This is a long overdue trip review that was meant to be a restart of this dormant website. My day job has gotten the better of my time over the past years, so much so that the inertia to jumpstart this sleeping baby took a while to go.
After going to Tomorrowland for the first time in my life (that’s another story for another day), I spent a couple of days in Amsterdam before heading back to Asia on Cathay. Why Cathay? It was a very practical reason: beyond the ME3 carriers who were trashing fares due to the Iran war, it was much cheaper to fly with Cathay during the typically busy summer season.
Amsterdam also turned out to be a good choice of airport to fly out of, as several of my friends who flew out of Brussels had missing luggage, only recovered after dozens of emails and two weeks later.
I decided to do a review of this flight, simply because of how good simple can be. Cathay runs a consistent product, and while it’s not entirely life-changing, the reliability triumphs.
Cathay’s A350-1000 business class is a very comfortable way to get from Europe to Asia. The seat is a proven performer, wifi is free, and the catering (especially the burger and pork rib soup) was genuinely solid.
Verdict: A proven seat, free wifi and a burger worth staying awake for. The lunch service, however, needs a stopwatch.
In this review
Booking
For this trip, I made a cash booking, with my trip originating from Kuala Lumpur. Across Southeast Asia, you can generally find significantly lower fares on premium cabins from other cities, even after factoring in repositioning flights.
By starting and ending in Kuala Lumpur, I spent only about MYR10,700 (USD2620) on the return business class fare. A similar trip out of Singapore or Bangkok will cost at least MYR3,000-5,000 (USD740-1220) more.
As a Qantas platinum frequent flyer, I naturally credited my points and status credits to Qantas Frequent Flyer. While this gives me less points than what I’d have earned crediting them to Cathay’s own programme, I needed the status credits to requalify for platinum the following year.
This is what the trip would have earned you on Qantas and Cathay’s programme:
| Earns | KUL-HKG (each way) | HKG-AMS (each way) | Return total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asia Miles | 3,500 | 10,000 | 27,000 |
| Cathay Status Points | 35 | 100 | 270 |
| Earns | KUL-HKG (each way) | HKG-AMS (each way) | Return total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qantas Points | 2,500 | 7,400 | 19,800 |
| Qantas Status Credits | 80 | 120 | 400 |
For context, both Cathay Diamond and Qantas Platinum get you oneworld Emerald. Cathay Diamond takes 1,200 Status Points, so this one trip covers 22.5% of it. For Qantas Platinum, I only needed 1,200 Status Credits to requalify (1,400 from 2027), so the trip covers a third of my requirement. Not bad for a summer holiday.
My Flight Today
My journey home today flew as follows:
- CX270 Amsterdam (AMS) to Hong Kong (HKG), departing 12:20, arriving 06:10 (+1)
- MH79 (sold as CX6011) Hong Kong (HKG) to Kuala Lumpur (KUL), departing 08:45, arriving at 12:45
Check-in
At Amsterdam Schiphol, Cathay Pacific’s check-in row is located at Departure Hall 3, rows 23-24. As a oneworld Emerald, I could use the first class counter, which had no queue. Fair enough, since Cathay doesn’t fly first to Amsterdam, this was essentially a counter for oneworld Emeralds, including Cathay diamond members.
Naturally, check-in was very fast and smooth. The agent was also very helpful in providing advice on tax refunds: she handed us our boarding passes first, and pointed us in the right direction to get our tax refunds done before coming back to drop our bags.
Schiphol is running at a very high volume, and it shows. After bag drop, we were sent to the security screening at Departure Hall 2, a five-minute trek through a packed terminal. Thankfully, business class passengers get a separate entrance at security, which made short work of the queue.
The funny thing about Schiphol is the awkward walk you didn’t sign up for. We checked in at Departure Hall 3, then were made to trek to Hall 2 to clear security and immigration, then walk back towards the non-Schengen gates in Hall 3. I suspect the layout was designed by someone with a daily step target.
The oneworld Lounge
Cathay sends its premium passengers to the alliance-branded oneworld Lounge, which is thankfully a short walk after immigration in Departure Hall 2. After the step count so far, my legs were grateful. It sits between the D and E gates, one floor above the main walkways on Level 3, and is signposted as Lounge 40.
The lounge is fairly new, having only opened in February 2024 as oneworld’s second branded lounge after Seoul Incheon, and its first in Europe. It took over the space of the former British Airways lounge which closed after the pandemic, and covers 473 square metres. Swissport’s Aspire brand runs it day to day, sharing a kitchen with its own Aspire lounge next door.
Access is for oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members, plus First and Business passengers on oneworld airlines, departing outside the Schengen area.
Boarding and departure
Our departure today was was from gate G3, about a ten-minute stroll from the lounge. Waiting there was B-LXQ, a 2022-delivered Airbus A350-1000.
The A350-1000 is the stretched version of the A350-900, and Cathay uses the extra length to fit 54 more seats:
| Cabin | A350-900 | A350-1000 |
|---|---|---|
| Business | 38 | 46 |
| Premium Economy | 28 | 32 |
| Economy | 214 | 256 |
| Total | 280 | 334 |
Boarding began at around 11:40 and wrapped up well before the 12:20 scheduled departure. This was also just about enough time for me to finish up the pre-departure glass of champagne offered.
We pushed back at 12:37, then spent 17 minutes taxiing. Schiphol’s runways are spread so far apart that taxiing can feel like a tour of the Dutch countryside. We were finally airborne at 12:54.
The cabin and seat
Cathay’s A350-1000 has 46 business class seats in a 1-2-1 reverse-herringbone layout, all in one long cabin between the first and second set of doors. Every seat has direct aisle access.
As you can see from the layout above, there are only two lavatories for the cabin of 46 seats, both of which are located at the front of the cabin. For those seated towards the rear of the cabin, there are also two more lavatories in the galley section behind the cabin.
For the flight today, I was seated in 15K, a window seat on the right side of the cabin, with two windows all to myself.
Surprisingly, when I first made my booking, all the centre pairs were already taken. Travelling with a companion, I’d hoped for one of those, but none were available even four months before the flight. Apparently every couple in Europe had the same idea. In fairness, the centre seats are so private that you’d have to lean well forward to chat anyway.
The seat is Cathay’s customised version of the Cirrus reverse herringbone, originally made by Zodiac and now by Safran. Cathay has flown versions of it across its long-haul fleet since 2011, and apart from the newer Aria Suite (which I’ve yet to try), this is still the airline’s main workhorse. It’s one of the roomier reverse herringbones around, especially at the footwell, which doesn’t taper into the usual narrow cubby.
Here’s what’s where:
- Side panel: a touchscreen IFE remote, a reading light, and seat controls with presets for upright and full-flat.
- Side cabinet: this is where you can find your headphones, a Bamford amenity kit and a bottle of water when you first get to your seat. There is also the AC and USB-A power sockets located in here. The door has a small mirror, handy for checking for vegetables stuck between your teeth, or to make sure you don’t have the odd hair out of place after a nap.
- Console: a generous side table, with the tray table pivoting out from beneath it, so you can still get in and out with the table deployed.
- Storage: a lidded compartment beneath the side console, big enough for shoes and small gadgets, and still reachable in bed mode.
- Overhead: reading lights only, with no personal air nozzles, so dress for the cabin temperature.
It’s a very solid business class seat, and still one of my favourites: direct aisle access for everyone, plenty of places to stash things, and a proper view out.
Amenities
When I got to my seat, the menus were already waiting, along with a pillow and a bedding kit and slippers tucked into the footwell. Cathay added mattress pads to its business class bedding in 2019, but only for long-haul flights from Hong Kong to Europe, North America and South Pacific.
The Bamford amenity kit and Cathay’s noise-cancelling headphones live in the side cabinet.
Cathay’s current partner for its amenity kit is Bamford, which are also the same amenities found in the lounges and bathrooms across its network on the ground.
The amenity kit is one of the more substantial ones offered in business class. Packed in a slick pearl-white faux leather pouch, the kit contains an eye mask, dental kit, ear plugs, body gel, and even mouthwash and a pillow mist.
The bed
A note about the bed first. The seat reclines into a fully flat bed at the touch of a button, and Cathay adds a bedding set on long-haul flights for better comfort. The bedding was comfy, but the pillow was a little too soft for my liking, with roughly the structural integrity of a German pillow. A second pillow would have helped. While this was a 12-hour red-eye flight, given I was already adapted to European hours, I only managed maybe 3-4 hours of sleep throughout the flight.
Lunch
On this flight today, there are two main meal services: lunch served after take-off, and breakfast just before the early morning arrival into Hong Kong.
While we were still on the ground, the crew came round to take lunch orders.
The food and wine menus are as follow:
As you can see from above, the menus were significantly more substantial than the intra-Asia business class service that I take a lot more frequently, both in terms of food choices and beverage options. For lunch alone, there was a whopping five menu options to choose from. Even though two of the options were all-day options, it’s still an impressive selection.
For lunch today, I went for the octopus salad to start, and the stir-fry prawns with jasmine rice for main, which came with a side of pork rib soup.
Kudos to the crew: service began within 30 minutes of take-off. First up was a canapé of prawn cocktail in an unnamed sauce, with another glass of champagne.
The octopus salad arrived ten minutes later on a tray, with a second crew member following with the bread basket. I took a customary piece of baguette, which was cold and hard enough to count as carry-on.
I’m a fast eater and typically inhale my food in minutes. Most of the time the on-board service speed is able to match my eating pace, but to my dismay today, the main course arrived almost 30 minutes after the starter. The octopus salad turned out to be mere foreplay: there was time for a toilet break before the main event. At least the business class lavatories at the front of the cabin have windows and Bamford toiletries, so the wait came with a view.
The main course came just as I was starting to turning hangry. The prawns were passable, though the sauce did a much better job with the rice. The glorious winner was the pork rib soup, although I’m not entirely sure that wasn’t homesickness talking. It was so good I asked for seconds, which the crew gladly served.
For dessert, I asked for both the ice cream and the fruit plate, because holidays. Cathay serves Häagen-Dazs in every cabin, and today’s flavour in business was Belgian chocolate.
The fruit plate was a delicately arranged plate of four slices of different fruits. Cathay has always had an eclectic fruit selection: the watermelon, orange and dragon fruit were easy to identify, but the pale green crescent had me stumped for the rest of the flight. Back on the ground, forensic analysis of my photos says honeydew melon although I swear it didn’t taste anything like that.
And with my double portion of desserts, the entire meal service wrapped up a little over two hours into the flight. I made up the bed myself, then carried on sipping wine in front of a movie.
Mid-flight snack: the burger
About four hours after lunch, I was peckish again, perhaps due to it being closer to dinner time in Europe. So I guess it was time to check out the mid-flight offerings. And of course, the Cathay burger caught my eye.
Cathay’s burger is famous on its long-haul flights, and I was curious whether the fries would survive the journey from galley oven to seat.
The all-day menu, available on request throughout the flight:
- Barbecued pork noodle soup
- Vegetarian lasagne
- Classic beef burger with cheddar, bacon and pickles on a toasted brioche bun, with fries
- Galley snacks: Häagen-Dazs ice cream, Garrett caramel popcorn and other sweet and savoury nibbles
I pressed the call bell, and a crew member appeared pronto.
“I’d like a cheeseburger, please.”
“That will take about 20 minutes. Is that okay?”
“That’s fine. But can I have a glass of champagne first?”
Priorities. The glass came first, and I took my time nursing it. Like clockwork, the burger arrived shortly after.
The burger came assembled without vegetables, its lettuce leaf and tomato slice waiting on the side like optional extras. The thick-cut fries looked almost too glossy, as though someone had brushed them with oil before serving. The tray also had a knife and fork, and a small glass tub of Heinz ketchup. Bonus points for elegance.
Time for the verdict. The patty was surprisingly juicy and hit all the right spots. The fries deserve an honourable mention: deep-fried food rarely holds up at 30,000 feet, so I have to applaud Cathay for even trying. I prefer thick-cut fries anyway, so these were still pretty enjoyable with the ketchup.
Feeling greedy, and firmly of the view that calories don’t count above 30,000 feet, I asked whether the San Sebastian cheesecake from lunch was still available. Boy, it was, and I inhaled it along with another glass of the Chinese red.
The wine list
Speaking of wine, Cathay’s list plays it safe on paper: a champagne, then two whites and two reds from French, Australian and American labels. Look closer and there are quiet stars. La Dame de Montrose is the second wine of Château Montrose, a Saint-Estèphe second growth.
| Type | Wine | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Champagne | Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve NV | Champagne, France |
| White | Chartron et Trébuchet Chablis 2024 | Burgundy, France |
| White | Westmount Pinot Gris 2023 | Willamette Valley, USA |
| Red | La Dame de Montrose 2017 | Saint-Estèphe, Bordeaux, France |
| Red | Kilikanoon Killerman’s Run Shiraz 2021 | Clare Valley, Australia |
| Dessert wine | Graham’s Late Bottled Vintage Port 2020 | Portugal |
| Chinese showcase, red | Puchang Vineyard Beichun Limited Edition 2019 | Turpan Valley, Xinjiang, China |
| Chinese showcase, sparkling | Silver Heights Bloom Sparkling Wine 2023 | Ningxia, China |
The list also showcases two Chinese wines: a red from Xinjiang and a sparkling from Ningxia. I’d tried Ningxia reds several years ago and was already intrigued by how decent they were. Piqued, I asked for the Xinjiang red. The wine held up surprisingly well in the air, with enough depth and complexity for altitude. It went down rather well with San Sebastian cheesecake too, a pairing no sommelier will ever sign off on.
For the teetotallers, the signature drink is the Cathay Delight (kiwi, coconut milk and fresh mint). Coffee is by illy, tea is by JING, and there’s Hong Kong-style milk tea too. Don’t ask me how they tasted, because I hardly consume any non-alcoholic drinks beyond water.
Breakfast
Cathay asks business class passengers to pre-order breakfast on a card tucked into the menu. That spares everyone an ordering conversation at 4am Hong Kong time, an hour at which nobody should be making decisions about omelettes.
Breakfast came round about two hours before landing, with four choices:
- Wellness breakfast: chia seed pudding with kiwi, Amarena cherries and dried apricots
- Lighter breakfast: cold cuts with cheese, olives and bread
- Chinese breakfast: chicken congee with stir-fried egg noodles and mixed vegetables
- Western breakfast: cheese omelette, pork sausage, cherry tomato ragout and roasted baby potatoes
While it’s approaching early morning in Hong Kong, my tummy was clearly still in the mood for supper. Hence, I went for the Chinese option.
To my relief, the set arrived on a tray: a half-filled bowl of chicken congee, a side plate of stir-fried egg noodles and a small bowl of strawberries, blueberries, melon and mandarin. The congee had some flavour to it, although the noodles was pretty much bland with a rubbery texture. Noodles never really quite do well after a long time in storage, considering we were towards the end of the flight.
Entertainment and Wi-Fi
Cathay’s StudioCX entertainment system plays on a large high-definition screen, and it was competent. I’ve always liked Cathay’s selection of Asian films, and this flight was no exception.
Wifi was complimentary for all first and business class passengers, regardless of whether you are a Cathay member. You can connect one device at a time and switch between devices whenever you like. Having said that, travelling between Europe and Asia is always a bit of a toss-up as far as wifi coverage is concerned, there are pockets of times throughout the flight where wifi was unavailable.
However, if you are travelling in premium economy or economy, you will need to be either a Cathay member (for premium economy) or Cathay Gold member (for economy) to access free wifi.
Service
For those who are familiar with Cathay Pacific, its business class service tends to be efficient rather than effusive, and this crew fit that mould to the point. They were friendly and professional, from boarding through to landing. They greeted by name, and were fairly attentive throughout the flight.
The small things went well: meal orders were taken on the ground, lunch commenced fairly quickly after take-off, the call bell was answered almost instantly, and a second bowl of soup arrived without a second thought.
Between meals, the crew kept a low profile while the cabin rested. I generally prefer this than a prowling cabin crew, because if I needed service, I have the bell to use.
The one real wobble was pacing of the meal service. A near 30-minute wait between starter and main is long for anyone, although this might be a galley process problem. Having said that, the service was still very competent, and by this time I could be picking at bones for a weak spot.
Arrival
We touched down in Hong Kong at 05:48, 22 minutes ahead of the 06:10 schedule. It’s the kind of early nobody asks for at dawn, but landing early in Hong Kong does has its perks: a lighter transit security screening load, and also ample time to freshen up in the lounge before our connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur.
Final thoughts
Cathay’s A350-1000 business class remains one of the most dependable ways to get between Europe and Asia. The seat is a proven performer, the wifi is free (although not necessarily fast), and menu hits all the right spots, with the burger and pork rib soup being genuine highlights for me.
The gripes were small but real: a lunch service that needed a stopwatch, and a pillow that needed a backbone. For a cash fare starting in Kuala Lumpur, it’s a solid 8/10. Unfortunately, with the additional fuel surcharge that Cathay Pacific has levied this year due to uncertain fuel prices, one will be hard pressed to find such a good deal in the near term.
24 hours
