We had visited Cathay Business Lounge, The Wing, many times before. It is a solid, comfortable lounge. Provides decent food and rooms to stretch while waiting for your next flight.
On our recently flight, we were able to visit The Pier instead and we very much look forward to it after reading favorable reviews. It turned out to be a disappointing experience. It may be the time that we stopped by, 10 pm at night, that played a factor.
We were greeted friendly enough at the entrance then left to ourselves in a maze with tiny directions posted on the walls. We worked our way around and found the entrance to the Shower and Day Beds section. The middle age lady posted at the counter spoke no English at all, (surprising for a cross road destination of Hong Kong, not mentioning the First Class section). She did pick up "Day Bed" when we inquired and promptly walked down the corridor and indicated for us to follow her. She opened the Day Bed section to let us in then left equally promptly with us standing outside the rows of Day Bed sections and no idea what to do as the lights in the cubicles were all off saved for the dimly lid corridor.
It took us a while to work out where the light switches were, hidden under a shelf and low down that only if you were sitting, lying on the bed that you would notice.
After a short rest, we headed to the Restaurant, it was not busy when we came. We were seated quickly and menu offered. Our drinks arrived quickly and so was entree which were tasty but then it all went down hill from there. There were people arrived in quick successions and filled up about 1/3 of the Dinning area but it was enough to stretch the service with the staff seem to runs off their feet.
We flagged down a waiter and asked for 2 glasses of water. After 10 minutes or so with 3 separate requests without luck, finally one of us had to get to the bar and asked the bartender directly before the glasses produced and brought to our table. Main courses were hit and miss. Chicken curry and rice was great but then a special were ".. Pork with Apricot" which sounded interesting but arrived with just a few slices of Pork and a spoonful of finely chopped apricot. It tasted nice but the portion was a mouthful or two, more suitable for a 10 course tasting menu than a main on its own. It definitely looked like missing cab or something else, but we was assured that how it was suppose to be as per designed by a celebrity chef.
I then went for shower leaving my SO waited at the table to have desert. Shower room were provided promptly and was nicely set up. On return after shower, she was still waiting for desert and people around us had already started complain loudly that they were waiting too long for their meals, something we don't usually see even in a Business lounge.
Again, it could boil down to the late night time but it could be that Cathay had dropped the ball given their financial difficulties of late.
The saving grace is that their in flight service for J is still top notch and remains one of our favorite.
Was at The Pier (First) today and the service was prompt. Admittedly this was at 11am and the dining area was not crowded by any stretch. There was however plenty of waiting staff and our food came out pretty speedily.
I guess we were spoiled by the other First class lounges where services often much more attentive and personalised hence we found the sterile experience and lack of service with the Pier were somewhat wanting. It's a first world problem and won't deter us from using CX again but we will lower our expectations next time.
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Cathay First Class lounge, The Pier, Failed
wanderingvan
wanderingvan
Member since 01 Feb 2018
Total posts 24
We had visited Cathay Business Lounge, The Wing, many times before. It is a solid, comfortable lounge. Provides decent food and rooms to stretch while waiting for your next flight.
On our recently flight, we were able to visit The Pier instead and we very much look forward to it after reading favorable reviews. It turned out to be a disappointing experience. It may be the time that we stopped by, 10 pm at night, that played a factor.
We were greeted friendly enough at the entrance then left to ourselves in a maze with tiny directions posted on the walls. We worked our way around and found the entrance to the Shower and Day Beds section. The middle age lady posted at the counter spoke no English at all, (surprising for a cross road destination of Hong Kong, not mentioning the First Class section). She did pick up "Day Bed" when we inquired and promptly walked down the corridor and indicated for us to follow her. She opened the Day Bed section to let us in then left equally promptly with us standing outside the rows of Day Bed sections and no idea what to do as the lights in the cubicles were all off saved for the dimly lid corridor.
It took us a while to work out where the light switches were, hidden under a shelf and low down that only if you were sitting, lying on the bed that you would notice.
After a short rest, we headed to the Restaurant, it was not busy when we came. We were seated quickly and menu offered. Our drinks arrived quickly and so was entree which were tasty but then it all went down hill from there. There were people arrived in quick successions and filled up about 1/3 of the Dinning area but it was enough to stretch the service with the staff seem to runs off their feet.
We flagged down a waiter and asked for 2 glasses of water. After 10 minutes or so with 3 separate requests without luck, finally one of us had to get to the bar and asked the bartender directly before the glasses produced and brought to our table. Main courses were hit and miss. Chicken curry and rice was great but then a special were ".. Pork with Apricot" which sounded interesting but arrived with just a few slices of Pork and a spoonful of finely chopped apricot. It tasted nice but the portion was a mouthful or two, more suitable for a 10 course tasting menu than a main on its own. It definitely looked like missing cab or something else, but we was assured that how it was suppose to be as per designed by a celebrity chef.
I then went for shower leaving my SO waited at the table to have desert. Shower room were provided promptly and was nicely set up. On return after shower, she was still waiting for desert and people around us had already started complain loudly that they were waiting too long for their meals, something we don't usually see even in a Business lounge.
Again, it could boil down to the late night time but it could be that Cathay had dropped the ball given their financial difficulties of late.
The saving grace is that their in flight service for J is still top notch and remains one of our favorite.
rckjiang
rckjiang
Member since 16 Jun 2017
Total posts 40
Was at The Pier (First) today and the service was prompt. Admittedly this was at 11am and the dining area was not crowded by any stretch. There was however plenty of waiting staff and our food came out pretty speedily.
Covvers
Covvers
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 19 Jan 2018
Total posts 64
No lounge is perfect all of the time. Like any operation some staff are going to be better than others.
Dex
Dex
Member since 15 Mar 2018
Total posts 1
Isn't HKG a 24 hour airport? One would presume round the clock operations, that too, right up to the mark would be standard.
wanderingvan
wanderingvan
Member since 01 Feb 2018
Total posts 24
I guess we were spoiled by the other First class lounges where services often much more attentive and personalised hence we found the sterile experience and lack of service with the Pier were somewhat wanting. It's a first world problem and won't deter us from using CX again but we will lower our expectations next time.