What Is Cathay Pacific’s Premium Economy Inter-Asia Product? - Cathay Pacific Premium Economy (HKG-KIX)
Flight Details:
Aircraft: Airbus 350-1000
Registration: B-LXH
Route: HKG to KIX
Date: 05/05/2025
Class: Premium Economy
Price: 23,000 Asia Miles + Fees
Takeoff time: 13:31 HKT
Landing time: 17:35 JST
Total flight time: 3 hours and 4 minutes
Seat: 32A
Introduction:
Rarely do I fly premium economy on Cathay Pacific regionally. If I am using cash I will typically book business for the status points or economy, with premium economy being poor value in both money and status points flying regionally. On my recent last-minute trip to Osaka, since I was using points, I debated and decided to try out what Cathay Pacific has to offer for their regional inter-Asia premium economy product. I’ve flown this product before COVID and remember the soft product being exactly the same as economy, and concluded then that the product was not worth it. Cathay Pacific’s premium economy soft product has changed quite a bit since COVID, so I was looking forward to this flight.
Seat/Cabin:
Cathay Pacific’s A350’s are equipped with a modified version of Collins Aerospace’s MiQ product, used in long-haul premium economy and domestic business (or American ‘first’) class. For an extensive review, read Alvin’s review. Other the 2-4-2 layout rather than 2-3-2 that we see on the likes of China Airlines or Lufthansa’s A350’s, the seat does not look or feel 7 years old. It’s a fairly comfortable way to fly 15+ hours, and with the new updates to the IFE, everything feels very slick.
Cathay Pacific’s A350-1000 are equipped with 32 premium economy seats and I was sat at 32A, the third row from the front. One of the benefits on flying the -1000 variant over the -900 variant is that theres a bathroom just for the premium economy cabin. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a window.
The cabin was barely 1/3 full, with a total of 9 people in the cabin, making the cabin feel very private and comfortable.
Food and Service:
Service has really improved at Cathay Pacific over the last 2 years, with the newly recruited crew getting more experience. The consistency of the service feels almost night and day flying Cathay today compared to even a year ago. Comparing the service for this flight to a recent Singapore Airlines business class flight, I still prefer Cathay Pacific’s, but that may be my internal bias speaking. When I ordered a cold tea to go with my meal, the crew made sure that the drink that they served was to my liking, which was a nice touch. My only criticism was that they served other drinks with a paper cup, which is inconsistent to the premium economy experience, but I’m really nitpicking here.
I was delighted to find that the food offering has drastically improved. We were served a business class main meal with soba, fruits and an ice cream without the appetizer and dessert course. I ordered the lamb that was tender and flavourful. We were not given physical menus, but I believe we also have our pick of the business class drinks menu (at least the non-alcoholic items).
Concluding Thoughts:
This was an amazing flight. At 3 hours and 4 minutes in air time and gate to gate in 3 hours 26 minutes (mainly the taxi from our gate to 7C even though the 7R was available, but thats a different issue). The service and food were great, and the seat for this short hop was extremely comfortable. It does make me wonder the product value proposition between flying premium economy (when available) on these inter-asia flights compared to the ‘fake J’ seats on some of the A333’s and B773’s. While I was lucky with getting an empty cabin, I would not hesitate to fly Cathay Pacific’s premium economy product inter-Asia as a cheaper alternative to business class when using redemption points.