My 14-hour Cathay Pacific A350-1000 business class flight was phenomenal, with delicious food and perhaps the most comfortable business class seat in the skies. Cathay Pacific’s longhaul business class is a pleasure to fly.

Cathay Pacific A350-1000 Business Class Review (HKG-AMS)

I booked my ticket for 75,000 AA miles, which included business class from Hong Kong to Amsterdam on Cathay Pacific and Amsterdam to Helsinki on Finnair.

Check-In

At 6:45 pm, I arrived at Hong Kong International Airport and found a mostly deserted check-in area for business class. Moments later, I had my boarding passes in hand and proceeded to the security checkpoint and passport control.

Lounge

I arrived in HKG more than four hours before departure, which gave me plenty of time to check out the Cathay Pacific lounges (The Wing, The Deck, and The Pier) and the Qantas Lounge. All are excellent lounges, but The Pier is my favorite.

Boarding

Boarding began about 40 minutes before departure and there was a last-minute gate change moving our gate from one end of the airport (near The Pier lounge) to the other end (near The Wing).

Cathay Pacific 271
Hong Kong (HKG) – Amsterdam (AMS)
Wednesday, February 5
Depart: 11:20 PM
Arrive: 6:35 AM+1
Duration: 14 hr, 15 min
Distance: 5,773 miles
Aircraft: Airbus A350-1000
Seat: 18K (Business Class)

Stepping onboard, I was welcomed at door 1L by the chief stewardess (dressed in red) and invited to walk through the forward galley and turn right.

Seat

The A350-1000 business class cabin is beautiful and features 46 reverse-herringbone Safran Cirrus III seats. In fact, this particular seat is my favorite of all reverse herringbone seats and may be my favorite business class seat of all. It was very comfortable in all positions and felt very spacious.

The seat is 20.2 inches wide and converts into a 75-inch lie-flat bed. There is ample personal storage in a side console cabinet and storage containers on either side of the seat at knee level, a nice feature of this particular seat. There’s also plenty of room for your feet and easy-to-reach seat controls in the side console.

There’s even a little seat strip that flips up to give you a couple extra inches of width while in lie-flat mode.

Sadly, there are no personal air vents onboard.

I think the cabin colors, though muted, are very stylish.

Boarding finished quickly and we pushed back a bit early. Strong headwinds meant our flight time would be the full 14 hours and 15 minutes…

I managed to sleep for about six hours after supper…I put myself to sleep watching Conclave and then listening to Jon Batiste play Beethoven. The bedding includes a mattress pad, soft pillow, and large fluffy duvet.

Amenity Kit + Slippers

The Bamford-branded amenity kits (four different colors were available) are attractive and included:

• eye shade
• dental kit
• ear plugs
• mouthwash
• Bamford skincare products
  • cooling body gel
  • multi-balm
  • pillow mist

Slippers were also present at each seat.

Lavatory

Business class features four lavatories: two in the front of the cabin and two in the rear. The lavatory featured Bamford hand gel and body lotion.

Food + Drink

During boarding, a pre-departure beverage was offered, including orange juice, water, sparkling wine, or Cathay Pacific’s signature mint juice, which I tried and found refreshing.

Menus were distributed and orders taken during boarding.

I was also asked to fill out a breakfast card indicating my preference for the pre-arrvial meal.

Supper

Supper was served promptly after takeoff. Service began with a hot towel and a choice of beverage (I ordered a Negroni).

I pre-ordered lamb shoulder as part of a menu collaboration between Cathay Pacific and French restaurant Louise, located in Hong Kong Central. The dish included lamb shoulder braised in lamb fat served over a bed of bulgur wheat salad with mint, coriander and dried fruits, and finished with lamb jus infused with the North African spice mix of ras el hanout and toasted pine nuts.

A perfect meal…a delicious dish!

Note that with this supper service, there was no appetizer or salad offered, though that was available on the a la carte menu. Oddly, I asked for the pan-fried halloumi cheese from the “all day” menu as an appetizer, but the flight attendant said it was not available until later in the flight.

I finished my meal with a cheese plate followed by a decadent chocolate cake with raspberries.

Mid-Flight Snack

When I awoke, there was still more than five hours of flight time left. I took the opportunity to order the “famous” Cathay Pacific cheesburger (with French Fries) which lived up to its reputation and was one of the best burgers (if not the best burger) I’ve ever had on an airplane. Even the French Fries were excellent. This was so delicous I almost had a second one…

Breakfast

I worked for a few hours before breakfast was served about 90 minutes prior to landing…a Western breakfast that included fresh fruit, warm pastries, a kale and sweetcorn egg souffle, pork sausage, smoked bacon, a roasted tomato, and fried potatoes. Everything was quite good, including the cappuccino.

IFE + Wi-Fi

Cathay Pacific’s A350-1000 features a Panasonic eX3 IFE system and Panasonic eXConnect satellite wifi. While I tuned into the aircraft’s tailcam or moving flight map for most of the journey, I did appreciate the wide selection of movies, TV shows, games, and particularly music…I greatly appreciated the classical soundtracks available.

Noise-canceling headphones:

Service

Despite the apparent unwillingness to bring halloumi cheese with supper, the crew was excellent…they were attentive, addressed me by name, and were proactive.

CONCLUSION

We landed on time in Amsterdam, though the transit security checkpoints were not open yet (I only had to wait five minutes). I enjoyed this flight very much. While it would have been fun to fly the new 777-300ER Aria business class, the A350-1000 is a solid choice with an excellent seat. I can’t wait to fly Cathay Pacific again. Expect great service, great food, and a great seat.