Cathay Pacific

CX238 London to Hong Kong

Airbus A350-1000

This was my second flight with Cathay Pacific – the first being in First Class a few months back. I was so happy that I was flying the Airbus A350-1000 compared with the Boeing 777 as the seats are wider and the cabin is set up in a 3-3-3 formation! You can watch both the, First Class flight and this Economy flight review on YouTube at Love Flying And Hotels.

I am so impressed with Cathay for many reasons, which I will come to in a moment!

I had a pleasant and straightforward check in experience at London Heathrow (LHR). During Check In, a gentleman called Mohammad recognised me and remembered me from the previous flight and said hello. He was friendly and personally escorted me to the No.1 Lounge (which I accessed through Priority Pass).

Cathay, like Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Qatar Airways and other leading airlines allows you to pre-book Special Assistance online via Manage My Booking. This is so helpful! There are some airlines like Thai Airways, EVA Air and others which require you to call their offices during office hours to book this service. My last EVA flight was purchased last minute on a Friday evening and travelling on Sunday, so was impossible to speak to their offices. So being able to book this online is excellent!

Secondly, you can pre-plan your Entertainment on-board before you fly! Visit the YouTube review where there is a link in the description of the video. I was flying on 31st December 2023 and arriving in Hong Kong on 1st January 2024, where I would also catch a connecting flight. So, the website shows the full entertainment library being sown for both December and January. It is so simply laid out with headings like New Releases, Disney+, Comedy and so on. Click this link to see the inflight entertainment [ Ссылка ]

Cathay has also teamed up with Disney+ and offers a whole new world of entertainment!

The cabin crew showed me to my seat and boy I was already impressed!

The seat is 18.2” wide! This is nearly as wide as British Airways Premium Economy! The pitch was 32” The IFE (Inflight Entertainment) screen was an impressive 11.1” HD Touchscreen with tint! This means, I could not really see what my neighbours were watching – it almost looks like the screens are off! So, if you are one to sleep on a long flight and don’t want the brightness from the IFEs to bother you, then this is your aircraft!

Cathay also introduced a useful device holder with an additional cup holder. This was so handy as I could charge my devices while eating and have 2 drinks cups!

What is more impressive, Cathay has had some serious financial difficulty since 2017-18, followed by the COVID 19 pandemic and Hong Kong riots. Despite this, they are investing heavily on improving the overall customer experience.

Another example of this is, they were serving Courvoisier VSOP which is something you would usually find in a Business Class for many airlines! They were also serving Chivas Regal Scotch instead of the standard Johnny Walker Red Label! It is nice to see that they are not making horrible cost-cutting despite their situation.

The food and service was excellent! I do not normally fly economy on such long haul flights but I would happily do this flight again.

Cathay – well done! Superb and I am now a big fan!

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