After a lovely time lounge hopping in Hong Kong, I stepped onboard my 14 hour, 15 minute flight from Hong Kong to Amsterdam on Cathay Pacific in business class, operated by an Airbus A350-1000. Here are my first impressions of the flight.
Cathay Pacific A350-1000 Business Class: My First Impressions
Yes, I would have gone to London and flown in the new 777 “Aria” suite, but I used AA miles for this ticket and London was not available; Amsterdam and Paris were. Boarding began about 40 minutes before departure and there was a last-minute gate change moving our gate from one end of the airport (near The Pier lounge) to the other end (near The Wing).
I still managed to get over to the new gate in time and board first…the A350-1000 business class cabin is beautiful and the 46 reverse-herringbone (Safran Cirrus III) seats are very comfortable. In fact, this particular seat is my favorite of all reverse herringbone seats and may be my favorite business class seat of all. It was very comfortable in all positions and felt very spacious.
I think the cabin colors, though muted, are very stylish.
Boarding finished quickly and we pushed back a bit early. Strong headwinds meant our flight time would be the full 14 hours and 15 minutes…
Supper was served after takeoff. I pre-ordered lamb shoulder as part of a menu collaboration between Cathay Pacific and French restaurant Louise, located in Hong Kong Central. The dish included lamb shoulder braised in lamb fat served over a bed of bulgur wheat salad with mint, coriander and dried fruits, and finished with lamb jus infused with the North African spice mix of ras el hanout and toasted pine nuts.
WOW.
A perfect meal…a delicious dish.
Note that with this supper service, there was no appetizer or salad offered, though that was available on the a la carte menu. Oddly, I asked for the pan-fried halloumi cheese from the “all day” menu as an appetizer, but the flight attendant said it was not available until later in the flight.
I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately on airplanes (I guess I’m just getting old) but managed to sleep for about six hours after supper…I put myself to sleep watching Conclave and then listening to Jon Batiste play Beethoven.
When I awoke, there was still more than five hours of flight time left. I took the opportunity to order the “famous” Cathay Pacific cheesburger (with French Fries) which lived up to its reputation and was one of the best burgers (if not the best burger) I’ve ever had on an airplane.
I worked for a few hours before breakfast was served about 90 minutes prior to landing…a Western breakfast that was quite good, including the cappuccino.
The food remains consistently excellent on Cathay Pacific. Going back to my first flight on the Hong Kong carrier 15 years ago, I’ve never had a bad meal on Cathay Pacific (unless you count that sandwich from Bahrain to Dubai…).
The Bamford-branded amenity kits in business class are attractive. I’ll say more about the contents in my full review.
Despite the apparent unwillingness to bring halloumi cheese with supper, the crew was excellent…they were attentive, addressed me by name, and proactive.
We landed on-time in Amsterdam, though the transit security checkpoints were not open yet (I only had to wait five minutes). I enjoyed this flight very much.
In my full review, I’ll say more about the seat features, IFE, Wi-Fi, lavatories, and other amenities onboard. Stay tuned!
It’s easy to address you by your simple-to-pronounce name. Try the Eastern European names 😀
That burger is amazing. It’s been my go-to snack on CX for years. Not sure if they still do, but in F I think they used to serve it on a cutting board like you’d see in a steakhouse-type restaurant. It wasn’t particularly practical, but it was fun considering the space/weight required taken up for that specific presentation piece for a very small portion of the passengers.
The CX A350 business seat is excellent, super spacious with loads of well thought out features. People are now chasing the shiny new Aria, but from early reports it seems while the tech is better, the seat itself is a step back with much less space.
Interesting. The seat itself looks pretty identical to any Collins Super Diamond reverse herringbone seat, and at least to the uninitiated, hard to see how there could be that much difference in this seat from the likes of American, Air France, BA, etc. Is it perhaps the fabric or padding that differentiates?
Its a customized Cirrus seat rather than super diamond. The amount of space they have created is very impressive, way more than super diamond or other instances of Cirrus. Also there is tons of storage space. The wing on the side of the seat almost makes a door redundant. Combine all of that with excellent IFE and good bedding and you have a winning product.
Hot.
CX has some amazing Chinese food; a waste to eat a pedestrian hamburger with all that’s on offer!
No thanks! Not my cup of tea.
I love how they have extend the seat padding to include that space directly under the side table. It creates a much wider larger sleeping surface – and is the reason I go out of my way to fly the A350 rather than the 777 when flying with Cathay.
Yes, indeed.
Great writeup but I’m very impressed you managed to book Cathay business with AA miles! Did you find last minute availability?
I dare not do a post on it, but Australian call center…
Shhhhh! Honestly, Matthew… this is why we can’t have nice things!