Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Date: 5 OCT 2014
Travel Class: Business
3NT’s Verdict: Miserable seating countered by professional service.
This was my first-ever Cathay Pacific flight, and it was not the best introduction to the airline. Check-in at Taipei Taoyuan International Airport was a relatively standard affair. The only exception was that all passengers are asked to wait until they see their checked luggage pass through the x-ray before proceeding to their gate. There was a lot of construction happening at the Taipei airport, so getting to Cathay’s Business Class Lounge was a little confusing. Once in the lounge, the offerings were rather disappointing. The service counters look fancy, but the available food was bland and of poor quality.
I had high expectations for a Business Class flight on one of the world’s most acclaimed airlines, but this particular flight was not prepared to meet those expectations. My seat was 87K in the upper deck of this B747. Unfortunately, the seating configuration was still an old format where all of the seats faced away from the windows, and they were all incredibly claustrophobic. The seats were probably a relatively standard width for business class seats, but they all had high privacy walls that were barely any wider than the seat itself. The result is a cabin that looks like a collection of futuristic coffins and a decided discomfort for passengers with broad shoulders. The width from wall to wall was just barely wider than the length of my fist to my elbow. Each seat had a small drink rest available, but the location of this alternated every other seat, which means half of the seats required a long reach (possibly even a seatbelt unbuckle) to reach your pre-flight beverage. The one positive feature of the seats was the fact that the control handset for the entertainment system was not in a location where it is easily bumped.
There were two things, however, that made this flight bearable: the fact that it was a less than two-hour flight, and the inflight service. The flight attendants on this flight were not overly friendly, but they were professional, and they did their jobs well. It was somewhat surprising that they served a hot meal on such a short flight, and I would have been impressed if the food quality had been better. I had the Halibut main course, and it was acceptable for such a short flight, but I would have preferred to see an excellent cold meal rather than an acceptable hot meal. The drink selection was excellent, and I enjoyed a nice cool glass of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with my meal.
Overall, I was very disappointed with this flight. The seats were the primary problem, but Cathay Pacific did not quite manage to meet my expectations for such a highly rated airline. Stay tuned for a future review of a long-haul flight, which was a better experience.
