Review: Cathay Pacific A350 Business Class (TPE-HKG)

Cathay Pacific Flight 409
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Origin: Taipei (TPE) Gate: B8 Dep: 19:20 (19:20)
Destination: Hong Kong (HKG) Gate: 63 Arr: 21:15 (21:00)
Duration: 1 h 55 min (1 h 40 min)
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900 Reg: B-LRA
Seat: 17A (Business Class)

I was the first onboard, and managed to snap quite a few cabin pictures before the next person showed up.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Cabin

Cathay Pacific’s A350 business class consists of 38 reverse herringbone seats in two cabins: the first cabin is large and consists of 30 seats, while the rear cabin is smaller and consists of 8 seats. While I wanted the rear cabin (and originally secured row 20), priority seating issues had the seven of us all thrown into the forward cabin.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Seatmap

My first impressions of the cabin was: the seat is gorgeous. It really didn’t look that great in pictures, but in real life, I found the cabin gorgeous. The only thing missing from the cabin, really, was my headrest cover (look closely at the below picture – you’ll spot 17A quickly).

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Cabin

My seat, seat 17A, was located towards the back of the forward cabin. I wanted to get a picture of all cabins while they still hadn’t filled up, so quickly stuck the headrest cover to the seat, which was apparently the wrong way round. Don’t worry, I have better pictures.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Seat 17A

I managed to take more pictures of the forward cabin, which was still empty for now…

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Forward Cabin

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Cabin Logo

…as well as the aft cabin, which features two rows, as I mentioned above. For a short flight, there’s definitely less foot traffic in the forward cabin, which I prefer, as every premium economy and economy passenger passes through the rear business class cabin. But on a longer flight, that’s a small price to pay for such a small amount of seats, in my opinion.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Aft Cabin

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Aft Cabin

Behind that was premium economy, which featured four rows by the sides and three rows in the middle, in a 2-4-2 configuration, as is the norm on the A350. While I didn’t manage to thoroughly explore, the seats seemed comfortable and the padding looked good. Most of the Hong Kong-based avgeeks on my flight were seated here.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Premium Economy Class

It’s the black headrest covers that make the premium economy and economy products as sleek as they look in real life, in my opinion. It didn’t hurt that all seats featured legrests, either.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Premium Economy Class

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Premium Economy Class

Excuse the blurry picture, as people were boarding while I was trying to snap pictures of every cabin. This flight is perfectly timed for people who need to get home after a Taipei trip, so most people just “accidentally” booked the A350 on the flight. I’ve never heard so many “wows” upon boarding before.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Premium Economy Class

Economy consists of 214 seats in a 3-3-3 configuration, and actually feature the seats that I heavily dissed back in December. They don’t look half bad, though the padding definitely seemed like a small step down from the old economy.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Economy Class

Much like the old cabin, the seats are broken up into three colours: turquoise, green, and some darkish green that looks great with the headrests. It’s an attractive cabin, if nothing else.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Economy Class

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Economy Class

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Economy Class

I went close up on some of the economy seats. Legroom stays at 32″, which is ample, so no complaints there. The seats also look pretty wide, which I definitely appreciate, especially on the long flights that the A350 will soon be flying on. And I wasn’t planning to say this, but it’s worth noting that not every seat has an overhead bin in economy.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Economy Class Seats 42A, B, C

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Economy Class Seat 42C

The bulkhead seats feature substantially more legroom, but I’m not sure if there’s enough space to stretch your legs. With the bulkheads curved, they definitely tried their best.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Economy Class

Each seat also features a tray table and a small recess to put items, so overall I have positive impressions of the economy class seat. I’m still willing to try it out in the future, just to see what it’s about – it’s definitely better than what I thought it would be.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Economy Class Tray Table

Back to the business class cabin and my seat, which I’ll explain in more detail. The cabin looks much neater from behind in real life than it does in the pictures, including the ones I took. I love the colour palate – it’s warm without being uncomfortably dull.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Cabin

Here’s an overview of the business class seat from behind. On the surface, the seat is well padded and features a lot of privacy.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Seat 17A

Each seat has its own seat number signage by the “head privacy” shell of the seat, which is always a nice touch.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Seat 17A Signage

The seat is wider than the A330’s, but not quite as wide as the one on the 777-300ER, due to the cabin’s fuselage limitations. The head privacy screen is bigger, to an extent, and the new pillows are featured.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Seat

It’s worth noting that the padding on this seat is quite good. It’s definitely not to the level of Cathay Pacific’s herringbone seats, which were not only designed with padding in mind, but also have tons of “experience”, making them especially good for lounging. It’s a step up from their old reverse herringbone seat, though, which I appreciate.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Seat

To the left of my seat was the panel, with intuitive seat controls. These controls were different to the old ones in the sense that the “presets” (upright and fully flat) were touch-reactive – if you clicked once on one of the presets, you didn’t have to hold it to get it back into position.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Seat Controls

The whole panel is as follows. It features an adjustable reading light and the remote control, which was touchscreen and acted as a remote control (though on its own could display the airshow, etc.).

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Left Hand Panel

Also featured on the left side of my seat was the panel was a table finished with faux butternut wood, a step up from the plastic side table the old seat provided (not that much of a step up, but still better).

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Side Table

Above that was the side compartment, which featured a mirror, headphones and the power ports.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Headphone Compartment

The headphones were high quality (one reason why you should always aim for a longhaul configured aircraft on Cathay in business class, as the regional aircraft only provide economy-style headphones).

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Headphones

If I have one complaint about the seat, it’s the placement of the power ports – I’d much rather have them outside the compartment, especially with the ease of closing it that way.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Power Ports

Much like the old seat, the headphone jacks were also inside the cupboard, which I don’t have as many complaints about.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Headphone Jacks

The mirror had a sliding cover (presumably to prevent people from scaring themselves when opening the cupboard to see themselves), and the net below was probably to store smaller items, including a phone (some consolation for the USB port being inside the cupboard).

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Net and Mirror

To the left was another storage space, which this seat had no shortage of. This replaced the little bottom side storage nook the old seat had, for more bed space (the cover of the cupboard becomes part of the bed when closed). I’ll talk a bit more about the bed in a little while.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Side Storage Cupboard

The ottoman was also L-shaped, and the space at the bottom was also meant for shoes, etc. I’m assuming the side cupboard could also be meant for shoes, as the “fan door” shoe drawer was gone.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Ottoman

Speaking of which, legroom was excellent. There was also lots of personal space as is normal in a reverse herringbone seat.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Legroom

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Space

Before I settled down, I checked out the entertainment system briefly, which is completely overhauled. First of all, let me note that on the flight, the tail camera was broken. Disappointing, but I’ll let that go, given that Cathay Pacific only managed to salvage the plane just in time.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Entertainment System

It’s worth noting that the screen itself is still deployed at the push of a button, and still can’t be tilted up and down as far as my TV went, but it could be pulled closer to you if you wished.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class TV Screen

And the remote control no longer just acts as an arrow navigation – it actually is touchscreen and has its own little system, where you can control the big screen, or pull up the airshow. This was the case on every single one of my following flights up until now in premium cabins, so I was striking lucky.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Remote Control

The new screen also occasionally flashed warnings like to put on the seatbelt (I’m assuming this was for every seat, and not just for those without their seatbelts on).

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Seatbelt Warning

The lavatory was one of Cathay Pacific’s A350 standard new lavatories, and featured a fancy sink with five levels of water control, Jurlique amenities, as well as a window. How cool is that?

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Lavatory

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Lavatory

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Lavatory

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Lavatory Amenities

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Lavatory Decorations

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Lavatory Window

It’s worth noting that the flush button (it’s placed in the same place on all A350s) was really hard to find, and I certainly wasn’t the only one that found that the case. I couldn’t get my camera to focus on it, but here’s my best shot – it’s by the sink, by the amenities.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Flush Button

Before we took off, just in case the seatbelt sign was on throughout the flight, I decided to test the bed in fully flat mode. It’s also worth noting that the bed extension by the side also goes up manually, which takes a while to figure out – I didn’t notice it until after I took the picture, so I don’t actually have a picture of the seat fully flat with the bed extension up, unfortunately.

But just look at that hip/leg space. Close the compartment down there, and you get one bed where you can literally angle your legs anywhere you want. I’d say the seat has potential of being one of the best for sleeping.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Seat in Bed Position

I do have a picture of the bed extension, which I raised up separately – while it doesn’t go up automatically, I do like it more this way, given that if you have your seat a few degrees up you can still put the bed extension up. I do wish there was signage for it, though.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Bed Extension

The retractable armrest goes up similarly to the old seat – push the button and it goes up, and push it down when you don’t need it.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Armrest

Below the armrest is a place where you can put your phone or a bottle of water, but you can’t access it with the armrest down, as it covers the nook. I do think there’s enough storage space to put a bottle of water elsewhere, but it is a wasted nook during takeoff and landing, where the armrests have to be down as far as I remember.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Cupholder

The tray table is also lined with wood, which adds to the warmth of the cabin, if anything. If the seat isn’t the prettiest in the world, you can’t deny that it’s pretty classy.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Tray Table

When I was walking around through the cabin, I was proactively addressed by one of the premium economy staff, who asked if I liked flying. I said yes, and she said, “I can see that”.

I asked the business class purser if the plane was stuck in Manila. She addressed that it was a battery problem, and as the battery was replaced completely we’d be fine all the way back on our way to Hong Kong. She asked me how I knew, and we had a short conversation about the A350 and the Manila fiasco. She said that they weren’t sure if the A350 was going to operate until last minute, and it was their first time on the plane. They were as enthusiastic as I was, but that basically meant they had no idea how the aircraft worked.

I was given orange juice and, a bit later, a hot towel, and admired the (non-existent) view out of the A350 windows. I’ve been on an A380, but I was in the center block aisle in economy, so the window was new to me.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Orange Juice

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Hot Towel

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Windows

Speaking of the windows, I admired them, as well as the rest of the aircraft, from my seat, as we pushed back on time. The captain came on the PA and welcomed us on the “brand new A350”, saying that we were expecting an early arrival back home.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Window

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Lights

I love the seatbelt sign displays, though wish they could have done a bit more with them. Given that they’re now LED screens, why not make them a little bit more creative, like showing the airshow every now and then?

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Seatbelt Sign

And I don’t usually catch myself doing this, but I had a look at the safety card. While it was standard, having “A350-900” on the upper right hand corner just made me proud.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Safety Card

When we were waiting to move, I took a look at the entertainment system, which is really extensive. It features just a few new movies, but it’s amazing how responsive the entertainment system is – I could literally scroll through everything like I was scrolling through an iPad. The layout is also different, with the menu options on the left, the screen options on the right, and there’s also seat-to-seat chat – which for some reason wasn’t working on this flight, at least at my seat.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Entertainment Selection

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Entertainment Selection

But the definite highlight was the airshow, which had so many different views. While I had the same views on my four subsequent flights, they’re much more amusing on the A350, just because.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Airshow

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Airshow

There was an information screen with all the flight details…

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Information Screen

…which could be pulled down from the information board easily.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Information Screen Pulled Down

There was a mode where you could learn everything about every single city that either Cathay Pacific or Dragonair flies to.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Information Mode

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Information Mode

Scrolling with two fingers you could pan, and scrolling with one finger you could change the angle. It was very easy to navigate.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Airshow

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Airshow

Being in the cabin is stunning, but the A350 fuselage is beyond words. Maybe it was just a new aircraft, but something was just so surreal about being in such a new aircraft (I didn’t feel that in three of my four subsequent flights, where the aircraft was actually newer than this one).

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Cabin

From there we were passed out menus for dinner, which was extensive, though again, I knew it’d be served all on one tray, and even that would be a problem for the crew.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Menu

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Menu

Upon request the friendly crew also presented me with a blanket, though they were clearly flustered before takeoff, trying to do pre-takeoff checks and make sure they were ready for the quick meal service, altogether.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Blanket

When we were sitting there after pushback the safety video played. While there are many differences between the A350 experience and everything else, the safety video isn’t one of them.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Safety Video

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Safety Video

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Safety Video

We rolled past a Cathay Pacific 777-300, the one I photographed from the gate area a bit earlier. I can’t help but smile when looking at a “normal” Cathay Pacific aircraft from a brand new A350.

Cathay Pacific Boeing 777 Taipei Taoyuan Airport

We taxiied past a few aircraft including an Emirates A380 (which my camera just wouldn’t focus on) and an EVA Air A321.

EVA Air Airbus A321 Taipei Taoyuan Airport

EVA Air Airbus A321 Taipei Taoyuan Airport

The lights turned off when we were taking off. The lights just dimmed, and stayed off – in fact, there was no mood lighting throughout the entire flight, which is kinda disappointing for an A350.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Cabin upon Takeoff

Takeoff featured nice views of the airport and night lights in Taipei, but we went up in the clouds pretty quickly and were on our way.

Takeoff Taipei Taoyuan Airport

Takeoff Taipei Taoyuan Airport

Takeoff Taipei Taoyuan Airport

I explored more of the airshow during takeoff, which included the more different modes where we could look from. You can look out of either window, at the plane from either side or using a “cockpit view” function.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Airshow Modes

After the seatbelt sign was turned off I tried setting my seat forward. It does go at least eleven inches forward, which is great if you’re watching a sunset from a window or talking to your seatmates in a middle seat.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Seat Forward

I also walked back to economy to check out how it was inflight. There was a “modern” feel to it, but I’m not sure if the seats really are as comfortable as the old economy seat.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Economy Class Cabin Inflight

While walking back I got into conversation with the Filipino inflight service manager, who gave me a few other details about the aircraft, including the battery issues in Manila. We got into conversation with when the next A350 would be delivered and when it’d have its next longhaul, and apparently Auckland wasn’t on the list. As promised, London Gatwick was, though, and their second A350 would be delivered in a week. She asked if I was going to London anytime soon – while I was, I was going the week after the flight, so I wouldn’t be able to fly the A350 on a longer flight. Whatever, though – I was fine with what I had.

My table was then set for dinner, with appetiser and dessert on the plate – I had to wait a little while as they’d run out of halibut on the cart.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Dinner Setup

The appetiser consisted of duck liver paté and grilled pineapple. I’m not a fan of duck liver paté with stuff “mixed” in it, it was a good starter as far as I was concerned, as the paté wasn’t a solid block or anything.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Appetiser – Duck Liver Paté and Grilled Pineapple

For the main course I selected what I considered to be the safest option, the halibut. It wasn’t that well executed, as it was doused in sauce, but for what it was it tasted good. The couscous was good as well, though I don’t like raisins in my couscous usually – they had raisins on the menu too, so I can’t complain. I did find the skin on the bottom of the halibut, though, which was soggy and disgusting.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Main Course – Pan Fried Halibut, Sundried Tomato Concasse, Capsicum, Zucchini and Couscous with Raisin

I have no complaints about the chocolate banana cake for dessert. It was simple but well executed.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Dessert – Chocolate Banana Cake with Caramel Sauce

Meal service was rushed, as expected, and the flight attendants were clearly flustered. They tried to be friendly and deliver everything with a smile (well-intentioned), but it was clear they were struggling with their first time on the A350.

I had a coke with my meal, with ice, which was served in Cathay Pacific’s signature glassware.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Coke

After the meal, the connecting gate information came out, which I found a nice improvement – though some gates (I’m assuming those were the ones not given yet) showed as “0”, which could be misleading.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Connecting Gate Information

Before we descended I also took a look at the WiFi prices.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class WiFi

The WiFi prices were reasonable, I thought. For a flight that’s two hours long you might want to purchase a one hour pass for US$9.95 (~HK$77), but for an ultra longhaul flight (even if it’s blocked over China), US$19.95 for a full flight pass US$19.95 (~HK$155) is a steal, especially to Auckland, where all eleven hours are WiFi-equipped, as it doesn’t fly over China or India.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class WiFi Prices

Of course, I wasn’t going to buy WiFi with less than half an hour left to go on the flight, so stayed on the homepage, which featured the airshow.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class WiFi Homepage

I took a few more pictures of the panoramic windows, which I’ve really grown to like. Neither the 787 or 777 windows can compare – the 787 windows are just long, but these are also wide.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Windows

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Windows

All too soon we started our descent into Hong Kong. To the left were great views of Macau, but we soon turned right on our descent to Hong Kong, which was smooth and quick.

Descent Hong Kong Airport

Descent Hong Kong Airport Airshow

Descent Hong Kong Airport

Descent Hong Kong Airport

While the captain seemed to be piloting the A350 pretty well during the flight, the landing was unbearably hard. I mean, hard as in hard to the point where my sister’s life jacket burst out of her seat. We all jolted in our seats – captain gotta get back to school, I guess.

Descent Hong Kong Airport

We touched down at about 9 PM, and started taxiing to gate 63.

 

Cathay Pacific Boeing 777 Hong Kong Airport

Before we deplaned I took the chance to take a few last pictures of the Cathay Pacific A350 cabin, as I wouldn’t be scheduled to see it for quite a while.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class

It was great to finally see the A350 head on after a great flight on them. I have no idea when my next time on an A350 would be…

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Hong Kong Airport

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Hong Kong Airport

Bottom Line on Cathay Pacific’s A350 Business Class

I felt like Cathay Pacific’s A350 had a great hard product in all cabin classes. While I only got to explore the business class seat in full detail, I think that it’s a nice indication of where Cathay Pacific’s future is heading, and I definitely wouldn’t hesitate to book it on a longer flight – I might even go out of my way to fly the product if I can, due to the added potential productivity from reasonably priced WiFi.

As far as the service goes, it was well-intentioned, as was with the outbound, as well as all my flights (regardless of business or economy) on Cathay Pacific this year. But it’s definitely worth noting that the crew will take a bit of time to get used to the A350. The food on the flight was also fine, but not exceptional.

While the new product featured a few minor hiccups, such as the power port placement situation, I’d be happy to take this business class hard product on a longhaul flight. I’d be curious to try Cathay Pacific’s A350 premium economy or economy products to see if I come out with the same enthusiasm that I have now. Overall, a solid thumbs up.

Read more from this trip:

• 
  Introduction: Mission Cathay Pacific A350
• 
  Review: Cathay Pacific The Pier Business Class Lounge Hong Kong
• 
  Review: Cathay Pacific 777 Regional Business Class (HKG-TPE)
• 
  Review: Mandarin Oriental Taipei (Taipei, Taiwan)
• 
  Review: Cathay Pacific Lounge, Taipei (TPE)