Review: Cathay Pacific Business Class (A350)

Last year, my brother and I conceived of a trip to stay at some of Southeast Asia’s best luxury hotels and fly on some of the world’s top airlines. We figured there would be no better way to start our trip than by taking the long way to Bali on back-to-back QSuites flights on Qatar Airways, with a short layover in Doha. 

However, our trip got off to a very inauspicious start. No more than two minutes after sitting down in the Plaza Premium Lounge at Vancouver International Airport (YVR), ahead of our positioning flight to San Francisco (SFO), did I receive a call from the Qatar Airways’ ticketing office in San Francisco. The agent informed me that due to an oversold flight, both my brother and I had been bumped from the flight and would be reaccommodated on another airline that same day.

We were rebooked on a Cathay Pacific itinerary with a connection in Hong Kong and then on to Denpasar (DPS).

Despite the initial disappointment of missing out on a much anticipated QSuites flight, I’m happy to say our Cathay Pacific flight in business class turned out to be an excellent alternative. The modern amenities and the warm hospitality of the crew made for a comfortable and enjoyable journey.

Booking Cathay Pacific Business Class

For our original booking—a Qatar Airways Privilege Club redemption from San Francisco to Doha to Denpasar—we redeemed 95,000 Avios plus $285 in taxes and fees per person.

When our tickets were reissued, no action was required on our part. The new Cathay Pacific itinerary, covering flights from San Francisco to Hong Kong to Denpasar, was emailed to me within minutes.

A silver lining of this new booking was that these flights were full-fare revenue business class tickets, making them eligible to earn miles with any Oneworld loyalty program. I chose to credit the flights to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and earned just under 20,000 Alaska Miles from the two segments.

If you’re interested in booking Cathay Pacific business class, you’ll want to use Cathay Pacific’s own Asia Miles program. Asia Miles members receive access to additional award availability and an extended booking window of up to 360 days in advance. A one-way flight in business class from San Francisco to Hong Kong will cost 84,000 Asia Miles. 

Reed wrote a guide on how to make a Cathay Pacific Asia Miles redemption, including how to place an award ticket hold while you wait for your points to transfer. Although Reed redeemed for Cathay Pacific first class, much of what he shared will apply to a business class redemption as well. 

You can earn Cathay Pacific Asia Miles by either holding the co-branded Neo Cathay World Elite Mastercard or transferring flexible points currencies from American Express Canada or RBC Avion Rewards. 

The simplest way to accumulate a significant amount of Cathay Pacific Asia Miles is by signing up for the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card and transferring Avion points to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles at a 1:1 ratio.

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RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card

The RBC Avion Visa Infinite card earns Avion Elite points and gives cardholders the opportunity to earn 1.25x Avion Elite points on all travel purchases.

In 2024, we awarded this card as the Best Flexible Points Travel Credit Card.

Check out our RBC Avion Visa Infinite card review for more details.

BONUS
35,000 Avion

MINSPEND
$0

NET VALUE
$545+

ANNUAL FEE
$120

FOREX FEES
Yes

EXPIRY
–

Ground Experience

Business class passengers are granted access to the Cathay Pacific Lounge in Terminal A, just beyond security. This lounge is one of the best in North America, offering a vast space with plenty of seating, a wide variety of food and drink options, dedicated workstations, and shower facilities.

Once inside, you’ll have a variety of seating options to choose from, including dining tables, armchairs, high-top seating, and lounge chairs.

Additionally, there are several private business stations available, each with its own computer and printer.

All of the food was excellent and included items such as salads, meats, cheeses, sandwiches, stir-fry beef, a rice dish, and a sauteed vegetable dish. 

Several made-to-order items from The Noodle Bar are also available, a signature offering in most Cathay Pacific lounges.

Self-serve alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks were available and included soda, juice, beer, wine, champagne, and spirits. 

Coffee was available from the self-serve espresso machine along with several varieties of teas.

Shower rooms are available to all lounge guests on a first-come, first-served basis. Each shower room is well-appointed, featuring a private sink, toilet, and walk-in shower. Essentials such as shaving kits, hair care products, and dental care items, are provided for your convenience.

The Cathay Pacific Lounge at SFO is among my favorite airport lounges in North America. The food is outstanding, and the facilities are top-notch. Despite Cathay Pacific having two departures within 30 minutes during the late evening, the lounge never felt overcrowded or at capacity at any point. That’s pretty much everything you could hope for in an airline lounge, and I think Cathay absolutely delivers on all fronts.

Cabin Arrangement

The Cathay Pacific A350 business class cabin features 38 reverse-herringbone seats configured in a 1-2-1 layout. All seats have direct aisle access. 

The business class cabin is split into two sections: a larger forward area with 30 seats and a smaller cabin located behind the second set of doors, with just 8 seats.

Due to the last-minute nature of our booking, we weren’t able to select our seats in advance and had to accept the seats assigned to us at check-in. I was assigned seat 12A and my brother was assigned seat 12K. 

In this configuration, most seats are fairly equal, except for 11D and 11G in the forward business class cabin. These seats are located very close to the lavatory, with the door opening almost directly into the seating area. As a result, they’re likely the least desirable options, so it might be best to avoid these two seats if possible.

Seat

While the Cathay Pacific business class seat doesn’t compare favorably to the Qatar Airways QSuite we were supposed to be on, to be fair, very few products do. Judging it on its own merit, I found it to be a very comfortable, and mostly private space with decent technology and connectivity. 

Cathay has begun rolling out its new Aria Suite business class concept; however, these new seats are only being retrofitted into existing Boeing 777-300 aircraft at this time. This likely means that this current business class seat on its A350s will remain in service for the foreseeable future.

On the side console is a handheld entertainment screen controller along with an adjustable reading light and the seat controls. There’s also a small compartment for storing a few items, which contains the provided headphones, as well as a universal power outlet and USB-A charging port.

Directly in front is an 18” HD touchscreen display. When stowed, it creates virtually unlimited vertical space, allowing ample room for your hips and legs to move freely when the seat is in lie-flat mode.

A section of the footrest opens to reveal a storage compartment, offering enough space to store a small bag or a pair of shoes. The footwell itself is quite large and makes for a fairly wide sleeping area once the seat is converted into lie flat bed mode.

In the armrest closer to the aisle, there is a pocket to hold a water bottle. This armrest can be lowered to increase space around your shoulders when in lie flat mode.

A pair of slippers and noise-canceling headphones were provided, ideal for staying comfortable during long overnight flights.

Overall, this seat is one of the better implementations of a reverse herringbone seat that I’ve had the opportunity to try. All of the seat controls were intuitive to use and easy to reach. The seat met most of the key criteria I look for in a modern business class experience, excelling in storage, connectivity, tech, and privacy.

Bed

With the exceptionally spacious footwell and the nearly unrestricted space around the hip area, getting comfortable in this seat is effortless, regardless of your preferred sleeping position.

A mattress pad and a seriously impressive duvet are provided, with the duvet standing out as one of the best pieces of bedding I’ve ever had on any airline. Huge thumbs up to Cathay for the terrific bedding!

The pillow was quite substantial and offered excellent support. This is one of the more comfortable reverse herringbone lie-flat beds I’ve experienced. As a result, I managed to get a solid 6-7 hours of sleep during the flight.

Amenity Kit

The amenity kit is provided by Bamford and contains all the usual essentials. Contents of the amenity kit were an eye mask, earplugs, dental care items, and skin care products from Bamford.

Dining

Due to our flight’s midnight departure, the post-departure meal service featured a condensed menu, which I actually prefer for late-evening red-eye flights. Having already eaten in the lounge before boarding, I find having just a light meal onboard helps me settle in for a more restful sleep on a long flight.

There were five choices available for both dinner and breakfast. Items from the “All Day” section of the menu were available on request at any point during the flight. 

The beverage menu was fairly extensive, featuring a variety of alcoholic drinks such as champagne, wine, beer, and spirits. Non-alcoholic options included juices, sodas, coffee, tea, and a Cathay Pacific specialty: Hong Kong-style milk tea.

Dinner

Dinner orders were taken before takeoff, and the meals were promptly served once the plane reached cruising altitude. There was no appetizer course, which made sense given the late local time of 1:00 AM, avoiding an unnecessarily drawn-out dinner service.

I ordered the braised beef cheek, which was fantastic, as was all the food on this flight. A small green salad and a choice of bread are served alongside the main dish.

I kept it simple for dessert and just went with a Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

All Day Snack Menu

After waking up, I saw that there were still about five hours left in the flight, so I decided to head to the galley to find some snacks. The crew had set out a variety of items, including chips, granola bars, apples, bananas, popcorn, and more.

I picked out a few things to snack on and, while I was there, ordered the wonton soup from the All Day menu to hold me over until breakfast.

Asian carriers always serve an outstanding bowl of soup as a mid-flight snack, and this one was no exception. 

Breakfast

Breakfast was served about 90 minutes before landing, but unfortunately, by the time I placed my order, my first-choice meal, the Wellness Breakfast, was no longer available. It included an acai bowl topped with granola and raspberries, along with a small bowl of fresh fruit and a selection of pastries. My brother was able to order this a little earlier than me when it was still available. 

I settled on the Chinese breakfast, which included crab and pumpkin congee, and stir fried vermicelli with prawns. Although I generally enjoy a bowl of congee, I wasn’t a big fan of the crab meat. Otherwise, the rest of the breakfast was excellent.

While neither of the meals was the elaborate multi-course experience typically associated with international business class, I didn’t mind. There was plenty of food available throughout the flight to satisfy any hunger. Snacks were always stocked in the galley, and the All Day menu items ensured there was no shortage of options whenever you felt like eating.

Entertainment

Entertainment Console

The business class entertainment system features an 18” high-definition touchscreen display. It’s user-friendly, with an intuitive interface and convenient shortcuts on the home screen, allowing quick access to flight progress updates or resuming your last viewed program.

The library of movies and TV shows was extensive and included a wide variety of both Western and Asian content. 

Live TV was also available, and I particularly enjoyed being able to watch some Sunday NFL football while eating breakfast. 

Wi-Fi

Business and First class passengers, along with Cathay Pacific Diamond members are granted complimentary Wi-Fi for the entire duration of the flight. 

As a business class passenger, I just had to enter my name and seat number to activate the free Wi-Fi.

I didn’t use the Wi-Fi extensively, as I spent much of the flight sleeping. However, when I did, I found the service reliable with no interruptions. The speeds were decent, even sufficient for streaming YouTube videos at lower quality.

Conclusion

Despite our initial disappointment of being bumped off Qatar Airways, we both agreed that while the Cathay Pacific business class seat doesn’t quite match the QSuite, the experience was still thoroughly pleasant and enjoyable.

The exceptionally comfortable bed, outstanding food offerings, and attentive service earned high marks from me. I wouldn’t think twice about taking a Cathay Pacific business class flight again; it’s one of the best ways to travel across the Pacific.