NoteThis lounge has been permanently closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. |
My last stop was The Bridge, which I saw as one of the better lounges at Hong Kong Airport before this visit. I’ve touched base with this lounge once, but I wanted to see if the lounge was any different from my last visit in 2015. I wanted to hop on the APM, but it was really crowded, so I ended up walking.
I caught a Korean Air 747-8 on the way, which I was scheduled to be on from Seoul to Hong Kong.
Korean Air Boeing 747-8 Hong Kong Airport
I made it past gate 35, the “fork area” of the airport, where the airport forks into gates 41-60 and gates 61-80. The Bridge was dead on in front of me. It wasn’t the first time I’ve taken the walk, but I don’t remember being in as much of a hurry as I was anytime before this…
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong Entrance
Keep in mind that The Bridge is a oneworld business class lounge, so apart from status, you can get in the lounge with business class on basically any oneworld carrier.
The entrance to the lounge seems pretty cheap to me, but the nice finishes of the lounge returned to me once I turned left towards The Bistro and the Coffee Loft.
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong Entrance
I actually wasn’t really adjusted to what I remembered from the lounge, especially with the chaos at The Wing and how tired I was (in case you don’t want to read my rather brief review, The Wing to me is like Rylan to Gary Barlow). I was actually really taken aback by how “homey” The Bridge was – I remembered it as modern, but didn’t remember it to look as stunning. I think it was the combination of a lack of people and the sheer amount of lounges I visited in the middle, including The Pier, what I see as Cathay Pacific’s best lounge.
Once upon turning left were some areas with couches and more seating varieties.
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong Seating
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong Seating
The left side of the lounge features The Bistro, which is one of the two main dining areas in the lounge. The area was completely deserted at the time, and featured table seating and bench seating.
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong The Bistro
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong The Bistro
The food spread was rather extensive and looked good, though I didn’t have a chance to try it out given that my flight was already boarding.
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong The Bistro Food Spread
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong The Bistro Food Spread
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong The Bistro Food Spread
I walked further to The Coffee Loft, which was also deserted. Personally, I’d spend some time here – while I don’t drink coffee, I do like other beverages such as hot chocolate, and they also have smoothies on order, which I really like. Too bad I didn’t have more time to roam around.
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong The Coffee Loft
The actual seating was comprised of benches by the side (again, not too sure what the use of that is, given that you can’t really put coffee there comfortably, or do any sort of work), and chairs that you also find at The Wing, which are surprisingly comfortably padded.
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong The Coffee Loft
While there are also tarmac views, the blinds were closed, and I didn’t want to destroy anyone’s OCD by opening them, so I didn’t take any tarmac pictures. There are good tarmac views from the lounge, though, but no runway views.
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong The Coffee Loft
Behind The Coffee Loft is a business center, which features some desks with printers by the side, some with iMacs and some without. Personally, I think that’s a great setup, as you can take your own equipment and have a comfortable place to work, but if you don’t, there are still iMacs on offer.
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong Business Center
While I didn’t manage to photograph the shower rooms during my visit this time, they’re really nice – here’s a picture I took during my last visit.
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong Shower Room
I then moved over to the other side of the lounge, as time was running out. This side featured The Long Bar and The Bakery.
I really like the shelves – they give the feel of a really modern, designer house, without being particularly “in the way” and also providing privacy between sections.
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong Seating
There certainly wasn’t a lack of seating variety either. Apart from the armchairs photographed above, they also had Solus chairs, bench seating…
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong Solus Chair
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong Bench Seating
…as well as the really comfortable L-shaped sofas I remember sitting in with my entire family last time. Ahhh!
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong Sofas
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong Sofas
Unfortunately, The Bakery was really crowded this time round, surprisingly, so I couldn’t really take a good picture. I managed to take a (really blurry) picture of The Bakery last time, so I’ll just repost it here.
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong The Bakery
The food spread was better than I remembered it to be – all the food looked fresher and less “sloppy” – but still didn’t seem very good. For what it’s worth, there are decent noodles here, though there isn’t a dedicated Noodle Bar.
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong The Bakery Food Spread
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong The Bakery Food Spread
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong The Bakery Food Spread
Finally, in addition to everything else, there’s a Long Bar, which serves alcoholic drinks, as well as some really nice mocktails that I didn’t have a chance to try out this time.
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong Long Bar
At this point in time, I thought it was a good idea to head to the gate, where I caught up with my family and friends heading over from The Pier. I had a good view of a few planes as I walked to the gate, including an El Al 777 and an Air India 787.
El Al Boeing 777-200 Hong Kong Airport
Air India Boeing 787-8 Hong Kong Airport
Soon we got to our aircraft, which was a 21-year-old 777-200 taking us to Taipei.
Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-200 Hong Kong Airport
The actual flight was run-of-the-mill, so I won’t be reviewing it. If you want to see how flying from Hong Kong to Taipei on a 777-200 is like, here’s a review of the exact same route that I flew last June.
The flight was nice, though, and featured regional business class seats in a 2-3-2 configuration. Unfortunately, my friends forgot to reserve their seats, so by giving them the window seat I got a lot of work done in the three seats I had to myself at the bulkhead. I’m actually not sure which option I’d like more…
Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-200 Business Class
Another thing about the flight were the mooncakes that were passed out to us, which was a special touch. They tasted pretty good (though I don’t like egg yolk).
Cathay Pacific Business Class Mooncakes
Bottom Line
Cathay Pacific’s The Bridge actually grew on me during this visit more than any other lounge I visited on the day. I thought that it was nicely designed with understated luxury, ambient, and didn’t seem overcrowded at all.
I still far prefer The Pier and The Qantas Lounge to The Bridge, purely because of size, food offerings (the food offering at this lounge wasn’t actually that good), service and decoration. That said, the lounge still beats all of the Star Alliance options that Hong Kong Airport offers, so I wouldn’t hesitate to spend some time here if I had a load of time to spend in transit at Hong Kong Airport.
