Cathay Pacific Airways

Flew SYD-HKG and HKG-LHR on these seats. These "mini-shell" seats are just horrible. While the legroom is good and the seat width is average I spent 13 hours of suffering on the Hong Kong- London route due to a small hard cushion a firm backrest no neck support and almost no head support due to the awkward recline. Tried to sleep but couldn't and on both flights ended up with sore butt and neck/head ache as well. Just weak. Have two more flights with these seats both overnight and are dreading them both. Will not ever fly economy with CX again with these seats and I will not ever fly economy to London again as I barely survived the Economy crush.

The shell economy seats are terrible!! Cathay promote their shell seat as being better than previous as it doesn't recline into the seat behind. However it is not easy - almost impossible - for someone to sleep sitting bolt upright. The seat cushion - which is very slim - only slides down about 4" within the shell and this is the extent of the movement in the seat. I was not a happy traveller !

Having read these reviews I can only assume the 'shell' seat is unbearable at any height. I am a 5'6"female & travelled with my 15yo son (5'10") and husband (5'9") - all of slim to average build - from Melbourne to Hong Kong. This was our first experience of these seats and the torture they induce. We each tried to cope with the unnatural shapes the seat contorts your body into by adopting different positions - enduring neck back and/or tailbone pain as a result. These seats are unquestionably the worst we have ever experienced I am just glad we left our 6' plus son behind. We assumed this was an old plane/old design; having just visited the Cathay site I am shocked to learn they are being lauded particularly given all the negative reviews.

For an economy seat leg room was good even with the seat recline. The new seat doesn't give a good sleeping position but few economy seats do. My big gripe is the cushion thickness. While just about bearable on the LHR-HKG leg it became very painful on the HKG-AKL leg. Take cushions and break your journey!

I'm 5'4" and found the seat OK on a 12 hour trip from London to Hong Kong so long as I used the pillow behind my back. The back of the seat provides no lumbar support and is hard. I will happily put up with this given the huge improvement brought about by the seat sliding forward into a recline rather than by tipping the seat back into the lap of the guy behind. This must lower passenger tension and air-rage and is surely worth it. I will no longer have to fight for an exit row or bulkhead seat again.

Let me assure tall people who wrote in hypothesising that their height contributed to their discomfort on these sliding seats: it had nothing to do with it. I am 5'3" found Cathay's seats to be poorly designed. Short people have spines too and the lack of lumbar support affects these stubby structures in a similar way. The only difference I noticed was that instead of having my knees pushed into my neck by sliding forward as taller folk experienced my head slid so far down the seat that the nifty head support gizmo spent most of the trip acting as a coat hang and not as head support.

YYZ to HKG return. This is a long 15hr flight. Being 6'6" makes any seat difficult but to Cathay's credit they gave me an exit row. Without this act of kindness I would have been crippled because the new shell design (non-reclining) is completely insane. Have the cushions slide forward and describing this as the same as reclining is absurd. Your knees end up in your face - try it at home! One can only hope that these things get scrapped and a legitimate engineer designs the new ones. Cathay Pacific dropped the ball on this one and I cannot understand how it hasn't affected their rating.

I have been flying with Cathay for the past 15 years. The new shell economy seat is the worst seat I have ever used. It has very thin padding and provides no support.

New economy seats for long haul are the worst I have been in. Didn't Cathay Pacific do sufficient research on this matter or did the fuel savings on reduced weight for comfortable padding and lighter seats dictate this decision? Just returned from flying to Amsterdam from Hong Kong and back pains.

New economy seat. Absolute torture. I'm 6'4" Doesn't recline only slouches so you slump down and your neck is bent at a torturous angle. No support no legroom luckily I was in an aisle seat and could stick one leg out in the aisle. Very disappointing as the Cathay inflight service is very good. Never again.