A Review of Cathay Pacific

For the first time in years, I flew Cathay Pacific to travel home and received little pleasant surprises in the quality of several aspects of this air traveling experience. At first, I was skeptical about the prospects of enjoying my flight given it's ridiculously long duration (I traveled for 29 hours plus stopovers, including refuelling - and de-icing of the wings - in Alaska, after traveling to Toronto, and before Hong Kong and eventually changing planes to Manila). Moreover, I left for the airport after a full day at the office, so the fatigue was kicking in. I was hesitant in applying to the Marco Polo Club, the first airline membership for which I had to pay a sizeable fee. In the end, the entire check-in to arrival process finessed an otherwise exhausting journey to be with my girlfriend.

Cathay Pacific did a fantastic job of making the experience simple, and simple travel is most desirable for a long trip. For example, the Marco Polo Club membership allowed me to basically bypass long lines at the check-in counter and the gate, expediting the check-in and boarding process at a speed I had never imagined. Upon entry, the flight attendants were more jovial than other airline attendants, and were quite helpful. Throughout the flight, the flight attendants had no qualms about offering drinks or snacks to the people who could not wait for the main meals in order to satisfy their needs. In my previous experiences with other airlines, flight attendants looked disgruntled when asked to serve drinks at times other than meal time. I also believe that the quality of the food was a hundred times better than other airlines, a point which is extremely important for long flights.

In terms of entertainment, the new economy class seats provided me with numerous options for television, gaming, movies, music and just watching the navigation of the plane. TV was on demand, and included a few episodes of CSI, Heroes, The Wire, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, and the Flight of the Conchords to name a few. I spent most of my time catching up with movies I had missed over the past few months, including National Treasure: Book of Secrets, The Golden Compass, and Beowulf. The music selection was limited, but diverse, and functioned like your normal music player with a shuffle-type of setting among other options. There were probably 40-plus video games, from arcade-type space invaders to simple hangman, and 3D shooters to Who Wants to be a Millionaire. On my way to back to New York, this served to distract me from a somewhat painful goodbye hours earlier, and it did its job.

One of the more trippy functions on the plane is the digital navigational map, which shows the route of the plane from a three-dimensional angle. I enjoyed it because it made the trip feel shorter. For those who are acrophobic, avoid the channel that shows a feed of a camera lodged at the base of the airplane. You can see the sky and the bottom of the airplane in real time; the view of the base of the plane and the faint moon shining against it is quite a visual at night.

Perhaps my only complaint about the economy class seats is that they are not wide enough for me. Having said that, the distance between my seat and the seat in front of me is slightly more spacious than other airlines, so legroom is not too much of a problem.

Overall, I would recommend Cathay Pacific for long travel. The service and the people factor are a huge bonus, in addition to the already high quality economy travel.

Now, if I only had funds for a business class seat (bed)...or first class.