Topic of the Week: Cathay Pacific’s New Business Class Seats

December 10, 2010 CF 9 comments

How many of you saw Cathay Pacific’s announcement that it’s putting new seats in business class? It seemed relatively quiet on this side of the world, but it is big news. Possibly the biggest news is that Cathay is following the lead of . . . US Airways!?! That’s right, it’s the reverse herringbone. What do you think?

New Cathay Pacific Business Class

Cathay Pacific, Seats none

Comments

Leave a comment Trackback

Written by David SF eastbay on December 10, 2010. Reply

Direct Window View
The outboard seats are gently angled towards the windows, giving passengers a perfect view.
———————————-

That’s nice, people like to see out the window during the day and when on the ground. The airlines that angle the seats with your back to the windows maybe didn’t think that out to well. At least that’s what I think.
Written by chris on December 10, 2010. Reply

I was all excited to hear about this until I learned that new biz class won’t be on the 747′s flying to/fr SFO for quite a while. Wah! Near term plans are for B777 and A330 only.
- Written by explanethings on December 10, 2010. Reply
  
  If Cathay are as previous, it’ll be years before all the fleet is refitted. Have the finished installing the previous incarnation fleetwide?
  Let’s hope this latest version fits people other than Asian sizes. Last time I flew CX J Class it was horrendous. If you’re over 6ft, you’re screwed!
Written by Frequentflier on December 10, 2010. Reply

These seats are getting to look more like what the doctor tells you to lay over and relax…..
Written by papa on December 10, 2010. Reply

This new seat overhaul at least demonstrates some serious commitment to improvement backed by serious cash investment.

Cathay has had lie-flat seats in for long-haul Business Class for a few years now, but they were criticized quite a bit for being very narrow and sort of coffin like in their herringbone config.

I cannot comment on the new seat since I have not seen it, but it looks like (a) they may be listening to consumers and (b) trying to implement continuous improvement rather than waiting till the next generation seating concepts.
- Written by Sanjeev M on December 10, 2010. Reply
  
  Personally, I have never travelled in any class higher than Economy (or World Traveller Plus on BA). But at 6’2 I feel that business class is about the flat bed. It’s not about how much space you have to work, individual light lamps, etc…
  
  So I would think having a business class configuration of 2-3-2 on the A330/A340 and 2-4-2 on the 777 (basically one less seat per row than economy) is fine. After all, it should be somewhat affordable. People over at airliners.net were outraged over Turkish Airlines 2-3-2 config on the new 777-300ER’s but I think it’s fine.
  
  For that matter, whenever I walk past Club World on BA, that arrangement looks fairly good to me and still manages to be 8 across on a 777.
  
  Anyway, sorry for the long rant but just thought I’d throw that out there, no offense to anyone.
Written by Travelnate on December 10, 2010. Reply

I hope they’re putting in new coach seats too…
Written by Rob L Austin on December 11, 2010. Reply

Cathay’s First may be at at par or slightly better than Singapore’s, but their business is way behind in the Asian airline race now. Of course, compared to US carriers, I’d opt for Cathy even in the current “coffins.” It’s still better than sliding to the floor on other “flat” beds where you can’t sleep at all.
Written by Dan on December 13, 2010. Reply

As someone who just flew almost 20 hours in those seats (one way!) my biggest complaint is the seat width. Re-directing/-aligning the seats isn’t that noteworthy to me, at least on those particular flights. But as a side sleeper, the seats were pretty danged narrow, and I really couldn’t cross my legs sitting up. That’s a bigger deal, and hopefully these new wider seats will rectify that.

Comment Pages:

Leave a Comment

Older Post Newer Post

Subscribe for Free

Get Cranky via RSS

Subscribe to Comments
Email or RSS

More Subscription Options

Happening Now

Cranky Also Writes

Contributing to Condé Nast's "The Daily Traveler"

Writing Intuit's "In the Trenches" column on running Cranky Concierge

Archives

2006: JFMAMJ JASOND

2007: JFMAMJ JASOND

2008: JFMAMJ JASOND

2009: JFMAMJ JASOND

2010: JFMAMJ JASOND

2011: JFMAMJ JASOND

2012: JFMAMJ JASOND

2013: JFMAMJ JASOND

Air Websites

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Find the Best Selection of Las Vegas Show Tickets & Orlando Show Tickets

Hot Topics

787 A380 Accidents/Incidents Across the Aisle Interviews Admin Advertising Airbus Air Canada Air France Air New Zealand Airplane Porn Airport Experience AirTran Alaska Airlines Alitalia Allegiant Alliances Aloha American Ask Cranky Baggage BNET Boeing British Airways Continental Cranky Concierge Cranky Jackass Customer Service DCA - Washington/National Delays/Cancellations Delta Distribution Emirates Environment ExpressJet Fares Frequent Flier Programs Frontier Fuel Go! Government Regulation Guest Posts Hawaiian Horizon Inflight Entertainment JetBlue JFK - New York/JFK Labor Relations LAX - Los Angeles LGA - New York/La Guardia LGB - Long Beach LHR - London/Heathrow Lufthansa Meals Mergers/Finance Mesa Airlines Midwest Airlines Miscellaneous Northwest Oneworld Operations Overbooking Qantas Republic Ryanair Safety/Security Schedule Changes Seats SFO - San Francisco SkyTeam Southwest Spirit Star Alliance Technology Trip Reports United US Airways Virgin America Virgin Atlantic Weather Westjet Who/What the F***

About | Directory | Shop | Awards | In the News | Ethics | Cranky Concierge
Powered by WordPress | SRS Solutions | © 2006-2013 Brett Snyder All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy