Cathay Pacific’s Revamping Long-Haul Service, Dining Options

Planning to fly Cathay Pacific business class to Hong Kong (HKG)? There’s a chance you may get to experience the carrier’s new dining choices and service tweaks.

On Monday, CX shared plans to overhaul several components of its premium-cabin service. The biggest shift will focus on a new a-la-carte menu, with up to three appetizer and six main-course options per flight. Meals will be hand delivered by crew members, rather than via the carts and trolleys used today, as I experienced on a recent flight from Newark (EWR).

There will also be an “express” meal option, along with “Room Service Breakfast” — passengers will be able to check breakfast options on a form. Late flights will also have a quick “Supper Service,” with low lighting in the cabin intended to avoid disturbing passengers who would rather sleep than eat.

In addition, flight attendants will be assigned to specific passengers, which the airline hopes will give the in-flight service a more personalized feel.

Cathay Pacific conducted trials in mid-2017, but now plans to offer the new service and meal offerings on all long-haul routes by the middle of 2019, rolling out as follows:

• July 2018 — Chicago (ORD)
• August 2018 — London (LGW)
• September 2018 — Frankfurt (FRA), Manchester (MAN), Washington, DC (IAD)
• October 2018 — Amsterdam (AMS), Johannesburg (JNB), Paris (CDG)
• November 2018 — Barcelona (BCN), Brussels (BRU), Madrid (MAD)
• December 2018 — London (LHR)
• January 2019 — Boston (BOS), Newark (EWR)
• February 2019 — Auckland (AKL), Dublin (DUB), Milan (MXP), Rome (FCO), Sydney (SYD)
• March 2019 — Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Tel Aviv (TLV)
• April 2019 — New York (JFK), Toronto (YYZ), Vancouver (YVR)
• May 2019 — Adelaide (ADL), Brisbane (BNE), Cairns (CNS), Melbourne (MEL), Perth (PER)
• June 2019 — Bahrain (BAH), Dubai (DXB), Male (MLE), Zurich (ZRH)

While it’s likely that expanded entree options will make their way to the first-class cabin as well, we’ve reached out to CX to confirm.

With just six seats in total, I imagine first-class passengers already receive a level of service that’s more attentive than what business-class customers will experience following the airline’s upcoming refresh. Still, this sounds like a notable improvement to one of the world’s top business-class options to Asia.

Source: thepointsguy.com