Cathay Pacific Airways

Melbourne - Hong Kong - Frankfurt and return. Melbourne lounge dreadful - cramped viewless and poor food. Boarding chaotic especially in Hong Kong. Inflight service inconsistent - it seems business passengers are serviced last? The entire right hand side of the business class cabin was not offered bread during the meal service yet we all watched the basket being carried up and down the other aisle. Food not that good either - although of higher quality out of Melbourne and Frankfurt than Hong Kong. Requests for items (pillows drinks) required 2-3 times. They ran out of my preferred meal choice on both legs "we did not expect Caucasians to order it" said my flight attendant. Seat impossible to get comfortable on. I am only 172cm tall and 70kg but could not get a comfortable position. Odd padding sections on the seats and the very narrow foot well when sleeping filled me with regret that I had allowed myself to be talked into flying Cathay by my partner and not chosen to fly Singapore Airlines where you can stretch out and get proper service (in my view Singapore Airlines economy service is better than the Cathay business service).

CGK-HKG-CGK. CGK-HKG on regional A330-300. Up-to-date touch screen IFE. New and fresh regional cabin. Smooth take- off and landing. Food is a bit disappointing in volume and taste. Choice of drinks is also limited but acceptable. HKG-CGK on older regional B777-300. IFE is up-to-date with touch-screen function but fixed-shell economy seat a bit uncomfortable. Cabin crew should reduce their volume if they want to have some chit chat around the galley or at the very back of the plane so they do not disturb resting passengers.

CX 521 from Tokyo Narita to Hong Kong and CX 659 from Hong Kong to Singapore. Both trips were on the B777-300ER. Seats on these planes were so much better than the shell seats. They were the new ones used on the long haul routes. The touch screen PTVs were really sensitive which was good as compared to those on the old systems of the 777-300 and A330-300 as they hanged a couple of times when I used them. However not all was good. CX 521 was delayed for 2 hours because of bad weather at Hong Kong. We were only given a 500yen food voucher which was equivalent to 6 Singapore dollars. Anyway we were served coffee and tea from Tokyo to Hong Kong which really surprised me since they didn't do that for the Singapore to Hong Kong leg as well as the Hong Kong to Tokyo one. Service was a hit-and-miss affair but the staff were generally very polite with a few exceptions. The overnight "meals" offered on all Cathay Pacific regional red-eye flights: CX 659 was a red-eye flight and we were not offered any hot meals. We were only given a paper box which contained a muffin fruits a biscuit and an egg bun accompanied by a pack of lemon tea. I get that some passengers want to get some rest but they should have at least served hot meals to those who were awake. Nevertheless the flights were good because of the comfortable seats.

Maybe I was expecting too much from a regional flight. I was on CX 716 from Singapore to Hong Kong on 14th July. The economy class seats were the notorious shell seats and it was extremely uncomfortable. There was no lumbar support and the seat back was really hard. There was also no foot rest. In addition amenity kits and menus were not given out to us. What's worse was that when we boarded the flight not every seat had blankets and pillows on them and they were only available upon request and the entire process of passengers settling down into their seats was extremely chaotic as several passengers started requesting blankets and pillows from the cabin crew during pushback and the cabin crew were hurrying back and forth just to hand them the blankets and pillows. The food portions were also pretty small and I was still famished even after the meal service. The cutlery provided was also made of cheap plastic and not metal unlike on some other airlines. We were also not served tea or coffee throughout the flight. The cabin crew were in a rush to collect the meal trays from the passengers and when the pilot came on the speaker and requested for the cabin crew to take their seats for landing they did not even conduct a safety check for us such as making sure our seat belts were fastened window shades were lifted and hand carry items were placed under the seat in front of us. The only positive on my outbound journey from Singapore to Tokyo was that the cabin crew were really friendly and were always smiling. My inbound journey on CX was much better. I'll post a review on it after this.

AKL-HKG codeshared as an NZ booking. The A340 has the slide down seats that many hate but I love. Great lumbar support and it doesn't matter if the persons in front/behind want to eat sleep or whatever. Lunch was very good; arrival snack was good. All services were nice and efficient. Between NZ and CX I'd pick CX operated flights every time!

Cebu to HK to London. I had to wait for 20 minutes before I could check in even though I was travelling business class Marco Polo always get priority and there was no dedicated Marco Polo check in as it is shared. Lounge at Cebu is OK but very limited in choice of food and drinks. Left on time and arrived on time crew was the best I have ever experienced on Cebu to HK and vice versa. Arrived on time and boarded my flight to London the crew was very good as usual however again no vegetarian choice luckily I was not hungry. Film selection is a little poor this time hopefully next time it will be better.

Hong Kong to Manila flight CX903 operated by a Boeing 777-300ER (77A) First Class Configuration. Premium Economy Class had large PTV screens but meal service was the same as Economy although it was priority boarding and check- in. We were actually upgraded round-trip because of Marco Polo Club. The IFE did not have movies but it had TV shows. I asked the cabin crew for some playing cards and they gave me 2 packs.

Flew CX 0690 SIN-HKG and CX 0103 HKG-CNS. Both in Business Cabin both the recent new herringbone 1-2-1 config. The seat is good but everything else was mediocre at best. Lounge at Changi airport dreadful no proper business class queue at gate. No priority passport lines either at Changi or Hong-Kong airports. Walking distance from Lounge to departure gate at HKG is insane. In-flight service on both flights was all done in a hurry by noticeably overworked crew. Food was very mediocre. have had much better meals on many coach flights. Seat folds out to flat bed but on the A330 service HKG-CNS the small cubby hole where Your feet go the feet feel claustrophobic and it was boiling hot in there. The only Kudos for Cathay is the WING 1st Class lounge at HKG Airport with its great Cabanas and menu-restaurant dinner.

16/7/14 CX505 NRT-HKG. B777-300 aircraft registration B-HNN. Got these 4 flights at S$660 so it was the best value for money. Checked in online. There was a separate line for online check in at NRT so we breezed through check-in in a jiffy especially since there was almost no queue due to our early arrival. The plane was old and dated but with a refurbished interior with AVOD entertainment a huge difference from their ancient A330s and a few un-refurbished B777-300s and B777-200s. The AVOD was easy to use and had up to date movies. Music selection was really good for Asian music with new mandopop albums available. Inflight service was efficient and friendly. A full bar service with peanuts distributed followed by dinner meal service and trays of drinks after that with bar service on request. Food was decent and edible but nothing to write home about.

11/7/14 CX736 SIN-HKG. B777-300 aircraft registration B-HNI. Got these 4 flights at S$660 so its the best value for money. Checked in online. There was a separate line for online check in at SIN so we breezed through check-in in a jiffy. SIN is always efficient anyway. Boarding was on time and by seat numbers. The plane was old and dated but with a refurbished interior with AVOD entertainment a huge difference from their ancient A330s and a few un- refurbished B777-300s and B777-200s. The AVOD was easy to use and had up to date movies. Music selection was really good for Asian music with new mandopop albums available. Inflight service was efficient and friendly. A quick service of water juices and beer on a tray with peanuts distributed followed by meal service and nothing after that service by request only. We had a choice of chicken penne with tomato sauce or sweet and sour fish with rice and Haagen Daz ice cream. Food was decent and edible but nothing to write home about. My companion asked for an additional main course since he found the portions small. His request was granted after the meal service ended. Great service.