Cathay Pacific A350 Review
30 August 2017travel airlines review
Flight Experience
So I finally decided to give the much talked about Cathay Pacific A350 a try. And I’ve been very much impressed with my overall experience of the flight.
Cathay Pacific always never failed to deliver with their state of the art in flight entertainment system, but the A350 takes it one step further.
Inflight Entertainment system
The business class system features two consoles so you can enjoy multitasking between two things (watching a movie, and checking the outside cameras or flight map). Not to mention the LED lighting on the safety displays (I love the extra touch beside the no smoking and seatbelt sign for when you can use your phone).
One of the main differentiators for the A350 is the in flight wifi. There are different plans involved here. It’s either a fixed 9.95 USD for an hour (enough to do some instagram / snapchat shots of being on a plane, or send that quick email), or 19 USD for an entire long flight or 12 USD for an entire short flight for those that need to work.
Wifi speeds were quite decent (other than latency). About 4 megabit upload and download. So it’s good enough to get most work done.
The connectivity card also claims SMS and Data roaming but I tried to use that and it wasn’t working on my sector. Maybe will have to ask next time I do an A350 flight.
In addition, you can browse and search through the duty free catalog through the system itself.
The system is basically a modified Android 5 operating system, but the touch screen feels quite responsive (as opposed to most androids).
The Cabin
The cabin is pretty much the same as the 777-ER, but in terms of fuel efficiency the A350 I guess is similar to other Airbus planes in the Cathay Fleet.
Storage wise, like other business class flights there is a small compartment for keeping your wallet / passport / phone, which also has USB power as well as an outlet which accommodates the UK/HK socket, as well as a larger storage which is enough for a small backpack.
Overhead storage also has enough for at least 3 hand carry sized suitcases if you really wanted to. I always loved how much cabin storage business class passengers get on Cathay flights.
Inside the cabin was also quite well done. And the bathrooms also have similar LED (no picture because I was charging my devices the whole flight).
Another cool touch is that you can also set alarms using the inflight system, or set your status so you can skip the catering (not that I’d want to miss out on the awesome business class catering by cathay pacific), or wake you for certain periods.
The bed pretty much deploys the same as other Cathay long haul business flights. I felt that there was a bit more width on the seats, and according to my sleep quality tracker - I slept quite well and arrived in Europe quite refreshed.
Trip Details
Flight Details: Cathay Pacific Flight 379 (Hong Kong to Düsseldorf)
Cabin Class: Business Class
Seating Window