Hi everyone, welcome along to another flight review. Today we’re taking a short early morning trek from Hong Kong back home to Beijing aboard Cathay Pacific’s First Class. Cathay’s been amidst quite some controversy over the years, especially with COVID and the infamous carpet incident (if you know, you know). Although only a short flight, I’m extremely excited to share this experience and see how their first-class product fares on the shortest offering. I have a longer flight scheduled on Cathay in Business later this year and look forward to sharing that soon. Cathay operates multiple daily flights to and from PEK, but one flight per day offers First Class. Cathay’s new Aria Suites have also been rolled out across multiple routes, an exciting new addition to their fleet.
We begin our journey at Terminal 1's First Class check-in area. This is a beautiful marble wall with the logo and 'first' embedded on it. In case anyone misses it, Cathay's signature red color for its first class is easy to spot.
There was actually a short wait for check-in, with quite a few passengers checking in for flights over to JFK.
First and business class passengers at HKG are offered fast-track security, and we were through security in no time. Cathay has three business class lounges here at HKG, I'm not entirely sure how many first class lounges there are, I recall going to a different one back in 2021 (covid times), but today we headed to The Deck which was coincidentally right next to my boarding gate. I believe this lounge is only available to First Class passengers and One World Emerald members.
The lounge was surprisingly busy. There was a little buffet area with some cold cuts, an a la carte menu and a noodle bar which also had dim sum offerings. I tried to grap a photo of the noodle bar menu card at the ordering desk but there were just too many people lining up for it. This was probably the busiest first class lounge I've experienced.
From the noodle bar menu, I ordered the fried chive dumplings, the Har Gow (shrimp dumpling), the wonton soup, and Steamed Vermicelli roll. Interestingly, one order of the dim sum came with only one piece, so I found myself returning and reordering a couple times. I also grabbed some fresh fruit and cold cuts from the buffet, along with an apple juice and coffee I grabbed downstairs.
The eggs were ordered from the separate a la carte menu. I did find that demand from that menu was far less than that of the noodle bar line. The a la carte menu featured mainly Western options.
After an incredibly filling and comprehensive meal, I had some time to kill before my flight. Although the staff mentioned that for convenience, I could stay at the lounge right up until boarding which was immediately downstairs, there was something I wanted to go do. Hopping down the escalator, I found some United birds lined up to LA (and somewhere else I forgot sorry). Adjacent to them was the Cathay 777-300 ER heading to JFK, which was starting to form queues.
But my destination was in the distance, the HKG skybridge. I made my way onto the mall hallway where Cathay jets filled either side.
Enter text here…
Finally, I made it up two escalators and stepped onto the skydeck. Looking down at the transparent floor, it reminded me of visiting Tower Bridge's walkway in London. But obviously this was 100x more awesome since we got the entire tarmac to check out. Looking down, the planes really look like miniature models that I could move around with my fingers.
At the very end of the walkway, you could see the runway where I stayed for 30 minutes or so just enjoying the sight of planes taking off. Unfortunately, there wasn't as much traffic during the time I was there, but I could easily see myself spending a full day up here looking at planes! Sadly, boarding was commencing and thus began my journey back to the gate.
Boarding commenced on time and we were aboard our Boeing 777-300ER. Here is the first look at my seat and the first class cabin. There is a real emphasis on Cathay's red theme for first class with the carpet, pillow, and duvet. I do like the red, it seems to be distinct from the overall green color scheme, standing out as a richer, more luxurious scheme.
Only one other seat was taken today, he was on the other side of the cabin, so this half was all for me!
You might immediately notice that this seat lacks any real sense of privacy. Despite the partitions, there really is no way to shade yourself from view. Not ideal for those who value privacy. Considering Aria Business suites now offer a closing door, it will be interesting to see if Cathay plan on doing anything with their now arugably quite dated first class seats.
There is ample leg room and storage space on the left side of your seat where your luggage can be placed in the cubby and accessible in the aisle. I am curious over whether, on longer flights, your feet may feel slightly cramped especially if you're quite tall. Not a problem for a quick 3 hour hop for me today, though.
I had slept only three hours last night, for some reason falling asleep in certain hotel spreads is really difficult. So I was very much looking forward to grabbing some z's after a quick meal. My very enthusiastic purser had other ideas. After introducing himself, I was just about to ask for a quick meal when he approached me with the champagne. After agreeing to a quick glass, he suggested he leave the entire bottle on my armrest for some nice pics. Accompanied with a wet towel and Cathay's signature welcome tea, what a perfect pre-departure photo this is! P.S. I ended up scratching my quick sleep plan and may or may not have overindulged in the Champagne.
Cathay also provides first class passenger with a little personalized, handwritten welcome card, which is a nice touch. Apologies for the blurry picture.
Since this was a morning flight, breakfast was on the cards. Here's a look at the menu offering. I tend to always go with the Asian option on Asian carriers, and considering Hong Kong's famous cuisine and food culture, Asian was the way to go.
We soon began taxiing out from our gate. Some quick planespotting along the way.
We blasted out of HGK at 09:07 local time, 7 minutes behind schedule. I was quick to snap this beautiful morning view, what a thrill to have nearly four windows al to yourself!
You can also catch a glimpse of Cathay's BOSE headphones. Always a win with strong noise-cancelling headphones. These would work wonders for longer flights to the US or UK.
This was the view from my seat after standing up. Just giving a general sense of how privacy would feel if there was a passenger in that seat. You are very much exposed and in a cabin featuring six seats, I would imagine a full First-Class cabin would lose some points and may feel a bit crowded and cramped.
Soon after takeoff, my purser came around with a tablecloth to begin breakfast service. Cathay really wins points with their massive table, while still leaving some space for you to slide out into the aisle mid-meal. We began with some fruits and the breakfast bread basket featuring a crossaint and rolls. My purser continued to top off my champagne, and I asked for an iced americano. This was probably the first time I've had champagne with breakfast, what a time to be alive.
As expected, catering from Hong Kong was excellent, the fruits were fresh and bread perfectly baked.
The Asian option featured the abalone and mushroom congee with a selection of dum sum. Although gulping down around eight pieces of dim sum earlier at the lounge, I firmly believe there is never too much dim su,. Of course, another glass of champagne. There was also chili sauce upon request, which greatly complimented the dim sum.
Again, impecable catering out of Hong Kong, would be delighted to have this at any restaurant anywhere.
I took a look at Cathay's first class restroom. The wooden finishes does add a level of luxury to what would otherwise be a plain, white interior. I do feel it would have been cool if they added some Cathay inspired design features on the walls, looking at you and your maple leaf lavatory walls Air Canada!
Since this was a shorter flight, there weren't too many amenities other than hand cream and lotion. I did request for a dental kit and was prompty provided.
The IFE screen is of a good size and had quite a good range of entertainment selections, more than enough to keep you occupied for transatlantic flights.
I asked my purser if he had any little souvenirs I could take home with me, and he provided a Cathay branded deck of playing cards. He mentioned they usually stock more for longer flights, and I was more than grateful for his offering!
Not too much followed other than me downing a few more glasses of champagne. Thirty minutes before landing my purser came around for some final words and hopes that I could experience Cathay First Class long-haul in the future. Haven seen reviews of those routes, that one truly is on my bucket list. I do plan on flying Qatar on their 777-300ER's first class product from Hong Kong to Doha, which has the exact same seats as Cathay only in Qatar's color scheme, I guess that maybe half-counts? :)
Not too long before we landed back home in PEK, what awaited was a long customs line since PEK does not offer fast track immigration. Welcome home for now!
