Cathay Pacific Business Class Review Hong Kong (HKG) to Bahrain (BAH) via Dubai (DXB) A330 CX 745
After my 10-day 'layover' in Hong Kong (and after exploring Phnom Penh and Hanoi), I was curious to see how much I'd like the A330 configuration for Cathay Pacific Business Class.
I decided to use the Terminal 1 lounge across from Gate 4 - 'The Wing'- and to my surprise it was rather empty that evening. There were no roaming crowds that make you leave for another business class lounge. Cathay Pacific now has so many all across the airport that it's hard to keep track.
Cathay Pacific has seriously improved the catering at the lounges. The noodle soup options now include a creamy, spicy variant which I loved and I also loved the fried peppers near the main bar. They still have all the delicious desserts at the coffee bar. There was so much to choose from besidesthe main noodle dishes that I felt overwhelmed.
I took a shower and while nothing has changed there I realized how tricky it is to take a hot shower when you are already quite hot. There is no (or very little) air conditioning inside the shower room and it gets really hot and steamy after a few minutes. So plan on quick showers here!
Likely due to the low occupancy, the internet was rather fast and topped out at 5 Mbit. It's still often faster to use the free airport WiFi instead of the lounge WiFi, though - a fact I find puzzling.
The Bahrain flight makes a stop in Dubai, but Bahrain is not the 'tag-on' destination you might expect - in fact, Cathay Pacific has served this nation for 40 years now!
The flight is scheduled at 1.30AM, just after almost all of Cathay's Europe and US flights. The boarding gate wasn't very crowded when I arrived, but business class would be 100% full, whileeconomy would be less than 50% full.We took off right on time and everyone was busy reclining and falling asleep right away. That's what I did; Cathay Pacific is my favorite business class to sleep in after all.
The flight time to Dubai (our first stop) is just under 8 hours. It seems we were flying extra slow, though, to give everyone a chance to rest a bit longer. I managed to wake up for breakfast, which was well underway when I woke up.
Most of my fellow business class passengers (who seemed to try to be extra noisy) stayed on board in Dubai. Very few new passengers joined us. The stop took a full 90 minutes (incl. a cleaning), but since we were able to stay in our suites and watch movies it wasn't too bad.
We got a gorgeous flying path to see the new Dubai downtown from above.
Cathay serves a small snack on the one-hour flight to Bahrain from Dubai.
At 10AM, Bahrain greeted us with perfect 80 degrees weather and some of the most friendly immigration and airport staff I have ever seen. It was one of the easiest immigration processes ever; no lines and staff who simply take your credit card and run your passport. The fee for Bahrain is way too high, though, at $68 (BD 25).
Just past immigration are SIM card vendors; one gave me a local SIM card with a 6GB (!) data volume, free calls and unlimited social media for just $10. That took just a few minutes and came with no haggling or craziness.
All in all, this was a great flight; there wasn't much to report. Cathay is a great airline and recently really improved their catering, giving them an even better product.