Cathay Pacific: Quick A330 and 777 Business Class Review

Cathay is known as one of the world's premier airlines. Based out of the service capital of the world, Hong Kong, this airline just knows what the hell its doing. As one of the first to pioneer the reverse herringbone seat in business class, Cathay Pacific's cabins are beautiful and classy, and have withstood the test of time as they remain the benchmark of the industry. Here's what I thought of the flight.

Lounge

Cathay has approximately 8,129 lounges in the Hong Kong airport. Totally serious. I walked around the terminal for about thirty minutes during my layover and every five gates or so was another Cathay Lounge. I walked into The Cabin Lounge first and as I was about to walk in, I was told there are no showers in this lounge, so I bailed. But it looked nice from the eight seconds I had to scan the place. 

I decided to go back to the opposite end of the terminal to the first lounge I saw-The Pier. This place is massive, and frankly the entrance is so big that I actually missed it. By in large, entrances to lounges are small doors tucked away in the corner of airports, but this entrance covered the entire terminal, with a grand staircase down to the check in area. 

The design of the lounge is super sleek and as minimal as possible. Bathroom doors are completely hidden, which made it tough to find and I actually had to get an employee to show me how to open the doors because I'm such a genius. 

After a way too long shower in a beautiful bathroom suite (fully equipped with all that you would need-except deodorant. Really needed that but you win some, you lose some I guess) and a quick bite of some East Asian snacks, I made my way over to the gate and boarded my flight back to the States. And as a quick side note, Hong Kong airport has you basically go through immigration and security again while at the gate for international flights, so just be prepared for that. On second thought, all flights out of Hong Kong are international. 

Seat

Cathay Pacific brought the reverse-herringbone seat into the realm of business class products and have stood by it throughout the years. It remains one of the best seats out there, without a doubt. When comparing the A330 and the 777, there is not much of a difference aside from the width of the seat. The 777 is a wider plane, so naturally, there was a wider and more spacious feel to the seat and the cabin, but that doesn't mean the A330 cabin was cramped by any means. The seat becomes fully flat and has enough positions in between to find a comfortable spot to watch movies or write blogs. All in all, the seat is what you'd expect from a high-end business class product. 

Entertainment

A solid variety of entertainment options on a solid-sized screen made for a pleasant experience on both flights. Not quite on the level of Emirates, but definitely better than most. The screen has to be stowed for takeoff and landing though, which is the only thing that bugs me about the entertainment systems on herringbone and reverse herringbone layouts. Boo-hoo, I know. 

Food

Being an Asian carrier, Cathay provides a great variety of multiple cuisines on flights. I fell asleep on the flight to Hong Kong from Male, but from Hong Kong to Los Angeles I had an octopus dish which was surprisingly good. I would actually give the nod to the food on Cathay Pacific over Emirates for the most part, although Emirates still does have a bar with small bites for intermittent cravings which is just fantastic. 

Service

Cathay puts itself way above its American competition in this regard. All the flight attendants were incredibly responsive without being too robotic. There is a certain appreciation I have for the flight attendants of American carriers with their hints of actual personality that shine through the prototypical behavior of high-end service, but I can't fault the attendants on Cathay for being good at their job. 

If you're flying to Asia, fly Cathay. Their prices are generally cheaper than other carriers such as Singapore Air and Emirates, and they provide just as good of hard and soft products from airport to airport.