Cathay Pacific Airways Economy Class seat comfort reviews

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS ECONOMY CLASS SEAT REVIEW - BOEING 747-400

Date :   27 April 2013

Review by : B Cheung (Hong Kong)

I travelled Hong Kong to Paris. The fixed shell seats were unacceptable and we could not sleep. As I could not sleep during the flight, I watched the PTV for 12 hours to CDG and 10 hours to HKG! But the services of the flight attendant and the entertainment system, StudioCX, didn't disappoint me.

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS ECONOMY CLASS SEAT REVIEW - BOEING 777-300ER

Date :   21 April 2013

Review by : Chris VD Hooven (Canada)

The new economy seats on the B777-300ER long-haul flights is a huge improvement over the old shell fixed back design. Well done, much improved.

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS ECONOMY CLASS SEAT REVIEW - BOEING 747-400

Date :   21 April 2013

Review by : Jeremy Chan (Hong Kong)

Seat 68A, located at the end of the cabin, so 2x4x2 configuration, therefore lucky to have extra legroom and space. Very comfortable seat, soft cushion, and good seat pitch. Seat reclines without disturbing the person behind you, and very considering. IFE system screen is okay. Although the lavatories at the back may be bothersome, overall this is a very good seat.

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS ECONOMY CLASS SEAT REVIEW - BOEING 747-400

Date :   21 April 2013

Review by : S Howard (UK)

It was awful flying from London to Hong Kong for 12 hours, I was in so much pain, I think these seats are design for Asian passengers and not European, never ever again will I fly with this airline, on the return trip I desperately tried to buy a business class ticket but sadly it was fully booked, now I know why. I fly three times a year to HK.

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS ECONOMY CLASS SEAT REVIEW - BOEING 777-300ER

Date :   18 February 2013

Review by : Casper Yap (USA)

CX has switched back to the conventional seats, which is comfortable. No more switches for the lights or call button. Everything is on the touch screen. Problem is, if you are sleeping, and brushed the screen, it would come on and interrupt sleep. Also, my junior wanted to watch the tv and I could not switch the screen off as he knew to tap on the screen to keep it on. Get an on/off switch please.

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS ECONOMY CLASS SEAT REVIEW - AIRBUS A340-300

Date :   22 January 2013

Review by : Lynn Jones (New Zealand)

The non-reclining, incredibly hard and painfully uncomfortable shell seats really let down this otherwise excellent airline. Please Cathay Pacific, do a big advertising campaign when you have finally replaced all of these seats and I will fly with you again - until then, the idea of a long haul flight on one of these seats is not for me.

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS ECONOMY CLASS SEAT REVIEW - BOEING B777-300 / AIRBUS A340-300

Date :   22 January 2013

Review by : Gideon Afek (Israel)

The seats do not recline. I had two flight legs with CX - one of two hours and another of twelve hours. The seats have a feature best described as "slouching" whereby the bottom cushion that you sit on, slides forward, enforcing a type of involuntary slouch in the seat. There is no back support, and any flight time of longer than say two hours, this is absolute torture. Sleep is near impossible as in addition to this, the seats are extremely hard.

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS ECONOMY CLASS SEAT REVIEW - BOEING B777-300

Date :   18 January 2013

Review by : S Truax (USA)

This is the "new economy" seat that have replaced the fixed back "shell" seats. The seat has good pitch, very good width and storage with the cubbin on the seatback plus three pouches below the literature pocket- all very useful for a long flight. The AVOD system is great but only needs more and better choices of programs and games. Two major problems with these new seats - the base seat cushion becomes hard quickly and the recline intrudes greatly on personal space and privacy. At two hours (on a 15 hour flight) the seat became noticeably uncomfortable. My legs became numb from pinched circulation at about 3 hours. The new 6 inches recline is nice when you are sitting in it but intrudes greatly into the space behind you. The unpredictability of a 2 to 6 inch recline creates stress. Your knees get banged, laptop knocked off the tray table, etc. And your personal space and privacy is mostly in control of the whim of the passenger in front of you. Also, the thinner and lighter seat material makes for a smaller seat footprint which amplifies the loss of privacy when the person in front or to your side reclines. When the adjacent seat reclines, if you are to the right, you get an almost full view of their TV screen. That can be a distraction to you, as their screen flashes when you want to read or sleep.

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS ECONOMY CLASS SEAT REVIEW - BOEING B777-300ER

Date :   2 January 2013

Review by : J Liu (Hong Kong)

Hong Kong to Taipei on the new economy class seat. It is a huge leap from the previous seats. It has more recline, a more comfortable seat and a better, touchscreen entertainment system.

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS ECONOMY CLASS SEAT REVIEW - BOEING B747-400

Date :   1 January 2013

Review by : Ken So (Canada)

The designer of the seat knows nothing about ergonomics. The back doesn't incline but the seat pad slides forward instead, without any support at the waist. Back cushion is so thin that I felt laying on a piece of steel. Head rest makes my neck painful. Simply a nightmare and as such I will not take CX again.

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS ECONOMY CLASS SEAT REVIEW - BOEING B747-400

Date :   24 December 2012

Review by : M Wai (UK)

In the viewing position, seating is comfortable as there is a natural recline and you get decent support. Cushions seem standard. You have good view of the screen with good inflight entertainment. In the sleeping position, however, it is torture. The back support could not be adjusted, the bottom seat slides forwards a few inches instead. There isn't a great sleeping position. You just get neck problems whilst sleeping, and need to support your neck whist waking up. For long haul flights and for sleep, these are absolutely the worst seats.

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS ECONOMY CLASS SEAT REVIEW - BOEING B777-300ER

Date :   18 September 2012

Review by : M Ng (Hong Kong)

CX's new economy class seats are a quantum leap from the last generation of fixed shells. The seats are thin enough to give good knee/leg room without compromising lumbar support. At least as comfy as the SQ econ seats. Seat feels solid and well built. New IFE uses a touchscreen - personally found it a bit slow, rather temperamental. Have to wonder how these will hold up after several months of abuse by kids etc. Small recess under the IFE screen for storing phones, cameras, wallets, glasses etc a nice touch. Thumbs up to CX for carving slits into this recess so you can easily see if you've left any valuables as you deplane.

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS ECONOMY CLASS SEAT REVIEW - BOEING 747-400 / AIRBUS A330

Date :   10 September 2012

Review by : John Carver (Australia)

The seats on both these flights from Perth to London were the most uncomfortable we have ever travelled in.

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS ECONOMY CLASS SEAT REVIEW - BOEING 777-300ER

Date :   23 October 2011

Review by : Danny Ha (USA)

On the upright position, you get decent support even though the cushion is a bit thin and hard compared to standard airlines seats. In the recline position however, you get pretty much no back support as you end up sliding down (below the head rest) to get into any type of position conducive to sleep. For flights under 5 hours, I would choose these seats over standard reclining seats. You have good view of the screen, there's a power outlet and you can enjoy the inflight entertainment. Where Cathay made the mistake is for long haul flights where people are inclined to sleep for some portion of the flight. For sleep, these are absolutely the worst seats. I think they made a mistake in installing them on their trans-continental flights. In an ironic note, if you don't want to sleep on your flight, these seats are the best. If you want to sleep, choose a different airline. If you want to stay awake the whole time (which for flights arriving at night in either direction helps with the jetlag) I would choose Cathay.

Cathay Pacific Airways A340 Economy Class seat review  - 20 September 2011 by  Neil Cluff  (Australia)

These seats would have to be worst ever. The physical seat shell did not recline, however the seating within the shell slid to make believe you "reclined". After being loaded on the plane and being told that we had to wait for 10 mins for connecting passengers to join our flight, after sitting for this period, the seats then became extremely uncomfortable. Butt and back padding is very slim, and had to travel our whole return trip from Rome via Hong Kong, to Sydney, with the pillow and blanket at my lower back. this made the seat just bearable, however frequent moving and getting up, standing for multiple periods of time, made the trip just manageable. The only benefit of this type of chair is that you don't have the chair in front of you recline in your face - but this would have been great if the padding on the chair was softer.

Cathay Pacific Airways A330-300 Economy Class seat review  - 20 September 2011 by  Peter Geran  (Australia)

BNE to HKG and onto PVG. Awful seats. Have one more flight next week from PVG to BKK and thats it. No more Cathay Pacific for me. The shell seats are uncomfortable for a 183 cm tall person. Okay for 2 hours maximum, but, from BNE to HKG, they were torture.

Cathay Pacific Airways B747-400 Economy Class seat review  - 6 September 2011 by  Michael Burrow  (Hong Kong)

The seats are ok for short flights but very hard on long flights. There is no 'recline' available it just slides forward and pretends to recline. Leg room is marginally better than other economy seats since the back of the seat in front doesn't recline which is the only plus for this type of seat. Bring something to sit on as the seats get very hard after the first 6 hours!

Cathay Pacific Airways A340 Economy Class seat review  - 6 September 2011 by  Tim Williams  (UK)

Very bad design, not enough upholstery behind your back or under your bottom. Impossible to sleep because the seat didn't recline. I was cold, the seat was hard, I couldn't sleep.

Cathay Pacific Airways Boeing 777-300 Economy Class seat review  - 6 September 2011 by  William Chang  (Canada)

The new seat design is really horrible. The seat no longer reclines, and it becomes very uncomfortable for a long haul flight. I couldn't sleep well.

Cathay Pacific Airways Boeing 747-400 Economy Class seat review  - 6 September 2011 by  Nicholas Shearman  (Hong Kong)

I flown many airlines and this was the first that caused my ankles to swell. If you suffer from DVT stay away and if you are over 5 foot you should also stay away. I will never travel with them again - awful.

Cathay Pacific Airways Boeing 747-400 Economy Class seat review  - 11 August 2011 by  Martin Muirhead  (Hong Kong)

Seats are agonisingly painful after a few hours. There is a critical fault which means that there is not enough padding - a metal bar across the bottom of the seat hurts the bottom of your spine - the worst economy seat in the air.

Cathay Pacific Airways Boeing 777-300 Economy Class seat review  - 1 August 2011 by  David Chan  (USA)

The old Cathay Pacific seats was a lot more comfortable than the new seat which does not recline. I always like Cathay Pacific but with the new seat, I would recommend to fly another carrier even if it's not a direct flight.

Cathay Pacific Airways Boeing 747-400 Economy Class seat review  - 29 July 2011 by  Hubert Meeyer  (Australia)

The most useless seats - these seats define the very bottom of what I have ever experienced. Stay away if you can. Cabin staff and food were great and the only reminder of a 5 star airline.

Cathay Pacific Airways Boeing 744-400 Economy Class seat review  - 29 July 2011 by  Richard Stewart  (Australia)

I had exit row aisles on my journey because I am tall but they were very problematic as it was next to toilet and there was not enough room for people waiting to stand so they stood on my feet all night. This miserable airline had squeezed so many seats into the plane that there was no space even around the exit area - if there was an emergency it would be chaos! The next problem was the fact that Cathay economy seats do not recline so I had the trip from hell being over 6 foot, as my head kept falling forward despite a support pillow. On this airline they think that by having the bottom of the seat slide forward you have comfort - wrong. I had no sleep in 24 hours.

Cathay Pacific Airways A340 Economy Class seat review  - 21 May 2011 by  Thomas Cryan  (Ireland)

There was no recline. Seat pad moved forward slightly which brought my knees up against the seat in front Because of design of seat there was no head support and pillow supplied didn't fill the gap between back of my head and seat. The airbag attached to the seatbelt caused problems when the passenger in the adjoining seat moved they pushed down on the armrest which forced the airbag down into my thigh. The armrests were about 5cms too low and as a result didn't offer any support.

Cathay Pacific Airways Boeing 747-400 Economy Class seat review  - 16 May 2011 by  Marie Marson  (UK)

London to Sydney via Hong Kong. The journey entailed four flights in two different plane types. The return flight was direct with a 2 hour changeover in Hong Kong. I can only agree with the majority of passengers on this site who have already reviewed the new seats. They are actually appalling - the worst I have ever experienced. They do not recline and for myself and my husband that made sleep impossible. Whenever we tried to fall asleep our heads would loll forward, the breathing became restricted and we immediately woke up. The slide forward motion of the horizontal seat only succeeded in creating a non-supported gap behind the lower back which was very uncomfortable.