CX890 HKG-EWR

December 30, 2019

In-transit:

I had about 4.5hrs during transit at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA). While normally that’s to be dreaded, say, if you have to spend the same amount of time waiting for your next flight at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, or worse, god forbid, Chicago O’Hare, HKIA is a tad different in that regard. In particular, if you’re an oneworld alliance elite member, HKIA’s home airline Cathay Pacific, a founding member of the said alliance, will provide you with an unrivaled lounge experience.

However, I think it is necessary to disclaim that market conditions are varied around the world. The American Express Centurion Lounge at HKIA is pretty lackluster comparing to other lounges at the airport, but it would be industry-leading here in the US.

So my agenda for the layover basically looked like this:

• a three-course meal at the Dining Room, the Pier First Class Lounge by Cathay Pacific;

• a complimentary massage at the Retreat, the Pier First Class Lounge by Cathay Pacific;

• a power nap/plane spotting at the Day Suite, the Pier First Class Lounge by Cathay Pacific;

• a quick dip at the Cabana, the Wing First Class Lounge by Cathay Pacific;

• a pre-flight happy hour at the Champagne Bar, the Wing First Class Lounge by Cathay Pacific.

With that out of the way, let’s clear the transit security, which took less than a minute, and head to our first stop at the Pier First Class Lounge.

Lounge:

The Pier First Class Lounge is located near gate 63 in HKIA’s Terminal 1 and is also the first lounge to feature the refreshed lounge style by British interior designer Ilse Crawford, whose portfolio includes the Soho House New York and several Aēsop stores. The new design was since carried out in lounge renovations throughout Cathay’s network worldwide, such as Shanghai Pudong, Tokyo Haneda, Taipei Taoyuan and many more. Cathay’s Heathrow lounge also features the new design, which I’ve reviewed here.

To enter the lounge, there’s a rather nondescript escalator leading one level below the concourse.

Once inside, there’s a podium where receptionists would check you in. The main service desk was tucked behind the partition. Straight ahead, the first thing that met the eye was this unique lighting fixture, resembling a branch of a tree.

Then to the right, there were some interestingly arranged sofas between the restrooms and the shower spa reception.

When facing the Dining Room, to your left was the Library, with more traditional lounge seating, and I’d argue is the most boring part of the lounge. To your right, there were personal work stations, which Cathay poetically named the Bureau.

As you can already tell, the lounge really aimed to create a sense of home, with designs suitable for their functionalities. The shower suites, day suites and the massage complex was called the Retreat. While the day suites weren’t meant to be private hotel rooms, you could close the curtains and the blackout shades should you wish to get some real sleep.

However, the best part of the Retreat was an incredible view of the apron as planes literally just pull up 15 yards from you.

How majestic were the Eva Air and Aeroflot B777s! Outside the day suites were more than a dozen shower rooms, which were all immaculate.

Lastly, passengers were entitled to a complimentary 15-minute massage treatment. Availability wasn’t wide open, but it wasn’t hard to come by either. The treatment menu reads as follows:

I decided to go for a foot massage. The treatment area was essentially one room. There was enough privacy nonetheless so it wasn’t uncomfortable.

After a relaxing foot rub, I decided to sample some food from the lounge.

The Dining Room was one big room with a fully tended bar. This was in addition to the circular bar at the other end of the lounge.

The décor of the space was really posh, reminding me of an upscale bistro in Chelsea, be it in New York or London. I was quickly brought a menu, as well as a drink list, which read as follows:

I started with an apéritif, well, two apéritifs actually - an espresso martini (I know, I just can’t help but throw my sexuality in other peoples’ faces) and a Cathay Delight, which is Cathay Pacific’s signature kiwi-based mocktail. I was brought a cold towel, of course.

The bartenders in Cathay’s lounges were consistently oh-là-là fabulous. The espresso martini was the best I’ve had anywhere in the world.

Then came the first course, which was the sticky pork ribs with sweet and sour sauce, coriander and lime. All the dishes were appetizer size, so I was able to sample more varieties.

The ribs were richly savory, and I thought the presentation was great. For main courses, I ordered the Penang style fish curry with whole spices, coconut milk, holy basil and jasmine rice, and obviously the staple Cathay dish, dan dan mien. The dan dan mien from Cathay was a departure from the traditional Sichuan dan dan mian, as it instead used a creamy peanut broth. I LOVE these noodles, so much that I recreated them at home. If you’re unable to procure peanut paste from Asian markets, tahini actually substitutes well too.

Desserts were also available, but I decided to save some room for later. The Pier First Class Lounge is a real gem. There are many great first class lounges out there, but this one is different. I’m not sure if it’s the design of the lounge, it puts me into a calm state of mind. It’s as if I’m at home hidden underneath a mohair blanket watching Sex and the City on a snowy Friday night, with a Diptyque candle burning out a woody scent. For me, this level of serenity and nonchalance can’t be achieved by tacky gold Swarovski chandeliers or Russian blue faux leather furniture, say, at the Trump hotels.

Continue on, I walked from gate 63 to gate 2, where the Wing First Class Lounge was located. The Wing is the older generation product, as you will see from the pictures. The lounge followed a very contemporary luxury style with colder tones. It was gorgeous in a different way.

Once entered, the first class lounge was to the right of the reception, with business lounge to the left. The lounge was a level above concourse, so it had an open-air setting. First was some high-top seating with a snack display.

The lounge was awfully empty. I’ve found that gates 1 to 4 at HKIA were consistently used for flights departing for the US. I guess first class capacity had decreased since Cathay started dispatching new A350 aircrafts without first class cabins to several US destinations.

The traditional seating area was also empty…

But I didn’t come here to sit, I came for the Cabanas, which were the four shower rooms equipped with a sofa and a soaking tub. They looked like this:

There’s a rainforest shower.

Other than the bathrobe and slippers, you could also place your shirts inside the closet to be pressed for free. So yeah, I’d say a 300 square feet shower room is pretty damn sweet for an airport, considering how expensive real estate is in Hong Kong…

The Wing First Class Lounge also had a sit-down restaurant called the Haven, so I tried out a couple more things before it was time to board.

To commence, I ordered an iced Perrier and a glass of champagne, which was the Deutz Brut Rosé. Following that was kung pao chicken with dried chillies, spring onions, peanuts, black vinegar & soy and jasmine rice. The menu, while not photographed, had the same selection of main courses as the Pier lounge. It was different because back in the days the two first class lounges would have different offerings. The kung pao chicken was really dry. You would think it’s a dish that’s hard to mess up.

Therefore I opted for the braised beef cheek & potato pot pie, with porcini mushroom gravy and sourdough crumbs. This dish was much better - the cheek meat was juicy and aromatic, while the crumbs added some nice texture.

The Wing First Class Lounge stands true in the test of time. Even though it had been open for nearly a decade, it’s still leading the pack. The 4.5 hours flew by as Cathay kept me pampered and fed (and lubed), it was time to head to the boarding gate for my 15-hour flight to, ew, Jersey.

Boarding:

Even though our bird didn’t have a first class cabin, Cathay still set up a separate queue for oneworld emerald members, who can normally board with first class passengers.

Before I begin the review of the flight itself, I have to mention that I have never been impressed by Cathay’s business class. Its first class is phenomenal, but business class fell short even when compared to American Airlines.

This review comes one month after Cathay announced changes to some aspects of its soft product, such as a new collaboration with British sustainable lifestyle brand Bamford. This refresh came in the form of a 400 thread count pillow case, a mattress topper, a duvet and slippers. Could you believe Cathay didn’t even have slippers before? What kind of Asian airline doesn’t have slippers???

After the flight, however, I am pleased to reveal that Cathay’s business class (drumroll, please) is now industry average.

The boarding process got held up by security interviews conducted for flights bound for the US, which I’ve poked fun of in this review of Philippine Airlines.

At the door, I was greeted by a flight attendant and directed to my seat. I sat in the middle mini-cabin with just two rows, in front of the premium economy cabin. The pro of this section was that it was more intimate, as there were only 8 seats. The cons were the proximity to premium economy cabin, and people tend to mistake the business class lavatory for theirs.

The seats were the Cirrus reverse herringbone seats, which were an improved version of what Cathay had in their older fleet. I thought the cabin was fine, with very conservative (bland) color scheme. It reminded me somewhat of Philippine Airlines’ A350 interior.

Cathay didn’t have individual air vents on the plane, but that wasn’t an issue because the cabin was kept at a cool temperature inflight.

Awaiting at my seat were the new Bamford bedding and an amenity kit from Seventy-eight Percent, which I believe is a local Hong Kong leather brand. Unfortunately, the new Bamford amenity kit was not loaded on my flight.

Much like on British Airways, Cathay also had a case to store all the bedding items, which I love for sanitary and presentation reasons. I’ll get to the quality of the bedding later.

Later into the flight, I had to ask the FA for a pair of slippers, which reminded her that she hadn’t distributed them to any passengers. It seemed like it would be less work for FAs if slippers were placed at seats when boarding…

The menu and breakfast card, which adorably looked like a newspaper, were also at my seat. They read as follows:

One little detail Cathay missed was that there’s no pen in the amenity kit to fill out the breakfast card.

Soon after I settled down, a male flight attendant came around with a tray of welcome beverages, which I chose the champagne and orange juice. The champagne served onboard was the Billecart-Salmon Brut Réserve, which I really liked, and no, I did not mix the two. The purser came around and greeted me as an emerald member.

I noticed that the seats were actually pretty private, given that there’s an extended shield next to your head. When seated, you couldn’t really see other parts of the cabin.

The boarding took a bit longer, and we were cleared for push-back 15 minutes past the scheduled departure time.

Inflight:

During our ascent, I checked out the exterior camera on the tail. While the camera itself was pretty high-resolution, it was already dark outside when we were airborne.

One thing I have to commend Cathay for was how quickly service was started. The seatbelt sign was turned off maybe 10 minutes after take-off, which was pretty unimaginable with Asian carriers, since they tend to keep the sign on for much longer.

Tonight’s dinner service started with an apéritif. I ordered more champagne and Cathay Delight. I was also served some mixed nuts and a hot towel, which was not served on a towel dish.

For my appetizer, I chose the sliced pork with garlic sauce. This dish is a quintessential Sichuan cold starter, so it was creative of Cathay to have come up with it on the menu. However, the presentation was unsatisfactory - I absolute detest airlines that use plastic ramekins in business class. Like, this isn’t a side guac from Chipotle?

The taste was otherwise decent. I want to talk about the fact that Cathay has been trialing a new dinning concept in business class, including the new menu design and serviceware. The new service was supposed to get rid of using trolley cart, in order to provide a more personalized experience. However, the male attendant serving my aisle was still using a trolley. He was well-intentioned and friendly, but the inconsistency in expectations is definitely not conducive to the implementation of a new product.

Meal option wise, I feel like folding the two snack options into the main course seems a bit shifty.

For my main course, I decided on the wok-fried chicken with shrimp, dried fish, cashew nuts and garlic chives, served with steamed jasmine rice. To accompany it, I requested a glass of 2016 Château Tanesse, Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux. It was quite good, and its $12 price tag makes it a pretty good table wine. Not so great for international business class though…

The main course was featured on the cover page. While the taste was great, there must be a more elegant way to plate this dish so that it doesn’t look like a DoorDash delivery from your local Hunan Garden you know?

To finish off the meal, I ordered both the cheese plate and the only dessert option, milk tea tapioca pearl pudding. Both were good, and I appreciated how Cathay incorporated Hong Kong’s famous milk tea into a dessert on a plane.

After an overall enjoyable meal, it was time to sleep. I want to note that the service was well-intentioned, but the flow could be refined. It felt like the FAs were just finishing tasks, rather than hosting guests. The FAs were two Indian girls and a guy from Hong Kong, and they were all hospitable. On this flight I didn’t see any local Hong Kong girls working in business class. Normally they are the ones, mmm uh, let’s say have an attitude. Not all of them, but some.

I reclined my seat and made the bed with the new bedding, as there’s no turndown service. The bedding was FANTASTIC - the pillow was so plush, and the duvet was silky smooth. It’s really neat to see how we can now enjoy hotel quality bedding on airplanes thanks to the partnerships airlines have with brands.

I was able to nap in 3-hour increments for about 12 hours and woke up just in time for breakfast. We were landing at 9PM New York time and 10AM Hong Kong time, so I guess serving breakfast was logical enough.

Everything was served on one tray. I chose the Chinese breakfast, which came with a (very boring) fruit plate, sliced pork and dried scallop (which I didn’t find any) congee with barbecued pork puff. I also asked for a roasted duck with lai fun noodles in soup from the snack menu.

The breakfast was exponentially better than dinner. The barbecued pork puff was so fluffy that it tasted like it had just come out of the oven. The roasted duck was deboned and there’s 6 pieces of them. What a delightful meal!

Prior to landing, the FAs handed out all passengers a feedback survey regarding the new dining concept. I’m generally pretty good about filling these out, but I wanted to finish watching Julianne Moore in Gloria Bell.

On-arrival:

We touched down at Newark Liberty International Airport 20 minutes ahead of schedule. As I mentioned before the review, previously I was unimpressed by Cathay’s business class. Coming away from this flight, I think Cathay is headed to the right direction:

• the mattress topper and slippers materially enhanced the comfort when sleeping;

• the plane featured Gogo 2Ku satellite wifi and was reasonably priced at $19 for the entire flight;

• the new seats on the A350s were significantly wider, due to the extra padding on the side;

• the IFE selection was great as usual.

Along with decent catering and service, I think Cathay now has a slightly above average business class product. If you are able to enjoy the ground experience, I’d say Cathay is a pretty fabulous way to fly to/from Hong Kong.