Cathay Pacific Business Class for a #LifeWellTravelled
Being a frequent flyer on Cathay Pacific merits a lot of advantages. There’s comfort and familiarity in every travel, which I think encompasses Cathay Pacific’s #lifewelltravelled message. While I’m not a fan of their Economy Class and hot pocket sandwiches that can pass as fake food and their Premium Economy Class a notch better than the predecessor, Cathay Pacific’s Business Class lives up to the expectations, particularly with their inflight meals.
If you ever plan getting on Cathay Pacific’s Business Class, I suggest you only do this for medium to long haul flights. More of this at the bottom of this post as I explain.
If you noticed, Cathay Pacific’s Business Class varies depending on the model of the plane you boarded. Newly refurbished planes might still use the classic extra-wide legroom design while upgrading their inflight entertainment system. I personally prefer this over the new reverse herringbone hard seats which can be quite claustrophobic at times, but nothing beats being able to sleep 30,000 feet in the air. These are commonly equipped in three class cabin Boeing 777-300ER with Economy, Premium Economy and Business Class.
For medium haul flights such as my experience with a Manila-Kansai flight (MNL-HKG-KIX), they tend to use the older planes with two class cabins only. Notice how this business class is now the Premium Economy Class of the three class cabin planes.
Manila (MNL) – Hong Kong (HKG) – Kansai (KIX)
Versus the three class cabins, three course meals are served at once — appetizer, main course and dessert in one service. Cathay Pacific’s Business Class cabin crew are some of the best in the industry in terms of service. They already know who you are before you board the plane.
Cathay Pacific Business Class Inflight Meals Menu
Before anything, there’s always the Apertifs.
Depending on your destination, they handpick ingredients that best represent the city.
Nothing beats my previous meal on their Premium Economy Class, but the Australian beef tenderloin served with pumpkin puree and mushroom sauce lives up to the expectations.
The crew, however, needs some work with improving their wine knowledge. I wasn’t asked if I wanted the Barossa Shiraz 2013 or the 2011 Château Cantelaudette Merlot for my beef tenderloin.
Ice cream off the trolley? It’s a dream. I hope pretty soon they’d try other brands of ice cream.
Akko had a chat with me and asked why I was flying over to Japan with a stopover to Hong Kong when I can fly direct. Simple answer: loyalty. Some scheduled flights to Japan via Cathay Pacific have stopovers at Taipei (TPE) so it’s best to proceed with caution, knowing you’ll have to go through security checks three times on your way back home. And allot some layover time in between, unless you’re a marathoner. HKIA is huge and you’ll walk 30 gates before you reach your connecting flight.
Hongkong (HKG) – Manila (MNL)
This is why I don’t recommend getting on a business class short haul. I was served with this Duck breast with taro and Jasmine rice meal (which was, by the way, extremely salty) and I didn’t get a chance to finish the whole meal. We waited around 15 minutes for the hot meals to be served on a trolley and had only 10 minutes to finish this meal. The Tiramisu cake tasted terrible and the bread was such a jawbreaker.
I know there’s an effort to distinguish the meals from Economy Class and Premium Economy Class for short haul flights, but a nice double decker club sandwich or grilled cheese sandwich would have been a better option.
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