Review: Cathay Pacific First Class 777-300er Hong Kong to Los Angeles

Cathay Pacific’s First Class is OneWorld’s cream of the crop first class product. There are hundreds of reviews of this product and the Skytrax 5 star airline. Cathay Pacific’s first class product is among the most spacious in the air, best reviewed, and an aspirational award and travel opportunity for many. Like every other reviewer, I will say I enjoyed the flight, but I didn’t think of it to be anything over the top and unlike many others I am still shocked why so many people drool over this product.

Cathay Pacific First Class Pre-Flight

Cathay Pacific does not offer special ground assistant for first class passengers, so I watched the monitors in the lounge and when my flight displayed “boarding” I made the short walk to the gate. I boarded the plane and was instantly greeted by a sweet Filipino flight attendant who showed me to my seat, and then returned with a warm towel and a welcome beverage of my choice. I selected champagne and another FA brought the bottle of Krug and served me directly at my seat with glass stemware. During the rest of the boarding process other flight attendants brought me menus, pajamas, an amenity kit, and offered me reading material. Although the FAs were active in the aisles and brought other passengers drinks, not once did they offer to refill my glass before departure.

preflight reading options and Krug (above) and the required preflight drink selfie (Below). No preflight snacks were offered.

Cathay Pacific First Class Dinner and Inflight experience

First class is all about two things: the seat and the meals. Meal service began about 45 minutes after takeoff and took approximately two hours to complete. Cathay Pacific cuts no corners on their first class offerings as the food is top quality, some even farm to fork, and offers adult beverages that are expensive and delightful!

Dinner & Drink menus:

Dinner was among the best food I ever had in first class and I really liked that each plate was brought out individually by the flight attendants. Unlike business class, no carts were used and service was similar to what would be found in high end restaurants. When wine was poured, it was always done at the seat with white cloth service and plates were cleared and timing between each course was timed perfectly. My only complaint would be that the soup was watery and only lukewarm and after serving dessert, the Flight attendant forgot about me and never cleared my plate or cleaned up the table.

Cathay Pacific First Class champagne and caviar

Cathay Pacific caviar was delicious!

The soup was lukewarm and the Cesar salad was tiny, thankfully the sea bass was cook perfectly!

For dessert I indulged in the hazelnut cake, it was flavorless and I only had a bite or two.

Cathay Pacific First Class Mid-fight snacks

As many of the other passengers around me slept, I dozed on and off and watched movies. When I was awake I ate and drank to pass the time. I found the FA to be missing in action, and whenever I wanted something I had to walk to the galley or press the call light. The FAs never came to check on me or to refill my drinks or take away service items throughout the flight. I probably could have used the call light more, but I personally am not a fan of the call button. So instead I walked the few steps to the galley. Whatever I requested the FA quickly prepared and brought to me, however cleaning up or rechecking on me almost never happen. Never was I asked after the primarily meal service if they could refill my water or adult beverage, but instead I had to ask or wave down a Flight attendant each time.

All snacks were served at different times throughout the flight and only be request. I ordered the underwhelming cheese plate (honestly I’ve had better in business), the pralines which i found to be of lower quality than the ones I enjoyed on my flight between Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, but that could be my own personal preference; and finally a hamburger. This hamburger was my first in nearly 3 years! Rather it be the amount of alcohol I consumed or the actual quality of the meat, it was absolutely delicious!

Cathay Pacific First Class Breakfast

For a pre-arrival meal, this meal was among the best I have had in a long time. I selected the cooked to order eggs as I wanted to experience eggs that were actually cooked on board. They were good, but runny and nothing over the top. Regardless the meal was still better than many other pre-arrival meals I’ve had in my years of flying, the only other one that stand outs as better was the Malaysian breakfast I enjoyed on Malaysia Airlines in First Class a few days earlier.

Fresh fruit with smoothie and cooked to order eggs–they never asked me how I wanted them 🙁

Cathay Pacific First Class Seat & Amenities

The Cathay Pacific First Class Suite is among the largest in the sky. On the Boeing 777 there are only 6 seats in the first class cabin in a 1x1x1 configuration. Most other airlines configure their B777 with two suites in the middle of the aircraft in a 1x2x1 configuration, making these suites among the largest in the sky! The open suites are 3 feet wide and have an extra-large seat that converts into a bed that is over 6 feet long. Each seat features large leather seats that convert into lay-flat beds, a large LCD screen, BOSE QuietComfort® 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones, touch screen seat controls, massage function, and an ottoman which can be used by a traveling companion for dining together and socializing. Overall I felt like the seat was too big for just one person, but I guess this is the purpose of first class—extreme luxury and frivolous spending.

Cathay pacific seat & closet (above) wall of other suit when looking out from my suite (below). Suites 1A and 2A are the most private on the plane.

Along with each jumbo suite, each passenger is provided with an Aesop amenity kit. The moderate price Australian luxury beauty line offers high quality items and guests enjoy all the basics items typically included in an amenity kit including Aesop’s Camellia Nut Facial Hydrating Cream and Rosehip Seed Lip Cream along with a comb and toothbrush and mouthwash. In addition to the amenity kit, I was provided with bag with cotton pajamas, one of the best eye masks I’ve received in flight, and slippers.

Pajamas & Amenities

Cathay Pacific First Class Overall thoughts

Although other bloggers rave about Cathay Pacific, I will say that cabin crew can make or break the entire experience. Both the hard product and soft product are top notch, with the seat, food items, and amenities being on par with Malaysia Airlines First Class. My biggest complaint is that I found that the FA’s working my flight were hidden most of the flight and reactive instead of proactive. Although most of my fellow first class passengers slept on the 13+ hour flight, I was awake most of the flight and felt as though if the FAs even did a casual cabin pass through from time to time the service would have been improved ten folds! Although it’s pitty to complain about this this was my frist first class flight where I had to make my own bed! Throughout the flight I felt as though the cabin crew was busier catching up on their favorite books then providing first class service. With that said, the food and the alcohol selection on Cathay Pacific is amazing, and both American and United could learn A LOT from Cathay Pacific—for example, what First Class is supposed to be like! As part as my 120,000 miles around the world trip, this was a damn good end to a extraordinary trip!

Review: Cathay Pacific First Class B777 Hong Kong (HKG) to Los Angeles (LAX) trip Report

Cathay Pacific First Class Pre-Flight

About Rocky Horan

Cathay Pacific First Class Pre-Flight

Read This Next

About Rocky Horan