TRIEDANDTESTED FLIGHT Cathay Pacific’s A350-900 economy class

TAIPEI-HONG KONG

BACKGROUND Cathay Pacific took delivery of its first A350-900 in 2016. Hong Kong-Taipei was the busiest commercial international flight route in the world in 2017. It is also Cathay’s busiest route.

CHECK-IN Cathay had five economy class check-in desks open at Terminal 1 of Taipei Taoyuan International and there was only a short queue. Security was reasonably busy but the queue moved quickly. At immigration, non-citizens are directed to use an e-gate where you scan your passport and fingerprints. A staff member assists with this.

BOARDING My flight CX499 departed from Gate B6. We started boarding just after 0935, with departure due at 0945. My seat was at the back of the aircraft, so I was among the first to board (besides those with Marco Polo Oneworld status).

THE SEAT The aircraft had 214 economy class seats, 28 premium economy seats and 38 in business class. Economy class is set across two cabins separated by washrooms and is mainly in a 3-3-3 configuration (A-B-C, D-E-G, H-J-K). I was in window seat 73K in the back row. Measuring 18 inches wide with a pitch of 32 inches, it initially felt spacious until a very tall gentleman sat down next to me. The cabin felt clean and new, and was fresher-looking than the A330 I had taken on my outbound flight. The in-flight entertainment system was also more user-friendly than on the A330, with a larger screen that could be operated by touch, and a selection of digital magazines.

BEST SEAT The exit row (59, plus seats 60A and K) offers more legroom, as do the bulkhead seats at the front of the first cabin (39D-E-G, 40A-B-C and 40H-J-K), although note that there are washrooms in front of row 59.

THE FLIGHT At 1023, having taxied to the runway, the pilot announced we would have to return to the gate owing to a technical issue with one of the onboard computers. At about 1100, we were told that the issue was resolved. However, soon afterwards the captain announced there was a medical emergency on board. We finally took off at 1153, once the unwell passenger was disembarked, with a more than two-hour delay.

Lunch was a scrambled egg and smoked ham lattice pastry, which had too little filling. Alarmingly, it had more than 50 ingredients, not all natural-sounding. I ate it only because I was hungry and there was nothing else. The accompanying Anzac cookie had a more innocent seven ingredients but, combined with the carton of iced tea, which was essentially tea-flavoured sugar water with more than four teaspoons of sugar in 250ml, it made for a rather unhealthy meal. We were not offered any alternative drinks, even water, despite the length of the delay. Some passengers were given hot drinks, but no one offered me one, and I felt a bit forgotten about at the rear of the aircraft.

BESTFOR

The new IFE system, a significant improvement on the older offering

CONFIGURATION

3-3-3

SEATWIDTH

18 inches

SEATPITCH

32 inches

SEATRECLINE

6 inches

FLIGHTTIME

1 hour 50 minutes

PRICE

Internet rates for a return economy flight from Taipei to Hong Kong in April ranged between TWD 5,963 (£150) and TWD 29,772 (£751) depending on flexibility

CONTACT

cathaypacific.com

ARRIVAL We landed just before 1330, an hour and 50 minutes behind schedule.

VERDICT The A350-900 has newer seating and a better IFE system than the A330-300, but Cathay needs to step up its food and drink offering on this route. It’s just a short hop, at under two hours, but customers would be right to expect more from this world-class airline.

Measuring 18 inches wide and with a pitch of 32 inches, the seat initially felt spacious until a very tall gentleman sat down next to me