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The Cathay Dragon Business Class on the A330 is underwhelming. If you’re paying for business class, you’ll probably be disappointed. I was using miles so the flight was essentially free and I was still disappointed. That’s mostly cause it’s 2019 and many other airlines have more modern business class seats these days. Check out the YouTube video for a better viewing experience.
Review of Cathay Dragon A330 Business Class
Cathay Dragon is part of Cathay Pacific that operates regional flights from Hong Kong. You might book Cathay Pacific when traveling around Asia and end up on Cathay Dragon…it’s not as nice of course.
On the Cathay Dragon A330, I flew business class and it was a much older older plane.
Before boarding the flight, I spent some time at the Cathay Pacific Lounge: The Deck. I was very impressed with the food served at their noodle bar.
Booking The Ticket
I can’t actually afford to fly in business class, so I used miles. Initially, I wasn’t going to be on this flight but a delay to my itinerary shuffled everything around. Delays happen, so it’s always safer to have your trip on one ticket.
If you didn’t know, American Airlines is in the OneWorld Alliance and members of that alliance can use miles on each of the other airlines. So my real booking was from Vienna, to Doha to Hong Kong to Taipei all for 75k AA miles in business class. It’s not the best value around, but I had to get from Vienna, Austria to Taipei, Taiwan and cash flights were $600USD.
In my other post explaining flight compensation, my flight from Doha was delayed 7 hours but that ended up getting me a cash payout of $662USD (600EUR) since my flight originated in Europe. I love that law.
Boarding The Flight
Cathay’s home airport is Hong Kong so I didn’t expect the flight would not have a jet gate attached to HKG airport. When I arrived to the board the flight, there was a shuttle. Any time there’s a shuttle, it doesn’t really matter if you are in business class or have/bought priority boarding, you just get on the shuttle bus. Then the shuttle bus takes your far out onto the tarmac to board your flight and everybody gets out at the same time.
It sounds like I’m complaining, because I am. I don’t mind the priority part, I just don’t like the extra wasted time. Whenever there’s a shuttle bus taking you to the plane that just adds in more waiting, but more uncomfortable. You’re just waiting around on a very crowded bus rather than walking on a jet gate to the airport.
Just to be clear, we took the shuttle and waited in a crowded bus until we were cleared to walk on to the tarmac.
Business Class on the CX A330 Cathay Dragon
For an older plane, they kept the inside in pretty good condition. The seats were really spacious in a 2-2-2 configuration and the seats were lie-angle. Compared to many update business class seats, these seats on the Cathay A330 were more like a high-end premium economy.
The flight from Hong Kong to Taipei is only about 2 hours. That means they scale back the amenities.
There was no amenity kit or slippers provided. I’ve found that sometimes you can ask to see if they have somethings like slippers or pajamas available, but I ended up just going directly to sleep after take-off.
In-Flight Entertainment
The TV monitor on the CX A330 was an older model, but still had a very current selection of TV and movies. Premium Bose over-ear headphones were provided. I liked the headphones and Bose is pretty much the standard for any business class flight.
I recently flew business class on JAL from NRT to TPE and they only offered the really cheap headphones that you get in economy. I’m being critical, cause it’s business class. Even if I snuck into business class with miles, I still have high expectations as a poor person living a rich life.
Seat Controls
The Cathay Dragon CX A330 business class seats are lie-angle. It makes sense though, you don’t really need a lie-flat bed on a 2-hour flight. With the ascent and descent, that’s really only 1-hour if you being able to be in lie-flat mode.
Power!
There are power outlets available on the Cathay A330 so you can charge your devices. Additionally, there’s a USB port to the left of the monitor.
That’s all for this flight. Check out the YouTube video if you want to see it.