For the past few years Cathay Pacific has offered some fantastic Black Friday sales from the United States to Asia. For the past two years I’ve relied on these fares to help give me a jump start American Airlines Executive Platinum elite status. While most of the “incredible” Black Friday deals are in Economy class there are also a few Premium Economy and Business class options available.
While most would just assume book the cheapest fares available, I instead book the Premium Economy option. See, at the moment Premium Economy on partner airlines offer great mileage accrual rates when crediting flights to the American Airlines AAdvantage program. Today, PE fares on Cathay earn 20% Elite Qualifying Dollars per mile flown and 1.5 Elite Qualifying Miles per mile flown. Economy fares on the other hand earn no EQD or EQM and possibly no award miles. However, since I booked the PE fare I’ll earn $2,600 EQD and 20,000 EQM. I find that to be a great deal considering I paid just $850 for my ticket (just $200 more than Economy).
For this year’s Black Friday sale, majority of the “great” deals originated in San Francisco. There were several days and flights available, but in the end I selected the late night (12:40AM) departure because it featured Cathay Pacific’s new Airbus A350-1000.
Nearly Missed My Domestic Connection
While it may seem odd to book a flight out of a city that you don’t live it’s actually not that uncommon. Typically the best sales originate only out of certain cities which means that If you are flexible and willing to take a positioning flight to start your trip you might discover some significant savings. Positioning flights aren’t a big deal, but they can quickly cause issues in the event of irregular operations (ie. Delays).
The reason positioning flights can cause issues that they typically aren’t booked on a same itinerary. Because of that, you generally aren’t protected in the event of a delay as you would otherwise be. So, if you miss your flight due to a separately booked positioning flight you could be out of luck. This was essentially what happened as I tried to get to San Francisco to begin this trip. I won’t go into too much detail here and instead you can read about that experience here.
Thanks to the delayed positioning flight I arrived at San Francisco airport just 30 minutes prior to my Cathay Pacific departure time. Typically when I board a flight to review I try to be among the first on the aircraft. This allows me to take great pictures of the empty aircraft with all of the amenities nicely displayed as the cabin crew intended. For this flight though I missed that opportunity as I was the last passenger to board because of my delay.
Boarding The Cathay Pacific Airbus A350-1000
The flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong was scheduled to depart at 12:40AM PST. Cathay Pacific closes the jet bridge door 10 minutes prior to the departure time which in this case meant 12:30AM PST. My guess is that boarding began about 30 minutes prior to that or about 11:50PM PST, but who knows since I wasn’t there.
Instead, I arrived at the gate at approximately 12:20AM and was the last passenger to board the aircraft. Above, you’ll find the only picture I took at the San Francisco airport during my mad dash from Terminal 2 to the International Terminal.
Once I reached the boarding door of the aircraft I was able to relax a bit and start taking a few more photos. That was great news because the interior of Cathay’s A350-1000 is beautiful. For starters, was you board the aircraft a large branded wall is front and center which sets the scene of what to expect.
The boarding door entrance wall prominently displays the new Cathay Pacific logo in a brushed metal finish.
As I boarded through the L1 boarding door I had pass through the Business Class cabin in order to reach the small Premium Economy cabin. This was especially painful as I was the last to board and approximately half of the seats were empty. It sure would have been nice to have one of those empty business class seats.
Instead, I had to continue through the cabin and find my seat in the rather small premium economy cabin on board.
Cathay Pacific A350-1000 Premium Economy Cabin
The Premium Economy cabin on the Cathay Pacific A350-1000 can be found between the Economy and Business class cabins. Floor to ceiling bulkheads at either end of the cabin separate it from the rest of the aircraft. The cabin is only 4 rows and each row features 8 seats for a total of 32 seats. Overall, the Premium Economy cabin feels quite intimate when compared to other cabins found on the aircraft.
As I was the last to board the aircraft I did not get a chance to take any photos of the empty cabin. Instead, I waited at the end of the flight to snap a couple over empty cabin photos. As a result, of the cabin photos feature a very messy cabin rather than the pristine cabin you’d typically find as you board the aircraft.
One of the things you’ll quickly notice about the A350-1000 which is different from older aircraft is the massive windows. The windows on the A350 are noticeably larger than the older 777 or A330 aircraft also operated by Cathay.
Another nice feature of the A350-1000 are the massive overhead lockers. Even though I was the last passenger to board the aircraft there was still plenty of room for my carry on suitcase and my backpack.
After I stowed my luggage in the overhead lockers I quickly took my seat as it was apparent the crew was ready to depart.
Cathay Pacific Premium Economy Pre-Departure Service
As I took my seat I noticed my seat mate already had a glass of Champagne sitting on his slide out tray table.
Mine however was noticeably empty as I arrived well after the pre-departure beverage service.
That changed about 30 seconds after I finally settled into my seat. As the aircraft door closed the flight attendant stopped by my seat to drop off a pre-departure beverage. I happily accepted a cup of water and a glass of Champagne (sparkling wine).
After dropping off my Champagne, the flight attendant returned a few moments later with hot towels. Both the hot towel and Champagne were very welcomed after my sprint through the terminal to the flight.
Just after the hot towel service, the chief flight attendant stopped by my seat to introduce herself and thank me for my loyalty. This is normal for Cathay Pacific and she stopped by about 5 or 6 customer’s seats in the Premium Economy cabin prior to takeoff. With her visit the also asked if I needed anything and asked if I’d prefer to sit in an entire empty row in economy. She said the economy cabin was mostly empty and if I switched I could lay in an entire row by myself. Although the offer was tempting, I wanted to stay in Premium Economy for this review.
Cathay Pacific Premium Economy A350-1000 Seat
As we pushed back from the gate I finally had a few moments to look around and appreciate the cabin and the new Premium Economy seat on the A350-1000. II quickly noticed that the seats on this aircraft were a bit more blue than the emerald-green seats found on older aircraft.
In fact, as I took a closer look I noticed the seat upholstery actually contains various shades of blue and green along with a threads of orange.
The seat is essentially a slightly wider economy seat which offers additional recline, extra padding, and a small reading lamp next to the headrest. The Premium Economy seats on this particular aircraft also offer significantly more padding than other seats which make them surprisingly comfortable to sit in for extended periods of time.
For my flight, I selected seat 30K which is a bulkhead window seat on the Airbus A350-1000. My particular seat also featured a large bassinet table. This is a great feature if you have a baby, but not a great feature if you get stuck sitting next to someone with a baby.
While I assumed I would prefer the bulkhead window seat I can safely say that I will be choosing an aisle seat in the future.
Cathay Pacific Premium Economy A350-1000 Design
With the cabin refresh found on the A350, Cathay swapped out the dated faux carbon fibre look and replaced it with dark wood, brushed metal, and brown leather aesthetic. Personally, I really appreciate the new look and feel of the cabin.
In the center of the Premium Economy seats is a small and narrow armrest and tray table. Beneath the armrest is an extremely small storage area which is just large enough to store a cellular phone. Similarly, the center tray table is quite small, but features two smaller stowable surfaces for beverages.
This center counsel area between the seats is also home to the seat controls and power outlets.
Cathay Pacific Premium Economy A350-1000 Center Armrest
Along the front of the center armrest are two USB outlets and two power outlets.
Along the side of the seat are the seat controls and the stowable IFE remote.
As I was sitting in a bulkhead seat, my seat featured a foldable and extendable footrest. The first two buttons found on the inside of the seat related to the footrest.
Also found on the inside of the seat is the headphone outlet which plugs into the in-flight entertainment monitors.
Cathay Pacific Premium Economy A350-1000 In-Flight Entertainment
Located at every premium economy seat are large, touch sensitive, in-flight entertainment monitors. As I was sitting at a bulkhead seat, my IFE screen was found on the bulkhead wall. Otherwise, these would of course be found in the seat-back.
The IFE screen was actually part of a larger box which featured a small storage shelf and a coat hook. Both items could not be used for storage during takeoff and landing.
The in-flight entertainment monitors are touch sensitive, but also can be controlled with the IFE remote found in the center armrest. The handheld remote is retractable and can be withdrawn from the center armrest by pressing the release button.
The reverse side of the IFE remote features a full QWERTY keyboard.
In Premium Economy, Cathay Pacific provides over-the-ear headphones to all passengers.
The headphones were actually quite nice, but after about an hour of use my ears and head hurt. I’d highly recommend bringing your own headphones as the provided headphones were not very comfortable.
Cathay Pacific A350-1000 Premium Economy Tray Table
Now, I don’t typically think a tray table deserves its own section of a review, however on the A350-1000 I believe it does. The tray table found in Premium Economy is quite clever. When you open the armrest you’ll find a little button with an arrow on it.
When you pull up on the arrow the tray table rises out of the armrest.
From there, the table folds out to revel a half tray table with a beverage holder.
The tray table then folds over for dining. Overall, the tray table is quite clever and also surprisingly lightweight.
Cathay Pacific Premium Economy A350-1000 Amenity Kit
A small amenity kit was offered to all Premium Economy passengers as they took their seats. Mine was found in the bulkhead storage area as I took my seat.
The amenity kit was contained in a small cloth pouch designed by Zixag and Danny Yung. I personally enjoyed the bespoke design of the amenity kit.
Inside the cloth pouch were the typical amenity kit items. There was an eye-mask, flight socks, a dental kit, earplugs, and a discount code for various products. Surprisingly, the amenity kit did not include any sort of lotion of moisturizer.
Sure, the amenity kit isn’t much, but it is a nice touch.
Cathay Pacific Premium Economy A350-1000 Menu
Just prior to takeoff the flight attendants stopped by each Premium Economy passenger’s seat to drop off an in-flight menu.
The menu was a small paper menu which was written in both English and Chinese. Since our flight was a true overnight flight the menu was limited to a supper service and a breakfast service. As always, snacks were also available at any point throughout the flight.
On the next page of the menu was a listing of beverage options. I’m not sure how different the Premium Economy beverage options are from economy.
Overall, I believe the meal options are the same for economy and Premium Economy. The difference is that economy passengers don’t receive menus and I don’t believe economy passengers receive metal cutlery.
Cathay Pacific Premium Economy A350-1000 Supper Service
Just about an hour after taking off the cabin crew began the supper service. The service began with the crew dropping off a bottle of water at every Premium Economy passenger’s seat.
A short while later, the flight attendant returned with a service card and asked which meal option we would prefer. I opted for the stir fried pork over the beef or pasta options.
The meal was served on a tray with metal silverware wrapped in a napkin, a dinner roll a pesto chicken salad, and a Ghirardelli chocolate square.
The pork stir fry was actually delicious I ate nearly everything in front of me as this was among the best (Premium) economy meals I’ve had. Cathay Pacific’s catering consistently delivers. I’ve only had one or two less than ideal meals when traveling with Cathay.
By comparison, most of the meals I’ve had on American are inedible.Just after finishing my supper meal service I promptly fell asleep. In fact, I was fast asleep before the flight attendants came back to offer up ice cream or clear the meal service. I woke up, a few hours later, with the tray table still fully extended although empty.
Cathay Pacific Airbus A350-1000 In Flight
In total, I slept for about 7 hours by the time I finally woke up from my “nap.”
While that is a substantial amount of time, we still had about 7 hours to go when I woke up. So, to pass some time, I decided to walk around the entire aircraft (excluding business class of course). I began by checking out the rear of the Premium Economy cabin.
As you can see, there isn’t much to the premium economy cabin. One thing I did notice is that standard seats feature a small drink holder which folds out of the IFE screen housing. Other than that, all of the seats seemed the same. Another thing to note is that the Premium Economy lavatory is located just in front of seats 30 A/C. I imagine this could get quite annoying if you were sitting in either of these seats.
Next, I explored the economy cabin. The economy cabin on the A350-1000 features a 3-3-3 layout similar to the Boeing 787.
There are two economy class cabins, the mid-aircraft cabin features 9 rows of seat while the rear economy cabin is much larger and features just under 20 rows.
The cabin crew didn’t necessarily love me taking pictures at this point. No one said anything to me, but it became clear that it would be preferred if I returned to my seat.
Cathay Pacific A350-1000 WiFi
As I returned to my seat I remembered that our aircraft featured high-speed Panisonic WiFi.
Sure enough when I opened up the WiFi connection on my phone I quickly found the Cathay Pacific WiFi network. WiFi rates were quite reasonable although WiFi pricing always confuses me. For 1 hour the price was about $9. However, for the entire flight (14 hours) the price was just $19. To me, it seems like they could charge much more for the whole flight package and build in a half-flight option, but I’ll let someone at Cathay Pacific figure that one out.
To connect to the WiFi I had to first create a user profile. This involved entering some basic personal information, a valid email address, and a credit card. Shortly thereafter I successfully connected to the in-flight WiFi network. The WiFi network was actually incredibly fast. There was plenty of bandwidth to load emails, Instagram, and even stream a YouTube video. This wasn’t the fastest WiFi I’ve ever used, but it was a close second. It’s good to know that you can now stay almost fully connected in the air, however I still prefer to cut off from the outside world entirely for a few hours.
Cathay Pacific Premium Economy A350-1000 Snack Service
With about 6 hours left in the flight I began to get a bit hungry. It was at that time that I rang the flight attendant call button and requested a snack. With the snack I also requested a glass of ginger ale which was delivered with a packet of almonds.
A short while later my warm snack arrived. For the snack service I requested a vegetable folded pizza which was quite delicious. The pizza wasn’t that heavy and proved a perfect snack.
Cup noodles were also available as a snack, but I felt at the time that the pizza was a better choice.
Cathay Pacific Premium Economy A350-1000 Breakfast Service
After my snack I watched a movie, did some writing, tried to read a book, and ultimately fell back asleep. I woke up about two hours later as the cabin lights began to brighten. It’s worth noting the lights were not turned off again after this point.
When the cabin lights came on the distinct smell of breakfast also filled the cabin. A short while later the cabin crew circulated the cabin with service carts which contained the in-flight breakfast. We again had options for breakfast which were an omelet or breakfast noodles. I opted for the breakfast noodles which came on a tray with yogurt, fresh fruit, a croissant, and a cut of coffee.
Cathay Pacific Premium Economy A351 Breakfast
The breakfast noodles were very tasty and came with breakfast baos.
Following breakfast the crew retried all of the service items and began preparing the cabin for landing. It was at this time that I finally opened the window shade to see the sunrise as we descended into Hong Kong.
Arriving In Hong Kong On The Airbus A350-1000
When I opened the window I caught my first glimpse of the beautiful winglet (sharklet) of the Airbus A350-1000.
The winglet sits at the end of the massive wing which also is home to the insanely large Rolls Royce Trent 1000.
To put the size of the engine into perspective, the diameter of the engine is larger than some aircraft fuselages.
As we continued our decent we could see the mountains that surround Hong Kong.
Finally, after landing we got a fantastic ground tour of the Hong Kong International airport.
As we taxied we passed one of Cathay’s Airbus A350-900 aircraft which is the little brother of the A350-1000.
After a long taxi we reached our arrival gate and began the deplaning process. Well, most of us did. I stayed on board to take photos and was promptly asked to leave so the crew could begin cleaning the aircraft.
Cathay Pacific Premium Economy A350-1000 Experience
While it’s true Premium Economy doesn’t even begin to compare to business class on Cathay Pacific, I will say that the additional cost is worth it in many cases. For starters, the premium economy seat is much larger and more comfortable than the standard economy seat. On thing that consistently surprises me about the seat is how plush it is. As you settle in you will have no issues sitting for several hours at a time. The seat is much better padded than other economy seats. In fact, the seat is significantly more comfortable than most other Premium Economy seats.
Secondly, the soft-product of Premium Economy is slightly better than that offered in economy. Sure drinks are served in plastic glasses and the meals are identical to economy, but given the smaller cabin the level of service is much more personalized. I wouldn’t pay a premium for the soft-product, but again, the hard product does justify the higher price in my opinion.
Finally, Premium Economy earns AAdvantage miles at such a great rate that I personally believe that alone makes it worth paying the premium. No, I wouldn’t pay an extra $1,000 or more, but I’ll happily pay up to $300 extra for the extra mileage accrual alone.
Final Thoughts
This was overall another great Premium Economy flight on Cathay Pacific. I personally much preferred Premium Economy on the A350-1000 when compared to the much older 77W aircraft. Given the option, I’ll try to find flights operated by this newer, more comfortable aircraft, over its older counterparts.
One thing that I won’t be doing again however is selecting a window seat or a bulkhead seat. Although the bulkhead offers slightly better legroom than other seats, it prohibits you from storing anything on the floor which is frustrating. That means to get a book out of your bag after takeoff you have to get up to do so. If you’re in the aisle this isn’t as big a deal, but if you’re in the middle or by a window it means you have to climb over your seat mate which is annoying. Also, sitting against the bulkhead is a little claustrophobic. I personally much prefer sitting toward the rear of the cabin because it allows you to see the whole cabin instead of a flat wall the whole flight.
