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Lounges, First Class, route resumptions – we chat with Cathay Pacific

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Cathay Pacific has had a harder time during covid than most other airlines, which is saying something. Pre-pandemic, it saw passenger traffic drop due to the Hong Kong protests, before it was totally walloped by Covid-19 and China’s zero-covid policies.

The only thing keeping it alive was cargo revenue, which kept the airline within the top 20 flying last year. It’s only in the past couple of months that the situation has started to ease.

Transiting through Hong Kong is now fairly straightforward, with entry into Hong Kong itself recently improving. Hotel quarantine is now a thing of the past, in favour of three days’ ‘self monitoring’ with far less disruptive restrictions.

I recently spoke with Paul Johannes, the new Head of Marketing and Sales for Europe at Cathay Pacific. Formerly Global Head of Sales and based in Hong Kong, Paul joined the team in London last month.

Paul Johannes Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific is back in business

The next few months will see Cathay Pacific expand quickly from the 9% of pre-pandemic passengers it carried in August to almost 30% by the end of 2022:

“What I can tell you is that with the latest news of the reopening that we will slowly be adding, rebuilding our network, evidenced by the fact that on Sunday I will be in Madrid to reopen that route. The following Saturday I’m going to be in Milan.

Slowly we’ll see all the flights coming back. Time wise I can’t give you an exact date as to when but what I can tell you that it’s all about growth. We’re in the midst of recruiting 4,000 frontline staff worldwide, including cabin crew, pilots, airport call centres. So we are back in expansion mode, but things take time, as you can imagine post-covid.

We’re adding 200 pairs of additional flights in October. Japan has opened up and we’re right in there. We’re going to be flying back daily to Haneda. We’ve increased our flights on to Narita, Osaka, plus a whole bunch of other Southeast Asian destinations.

It’s happening in Europe, it’s happening everywhere. We are basically double daily on London. We’re back at Manchester. We’re flying Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid, Milan. As of the next eight days, we’re flying Tel Aviv.

By the start of the Winter schedules, at the end of October, Cathay will fly to:

  • London
  • Manchester
  • Frankfurt
  • Milan
  • Amsterdam
  • Paris
  • Madrid

Pre-covid the airline also flew to Dublin, Rome and Zurich, so we will have to see when (if) they return.

First Class cabins are here to stay

Earlier this month American Airlines unveiled its new business class cabins, ready to be rolled out from 2024. Crucially, it appears to have ditched its First Class cabin in favour of a ‘business plus’ model. This is similar to what Malaysia Airlines did, turning First Class into Business Studio, and what Virgin Atlantic is planning with its Retreat Suites business-plus front row seats on the new A330neo next month.

British Airways, meanwhile, is reducing the number of First Class seats in its cabins as aircraft are refurbished with Club Suite. Paul remains bullish on Cathay’s First Class offering, however:

I think it depends on the route. I think it depends on the customer base that each airline is dealing with.

So for us we definitely are continuing with first class and depending on the route we will see it on on the routes that that we think our customer demands it on, and London – Hong Kong has traditionally been that.

It’s about being customer centric. We want to make sure we’ve got the right aircraft with the right configuration and right product depending on the route and the customer demands.

Cathay’s lounge strategy

Cathay Pacific took an interesting tack with its lounges, and actually opened the Heathrow lounge in Terminal 3, which we reviewed here, before it was even resuming flights to London. Apparently it could still turn a profit just from other oneworld airlines using the lounge.

Paul wasn’t able to comment, but he did note that:

“Right now, The Wing and The Pier lounges in Hong Kong are both open. And again there as you know, the demand comes, we’ll start opening up the other lounges”

Improvements are coming at Hong Kong Airport, as well:

“Hong Kong Airport have just opened the third runway. So that kind of tells you the direction we’re going, you know and we obviously will be part of that growth. And they’ve done a lot of work during the pandemic in the airport. So I think people who have been to Hong Kong before will see, you know, a very, very sleek interior in the airport, touchless, very digitised. It really looks nice.”

How to redeem Avios on Cathay Pacific

Hong Kong re-opening and Cathay Pacific ramping up its flights to the UK and Europe mean that you know once again have more options when redeeming Avios to East Asia.

Historically, Cathay Pacific has offered a saving in taxes and fees versus British Airways, with even lower rates from European cities.

Our (pre-pandemic!) guide to redeeming Avios on Cathay Pacific is here.

Our complete guide to earning Cathay Pacific Asia Miles from UK credit cards is here.

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Category

Cathay Pacific and Asia Miles

Comments (43)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • BJ says:
    15 Oct15 October 05:36

    If Manchester is still only four weekly it would be great if they’d consider launching Edinburgh the other three days. Edinburgh sorely needs a direct flight to East Asia, I’m sure there is more than enough demand for East Asia itself plus all the pax heading to Australia and New Zealand. Most of this likely routing via ME on QR and Emirates with their horrid transits but I think many would prefer going via SE Asia were the option available.

    As for HK, it would help a lot if the requirement to transit on one PNR was dropped asap.

    • John says:
      15 Oct15 October 06:25

      There’s no longer a requirement to transit on one PNR

      • BJ says:
        15 Oct15 October 06:40

        Awesome, thanks John, I missed that. I guess that leaves @Polly ok for return from Penang next month.

        • Polly says:
          15 Oct15 October 10:57

          BJ
          You got it in one!
          We were finally able to accept a QR J one way from hkg to lhr a couple of weeks ago. It’s tight 1hr 50m from our pen hkg on cx J landing. Once cx through check us, which they hopefully will, we are able to transit. It was announced with the 0-7 opening self testing plan. Such a relief.
          Even then, you can now enter, take a test, still risky, but be out and about in the city…Maybe more about control as opposed to test results! Who knows. Anyway, it’s better news for HKG ers now…flights packed, cx J charge x 3 what qr are, atm. But locals are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel now..

  • John says:
    15 Oct15 October 06:36

    > three days’ ‘self monitoring’ with far less disruptive restrictions.

    This is how it’s described in the media but it is misleading.

    For the first 3 days (actually until 9am on the 3rd full day after arriving) you can’t do “maskless” activities such as going to restaurants.

    The “self-monitoring” actually lasts for 7 days as you are obliged to do daily antigen tests. While you can lie about these since they are self-administered, you must also do 4 PCR tests between arriving and your 6th full day.

    Should you test positive you must self-isolate in a place with your own toilet. If you do not have an individual toilet you must go to a prison hotel/camp and cannot leave until you have negative antigen tests over 2 consecutive days, the earliest of which can be done on the 6th day of your confinement.

    • John says:
      15 Oct15 October 06:40

      That said, they have reduced restrictions faster than most people were expecting and there is another rumoured loosening next week. Though they also say testing for inbound passengers is not going away

      • BJ says:
        15 Oct15 October 06:53

        We don’t go until July next year and will be there for 3 days, 2 nights so plenty of time for things to relax further for us. Equally I suppose they could panic and go the other way if there are big waves this winter. I booked the HI Golden Mile to cover some bases as it seems to be an approved quarantine hotel. I have not followed developments too seriously given our trip is still far off, and had resigned myself to fibding another way back if need be. Really looking forward to getting back though.

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:
      15 Oct15 October 06:52

      I think I’ll give it a miss for a bit longer. I had a HKG trip booked for May 2020 and obviously didn’t happen. I’ll see how the restrictions change over the next few months before deciding whether to go in 2023

      • BJ says:
        15 Oct15 October 07:51

        The low cost redemption back to UK was too compelling for me to ignore. I’ll avoid booking our BKK-HKG sector until close in though and will risk a same day connection if entry restrictions remain onerous. Air Asia have about 5 or 6 daily flights as do HK Express so risk of missed connection will not be great.

    • Guy Incognito says:
      15 Oct15 October 09:14

      Absolutely no chance of me subjecting myself to that utter nonsense. More fool anyone that does.

      • JDB says:
        15 Oct15 October 09:33

        Yes, a visit or even transit, particularly in the winter months seems madness given that the rules change without notice and enforcement is rigorous.

        • Polly says:
          15 Oct15 October 11:14

          JDB
          There is serious pressure on them to open up to 0-0 days prior to this large world finance convention in early Nov. Then you have the Rugby later in the month. None of those delegates nor sports fans will settle for the current 0-7 regime. Especially not going out on the town for 3 days plus eat in their hotel rooms? So l guess they will leave it to the last minute to lift that requirement, so that the city is protected from a sudden big influx of tourists. Let’s see what happens, give it 10 days..

          • JDB says:
            15 Oct15 October 11:30

            Understood! The issue is still that, for most of us it is hopelessly unpredictable and they might open up fully one day and reverse policy days later in a way that we are less likely to see in Europe. That’s the nature of their system so not a gauntlet we wish to run and friends there are telling everyone to stay away for a good while, at least until spring. One friend has done the full three week quarantine and the newer short one and it was thoroughly unpleasant.

        • Guy Incognito says:
          15 Oct15 October 12:52

          We would typically visit China a few times a year to visit factories. Not a hope in hell of that happening for a long time now. Too much of a risk as you state (and that’s in HK, let alone China which is a whole different level of crazy)

      • The Streets says:
        15 Oct15 October 09:46

        My misses is from Hong Kong Ams we’ve been a couple of times over the last two years both with quarantine hotel and I’ve sworn I won’t do it again until 0+0 kicks in. I do find it amusing the sheer number of Covid articles still dominating the South China Morning Post and love stirring it up a bit in the comments section

    • John T says:
      15 Oct15 October 11:02

      Why would anyone bother with this nonsense. The pandemic is over.

      • John says:
        15 Oct15 October 13:47

        It’s not over for a country which used inferior vaccines and where much of the population hasn’t actually been exposed to SARS-CoV 2 yet. But it can be surmised that the main reason is Winnie doesn’t want mass deaths until he is safely “re-elected”.

        Regarding Hong Kong itself, removing all the rules now will probably be fine since they already had a few disastrous virus waves, but the authorities are scared (not really sure why since it’s not like they are accountable to the population, and most HK people have had enough anyway)

  • G says:
    15 Oct15 October 09:44

    The slow decline of Hong Kong as a meaningful financial centre with no doubt have an impact.

  • Joshua Critchley says:
    15 Oct15 October 10:36

    even in transit Hong Kong is now an extremely risky destination with CCP authoritarian regimes and western businesses keeping a distance. There’s still a lot of covid risk (false imprisonment for ‘quarantine’), and for now it’s somewhere corporate travel policies still forbid travel to.
    First class passengers likely to be high on the list for CCP kidnapping.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
      15 Oct15 October 11:05

      This is true. I couldn’t bring a work laptop there, and would fully expect my personal laptop to be examined under spurious grounds.

      • Mike Hunt says:
        15 Oct15 October 15:30

        Oh Blair what dodgy stuff are you keeping on your personal lap top ?

      • Tom says:
        15 Oct15 October 16:41

        My (US based) large financial sector employer has banned us taking any electronic device connected to the corporate network to Hong Kong for five or so years, have to take a burner. There is plenty of research showing IT security is compromised in China before you’ve even left the airport.

    • Polly says:
      15 Oct15 October 11:07

      Same as my false imprisonment in Singapore last nov. Never ever saw any evidence of my supposed positive test. Too weird.
      Many of us were 1st class with box ticked own private travel insurance. We were sitting ducks.
      Thailand tried it recently with no pre departure PCRs but grabbing people on arrival with supposedly positive PCRs. Thus filling up hotels and hospitals on foreign insurance policy payments. What a wheeze..
      That would be our fear if we couldn’t simply transit.

  • Chad McChadface says:
    15 Oct15 October 10:55

    Definitely giving politicians answers to those questions.

    I’m not sure anyone benefitted from that interview!

    • Polly says:
      15 Oct15 October 11:30

      Well, we learmed they’re increasing flights, for one thing! Let’s hope they continue their rapid opening plans. It’s still against China’s wishes tho, which is surprising they’re opening up at all. Obviously following Singapore, but almost a year too late, HKG have lost a lot to Singapore in this last year. Certainly as a financial power.

      @BJ, agree w you re the low fee J redemption cost. That, combined w the new style BA 241 starting from HKG was a no brainer, didn’t seem such a risk when we booked it. So, it’s been watching and waiting w baited breath for this outcome, and hope we make it back to the UK.

      • John says:
        15 Oct15 October 13:49

        Nah, China has allowed HK to do its own thing for a while now, and the guy in charge is even more of a stooge than the previous person, so if the CCP really wanted HK to follow the rest of China that’s what would be happening.

  • Constant Traveler says:
    15 Oct15 October 11:15

    Given CX is increasing flights, it would be great if they could sort out with BA I class tier and avios earnings, it’s bonkers that you can’t earn tier points in I…

    • Polly says:
      15 Oct15 October 11:42

      It’s also a problem if you need to change a cx redemption flight, after cx cancels, BA can’t change it unless there’s avios seats available. That’s mad, as they claim it’s their 3rd party contract rules.

      • Lady London says:
        15 Oct15 October 12:04

        doesn’t matter what contract BA haa with CX, BA is still responsible for rerouting you. In this case it sounds like BA has arranged it so they’d have to use other airlines to reroute you. But if CX was the only option, or everything elas was a totally unreasonable option, then BA would be responsible for the costs of a normal revenue seat on CX.

        Which, as BA would still be able to access the considerably-lower-than-retail interline rates, if it doesn’t take CEDR or MCOL to get them to pay out, would still cost BA much less than you having to pursue them aa that would be at full retail value.

        Basically, it won’t wash not to deliver statutory rights to passengers because you’ve signed a contract with a third party that does not meet the requirements – you are still responsible for them being met and any costs.

        • JDB says:
          15 Oct15 October 15:57

          You are assuming that the redemption is from the UK. On the return, with CX as the operator you have no EC261 rights so do have to fall back on contractual ones.

          • Lady London says:
            16 Oct16 October 00:03

            Yup I was assuming once again this is BA we’re talking about… and you’re right of course : if it’s not a UK/Eutope based airline then any flight not departing from Uk/Europe you’re not protected.

            My only excuse is I had been up all night, typed that pre-coffee 🙂

        • polly says:
          15 Oct15 October 16:38

          Tnx LL, but as JDB says it’s PEN to HKG, so darn local contract rules apply… but at least BA tied in our QR J home with the CX one. So hopefully, transit will work. Otherwise we will leave bags behind and just get on the QR flights, stay airside… now, that would be a challenge. No, am sure as on CX J, they will interline the bags….

    • BuildBackBetter says:
      15 Oct15 October 14:15

      Yesterday someone referred to the chancellor of the exchequer as CX. For a minute, was wondering what Cathay had to do with markets.

  • John T says:
    15 Oct15 October 11:39

    30% capacity is still dreadful as other airlines return to 2019 levels

  • Rand says:
    15 Oct15 October 13:00

    And no comment on the continuously declining quality of the CX lounge in T3 – multiple rounds of “enhancements” there.

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