Recently I had the chance to fly in Cathay Pacific first class between London and Hong Kong. I’ll provide the full details of my booking in my review of Cathay Pacific’s first class, but long story short the flight was motivated by expiring Asia Miles in my mother’s account. I also flew back to London after my holiday in British Airways premium economy, which I’ll also be reviewing in this trip report series.
My flight from Heathrow’s Terminal 3 was leaving at 5:50 PM, though I wanted to be at Cathay Pacific’s first class lounge for lunch. Since London is an outstation destination check-in only opens three hours prior to each flight, so check-in was closed between 11 AM and 1:50 PM due to how Cathay’s flights out of London are timed. Thus, I dropped my bag at 10 AM, then headed past fast track security to get to Cathay Pacific’s Heathrow lounge, located at Lounge C in Heathrow’s Terminal 3 lounge area. I was pointed into the first class section of the lounge by a friendly lounge attendant – access to Cathay’s First Class lounge at Heathrow is permitted for First Class passengers, Marco Polo Diamond members and oneworld Emerald members.
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow
The lounge itself is small and cosy, featuring comfortable armchairs and sofas of sorts. In addition to that, there were comfortable chairs with ottomans facing the tarmac. All of these seats were equipped with both universal and USB power ports.
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow Seating
The chairs faced some of the adjacent gates, though you also had a view of taxiing aircraft. I spotted a British Airways 787 as well as a Singapore Airlines A380 (hi!).
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow Tarmac Views
Behind the main lounge was a sit-down dining room, where an a-la-carte menu was served. As far as I’m aware this is a smaller version of a dining area featured in Cathay Pacific’s The Pier first class lounge in Hong Kong. I’m not quite acquainted with the green seat covers, though it preserved integrity to Cathay Pacific’s muted green touches throughout their new lounge design, which I enjoyed. The dining room only opened at breakfast at around 10:15, which I imagine would be inconvenient for those on the 11:15 AM flight back to Hong Kong.
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow Dining Area (ft. yours truly)
In addition there was a small snack spread in the main lounge area, though it was largely unused (probably due to the fact that there was table service available).
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow Snack Spread
I forgot to take a picture of the breakfast menu, though was in the restaurant for both breakfast and lunch. The lunch menu read as follows:
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow Menu and Beverage List
I was happy with the selection of food, but more impressed with the huge selection of drinks on offer, from the numerous champagnes and wines to the many non-alcoholic options on offer.
I started off my breakfast with a mimosa…as one does.
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow Mimosa
Breakfast didn’t seem all that appealing to me at the time, so I simply asked for Cathay Pacific’s signature dan dan noodles. I was happy with how thick the broth was, and the spice level was perfect. It reminded me of the dan dan noodles I had in Cathay Pacific’s The Pier lounge a couple of years back.
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow Breakfast – Dan Dan Noodles
After heading off to the Qantas lounge for a call and an espresso (which I’ll be reviewing later), I headed back to the Cathay Pacific lounge for lunch. I ordered a Ginger Forest, which was tart and refreshing – any soda-based drink with fresh fruit juice and mint is right up my alley.
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow Ginger Forest
While I only had dan dan noodles for breakfast, I decided to order a three-course meal for lunch, just to max out the full experience. I started with an artichoke soup. I would’ve preferred the crispy artichoke to be given on the side or poured at my seat (since the artichoke wasn’t crispy anymore by the time the soup arrived), but it was a very good soup nonetheless.
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow Meal – Artichoke Soup
For my main I decided to order the Christmas turkey, which came with all the extras, including potatoes, sprouts, carrots and stuffing. I was expecting the turkey to be slightly dry, but it was great! The turkey was moist and the stuffing was good, though I’d have appreciated more seasoning on the vegetables.
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow Meal – Roasted Christmas Turkey
I rounded off the meal with a Christmas pudding – how delicious! I’m a sucker for creme anglaise, but the pudding was also moist.
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow Meal – Traditional Christmas Pudding
Service in the dining room was efficient, though the lounge staff went through the motions and weren’t particularly friendly.
Now one of the caveats was that the WiFi in the lounge was extremely slow, measuring 0.57 Mbps up and 0.60 Mbps down. That’s ridiculously slow for a first class lounge at Heathrow, though to be fair I was in the dining room when measuring these statistics – WiFi seemed to speed up a bit once I headed out to the business class lounge.
The lounge also featured lockers and showers, though I’ll cover that in my review of the business class lounge, as they were also included for business class passengers.
In terms of guesting policies, you are allowed to bring a guest from the same flight that wouldn’t otherwise have access – I realised that a cousin of mine was flying in economy, and guested her into the lounge prior to our flight.
Conclusion: Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow
It was nice to have access to a first class lounge at Heathrow, and I’d say the greatest asset of this lounge was the free table service food I was entitled to. The lounge itself is comfortable but nothing to write home about, even though it does carry Cathay Pacific’s new lounge design ethos, which I really like.
Ultimately there’s not much to the lounge – there isn’t barista coffee or a bar in the first class side, but you can easily wander over to the business class side of the lounge. That being said, it’s a nice “additional” wing to the rest of Cathay Pacific’s lounge at Heathrow, and I’d make time to have a meal here if I had access to the lounge. I want to visit Cathay Pacific’s first class lounges in Hong Kong in the future, as I’ve heard they’re quite a bit better.
Read more from this trip:
Have you been to Cathay Pacific’s first class lounge at Heathrow before?