Cathay Pacific Airways

HKG-ORD on B777 in Business. Despite a 90 minute delay a wonderful flight. Peaceful cabin environment comfortable seat excellent IFE good food and crisp professional attentive service. Hard to find many faults other than a somewhat sub-standard wine list. Would recommend Cathay for long haul business which is significantly better than their regional business product reviewed previously.

I first flew Cathay in 2011 to China which was a very good experience in all areas (service catering entertainment etc) however I flew Cathay again in 2014 to USA and Canada and was very shocked at how the quality of their service catering and entertainment had declined in a matter of 3 years. The staff who were previously helpful are now unfriendly lazy and unhelpful and the catering is atrocious. The food is poor quality and has little or no taste and rightly said by another reviewer they somehow no longer provide salt and pepper! I understand times are tough with certain airlines but you wouldn't expect them to skim on basic condiments. The entertainment system has limited options and sadly I think the overall passenger experience in economy has gone downhill. Don't think Cathay will be my first choice in future.

My wife and I travelled from Sydney to Hong Kong on 3 October 2014 in Premium Economy. Cathay Pacific had not cleaned its on-board toilets prior to leaving Sydney. Shortly after take off we used two separate toilets on the plane. Both toilets were filthy both had urine all over the floors and smelt. Our second leg of our trip from Hong Kong to Paris with Cathay Pacific had a delayed departure of about 1 1/4 hours. Finally we discovered why there had been a delay. Cathay Pacific announced that the entertainment system on the plane was not working or more correctly that there was no power to the entertainment system. Hence in Premium Economy we spent 12 hrs on a plane with no entertainment system no reading light and an inoperative flight attendant call button due to no power. The responsiveness of the flight attendants remained minimalist despite the inability of passengers to call attendants. Overall Cathay Pacific's service and value we received for the money we had paid was very poor. From what I observed in October 2014 the standard at Cathay Pacific airlines has dramatically fallen.

Travelling from Melbourne to Beijing and transfer in HKG (CX178 and CX390). The seats are fine and studio CX is good. It has some new movies TV dramas and music. Especially it has the entire season of TV series. Other airlines only have several episodes. MEL-HKG had supper and breakfast the food was delicious. Three choices for the main course: fish fillet beef sirloin with rice and vegetarian penne. Breakfast had two options they are seafood congee and frittata with bacon. Choices ran out as I was in the rear row so I can only choose frittata. But the cabin crew keep apologised many times they were very good.

We flew from Hong Kong to London Heathrow on 23 October. The flight left 35 minutes late. The first problem was that Cathay Pacific had not registered my vegetarian meal and were in the process of allocating this to a surprised passenger nearby (who was willing to accept it). When we let them know that it was me that had ordered the vegetarian option the crew said that It "shouldn't be a problem - there was probably a spare vegetarian meal aboard". Not what you want to hear at the start of a 13 hour flight. For the record the other partners on the flights involved (Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand) had registered my request and made it clear within minutes of our arrival onboard that they knew where to deliver the vegetarian meal. We saw the cabin crew for the two meals and on three occasions after - the other aisle was serviced our aisle had little assistance. I was awake for about two thirds of the flight so I didn't miss them while I was asleep. We had to almost grab a steward to hand over our rubbish. This was not Premium Economy this was cattle class with extra legroom. Never again. Next time we fly we will avoid Cathay Pacific.

Recently flew from Calcutta via Hong Kong to Chicago. Calcutta-Hong Kong section operated by Dragonair. Good service friendly attendants. Interestingly enough I was served a full meal while the others in the cabin received a wrapped sandwich. Eating and drinking "sumptuously" while surrounded by passengers sipping cola and chewing on a morsel made me self-conscious and slightly uncomfortable. A flight attendant informed me that the others had been upgraded and had not paid the fare that I had and was thus not deserving of the full meal and drinks and convenience pack normally provided in this cabin! The Hong Kong-Chicago flight was efficient as always though it seemed the standards among the flight attendants were not uniformly high. Overall Cathay Pacific delivers a high quality travel experience.

YVR-HKG-MEL in Premium economy. On balance a bit of a mixed bag experience. Seats definitely an uptick from economy but the fundamental problem is cabin design which is flawed - the cabin feels like a retrofitted afterthought which it is. On the B777 YVR-HKG leg the one toilet in premium economy is in the right front of the cabin necessitating anyone on the left side of the plane to crawl across the four seats in the middle front row to access it. That isn't well thought out and isn't a nice thing to do to the people sitting there and is difficult at night with all four people stretched out sleeping so the alternative is walking back into economy down the left aisle which is a hassle. On the A330 HKG-MEL there is no premium economy toilet which requires a trip back to economy. Food seemed more 'economy' than 'business' but to be expected really. The other big negative on the YVR-HKG flight was the premium economy cabin was filled with upgraded passengers due to a massively oversold economy cabin. I would estimate 80% of the people in premium economy were upgraded and not for status reasons which makes the logic behind paying for it hard to justify. On the positive side Cathay service always shines and the crews are professional and efficient.

MEL-HKG-YYZ return in economy. It was okay let's face it economy is never going to be fantastic but for economy it was just fine and I would do it again. As we were going to Canada we were allowed 23kg x 2 which is great. I considered upgrading to Premium Economy but it would have been an EXTRA $4000 for the two of us just too much. The flight to and from HKG from Mel was fine. Seat a little hard but we found sitting on their blanket in its bag helped there. The food was okay. The FA's were lovely very friendly. Entertainment very good also. Flight to Toronto was full. We paid extra for exit row seats. Was very cold against the door. I had wrapped just about everything I could around my legs it was really freezing there but still not a bad seat in that you could just walk straight out of it no climbing over anyone so if you go for that seat bring warm items for your legs. Going to YYZ was better than returning. Returning the staff seemed to disappear. They were not very organised at YYZ coming back either the line ups were all messed up and wheelchairs couldn't get through. They called the far rows first before business and it was just a big crazy mess of confused people. We were late leaving HKG for MEL due to late passengers but not surprising as there was a gate change. Mostly though the flights were on time our luggage arrived safely the entertainment was good and thank goodness there were no shell seats as what we experienced back in March. After travelling to Canada before via LA this is a far better option even if longer. Stopping over in HKG is ideal and the airport there is very efficient.

DEL-HKG-SFO in Premium economy class. Few of the points to be highlighted are: Reliable co-operative ground staff and very co-operative onboard staff. Highly graded on punctuality. Easy booking even on phone. Easy online check in and pre-allotted seats. Good and tasty onboard food service. Comfortable seats even in economy class premium economy class is not as comfortable as advertised by air line but OK for the money charged.

We travelled from Hong Kong to LA on the 17/10/2014 on flight CX880 we usually fly business but on this occasion we flew premium economy we have flown for many years using Cathay to Australia Europe and the Middle East so were expecting a good flight not long after dinner the staff closed all the window shades obviously wanting people to sleep so they did not have to work as was indicated by the total lack of any service they passed through the cabin about twice in 6 hours offering people warm water from a bottle where was the ice cold drink or tea or coffee? I have never ever experienced such poor service in all my years of flying the staff on this flight had no recollection of customer service or relations to earn the 2014 airline of the year baffles me. we will certainly not be using Cathay on future flights the aviation world is full of options.