Is This The Worlds Most OVERRATED Airline? Cathay Pacific A350
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- čas přidán 15. 07. 2023
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I took a flight on Cathay Pacific that left me wondering - since when did they get this bad?
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My partner and I recently completed Sydney - London and return flights in economy on Cathay Pacific, with transit in Hong Kong and were very happy with the attentiveness of the staff and quality of meals. The seats were comfortable and had plenty of legroom (I'm 6'). The return flight from London was delayed so we missed the connecting flight to Sydney. On arrival in Hong Kong the Cathay staff were waiting with boarding passes for a rearranged flight 10hrs later. Because of the delay, they provided accommodation at the airport hotel, which enabled us to get a shower and a few hours sleep, together with food vouchers. Great service, no complaints 👍
yeah. Many same experiences as well as I always ride on them. (Especially on long haul)
Flew Cathay Pacific 4 times in 2018, 3 × A350s & 1 × 777 300ER. Dead set greatest airline I've ever flown Noel. 4 out of 4. Best food. Friendliest staff. A freakn' rave, Noel! One thing that struck me was the worn looking seats & carpets for such new aircraft. Didn't spoil my trip with Cathay tho. Ok, back to hear what you think now...
I think it’s important to note that Cathay was absolutely hammered by the pandemic. How they are still in business amazes me. Unless they change their business model they will have a hard time recovering from the rest of the quality airlines the region has to offer. Airlines that were back in business far earlier than Cathay. It appears that Cathay quite simply doesn’t know which direction to go. So they cut service to save costs..it’s all they can do for now.
Incredibly, the pandemic probably saved CX. Remember, CX fired much of its staff due to the anti-Beijing protests that rocked Hong Kong in 2019. Had the pandemic not happened, they would have been so short staffed that CX probably would be a subsidiary of Air China right now as it would have collapsed.
I don't think he cares about what we say down in the comments. I suggested a safety notice as the camera flickering in the loo was quite substantial and could trigger a seizure in somebody who is epileptic and prone to seizures when flashing lights are shown to the viewer. This doesn't mean he doesn't care but it seems to me he doesn't bother reading his comments anymore. Or if so, I have a legitimate issue no disclaimer about the flashing lights. Annoys me.
@@stingray11214 they fired the nearly 15k employees because of pandemic not because of the riots, the riots was like a few thousand but it was mainly pandemic
@@n1msu maybe he just didnt see your comment? theres over 800 comments on this video, he cant see them all lol
Everyone got their asses kicked during the pandemic. It's just that the pandemic has been gone for a year and there they still haven't caught on. Others have managed... Or they left
15:47 "The seat's average" - no it's not, it's by far the best you can get on this route. JAL has angled seats, ANA has recliners.
Agree with your assessment. It all depends on the route and the market. Essentially what's on offer is an international product in what is a 'regional' flight, so context is quite important.
exactly, this is when I know I'm being conned by an inexperienced youtuber, with all his circle jerk followers agreeing with him. SAD.
Pretty sure most, if not all of JALs 787s have lie flats now
Delta, AA, BA, AF all have similar style seats
@@jcspotter7322 I think the original poster was referring to other airline that also operate this route use a regional business class, where CX deploy their long haul business class for this route. So on a route to route comparison, CX seat is by far way more superior.
Just a little correction. These are not Super Diamond seats which are produced by Collins Aerospace, these are Safran Cirrus seats made by Safran which are different reverse herringbone seats.
Why do you know that 😭😭
@@montyjackson9905 You can tell the difference through the tray tables and IFE screens. With the Cirrus seats the screens swivel out, while with the Super Diamond seats the screens don't move and always face the passenger.
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
@@montyjackson9905there’s a site called aerolopa that has seat maps and it shows the name and model of the seats on the planes
@@SpadesPlusYT58 touch grass bro 😭😭
I just flew cathay from HKG to LAX. Honestly, it was one of the best business class flights I've ever flown. The Pier Lounge at HKG at the most amazing food, especially their tea and noodle bar. The seat on the 777-300er was a standard reverse herringbone, which wasn't bad. Entertainment selection was great, and the inflight food (I ordered from their Asian selection) was also on point and tasted fairly traditional.
I had the pleasure of flying on a Cathay Pacific A350-1000 from Hong Kong to Auckland NZ in December 2022. An absolutely brilliant expirience. Food was excellent, service prompt, IFE easy and intuative and chairs very comfortable. Much better in my oppinion than my expirience flying back to Scotland on board the Emirates A380
This has not really been my experience. Flew LHR to SYD in business and had an amazing flight. Food, seat, service and lounge were all pretty good.
Just did Cathay Pacific between MNL-HKG on economy and was pleasantly surprised that we got a hot meal (used to be just a ham and cheese pie) with metal utensils. Also happy that they still had in-flight magazines and playing cards. Not bad for an airline that has been losing money for so many years, but it's also about perspective. They are doing pretty good considering the impact of the pandemic and the lockdown, Noel.
Cathay always serves hot meals
@@Jpatient for the Manila-Hong Kong route pre-pandemic (around like 2016-2020 range), it was always just a small pie, a piece of cookie, and a small tetrapak of juice. I'm talking this route specifically, which I fly multiple times a year before the pandemic.
@@benjason8863 I think many of the customers complained about the meal on CX short route flights. They were serving small meals. I had a box fried rice served in a CX custom paper bag with handle, on the route of Taiwan to Hong Kong in year 2015, which I was so disappointed. Until few years later, they serve regular sized meals.
It seems you missed the key of Cathay. They got amazing noodle bar in their lounges. They are also famous for their Jing tea and their bar. And have you tried their signature drink Cathay Delight on board? I guess you should try them before you have the judgment. For the blanket, probably because it’s not a long haul flight and they only give out amenity kits and blankets only for long haul.
Of course there are a lot of downsides of Cathy, mainly because of cost cutting. Food is average on board. But saying Shanghai Airlines is better than Cathay? No way.
Price of tickets? Yeah, it’s expensive, probably because hong kongers love going to Japan so much, Hongkongers call Japan “home” (instead of Hong Kong/China). There are never enough flights going to Japan from Hong Kong.
I know right?! When he said FM is better than CX….. Noel was out to trash CX from the beginning, CX didn’t stand a chance. CX is far from perfect but this video was revolting.
For me Cathay got its reputation thirty or so years ago. Other than Singapore Airlines the local airlines were poor (for example Garuda was dicey) but Cathay with its expat (often British) flight deck crew were a standout. I used to travel a lot to Hong Kong for work and the local staff would complain endlessly that our companies travel policy did not allow the use of Cathay - that was a pricing issue - and United with its Asian network were the carrier of choice. And in those days China had few carriers who flew internationally and even fewer you would want to ride.
I think The Pier is the much more elegant and up-to-date lounge for Cathay in HK. I appreciate that their fleet is almost exclusively newer wide-bodies, since the bulk of their routes are mid- to long-haul. And I still think their cabin and seats look the best out of all the major full-service airlines --- calming and classy color palette, great storage space and width in bed mode for this type of Business Class seat --- they were one of the first to adopt this seat after all. The service and food, though, tend to be hit or miss these days.
I did four long-haul flights in business class with Cathay last Christmas and they were all consistently good - I'm still a fan of CX. Their business class seats are still the best non-door reverse herringbone seats I've experienced. Food was good and the Pier lounge is as good as ever - why didn't you go there instead of the Wing?? Cathay service has always been distant, but its overall a great airline now as it was a decade ago.
I agree re: the service. I recently noticed on short haul that the crew seem more stressed and didn’t have time to engage too much with customers but overall is in line with their non-intrusive service culture. And food and beverage is offered at a reasonably high standard.
The Pier is at the opposite end of HKIA from the gate where Noel boarded his plane though (& the APM only brings you from that gate to The Pier but not back, as the return trip is only for arriving passengers instead)
I always used the the Pier lounge, spacious, comfortable and good quality food
Remember Cathay was the hardest hit airline by Covid
Kinda feels like you had it in for them from the start. My experiences on Cathay have always been great. Although I've never been served a meal like that, thankfully!
I had the same impression
Definitely. I think he had the video title in mind before he made the video, it's all about clicks and views in terms of CZcams monetization.
And he"d flown them before 17 years ago in 2006 when the IFE packed up which he appears to still traumatised from as it was before mobile phones were a thing and apparently books also hadn't been invented back then so he nearly died on that flight.
CX for sure has been though absolute hell the past nearly 4 years now if you include the protests so when I flew them in May and June this year after so Iong I was expecting it to really show. And it was the opposite. The Pier lounge was amazing as always ( if as he said the Wing was 15 minutes away from his gate I'm confused why he didn't go to the pier actually) the service was great as always, the seats were exactly as shown - CX are very consistent - and I like those seats. The food was good but admittedly not exceptional like Qatar..The IFE was great. 8.5/10.
CX at their current worst are still very much top 5 still for me for biz class. Yes Qatar ( assuming no last minute equipment changes like an ancient 777 2-2-2 config I got last year ) are better, Singapore are better and Emirates it's close but compared to a slew of others I've flown recently in biz such as Lufthansa, BA and KLM Cathay in my view at least are still more than competitive.
In first class they are still absolutely superb as my mate who was lucky enough to just experience them said.
I know right?? I couldn’t watch the video all the way through because it was dripping from bias from the very beginning and it felt like a sad try to finally trash the airline like he’s been waiting for for years.
Yes he was very smug
Kinda agree but the food looked terrible, and things like cleaning the bulkhead when it’s literally the first thing you are boarding should be standard. And seeing a lot of their fleet he’s right that their older 777s look much older than they are. And when you consider the price point for cathay is identical to Singapore it becomes a problem
Unfortunately I can’t agree with you Noel this time. Just a couple of days ago I flew CX171 from HKG to PER, which was absolutely excellent. The service was amazing and the FA’s were professional and yet friendly. The cabin was spotless and the toilets were regularly cleaned throughout the flight. We had no delays and the A350-900 was smooth and comfortable. Cathay is and always will be my favourite airline.
Yeah honestly the title and general theme of this video were so obviously just for clicks and views. Total hit job.
Flew CX biz class this May HKG to Bangkok and then again in June HKG Hanoi.
Pier lounge fantastic as usual - one of the absolute best in the world for my money - hard product great,, food decent ( not as good as Qatar but then whose is ) excellent service, great IFE, great new plane - 8.5/10 being stingy.
And that's after the protests, 3 years of HKG being shut and them operating at less than 10 percent capacity and the HK gov seemingly in a constant war with them for purely political reasons with staff morale at all time low.
Imagine how good they'd be without all these headwinds.
agreed
Cathay's lounge is famous for their Chinese dim sum and dan dan noodle ( peanut based spicy noodle). Much like how Japanese airlines lounge has Japanese udon and tempura served in their lounges. Western eggs and sausages are same world wide. That sky bridge is to their new terminal which mostly serves Hong Kong Airlines. GBA is the new carrier which kinda replaced the now belly-over Dragon Air ( sub company of Cathay) which currently flies China and regional areas around Hong Kong. The name comes from the idea to united Hong Kong and the cities of the Pearl River Delta around the Canton province. A carrier less than a year old. Overall, Cathay had been a great airline but since issues which occurred in HK and COVID, they have since not have a good day and their service and quality has been questionable and especially their food to say the least.
Can't remember if its GBA's CEO (former frm Cathay) or someone else who was saying that HKers should re-think their identities as being "Greater Bay People" instead, seeming to suggest greater integration of HK back into mainland China
I am just back from Japan - an amazing place and I will return. I flew with an airline called Zipair on a Dreamliner from Seoul to Narita. Quite a different experience in terms of the inflight - all things ordered onboard via wifi then delivered to you. No trolly service. Air hostesses constantly walked up and down the aisles until called upon. It was very different but quite nice. And yes terrible immigration queue but not as bad as yours seemed to be and even as late as this year strict Covid rules.
ZipAir is a low cost airline under JAL. Service is uniform but seats are either economy in 3-3-3 configuration or lie flat 1-2-1. There are no IFE screens but free WiFi as mentioned to stream.
@@wee-senchoo7025 They were perfect for the short flight between Seoul and Tokyo and no head-wrecking "small bag only, that fits under the seat" rules
I thought the same. About 7 years ago, I used Cathay for the first time. My friend, she's 5'4", and doesn't worry about the sear size. Me, although not 6'4" , I am 6'1" with longer legs, always book bulk head seats when flying economy. When I got to check in at LAX for HKG, the ticket counter gave away our seats. We didn't book these seats. He replied, " Oh, it's because you booked with a third party." But when I looked at the second leg of our journey, the exact seats I chose were on that boarding pass. To say the least, that was a miserable 15-hour flight. I never used them after that. EVA, CHINA SOUTHERN ANA SINGAPORE AIRLINES are all much, much better products, in my experience.
Wow, this has been the opposite experience I have had with Cathay since my first flight with them on the Flash Sale F ticket between Da Nang (Vietnam) and the US in 2019. I love their F lounges in HKG and LHR tho have never spent more than a few minutes looking around in their C lounges as I am oneworld Emerald. Even a recent experience in Premium Economy (beginning of June) LHR-HKG-HND was great with an amenity kit and blankets available on both sectors with great food and excellent service, including better elite recognition than on my home airline BA. So I have to think the lack of blankets/amenity kits on your flight may have been a mistake. Could also be that they have higher standards on their HND than NRT route due to more premium competition into HND.
PS: Wow @ the fact that youve never been to Japan before. And I second the fact that 40 minutes NRT-HND is some sort of miracle or has to be a Tokyo speed record of some sort.
You’ll have to ask for an amenity kit and blanket in a regional flight, even in business class. I’m wondering if they even load kits on those flights.
Blankets should be there but not distributed.
Cathay’s still not bad, comparatively. Honestly, but it’s definitely lost it’s shine to SQ, it’s more natural rival; and I’m not sure it was on par with EK.
Welcome to Japan Noel! Wow! 40 minutes from NRT to HND? That must be some kind of record! When I saw that line at immigration I thought you weren't going to make your connection. The lines for new entries to Japan have been horrendous for a few months now. Hope you enjoyed Air Do.
I had to do the same few weeks ago, it took me more than 3 hours since the landing, immigration was insane
@@garciatunionYou guys are making me glad I got the trusted traveler card on my last visit in May. I guess I haven’t seen the lines since I’ve been coming in through Haneda but next flight is through Narita.
@@kazik5785 Take the express train or it will take hours
I had a car from downtown Tokyo (Four Seasons Marunouchi by Tokyo Station) to NRT a few years ago early one Sunday morning. It took 40 minutes, for a journey I would usually schedule 90 minutes for. The driver was doing 90mph for a good proportion of the time... it made for an "interesting" journey!
As NRT & HND are at opposite sides of the city, I agree, no way could you do that trip in 40 minutes, especially in a regular cab.
@@nezbrun872 The Airport Shuttle Bus NRT - HND takes 65-85 mins, so not as big of an achievment as it sounds.
I feel your 'meh' comments about Cathay might have been a bit repetitive in this video, there wasn't much else to say, but I get it. Also, agree with other commenters, the Chinese dim sum/steamed dim sum in the CX lounges at HKG are amazing, even the CX lounge at LHR T3 has great Chinese food. I would steer clear of just the sausage & egg and try some of the regional specialities.
As a Hongkonger, we do understand that COVID dealt a serious blow to Cathay, but there is also one fact that non-Hongkongers may not know.
In the early 2010s, when oil prices were at an all time high after the Financial Crisis of 2008 (When Oil was $80 to $90 a barrel), Cathay betted on Oil futures and that their prices will remain high, and purchased fuel for the future 10 years at a price of roughly $70 to $75 a barrel. However, in the mid-2010s, oil prices were much lower all the way until very recently ($20to $40 a barrel), and Cathay lost a lot on betting oil futures. The mid-2010s were also when Cathay's poor service quality first became apparent.
I had two flights with them from MNL to HKG early this year. Both were good, one had a bit more friendly flight crew but overall I was happy. Nothing rubbish about them unlike TAP for example lol
Congratulations on your 100th country! Love your videos. Always looking forward to the next. Blessings ❤✈️🛩🛫🛬❤
Thanks so much! 😊
The Wing is very outdated, the noodle bar is great still though.
The Pier is probably the best business class lounge in the world--much better!
Somewhere I have beautiful paper menus from a 1965 flight aboard Cathay Pacific, part of a circle-the-Pacific trip overseen by PanAm. Lovely 707 service, wonderful food, real silverware, etc. Those were the days! Eager to see your Japan travels. 🌸
Hey Noel, not sure you've heard of this, but check out Buffalo Airways based in Canada.
They have a couple of WW2 era DC-3s that they fly, think you would love that.
I went to Yellowknife last October and saw the hangar and met some of the team. Yes Noel, a great av geek subject. I saw the Electra and they have just acquired a 737.
The Pier is my favorite biz lounge if my gates are out there. On board, I think Cathay is still trying to go back to normal, but I have no complaints about that since all airlines are trying.
I feel like over time alot of these top tier airlines get a little complacent and forget that they are in an industry with constant competition.
Hong Kong had some of the strictest travel regulations in the world, and was one of the last to let up. Unlike China, HK has no domestic market to rely on- and that’s obvious given the fact that their fleet is primarily wide-bodies. With international travel barred, and domestic travel nonexistent, Cathay couldn’t do anything. The fact that they still exist is amazing, and I feel that they should be given some slack considering that they’re still fighting to survive. I lived in Hong Kong for 5 years as an expat, with Cathay being far superior to the other options available. Their reputation is deserved, but they just aren’t in the best place at the moment.
I agree. CX's price was so expensive compared to other airlines, while your on-board experience was just average. I only see they cut down the price since this year, as other major airlines are actively giving discount for Hong Kong flights.
Interesting to see Cathay's current offer - I suspect the next few years will be make or break for them. In terms of the report, it may be beneficial to work out what you plan to say before you start recording - I lost count of how many times the seat was described as "ok" and "comfortable" and the service is "nice" - the seemingly favourite adjective. One other minor point - the "grease" the breakfast was apparently "swimming in" looked remarkably like juice from the mushrooms.
I am a bit sad to hear that Cathay has not been able to recover - I had a brilliant business class flight SYD-FRA in 2018, still think it was one of the best flights ever. Crew were so kind and the food was amazing (Beef noodle soup!) Tried to book again with Cathay end of 2021, but they kept cancelling/changing the flights so ended up going with Qatar. I hope they get back to their former glory.
I doubt it, they are going to struggle with the CCP taking over HK which limits them a lot.
Noel I know you were impressed by the take off from Hong Kong. But really nothing can beat either landing or take off from the former Kai Tak.
The “Cathay A321” is part of what used to be Dragon Air, then Cathay Dragon, and when that was shut down, became part of Cathay Pacific.
Yup, kind of expected him to include that, quite an important fact for an avgeek!
Similar story with how SIA acquired B738s when SilkAir was merged into it
CX was one of my favourite airlines as a Hongkonger to be proud of. Though the catering service is not that good during recent years of hitting hard with pandemic and unforeseen circumstances. They still have some great staff with good service. Hope they will be recover very soon.
Flew CX business class last month, from Japan to Taiwan. CX has roboticized its services. The cabin crew merely provided the standard (minimum acceptable) services, nothing more. I felt that the flight attendants just wanted to rush everything and finished the services asap. No blacket either until I asked.
$250 for a 40min taxi ride is crazy
And also not normal, taxis in Japan are pretty cheap. Not sure what happened here.
40 mins, but he didn’t tell you the distance travel , fyi HK taxi drivers like to speed so essentially they probably covered lot of distance
I’m a top tier flyer within Cathay’s loyalty program (Marco Polo Club) owing to my years of flying based in HK. I cannot agree with you more Noel! Ever since post-covid, Cathay’s combination of cost cutting, profit chasing and lack of care for loyalty is pushing a lot of its frequent fliers, including me, away. I have found even my recent flights with BA to be better in hard and soft products, let alone QR. It’s pretty clear that CX wants to make back its money lost during Covid, but the way they’re doing it I don’t agree with. I’m happy to pay a premium to fly CX if it indeed is providing a premium experience, but charging 30-50% more than competitors on the same route while providing just an avg experience combined with the lack of concern for its loyal members is just not acceptable.
It is because of the management mainly the ceo Ronald lam
That’s what I chose Philippine Air Lines business class to Manila ..more expensive on Cathay and nothing overly impressive
can’t agree more! I don’t fly with CX unless I have to.
I attribute this delusional CX positioning to its years long practice of appointing long serving executives within Swire as CX CEOs. Corporate lifers who aren’t incentivized to push for innovation
I also agree with you. I was gold member for 10 years but after the crew took my backpack out from compartment then falling down to seat because he was rushing to find a space to put other bag in without any asking! After I talked to him and he even not say any “sorry” just told me he needs to put everything in and rush to do take off preparation! I always take CX fight even I need to transit via Hong Kong but now no more! I can book other airlines with lower price with good service and that is direct flights to where I want to go! CX is sinking now, I don’t expect they can recover soon!
FYI, that bridge is called the Sky Bridge (I think) and it was only opened in November 2022. It connects Terminal 1 and the T1 Satellite Concourse. 03:34
I love Cathay sorry, but I don't see anything wrong with your flight to me it looks like a lovely experience. I love their cabin design and food as well. The crews are very lovely. The toilet looked very nice and clean. I had horrible experiences on United and Thai on the other hand I would never fly with them again. Very rude crew awful food and the airplanes were very dirty inside it was few years back though.
I’m looking forward to flying Cathay again, I haven’t since the pandemic. But I used their lounge in T3 LHR last week. It was brilliant. Much better than the Qantas lounge.
Former Garuda Indonesia A330 FO here, but had a lot of friends at Cathay. It’s very sad to see how far the airline has fallen but they are slowly on the path to recovery. HK got hit way harder than most places by COVID and tourism/business travel is just coming back.
Recently flew CX CGK-HKG-LAX in business (CGK) and first class (LAX) and can say the both experiences were excellent, though you can tell morale is much lower than pre pandemic. Agree with you that the catering has taken a bit of a hit, but I wouldn’t judge an airline based on their breakfast which is a notoriously bad meal (well except maybe Garuda and Malaysia airlines 😝). In terms of ground experience, CX is also opening up the pier F lounge which is probably the best first class lounge imo and they’re just restarting their long haul network - 10 US cities has first class pre COVID compared to just 1 now.
I’d revisit things a year or two down the road and on a proper long haul route to get the real “Cathay experience”
I've flown Garuda quite a few times and the Indonesian style breakfast in business class is fantastic, their overall soft product is first rate, better than Cathay's. I live in HK and used to visit family in Melbourne Australia every Christmas. I often flew Garuda business class via Bali to Melbourne and even during the Christmas peak season (pre-Covid) I could purchase seats for much more competitive prices than with Cathay. The overnight stopover in Bali on the way back to HK was a bonus
CX had been in decline since long before COVID. Pretty much since 1997, in fact.
The COVID excuse is running really thin. Yesterday was the world record for the most flights in the air at the same time. Travel is back, no matter what the airlines try to tell you.
@@simonmcl123 It's a lot more nuanced than you'd think. The biggest uptick in travel has been transatlantic where North America to Europe travel is well above demand 2019 levels, whereas transpacific demand hasn't caught up anywhere near as much. Most Asian airlines suffered since Asian countries locked down for far longer than their US/EU counterparts, leaving travel demand depressed for almost an extra year which has been financially devastating, just look at Sri Lankan, Garuda, and Malaysia airlines for 3 of the best examples. For all airlines, COVID has and will continue to have an impact on their bottom line - positive for the US and EU carriers who are taking advantage of massive pent up demand, and negative for others who weren't in a state to take advantage of it.
@@poshbo We always had the best service and pretty solid food, but a 6/10 hard product...
Thank you for sharing your flight here. Looking very nice..
When Noel said "I should of done my hair" I laughed out loud and everyone looked at me
No Sunday is complete without a new video from Noel. I hope Rachel is well!
Great comments about flying into Japan. I was there in June and flew from Nartia to Nagoya - and flew over Mount Fuji! - breathtaking! :)
Great video Noel!!!! Congratulation for your 100th country!!!! 2 thumbs up my friend!!!!
Funny, I just watched a video about ZipAir flying into Narita. I never knew the area looked like that. This flight took the same approach, too
The Reason for the flickering when inside airbus bathrooms is due to the lights running at 50hz and you recording at 60hz. If you manually switched to 50hz on your camera or in your editing software just made that part of the video in 50hz, the flickering would go away.
I record at 50. Boeing are fine but Airbus use a different frequency that doesn’t sit with 50 or 60.
Hi Noel. Wonderful video again. I transited HKG last week. In from CNX out to TPE. Air Walk/Bridge definitely worth a visit; great view/photos. Never been on Cathay; don’t think I will.
Man that's kind of sad to hear.
I flew CX business class in May and June this year and 4 rimes in late 2022 and found them still excellent. For sure behind Qatar's amazing biz product and also begind Singapore for me - although the CX pier lounge at CLK is my favourite lounge still anywhere. I'd still have CX very much in my top 5.
But everyone is entitled to their opinion of course - happy flying mate 🙏
Dear Noel,
A short comment to you meal review.
There are no micro waves is galleys if planes. The food if heated with ovens, pretty old fashined. The liquid in the breakfast comes from the mushrooms, which contain a lot of water.
Great flight review, save travels.
Welcome to Japan! Look forward to your continuing adventures!
I agree with many aspects of your impressions of Cathay Pacific. I flew with them in May from HKG to TPE (A350-900) and made the effort to go to The Deck Lounge around Gate 4 (?) - I found this a quiet area and the noodle/dumpling bar to be very good. Drinks options were decent and showers were available. Onboard I found it very similar to what you've reviewed. Service good, food good, hard product good but nothing outstanding. They are still are classed as a premium airline however their overall product is definitely slipping in quality (similar to Qantas in many aspects). Keep the adventures rolling and thanks for the insight!
CX’s business class lounge was so basic in their hub city. DISAPPOINTING. Noel got messed with on that.
I always remember a convo I had with a Quantas stewardess, while boarding to fly from BKK to LHR, years ago, in business class, and she apologised, but said she had to go as it was her job to wind up the rubber band that day! A classic line!
@@alonshalit5778There are multiple lounges at HK. Some are mediocre but there are some amazing and awesome ones. Especially the first class lounge
I travelled on Cathay Pacific 5 or 6 years ago. I had the best experience with them. I flew from London to HK and then connecting flight from HK to Japan. Did the same on return.
Since HK had issues, Cathay Pacific CEO stepped down due to not giving names of his staff to Chinese government.
I reckon that Cathay Pacific reputation suffered a downfall from that point.
Sad to see what is now not a good airline .
I flew business with Cathay last week from Chengdu to London via HK. Cabin crew on both stretches were very nice and food ok. The HK-LHR leg was on an older 777 and the IFE interface was v slow and the flight map stopped working after about 30mins and wouldn't reload. However, looking forward to return flights with them next month but not sure I'd shell out on business class with Cathay again.
1 you have go to the wrong lounge, the Pier lounge is far(*n) more better than the Wing.
2 Recent political scandal(?) making CX have to make announcement in all Cantonese, Mandrain, English, and the language of the origin/destination. if you board a plane to zurich, you will "enjoy" up to six announcement.
3 Recent political scandal(?)have make on low enthusism to the cabin crew, political situation in Hong Kong recent years drive many vertan staff to gone and even leave Hong Kong, extreamly lack of experienced manpower and low morale making the service level to become worse, espeically in non-China bound short haul.
I agree with you and share your thoughts. I also had a similar opinion as well. I loved CX as a kid, but now, not so much.
Fly from HKG to NRT, I would choose ANA or JL instead of CX, BTW.
I simply won't put CX on my first choice when I travel from HK. CX was a glory, but now they have declined so much.
GBA is an area consists of Hong Kong, Macau, and ShenZhen. It is supposed to catch up or exceed the "SF Bay Area', in terms of GDP.
Welcome to Japan!
In HKG, the Pier, Business, is way superior to any of the business class lounges in the terminal.
I prefer the lounge that near to Gate 65 for CX. Their lounge is nice tho. The lounge food was way better back then, but after they switch the contractor several years ago it looks pretty sad now.
And what's more sad is some lounges in HK airport are still closed for now, or even permanently closed (like Skyteam lounge).
However the experience on their plane can vary a lot. You can see really nice and cool FA but you can also see not so good one.
BTW my flight back to Taipei (CX402) yesterday got a very dirty tray table as well.
I LOVE Cathay, LOVE Singapore Airlines, Love Thai, LOVE Vietnam Airlines, also LOVE QANTAS, they have all been delightful! Add to that PanAm , flew on their 747-100 planes, yes, I'm a little older.
First flight on Cathay was First Class on a Boeing 707, YES, a 707 into Kai Tak 🙂
Obviously a long time ago, beautiful memories, sat in the jump seat landing into HKG - what an AMAZING experience!
Just sharing a little fond history.
Thanks for all of your videos, I'm an avid follower.
Best regards from Phuket!
seat is average? have been flying anything from the LH group in business class lately?....bet even their new product will be inferior to that "average" business class seat....Cathay seems to be back in the black though....To me it seems more important to save the company and get those aircraft flying than maintaining a certain service standard. Cool, if they could have done both. But they wouldn't have been in financial trouble if they were able to do that in my opinion.
Great video as always, heard much of your same comments from other CX flyers, Sad to see. thanks for taking us along. p.s: congrats on country 100!
Awesome video. Especially interesting as our flight to Tokyo includes exactly the same flight as you take in the video (CX526)
Two thoughts: 1) surprised the taxi wasn't more than $250 -- can't help but think a different itinerary would have made slightly more sense. 2) It's incredible how expensive taxis are in Japan, especially considering how cheap they are in South Korea. The 70km distance from NRT to HND is similar to central Seoul to Incheon airport, and the last time I did that by taxi it was 37,000 won (about $33).
Thats about what it runs in the US
@@biohazardlnfS No way, at least not in my experience. I took a 20 minute taxi ride in Miami in 2016 that came to $55 before tip... and I know a little 15 minute ride in Cleveland, OH ran me about $40.
Seoul to ICN was literally a 45-60 minute drive at 4am with no traffic.
Missing Kai Tak old airport especially when landing with 747
Welcome to Japan, Noel! I live in North Kyushu so quite far from Tokyo. Always enjoy your videos.
Thanks! 😃
I love your videos Noel love to see you make a video about coming to Melbourne
did you ask for a blanket ? 😂
Flown 4 legs with Cathay Pacific this April and I was actually quite impressed. It was a return LHR-HKG-SIN-HKG-LHR on economy and it ticked all the boxes for a decent economy service. A paper menu were presented, the quality and portions of the meals are good, hot snacks available on request (e.g. cup noodles), great IFE, friendly crew, etc. The service was really on par with Singapore Airlines pre-covid, and Cathay actually restored their full pre-covid service half a year before Singapore Airlines (SQ did not serve appetisers at that time).
Yes, the cost-cutting of reduced crew onboard was apparent in premium cabins and the meal design in business class is lazy. Also, there are huge differences in service for their key routes to the others, but overall I enjoyed my flights and definitely recommend flying with them in economy or premium economy (but avoid the A330s and Boeing 777-300 (regional config)).
I have some epic planespotting memories of HKG airport - flew from Johannesburg on Cathay's Boeing 777-300ER in Oct 2016, had an 8 hour layover which from a spotter's perspective was an absolute dream - got thousands of photos that day including the retirement of the very last passenger Boeing 747-400 operated by the airline.
The flight on the Cathay 777 on the Joburg flight(close to 13 hrs) at the time was really good even in premium economy, so kind of sad to see and hear that the airline's service standards has dropped since then. That same trip through HKG I flew on Hong Kong Airlines' A320 with Sharklets(spotted that same aircraft type in Noel's video) on to Hanoi, which itself was a good flight, as well as doing a flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Hong Kong onboard Cathay's A330-300 - also really good for back then.
Congrats on ur 100th country Noel & may many more lay ahead! Thanx for the ride!
Granted the seats are falling behind especially compared to the likes of QSuites but what I like about Cathay is that their seats are consistent across the whole fleet. You wouldn’t worry about your Qsuite being switched to an inferior product and honestly, this consistency provides me with such peace of mind.
@@jerrynadler2883 not all reverse herringbones are made the same. Qatar’s version is disgusting. If that doesn’t make sense to you, as you very tacklessly put it, then so be it. If you like booking QSuites, look forward to it for months, then be let down at the last minute (as had happened to me three times already that I already gave up), well then be my guest.
@@jerrynadler2883You're definitely not "guaranteed a reverse herringbone at least" on Qatar.
I did Doha to HKG last year on what was at the time supposed to be an a350 with q suites (as it had been on the out leg) but last minute swap gave us a comparatively ancient 777 300 ER with a 2-2-2 config,, no privacy of any kind and a footrest type recliner seat that doesn't actually go fully flat but leaves you at a weird 15 degree angle. Great food and service of course so not exactly a hardship but still not what I paid for.
This was for an 8 hour flight in 2022.
In the past 5 years Qatar out of HK have operated the brilliant 777 q suites, the also great though not quite as spacious for obvious reasons a350 q suites, the 787 not q suites but still modern and are now using leased Cathay 777 with Cathay seats ( the ones in this video)
So 4 different types in 5 years and I'm talking scheduled types not equipment switches.
They're also literally going backwards from the amazing 777 q suites of 2018 to the leased old CX planes of 2023.
Altogether Qatar currently operate 9 different biz class layouts on 7 different types of aircraft.
Do they fly the Q suite in business then? Noel stated in business I believe?
@@conniethomas4753 Qatar airways have q suite ( it's their product) Cathay have exactly the seats you see in this video for all their medium/ long haul business flights
Noel--I did the reverse route (Tokyo-to-HK) in 2004 on Cathay. totally different experience--greeted by name at the door, with the FA taking my suit jacket, draping it on a hanger, and hanging it in the crew closet! great food and service throughout the ~ 5-hour flight. today's video was mildly shocking. the "breakfast" looked truly awful and the aircraft itself looked tired and in need of a long nap! looking forward to the rest of the Japan videos--one of my favorite countries! Cheers!
Love seeing you in the air, hope wife is feeling better, shine On Noel!
Greater Bay Airlines is a brand new LCC Airline based in HKG. The airline is established at 2021 after a few months of dragon air ceased operations.
GBA only operates 737-800 which are second hand from Norwegian Airlines.
That's a Safran Cirrus seat, not Collins Super Diamond.
Cathay has been a shitty airline for a long long time. I use to fly them from LHR HKG back in 2010s and they were just awful and not that cheap, so I changed to emirates and Qatar airways who are million times better, the food, in-flight service, and on-time departures, and so on.
Contrary to popular belief, airline food is not microwaved, they use pre-heated galley ovens since microwaves could be potentially interfere or damage other equipment on board.
Also, as for your personal experience; you are taking a day-time regional flight, so the number of amenities and level of service is not to the same level that Cathay offers.
Also, you are missing out on some awesome lounge experiences. Furthermore, be a bit more adventurous by trying food that isn't western, you had sausages and bacon twice here 😉.
You seem to have the worst experience compared to everyone else, which is fine, sometimes that happens.
Love those cameras!!!! I am not as geeky as you, but I watch the flight maps on all my flights, too! Cameras would be great, especially flying over mountains and other cool places.
I flew Cathay recently in Economy and what I found was much the same. The airline was a bit average, it was nice having metal cutlery, and the IFE and crew were decent, but it was nowhere near the 8th best airline in the world. HKIA had a really slow security check, plus I don't like the facial recognition stuff, and while the terminal is nice, there's nothing to do there other than get overpriced food or drinks, and onboard the food was okay at best, and the drinks selection was disappointing.
Greater Bay Airline is a recently established airline based in HK. It's named after the 'Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area'.
And it’s a low-cost airline
And apparently was previously called Donghai Airlines
I MUST SAY THANKYOU NOEL. KEEP THE VIDEOS UP YOU HAVE MADE ME EXCITED TO FLY AND I HAVE BEEN A SCARED FLYER BUT YOUR VIDEOS ARE SO RELAXING NOW I CANT WAIT MYSELF !
Glad to hear it
Flying from HKG to NRT and immediately changing airports in a few hours to HND for a domestic connection makes no sense when Cathay has multiple flights a day to Haneda.
Great video.. sad to see CP have declined 😢
BTW, tip for Japan. Don’t open the taxi doors. They open automatically. No better way to annoy the driver, than to grab the handle and pull the door open.. 😂
I'd say Cathay was overrated even before their decline due to Covid. Cathay's stellar reputation seems to have been earned many years ago before other airlines upped their games and became more competitive. For example, reverse herringbone seats are now the norm but when Cathay first adopted them they were industry leading and rare. More and more airlines now have doors in business class offering greater privacy which surpass what Cathay offers.
In recent decades, airlines like Emirates, Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways have invested in their soft products and adopted phenomenal service standards while Cathay's has remained mostly unchanged. Mainland Chinese airlines have also improved greatly (especially Hainan Airlines and Xiamen Airlines, whose food service blows away Cathay's) and they compete with Cathay for not only Greater Chinese routes but also international ones. Even Garuda Indonesia has greatly improved its hard and soft product.
Other Asian airlines (like Singapore Airlines, ANA and JAL) have kept up with the competition and continued to innovate and improve but Cathay sadly has not.
Crazy i flew this exact flight number a few weeks ago in economy, food was really quite nice as was the service.
I guess they are a bit hit and miss now though.
I'm so glad you're finally in Tokyo! I really wanted you to be there a bit longer and get some good train/hotel vids. I really hope you're gonna try JAL (or ANA). I wanted to see a review from you of JAL PE before I went in March next year. I see the product and I've seen reviews but none of them are proper the way you to do it. Business is just out of my price range :( But PE can be realistic for most people.
Stay tuned, I spent some time traveling in Japan.
Great vlog as always! Noels achilles heel are the taxi rides. This one was safe but very expensive! Holy cow! THE most money draining thing you can do in Norway is to go to the hairdresser. Heidi of Hollywood is cheaper than doing your hair in Norway. Glad we do not need to do that! I say like Homer Simpson; Give a baled guy a break. Keep up the good work. Be safe!
I had used Cathay in the past from HKG to Tokio, from Vancouver to HKG round trip, at the time it was really good, like Varig (from Brazil), Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand and few others. Very sad to see how things are now!! Aircraft dirty at entrance of business class just less of 2 m from the crew station??? No thanks! My Best wisches Noel!!! Keep flying as I did since 1991 to 54 countries, so far!! 🛫🛬
I flown cathay 4 times this year on the hkg to sin route in economy on a350. I have to say, it’s not the number 1, but potentially top 5 in the world. Inflight entertainment is amazing and seats are nice. Blanket should be available on demand. However, no pillows on asia daytime routes. Food is inconsistent, but overall decent. Cathay is not Singapore/ middle east, but i will surely prefer cathay over european and american carriers. IMO, if other asia carriers aren’t available on that route, I’d pick cathay!
I know, CX is pretty decent, and I’d fly with them to stay loyal cos they’ve been wonderful to me countless times.
Complete English subtitles are back!!💪, Great video as always Noel
Great video as always. The flickering light is quite bad on this plane isn't it! Might be worth popping a warning in the title just so that people with epilepsy who are prone to have a seizure because of flashing lights are aware.
I can't grumble about my experience with Cathay when I went from London to Manila via Hong Kong... 55 min and 1hr 25 min layovers to and from Manila... £650 rtn (Feb/ March 23) in economy and found the food decent enough, four meals there, four meals back, four meals between all the flights... A350's on the long hauls and A320's on the short hop from HK to Manila and back to HK... I'm sure experiences vary though 👍🏻
HK will take a few years to recover as a hub, and many Cathay pilots have been poached and their benefits and pay reduced, so many have moved on to other airline. Sad state of affairs for what was once a great airline.
HK used to be the gateway to the east and Australasia. But now you have more direct flights, Middle East hubs and Singapore which is a giant in airport standards and efficiency and see less when arriving. HK seems like things have flown by.
I'm sure like other airlines the vaccine has done a number on pilots health,and passing the medical. But you know the airlines and media do not want that getting out.
I saw you in Dailymail yesterday. Nice job.
"Nothing special: It's just a regular business class seat". For most people, myself included, being able to travel Premium Economy is a stretch financially, so a "regular" business class seat WOULD be something special 🙄
My dad used to for Cathay Pacific. They went down hill when the COVID pandemic hit. It had a huge affect on them. I used to love Cathay. My dad had medical issues and cannot fly anymore. He is a flight instructor for American Airlines based out of DFW
also CCP take over of HK must have had some effects
The thing about languages, Cathay does announcements with languages of the origin and the destination, i.e. Japanese and official languages of Hong Kong, which are English and Chinese. (Verbal) Chinese means Cantonese for people from Hong Kong and do not consider Mandarin as their official language. Meanwhile Mainlanders (as well as Taiwanese) do not consider language other than Mandarin as Chinese. Cathay got into trouble with this issue and I think they decided to just do all. So English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, and maybe language of nearby countries such as Korean and south east Asia, endless.
Which he’d know if he didn’t set out to trash whatever he could on his flight.
You also forgot the Tagalog language since CX runs Hong Kong to Manila Cebu and Suspended Davao City. My business class story was that a Filipina cabin crew took care of us, with the 5 star standard when I did JFK-MNL via HKG in December 2005.
Customer service much better than their competitor on HKG-MNL PR
I just wanted to point out that your disappointment with Cathay Air was heavily influenced by your grandfather’s experience with it. It isn’t a fair contest. I would rather have an unbiased opinion about the cost of a business class ticket and the price you paid for it. That is what would be helpful when deciding if the business class is so much better than the coach class.
Noel, Would changing the frame rate on your camera fix the Airbus flickering? Another great video. Cheers