stand up periodically because of the discomfort. It's so bad that I won't fly Cathay for long hauls.

If you experience any problems submitting comments on the above link, please use our general   Feedback Page