Category: Hong Kong’s Airlines

Review: Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge London Heathrow

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Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow
Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge London Heathrow
Qantas Lounge London Heathrow
Cathay Pacific 777 First Class London to Hong Kong
British Airways 777 Premium Economy Hong Kong to London

As part of my first class ticket I had access to the Cathay Pacific First Class lounge at Heathrow, though I thought I’d be a bit irresponsible not to check out what I’ve heard people consider one of the best business class outstation lounges anywhere in the world – Cathay Pacific’s business class lounge at London Heathrow.

Cathay Pacific’s lounge complex at Heathrow is located by Lounge C near gate 11. The First Class lounge is located nearer to the entrance, whereas the business class section spans the rest of the lounge.

Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge London Heathrow Entrance

The entry requirements to Cathay Pacific’s business class lounge at Heathrow is the same as any other oneworld business class lounge worldwide – you can get in as a oneworld first or business class passenger, a Marco Polo Diamond, Gold or Silver member, a oneworld Emerald or Sapphire member, or if you have a lounge pass.

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Review: Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow

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Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Heathrow
Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge London Heathrow
Qantas Lounge London Heathrow
Cathay Pacific 777 First Class London to Hong Kong
British Airways 777 Premium Economy Hong Kong to London

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

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What Is Cathay Pacific’s First Class Like?

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Hello from Hong Kong! I’m glad to spend Christmas back in Hong Kong, and I’m glad my family and friends have been well despite the state the city has been in. I’m also sorry for the lack of content on the blog over the past few months, since university has hit quite hard. I will have to scale back content over the upcoming years, though will continue to post regularly, and definitely will do something to increase my posting frequency from the past three months.

Last week I flew Cathay Pacific first class from London to Hong Kong. I was planning to roll out my report straight away, though I do need to write a couple of lounge reports on top of the actual flight review. Two weeks is plenty of time, though straight away I got hit by influenza, and barely recovered before Christmas started, and…

So I’m going to cover my first impressions in this post, and hope to post the full review by the beginning of next year.

Cathay Pacific Boeing 777 First Class 

I’ll go over why I booked this first class ticket in a future post, but for now I’ll focus on my initial impressions from the flight. I do have to note here that this was my first “true” first class experience, so I have nothing to compare it to.

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Hong Kong Airlines’ Concerning Financial Situation: My Thoughts On Their Next Steps

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I’ve had quite a close relationship with Hong Kong Airlines, and have always been fond of their well-constructed shorthaul network. I’ve been fortunate enough to fly their A330 between Hong Kong and Osaka, and have also been invited to tour their newest A350, which I’ve found to be a very nice aircraft, both inside and out.

Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A350 Hong Kong Airport

Unfortunately Hong Kong’s dismal financial situation brought some of the shortcomings out of Hong Kong Airlines, including their somewhat confusing longhaul network, and some of their internal financial instabilities. I’m finally off university exam period, and figured I’d share some of my thoughts, as I really do wish the airline well.

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Oof: Hong Kong Airlines Cuts U.S. Flights, Reduces Service To 10 Destinations

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In 2017, Hong Kong Airlines began flying to the U.S., which was an exciting development. At the time American Airlines hadn’t started flying between Hong Kong and Los Angeles yet, so Cathay Pacific more or less had a monopoly on that route. Cathay Pacific also had a joint venture with Air Canada, so Hong Kong Airlines gave them some competition.

Unfortunately amidst Hong Kong’s deepest recession in a long time, Hong Kong Airlines has announced that they will no longer fly to the U.S. as of February 8, 2020.

Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A350 Hong Kong Airport

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Cathay Pacific Cuts Capacity Due To Low Demand

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The past few months have been turmoil for Hong Kong, and protesters and police have continually been at ends. Ultimately this has created an unfavourable impression on Hong Kong’s economy, and people have selected not to travel to Hong Kong due to the state it’s in.

The divisive state of our community has resulted in a negative general impression on Hong Kong’s safety, and as a result this has caused detriment to the inbound travel industry. This has definitely caused Cathay Pacific to struggle over the past few months.

Cathay Pacific Boeing 777 Hong Kong Airport

Well the first major blow has hit, and Cathay Pacific has axed some routes.

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Review: Cathay Pacific’s 10-Abreast 777 Economy Class Tokyo to Hong Kong

~ Alvin ~ 1 Comment

Introduction: Revisiting Tokyo…Twice
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong
Japan Airlines 777-200 Business Class Hong Kong to Tokyo
A Tale Of Two Observation Decks: Tokyo Haneda vs. Narita
Hotel Century Southern Tower Tokyo
Scoot 787 ScootBiz Tokyo to Taipei
Cathay Pacific A350-1000 Business Class Taipei to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific A330 Economy Class Hong Kong to Tokyo
Cathay Pacific 777 Economy Class Tokyo to Hong Kong

There’s not much I can add to Rupert Hogg’s “resignation” other than the fact that I’m shocked and disappointed by the entire situation, so I won’t be posting about it here.

In 2017, Cathay Pacific stated that they’d be replacing all of their 777 economy class seats with a new seat in a 10-abreast configuration. The first aircraft with these seats emerged in April 2018, and my initial comments of the seat were scathing based on pictures alone. A couple of readers spoke out to me after my initial report, saying that it was unfair of me to judge a seat purely based on the pictures, and the seat itself was more well-padded than they expected. So when I had the chance to get from Tokyo to Hong Kong, I was sure to snag myself a flight in Cathay’s 10-abreast economy class so I could give a firsthand review of the product.

Cathay Pacific’s Boeing 777 Economy Class

I was redeeming some expiring Asia Miles for this flight, and successfully got myself a seat on this flight for 10,000 Asia Miles one-way.

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Review: Cathay Pacific A330 Economy Class Hong Kong to Tokyo

~ Alvin ~ 1 Comment

Introduction: Revisiting Tokyo…Twice
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong
Japan Airlines 777-200 Business Class Hong Kong to Tokyo
A Tale Of Two Observation Decks: Tokyo Haneda vs. Narita
Hotel Century Southern Tower Tokyo
Scoot 787 ScootBiz Tokyo to Taipei
Cathay Pacific A350-1000 Business Class Taipei to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific A330 Economy Class Hong Kong to Tokyo
Cathay Pacific 777 Economy Class Tokyo to Hong Kong

There’s not much I can add to Rupert Hogg’s “resignation” other than the fact that I’m shocked and disappointed by the entire situation, so I won’t be posting about it here.

I wanted to spice things up and make my reviews interesting, so specifically sought out a flight on Cathay Pacific’s A350-1000 so I could review the airline’s most updated economy product. Unfortunately on the morning of our flight I received a notification that our flight had been swapped out to an A330, along with a further notification that we’d been delayed.

Especially since I was flying with friends, I was tempted to just put my camera away and not review the flight, though quickly realised that it’s been over three years since I’ve last Cathay Pacific’s A330 economy product. I decided it was worth a revisit, since this seat will still be flying around on longer flights to Australia and the Middle East, as well as various intra-Asia flights.

Our plane rolled into the gate at 10:15 AM, ahead of our new departure time at 11 AM – interestingly I’d flown this exact airframe before (B-HLP), also in economy class to Kuala Lumpur in 2016. Since then, it had received a fresh coat of paint, in Cathay Pacific’s new livery.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A330 Hong Kong Airport

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Review: Cathay Pacific A350-1000 Business Class Taipei to Hong Kong

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Introduction: Revisiting Tokyo…Twice
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong
Japan Airlines 777-200 Business Class Hong Kong to Tokyo
A Tale Of Two Observation Decks: Tokyo Haneda vs. Narita
Hotel Century Southern Tower Tokyo
Scoot 787 ScootBiz Tokyo to Taipei
Cathay Pacific A350-1000 Business Class Taipei to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific A330 Economy Class Hong Kong to Tokyo
Cathay Pacific 777 Economy Class Tokyo to Hong Kong

As I hinted at in the introduction, I originally booked a flight on an internationally configured A330 back to Hong Kong, which was switched to a regional 777-300. A week before departure I managed to bag award space on one of Cathay Pacific’s A350-1000 routes between Taipei and Hong Kong on the day, so I went ahead and switched my flight to this one for 1,000 Asia Miles per person.

It only occurred to me later that I’d flown my very first flight on an A350 with Cathay Pacific on the exact same route almost three years prior to this flight, at the exact same flight time (the flight number had changed since, though, and this flight was part of a fifth-freedom flight from Osaka, whereas my last A350 flight with Cathay Pacific wasn’t).

After getting off my flight on ScootBiz, I needed to head over landside to retrieve my luggage, before re-clearing immigration. Taipei Airport’s customs department is an absolute sh*t show, and the agents were also rude, barking for us to hurry up while we were frantically putting our electronics back into our bags. The immigration department wasn’t much better, as they were testing out a new electronic system that – kindly speaking – wasn’t exactly running like clockwork.

Taipei Taoyuan Airport Immigration

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Cathay Pacific Retires 777-200s

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Cathay Pacific has been introducing some new aircraft lately. Last year Cathay Pacific introduced their newest variant of the A350, the A350-1000. The airline took the opportunity to introduce new economy class seats when introducing the A350-1000, and although I was swapped out when booked in their economy class, I did manage to fly their business class on a short flight.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350-1000 Hong Kong Airport

Obviously, as with any company that has moving parts, the arrival of new planes means it’s time to say goodbye to some old ones. Cathay Pacific is retiring their last 777-200 out of service on August 7, 2019.

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