To say I was impressed by the Cathay Pacific first class in London Heathrow T3 would be an understatement. While not as grand as The Pier, I have yet to visit a nicer outstation first class lounge. This detailed review of the Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge in London will cover access restrictions, operating hours, seating, food and beverages, restrooms and showers, and service.
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Review (LHR)
This review blends multiple visits to the lounge over the years. I’ve enjoyed oneworld emerald status on both American Airlines and British Airways, which has given me access to the lounge on many trips even when I’m not flying in first class.
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Access + Hours
You’ll find the lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3. Clear security then head through duty free and then left, where the lounge sits net to the Qantas Lounge, another great oneworld lounge in T3. The lounge is open Monday – Saturday from 5:30 AM to 9:00 PM daily (and open later if the late Cathay Pacific flight, CX254, is delayed). Access is reserved for Marco Polo Diamond members, oneworld Emerald members (traveling in any class of service on any oneworld carrier), and passengers departing in first class on a oneworld flight. One guest is permitted. Passengers connecting in first class from Cathay Pacific are allowed in, but without a guest. Take the elevator upstairs to the lounge.
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Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Review: Seating
The first class lounge is fairly spacious, with a a mix of couches and chairs in semi-partitioned alcoves plus a row of lounge chairs along the windows. I spent several hours in the lounge and it never got crowded, though it always filled up a bit before each Cathay Pacific departure. I love the furniture and marble walls, which reminded me of The Pier in Hong Kong. Ilse Crawford designed both lounges.
UK plugs and USB ports are located throughout the lounge, including many hidden in side table drawers that stand between couches and chairs. I had trouble using my adapter with these plugs and had to borrow another adapter from reception. It would be nice to see these ports updated with USB-C plugs.
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Review: Food + Drink
The lounge includes a self-serve bar and a counter with finger foods and lighter dishes, along with soft drinks, tea, juice, and soda.
But the culinary highlight of the lounge is the restaurant, which offers an a la carte dining menu in a restaurant that is best described as a mini-version of the restaurant in The Pier.
I wasn’t hungry on my last visit (having eaten a large meal in the Qatar Airways Premium Lounge), but this is the current a la carte menu:
On my prior visit, I enjoyed a mid-afternoon lunch in the lounge and found the food to be delicious. I ordered a glass of rosé Champagne (Layton’s Brut Reserve) along with rose petal & harissa-topped salmon.
The salmon included warm couscous and was drizzled in tahini dressing, making for a superb lunch. For dessert I ordered a fruit plate then walked over to the business class lounge for a cappuccino.
Next time I’ll try the Dan Dan Mien…
Tip: while the first class side only offers a machine to dispense espresso-based beverages, barista-made coffee is available at the bar in business class lounge. Those with access to the first class lounge access can also make use of the business class lounge. The business class lounge also has a noodle bar.
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Restrooms + Showers
Restrooms and showers are shared with business class passengers and located down the hall from the first class lounge toward the business class lounge. A shower attendant is usually present if you wish to use a shower suite. If not, check with the front desk. I’ve enjoyed many refreshing showers in this lounge.
Restrooms are spacious and my only gripe is that Cathay Pacific dropped Aesop for Bamford…still decent, but it was Cathay Pacific (and the Park Hyatt Tokyo) that first introduced me to Aesop, one of my favorite skincare brands.
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge Magazines + Newspapers
Magazines and newspapers, which many lounges have jettisoned, are still available.
Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge London Service
The ladies at the front desk were very nice. I was in and out several times because I ended up using my extended layover to check out several oneworld lounges in T3 while using the Cathay Pacific Lounge as my base. On a previous trip to Helsinki, when my flight was delayed, they offered to help put me on an earlier (also delayed) flight to Helsinki, which I thought was going above and beyond the call of duty. I stuck with my original flight because I wanted to fly an A330 versus an A321, but it was a very gracious offer.
While walking between the business and first class sides of the lounge, I was never stopped and asked to prove that I was a first class passenger or had oneworld Emerald status.
CONCLUSION
I was really pleased with this lounge and strongly recommend it over the British Airways and American Airlines first class lounges also located in Terminal 3. The a la carte lunch was truly a treat and the environment quite tranquil to wait out my onward connection.
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great review and pics as always. Salmon looks wonderful, just what I would have ordered. Makes me wonder if we will ever see this type of food/service in lounges again. I do hope so.
Personally, it really pains me to see a few – not you – of the travel social media/blogging community traveling, sometime recklessly and for no apparent purpose other than maintain their sites and followers. I realize it is a business for some, but we will never get through this unless people reduce their activity. Just my opinion.
Glad you are staying mostly in the LA area and only traveling when necessary. Hope your family, especially the newest addition, are all doing well.
Perhaps you should direct your ire at the people traveling for fun and not at the “dozens” of travel bloggers trying to earn their living. I’m sure there a lot of the former.
Mike has good intentions. I think we all desire to take the steps necessary to contain/defeat this virus so we can return to some semblance of normality.
The majority of these bloggers have other jobs, so it isn’t like they will be starving any time soon.
Wow. Why have I been using the Qantas lounge there? Great post, Matthew. Next time…one day.
I love the Cathay Biz lounge there. Always felt like a secret as it was mostly empty for flights back to the USA (AA staff direct you to the other lounges). Made to order dumplings, great views, Moët.
Sadly don’t know if I’ll ever visit again after aa moved to terminal 5. Unless Cathay moves there too. And business travel ever starts….
Great review Matthew, thank you. Looks like I might have just missed you since I passed through Feb 15 from HEL to ORD.
Agree that this is a great lounge overall and probably the best in LHR. Also sad that, like Mick, I doubt I will ever get the chance to revisit given the terminal shuffle but never say die!
I’m curious that everyone seems to swear by the scarcity of people during their visits. In my, albeit limited, experience, the lounge was rather full. I wouldn’t say overly crowded in that you could still find a seat, but definitely a “perverse equilibrium” where the next guest might consider just going over to the business side. This was usually in mid-morning during the AA bank of US flights.
To be clear I’ve never got to see the first class lounge as a lowly aa platinum flying biz class :). So maybe the first is more exclusive?
I was there from about 2-8pm.
Sorry. That didn’t make much sense… there are multiple biz lounges but only one first class so the first gets filled by those who qualify for entry whilst the biz traffic gets spread across Cathay, qantas and American?
BA and AA also have (had) first class lounges just a few paces away.
Had the good fortune to be in this lounge a couple of years ago. I thought I belonged in the Business lounge by getting in solely with AA Platinum status (flying AA Economy!) but the lounge dragon, perhaps by mistake, directed me to the First lounge. Wow! I wished I had gotten to the airport early just to spend more time there. Great review of it.
That was a nice treat! I bet you didn’t even want to walk to the restroom! 😉
You have to admit, love or hate Heathrow itself as an airport, it has arguably one of the better collections of outstation lounges in the world (arguably even better than the lounges of the main local airline, BA).
oneworld gets you great lounges with Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and even AA.
With Star Alliance you get nice lounges with Singapore United, and Air Canada, and even Lufthansa’s lounge is decent.
Even Skyteam has a decent lounge, while people on Delta get access to the Virgin Atlantic lounge.
All in all, one of the better collection of lounges you’ll find at any airport.
The views and the intamacy of this lounge make it so unique. I love it so much.
Is it better than the Pier? I don’t actually know, and I’m not sure it really matters. They’re both fantastic. I sure hope CX continues to see value in this lounge once the pandemic has subsided.
Thanks for a great review! Very much looking forward to visiting the First Class lounge next month, restrictions permitting.
There have been reports on Flyertalk recently about passenger on Finnair who are oneworld Emerald being denied access to the First Class lounge during the afternoons. Passengers are still being given access to the Cathay Pacific Business Class lounge, which is still a great place and has noodles and dim sum.
However, it now appears that they are also denying access to other oneworld emeralds during the afternoon, not just those on Finnair.
I was just there earlier this month in the afternoon and was able to access the first class side via BA Gold without issue.
Sitting on the loungers by the windows drinking champagne and watching planes take-off and land is my happy place.
Sorry but the decor of this lounge is so dated, straight out of the 80’s. Wood paneling and green velvet? Dusty rose carpet? It reminds of the old Admiral’s Club at LaGuardia. The food is nice and the sit down area is really great, but I can’t get past the sad decor. Time for a refresh!
To each their own, I guess. I love it.
Last year on our first visit to England I got my wife and I first class award seats on AA LHR-JFK. Even though there were no premium options on that route AA first (Captain Kirk seats!) sounded the best so I went with that. When we checked in at LHR the very pleasant lady checking us in mentioned the Flagship lounge. When I thanked her but said we’d be going to the Cathay first class lounge she noted that we had really done our research. I thought that was worth a chuckle.