This is how the 1 per cent fly
Business class on Cathay’s new A350 is the way to go, writes
Trupti Biradar. The airline: The route: The plane:
Cathay Pacific. Hong Kong to Auckland. Airbus A350-900. The world’s newest aircraft carries 280 passengers.
Time in the air: The loyalty plan:
Around 11 hours.
Marco Polo Club, but Air New Zealand and Cathay Pacific have a code-share agreement on this route, so you earn Airpoints even if you book through Air NZ.
Up the back or at the pointy end:
Seat 19K in business class. The cabin is laid out in a 1-2-1 configuration.
The seat pitch is about 1.1 metres, and reclines into a fully flat bed at the touch of a button. It’s glorious. But if you’d rather control every part of the seat individually, that’s possible too. At 1.6m, I could be comfortable even in economy class, but even travellers more than 1.8m would find the seat spacious. There’s extra stowage space, and space specifically for a laptop, which is always handy. My arm rest was broken and wouldn’t go up, but I preferred it down.
The seat stuff: Baggage allowance:
40kg check in baggage and 10kg cabin baggage.
A lower effective cabin altitude is supposed to lessen fatigue. The mood lighting, which imitates natural light, was a nice touch but maybe it was the fact that I could lie flat that helped me sleep. While the cabin had reduced noise levels, my seat was right by the flight attendant station – which was a tad noisy for a while just before I fell asleep. But that’s what the complimentary ear plugs are for! The pillows were soft, and the duvet was just heavy enough to be comforting.The bed is spacious enough to sleep on your side, or curled up too.
Comfort factor: That’s entertainment:
At 46centimetres, the high-def personal screen is an excellent size. The headphones were the most Wilderpeople.