In 2015, Cathay Pacific opened a couple of lounges under a brand new design, which they created in partnership with London-based design brand Studiolise. While many newer lounges worldwide have upped their game recently, I don’t think any lounges have been as widely appraised as Cathay Pacific’s since this partnership started. In 2016, Cathay Pacific opened The Pier’s business class section at Hong Kong Airport, which serves as their flagship lounge alongside the adjacent First Class section. I had the chance to visit The Pier shortly after it opened, and it continues to be one of my favourite lounges today.
The same year they closed the G16 lounge, a lounge that used to belong to Dragonair but was redundant now that Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon shared the same lounge access policies, for renovation. I visited the lounge shortly before it closed, and yeah, it was a bit of a dump. In March 2018 the lounge reopened as The Deck, which was their second lounge in Hong Kong designed under the same ethos.
The lounge is located by gate 6 (Hong Kong Airport changed their gate numbers slightly – gates 15 to 22 have become gates 5 to 12, as they’re building a footbridge to the North Satellite Concourse and renumbering gates 501-510 as gates 13-22), where signage leads passengers up an escalator and into a slick matte-finished entrance.
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong Entrance
The lounge is open from 5:30 AM to 12:30 AM daily, and is open to first and business class passengers on Cathay Pacific or oneworld carriers, as well as Marco Polo Club Silver members and above, oneworld Sapphire members and above, Cargo Clan Elite members and those with business class lounge passes. As a Japan Airlines business class passenger, I was easily granted access, and made my way into the lounge.
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong Entrance
The lounge itself is quite small, though tastefully designed. The biggest part of the lounge was the “main lounge”, which featured comfortable sofa seating reminiscent of a decent upscale downtown lounge. Cathay Pacific’s signature colour tones and light fixtures were present, including bamboo lantern-esque lighting. While trying to get photos, a nice gentleman jokingly raised his hand up and said “paparazzi! No photo!” (as he requested, he’s not in the photos below).
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong Main Lounge
Behind that was a relaxation area. Cathay Pacific is quite proud of designing their Solo chairs, which are essentially large sofas for one equipped with power ports and USB ports. The USB ports to at least one of the seats was broken – quite disappointing given the lounge is barely over a year old – though at least the seats were indeed very comfortable.
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong Relaxation Area
On the other side from the relaxation area was a long strip of cafeteria-style booths, which were designed for eating. While meant for dining, these booths are comfortable to sit and work at. This area seemed to be the most crowded during my short visit, so I wasn’t able to get a photo of the full length of the booths (there are many of them, arranged in a 1-1 configuration with an aisle in between).
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong Dining Area
Adjacent to the booths was a noodle bar, one of Cathay Pacific’s signature lounge features. As you’d expect, the noodle bar featured a sizeable selection of noodles, as well as a few other Asian dishes.
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong Noodle Bar
The menu for the noodle bar read as follows:
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong Noodle Bar Menu
In addition to that, the lounge features an outdoor area called The Terrace. This is the closest you’ll get to tarmac views in this lounge, given it isn’t anywhere close to the actual airport windows. It also affords views of gates 6-9, which can be helpful if your flight’s departing from there (our flight was departing from gate 6, though our plane was slightly out of sight – it was more visible at the adjacent Qantas Lounge, which we visited prior).
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong Terrace
Overall, the lounge is quite nicely designed, and I thought the designers utilised the space they had quite well. I’m impressed at how many different lounge “areas” Cathay Pacific could muster out of this tiny space, given that G16 used to be a single room full of chairs. That being said, the lounge still isn’t huge, and it was quite crowded during the duration of our stay (though not so badly that we couldn’t find chairs).
Since we had a bit of time to go before our flight, I found myself happily perched in one of the Solo chairs (I still deny that they’re anything special, but they are very comfortable).
Yours truly, happily perched in The Deck
Aside from the Noodle Bar, this lounge features a small food spread with somewhat appealing food, though it really wasn’t anything special.
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong Food Spread
Those seeking an alcoholic beverage (or a soft drink) could move to the end of the food spread, though there’s no barista-made coffee here. I’d just had a nice drink at the adjacent Qantas lounge, so didn’t help myself here.
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong Drinks
In addition, a couple of snack carts with cookies and sweet treats was dispersed throughout the lounge (this is a feature of many of Cathay Pacific’s lounges).
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong Cookies and Sweet Treats
One thing this lounge has that the G16 lounge didn’t is shower rooms. The lounge features eight of them, all perched in a single hallway behind the relaxation area. The shower attendant saw me holding my camera, and asked if I only wanted a shower room for the photo (she wasn’t wrong).
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong Shower Room Hallway
The shower room is basically similar to what you’ll find at The Pier.
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong Shower Rooms
As with most Cathay Pacific lounges, the shower rooms featured Aesop amenities.
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong Aesop Amenities
All of the limited interactions I had with staff members were pleasant, and the attendants working the lounge were all very courteous. In addition to that, WiFi at this lounge was free and fast (Cathay Pacific is quite consistent with this, particularly in Hong Kong).
I did a bit of introduction work for my Japan Airlines video inside the relaxation area, where my mother and I were initially alone, though a couple of other travellers decided to use the space too after a few minutes. A few minutes before boarding time, I headed down to gate 6 to board my flight to Tokyo Haneda.
Bottom Line: Cathay Pacific’s The Deck Lounge Hong Kong
Hmm. Cathay Pacific’s The Deck lounge is definitely nice, and it’s quite nicely designed. Cathay Pacific has gotten their newest lounges right, and this one is no exception. Despite that, I’d give this lounge a miss next time, even if my gate was close by, if I had a first or business class ticket.
Why? That’s because the excellent Qantas Lounge is right next door, and is usually much less crowded. There’s also many things that lounge has that this one doesn’t, such as a bar, really good barista-made coffee, and a more extensive food spread. Since we’d just dropped by after visiting the Qantas Lounge, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a bit of a downgrade.
This is a pretty good option for Marco Polo Club elites who don’t have access to the Qantas lounge, though have a nearby gate.
Read more from this trip:
Have you been to Cathay Pacific’s The Deck Lounge before? What did you think of the lounge?