*** Business class travel on Cathay Pacific vs EVA - seating, food, etc.

Hi All,

Recently I flew, Business class, from Los Angeles to Taipei on Cathay
Pacific and was extremely disappointed in the service. The food was
actually terrible! Few choices of entree, the quality of the food was
poor, and it was poorly prepared. The in-flight entertainment was good
when it worked, but it failed on the flight from Taipei to Los Angeles
(13 hours, give or take). There were some other problems but there's
no need to go into everything. It is enough to say that I was
disappointed in Cathay Pacific and am now looking for alternatives.

I travel to Asia (either Taipei or Bangkok, depending on the reason for
travel) from Los Angeles and always fly Business class. I have
previously travelled on Thai, Singapore, Korean, Cathay Pacific, and
for European travel, American Airlines.

Singapore is great but is often much more expensive that CP or Thai.
It also does not have a conveninet schedule (for me) when I fly to
Taipei.

I am now looking at EVA. I have heard good things about it but want to
check with frequent travellers on this newsgroup. I have spoken with
EVA and it seems like the seating is good (width of seats is about 21"
and they recline to 160 degrees), on a par with Cathay Pacific's
Business class seating. Can anyone verify this for me? Also, what
about the food service on EVA? Their website makes it look very good,
but maybe that isn't the case. What about their in-flight
entertainment? Do they have noise-cancelling headphones? CP does not.
What about their airport lounges? I will be travelling to Bangkok
soon and I'll probably have to spend a few hours sitting in the airport
at Hong Kong. [My best experience with airport lounges is Korean
Airlines (in Seoul). Excellent place to hang out between planes, lots
of food, drinks, and they have showers there.]

I know that Singapore is the gold standard for Asian travel but their
Business class tickets are much more expensive that some others (at
least when I last checked) and their flight schedule is not always
convenient for me.

As long as I'm paying for Business class, I might as well choose the
airline that gives me the most pleasureable experience. So I would
appreciate the sharing of any experiences, especially recent ones.

Thanks,
Zag

x-no-archive: yes


wrote:
Hi All,

Recently I flew, Business class, from Los Angeles to Taipei on Cathay
Pacific and was extremely disappointed in the service. The food was
actually terrible! Few choices of entree, the quality of the food was
poor, and it was poorly prepared. The in-flight entertainment was good
when it worked, but it failed on the flight from Taipei to Los Angeles
(13 hours, give or take). There were some other problems but there's
no need to go into everything. It is enough to say that I was
disappointed in Cathay Pacific and am now looking for alternatives.


I can tell you that you are among a very small minority. All my
friends and relatives who fly Cathay rave about it, second perhaps only
to Singapore.


I travel to Asia (either Taipei or Bangkok, depending on the reason for
travel) from Los Angeles and always fly Business class. I have
previously travelled on Thai, Singapore, Korean, Cathay Pacific, and
for European travel, American Airlines.

Singapore is great but is often much more expensive that CP or Thai.
It also does not have a conveninet schedule (for me) when I fly to
Taipei.

I am now looking at EVA. I have heard good things about it but want to
check with frequent travellers on this newsgroup. I have spoken with
EVA and it seems like the seating is good (width of seats is about 21"
and they recline to 160 degrees), on a par with Cathay Pacific's
Business class seating. Can anyone verify this for me? Also, what
about the food service on EVA? Their website makes it look very good,
but maybe that isn't the case. What about their in-flight
entertainment? Do they have noise-cancelling headphones? CP does not.
What about their airport lounges? I will be travelling to Bangkok
soon and I'll probably have to spend a few hours sitting in the airport
at Hong Kong. [My best experience with airport lounges is Korean
Airlines (in Seoul). Excellent place to hang out between planes, lots
of food, drinks, and they have showers there.]

I know that Singapore is the gold standard for Asian travel but their
Business class tickets are much more expensive that some others (at
least when I last checked) and their flight schedule is not always
convenient for me.

As long as I'm paying for Business class, I might as well choose the
airline that gives me the most pleasureable experience. So I would
appreciate the sharing of any experiences, especially recent ones.

Thanks,
Zag

Peter,

Thanks for your quick reply, but I would ask you why, specifically, do
your friends "rave" about CP?

It can't be the food. The beef "tenderloin" that I had was just slices
of meat in a thick, gooey sauce. The pork was mostly fat and gristle.
The dimsum wrappings were thick and pasty. The main snack was a Reuben
sandwich (grilled pastrami and sauerkraut and cheese), which is pretty
nasty.

The seating is nice. They recline to almost flat. But this isn't
unique to CP.

The entertainment system is ok, but they don't have noise cancelling
headphones. It's nice to be able to eliminate most of the jet noise,
even if you are just relaxing and not watching or listening to
anything.

Don't get me wrong, CP is ok. But I didn't experience anything to
"rave" about.

Zag,

On a recent trip to Vietnam, my wife and I traveled to Ho Chi Minh on EVA -
Evergreen Deluxe Class (see the link below):

http://www.evaair.com/html/b2c/engli...luxe_class.htm

The seats have plenty of width and the pitch is quite decent (38"), even for
me at 6'3". It would be nice if the seats would lie flat, but ours
reclined quite nicely and there was a foot rest that came up as the seat
reclined. These seats are not business class but damn close to it. With
all the money you save, you can buy a lot of fresh deli food at either end.
Evergeen Deluxe fare from LAX to Taipei roundtrip is less than a $1,000 and
Business class was around $2,150.

The downside, depending upon your onward travel destination from Taipei, is
that Evergreen Deluxe may not be available on the second leg, say Taipei to
Hong Kong, which means that short segment would be econmy class. Then
again, that segment is not 13 hours! Check it out.

Cathay Pacific is a great ride, but I have only traveled first class, which
is not a fair comparison to anyone's business class. I like Cathay because
it takes me direct to Hong Kong, my favorite international city. Good luck!

rg





wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi All,

Recently I flew, Business class, from Los Angeles to Taipei on Cathay
Pacific and was extremely disappointed in the service. The food was
actually terrible! Few choices of entree, the quality of the food was
poor, and it was poorly prepared. The in-flight entertainment was good
when it worked, but it failed on the flight from Taipei to Los Angeles
(13 hours, give or take). There were some other problems but there's
no need to go into everything. It is enough to say that I was
disappointed in Cathay Pacific and am now looking for alternatives.

I travel to Asia (either Taipei or Bangkok, depending on the reason for
travel) from Los Angeles and always fly Business class. I have
previously travelled on Thai, Singapore, Korean, Cathay Pacific, and
for European travel, American Airlines.

Singapore is great but is often much more expensive that CP or Thai.
It also does not have a conveninet schedule (for me) when I fly to
Taipei.

I am now looking at EVA. I have heard good things about it but want to
check with frequent travellers on this newsgroup. I have spoken with
EVA and it seems like the seating is good (width of seats is about 21"
and they recline to 160 degrees), on a par with Cathay Pacific's
Business class seating. Can anyone verify this for me? Also, what
about the food service on EVA? Their website makes it look very good,
but maybe that isn't the case. What about their in-flight
entertainment? Do they have noise-cancelling headphones? CP does not.
What about their airport lounges? I will be travelling to Bangkok
soon and I'll probably have to spend a few hours sitting in the airport
at Hong Kong. [My best experience with airport lounges is Korean
Airlines (in Seoul). Excellent place to hang out between planes, lots
of food, drinks, and they have showers there.]

I know that Singapore is the gold standard for Asian travel but their
Business class tickets are much more expensive that some others (at
least when I last checked) and their flight schedule is not always
convenient for me.

As long as I'm paying for Business class, I might as well choose the
airline that gives me the most pleasureable experience. So I would
appreciate the sharing of any experiences, especially recent ones.

Thanks,
Zag

On 18 Aug 2005 16:11:07 -0700, "PeterL" wrote:

x-no-archive: yes


wrote:
Hi All,

Recently I flew, Business class, from Los Angeles to Taipei on Cathay
Pacific and was extremely disappointed in the service. The food was
actually terrible! Few choices of entree, the quality of the food was
poor, and it was poorly prepared. The in-flight entertainment was good
when it worked, but it failed on the flight from Taipei to Los Angeles
(13 hours, give or take). There were some other problems but there's
no need to go into everything. It is enough to say that I was
disappointed in Cathay Pacific and am now looking for alternatives.


I can tell you that you are among a very small minority. All my
friends and relatives who fly Cathay rave about it, second perhaps only
to Singapore.

Cathay certainly used to be good but I'm sure their standards have
fallen recently. They seem to be slowly snipping away at their
services to save costs while hoping their customers won't notice. They
are already one of the most expensive airlines flying, but higher fuel
costs and competition from the low-cost carriers is putting pressure
on them to reduce costs wherever they can.

As they say in their advertising "Its the little things that count".
Their bean-counters obviously take that to mean its the little things
that count when looking for areas to save money on.

Chris

wrote:
It is enough to say that I was disappointed in Cathay Pacific and am now
looking for alternatives.

I travel to Asia (either Taipei or Bangkok, depending on the reason for
travel) from Los Angeles and always fly Business class. I have
previously travelled on Thai, Singapore, Korean, Cathay Pacific, and
for European travel, American Airlines.

Malaysia Airlines is great, and I believe they go from LA to Taipei.

miguel
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