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28Sep2006
Cathay Pacific’s New Coach Seats
Filed under: Cathay Pacific, Seats;15 CommentsCathay Pacific has put for a major effort to improve the onboard experience with the introduction of new seats in all three classes of service starting in January of 2007, but it’s the coach seats that really interest me.
These have some great new features that could help make flying economy much more bearable. First, a picture:
This is straight off the Cathay website, and those little numbers correspond to all their selling points. You can get the full list here, but I’m going to focus on the ones that really matter.
First of all, numbers 1 and 3 are closely related. These new seats are what they call “fixed” design. That means that the seat never moves into another person’s “living space.” For example, when you recline the seat, it doesn’t just go back, the seat actually reclines into the shell and the front of the seat slides forward a bit as well. This may reduce legroom a little, but you can fully recline without bothering the person behind you. More importantly, the person in front of you can fully recline without bothering you!
Number 5 is also interesting in that it’s the first economy seat with a three point seat belt. That’s pretty different and might feel constricting, but they say that you can modify it to be only a lap belt during the flight itself.
The last thing that really impresses me is the seat back pocket (#7). You can plainly see that the pocket is no longer in the back of the seat in front of you, it’s underneath your legs. This does several things. If you have a lot of stuff in the pocket, it will not longer stop you from opening the tray table. It also will give you an inch or two of extra legroom. Lastly, if someone sticks their bag under your seat, it won’t poke out the front into the back of your legs.
It’s a pretty sweet design and includes all the other bells and whistles you’d expect like moving headrests and big video screens. It even has a built in coat hook in the seatback. Hopefully others will adopt it as well.
Oh, and the new business class and first class products are nothing to sneeze at either. Click on those links to learn more about them.
15 Responses to “Cathay Pacific’s New Coach Seats”
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The seat recline bit looks pretty brilliant and the adjustable headrest is a welcome change. But that literature pouch may be a nightmare from a cleaning and maintenance perspective. Looks like they are perfectly placed to be a nice crumb catcher. Being at floor level they are going to take a ton of abuse, even more so that the current standard.
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Stephen October 10th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
I’m over 6 feet and neither an amputee nor a yoga instructor. The new Cathay “fixed” seat is an abomination. It doesn’t recline – it slides you into the seat in front. Since my knees are touching teh seat in front to start with, this leaves me with nowhere to go – other than the chiropractor when I get off.
The only benefit is that the pain takes your attention away from the agressive and shitty flight attendants.
I will not fly on Cathay again.
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The seat doesn’t recline. I have to stay in upright position for 10+ hours flight. Never fly on Cathay again.
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The new seat is terrible: the seat recline, but not the headset!!!
So your head stays vertical all along.
Which means that your head falls forwards when you fall asleep. That gets you to wake up everytime you fall asleep. not the best for 12 hours long flights!
Do not fly economy with cathay! -
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never again cathay May 18th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
I echo the sentiments of the above posters in saying the Cathay Pacific coach seats are dreadful, and the press release is nothing but a ploy to try to sell these as “improvements”. Having no pitch to recline on a hong kong-los angeles flight meant no rest. The fake recline feature just slides your butt 4 or so inches forward, jamming your legs into the seat in front of you and putting your back into a horrible posture. Really ergonomically speaking, it just forces you into a slouch, with your spine bending into itself. This might be bearable for a short flight but is unforgivable for these long hauls. Which makes me question the sanity of installing these into 747’s in the first place. By eliminating any pitch from all coach seats, I’m sure they squeezed a few extra rows into the 747, however they will lose more than a few customers if they don’t make some changes.
I am a loyal American Airlines customer and was forced over to Cathay as a code share. Never again will I fly Cathay and American will be hearing about this as well.
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cathay lover turned hater July 12th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Used to love this airline.
Now I hate this airline b/c their seats DO NOT FREAKIN RECLINE.
It’s been since says since I got back from my HKG to NYC flight and my BACK STILL HURTS.
WORST SEATS EVER.
WORST DECISION EVER.
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Hedley Smedley Smythe August 3rd, 2009 at 10:58 pm
The only good thing about these new seats is if you never recline (like me) (I just read books and listen to music in an upright position) but now I am spared from the person in front. So for me a real bonus.
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Six Footer August 6th, 2009 at 1:21 am
Love it. Love it. Love it.
With these seats and some earplugs, the sensible traveler gets an undisturbed trip.
Hemlock tells it straight.
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I am still a silver club member of cathay pacific.. I fly frequently, and normally HKD – LAX.
i now fly other airlines as a DIRECT result of the new seating design.
Everyone below has said it.. shocking.. bad posture.. Its impossible to sleep on them as they do not recline.
I’ve moved my business elsewhere..
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rubbish seats. impossible to sleep. singapore airlines until they replace these seats!!
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A direct flight from London to Hong Kong, I normally get a minimum of 4-5hrs sleep leaving me rested for the next days business. This time with these badly designed seats I spent the trip in pain. The stupid slouch recline was useless and hurt my back so I had to remain upright. But then as the flight progressed the 10mm of padding on the seats became the real problem and I had very uncomfortable pressure points on my back. I flew with them before they ahd this new seat. I would now rather do the stop over at dubai and fly emirates when virgin are full.
A terrible design,
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I’m not sure if this is a good innovation for Cathay Pacific. I have rode their plane to LA to the Philippines and it wasn’t really that enjoying. Better try other planes.
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I just fly Cathay from Hong Kong to SF and back. It was the worst experience I ever had on a long distance flight due to the non-reclining seats. Sleep was all but impossible since you’re head is vertical the entire time. The seat padding is so thin, portions of the plastic shell stick into your side.
Simply put, I will never fly Cathay Pacific again. What a dreadful thing to do to your customers.
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MarinerBert January 19th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
These “shell seats” are HORRIBLE. I flew from LAX to HKG and back on a Cathay Pacific 777-300ER, which is a wonderful plane, but with THESE seats, made for a DREADFULLY long flight … particularly coming back. I was absolutely tired after the trip to HKG and MNL, and the 12 hour flight back was compounded by these PAINFUL seats … as I could NOT get comfortable at ALL during those hours, and probably caught 2 to 3 hours of sleep intermittently.
By comparison, I flew a Philippine Airlines 777-300ER from HKG to MNL, and although it was a short flight, those “standard” seats in economy were by FAR and AWAY superior to CX’s. Those even had FOOTRESTS, as opposed to Cathay’s which did NOT.
I will choose other airlines to fly on besides CX for overseas travel to Asia … these seats SUCK!!!
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