Review of Cathay Pacific flight from Munich to Hong Kong in Economy

Hello everyone, welcome to my new series of flight report from Munich Germany to Kaohsiung Taiwan. This report will cover the flight from Munich to Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific Airways. This route was once operated by Lufthansa but got suspended since the Covid pandemic. (You can see my past reviews). In December 2024, Cathay Pacific finally announced that they will launch the direct flight from 16 June 2025. The route will be operated by A350-900XWB 4 times per week, on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Since I am still a Cathay member, I can check-in online 48 hours prior to departure and I had my boarding pass stored in my cell phone.

On the day of flight, I arrived at the airport at 10:30am. As Cathay Pacific Airways belongs to OneWorld alliance, they are using in Terminal 1 of the airport. According to the FIDS, my flight would be departing from C01 today. The check-in counters however are located in concourse A.

There were some people queuing for the check-in counters and it took me about 20 minutes to check my luggage. Since I purchased the Essential fare, I could have two checked luggage. While we were packing our stuff at the airport, the luggage zip was broken and the Cathay ground staff was very helpful and assisted us with the zip tie.

Passport control and security check were pretty smooth and took us 20 minutes to get through.

My ride B-LRX was already waiting for us at the gate. It was delivered to Cathay Pacific Airways in December 2017. Currently Cathay Pacific Airways has a total of 30 A350-900XWB. All of them are J38/W28/Y214 configured. Currently Cathay Pacific Airways has 30 A350-900XWB.

The boarding gate is located inside the corridor.

Next to our gate parked an B787-9, VN-A869 from Vietnam Airlines which would return to Hanoi at 12:20pm as VN34.

Another view of our aircraft.

Construction of the Terminal 1 expansion is almost completed. It is scheduled to open in the first half of 2026.

At 11:11am, a broadcast announcement informing us that boarding process will be starting in 5 to 10 minutes. We stayed close to the gate so that we can get onboard as soon as possible. General boarding was then commenced at 11:24am. There was no group boarding sequence.

My seat 46A. Blanket and Pillow were placed on the seat. Pinnacle seats from Collins Aerospace with row pitch of 32inches. Adjustable headrests are good for sleeping especially for long haul flight.

View of the front economy class section. Economy class is 3-3-3 configured.

View out of my window. 

The 11.1 inches touchscreen display.

Seat pocket items included the headset, safety instruction card, sea sick bag and Cathay magazine. Not many airlines still provide in-flight magazine nowadays.

There was a small foldable phone or tablet holder under the display. A cup holder was also present on the right side.

The pillow and blanket. The blanket are made of 100% recycled bottles.

At 11:43am, our captain made an announcement that we were expecting on-time departure and early arrival in Hong Kong. About 3 minutes later I received a paper menu from the cabin crew. Boarding was then completed. The flight was completely fulled.

The menu had a better design than the old one that I got several years ago. During the flight, a lunch and breakfast would be served. For lunch, 3 options were available while there were only 2 for breakfast. In between the meal service, they served also some snacks, cup noodles and fruits.

Soon, the cabin manager welcome all passengers onboard and informed that the flight time would be 10 hours and 30 minutes. The announcement was made in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. 3 minutes later safety video was played. This video is a very good example of delivering safety message and at the same time introducing traveller about the Hong Kong culture. I loved it very much.

Pushback was then started at 11:56am.

Passing through a Kuwait Airways A321neo 9K-AQC which will fly back to Kuwait in 13:15pm as KU174.

Countinue taxing to the runway.

Reaching the holding point and waited for our turn to takeoff.

At 12:14pm, we took off from Runway 08R.

5 minutes after takeoff, seatbelt sign was turned off and shortly after that the cabin light was turned on again.

Another 5 minutes later a bottle of water distributed.

Then I start watching the first movie of the flight, The Accountant 2.

40 minutes from takeoff, snack service was provided. I got a peanut snack and an orange juice.

Passing through some snow mountains in Romania. Switching over to the flight map, and identified that they were probably Southern Carpathians.

At 13:48pm, lunch was served. I opted for the baked chicken with cheese and tomato sauce on egg fried rice, with coke as the complementary drink. The meal was delicious and exactly as what I was expecting. I got a chocolate flavor Häagen-Dazs ice-cream.

As the same time, we just left the east coast of Romania and entered The Black Sea.

Half an hour later and we reached the northern coast of Türkiye.

After lunch at 14:35pm, I visited the middle lavatory in between the two economy class sections. There was additionally a bottle of hand wash.

Returning from toilet, I had coffee from the drink service, but honestly speaking, this was one of the worst coffee I had ever drunk.

At 14:58pm, the cabin light was turned off and I finished the movie. By that time we crossed The Black Sea and entered Georgia. 

Sun began to set in the Saturday afternoon. 

Top View of the camera.

From view of the camera

Speaking of the Cathay entertainment system, they have a great variety of the movies and TV shows and music. That is why the airline won the best inflight entertainment award from Skytrax in 2025.

At 15:11pm, I started watching the second movie, Captain America: Brave New World.

By that time, the sky was getting darker and darker.

Passing through Sheki in Azerbaijan.

Very soon, I had a nap for an hour and woke up at 16:35pm. We were flying over Uzbekistan.

At 17:10pm, the cabin crew asked who would like to have cup noodles and for sure I got one for myself.

I could not identify which city it was, but maybe somewhere close to Tashkent.

At 18:23pm, I finished the movie and we had entered China and flying over Xinjiang province. 

At 18:35pm, I started watching the third movie, I know What You Did Last Summer (2025).

At 20:10pm, the cabin light was turned on and I went to the lavatory again. However there was no water coming out in the basin…. I needed to use the water from the bottle to wash my hands…Apart from that, it was heavily stained. I wondered if it would be better if it was made of stainless steel.

15 minutes later, I finished the movie and we were flying over Sichuan province in China.

At 20:48pm, breakfast was served. I opted for the Omelette with Hollandaise sauce with orange juice.

While having the breakfast, I enjoyed the live football match, Liverpool vs Aston Villa. 

Had a cup of tea after the breakfast.

Cabin view prior to landing.

At 22:08pm, announcement from the flight deck that we were 30 minutes to landing. About 13 minutes later, cabin light was dimmed for landing.

During the approach, we passed through Macau into South China Sea, where we made a U-turn and entered Hong Kong from the west.

At 5:36am local time, we landed on runway 07C. Total flight time was 12 hours and 22 minutes.

After a short taxi, we parked at gate 64 in terminal 1.

Total flight route. We flew through Austria, Hungary, Romania, Türkiye, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China.

Thanks for reading!