Cathay Pacific Premium Economy, looking to fly BNE to London – Can someone offer any first hand feedback or thoughts on the product?

Cathay Pacific Premium Economy, looking to fly BNE to London – Can someone offer any first hand feedback or thoughts on the product? Comparisons to the QF PE product?

Qantas Premium Economy is regarded as the best in the business. I have flow CX which i feel is not as good as QF.

Have flown in CX Premium Economy HK-MEL and HK-SYD, the seat comfort is fine but not up to Qantas PE standards. In particular leg support is far too short, at 5'10" the '"footrest" stopps mid calf leaving feet  to dangle. If you have a bulkhead seat placing your carry-on bag on the floor to use as a footrest improves comfort dramatically. No dedicated PE toilet on A330s is a significant miss considering the price paid, trapsing back into Economy to queue for a toilet is less than ideal. The food and wine selections are typical Cathay Economy fare despite some cutlery changes.  IE. very disappointing and significanly below Qantas.

IFE below Qantas? No way! The StudioCX almost levels with EK's ICE entertainment system. Oh, and speaking if it, Emirates is a good choice too for SYD-DXB-LHR.

Hi Michael.

You'll find AusBT's report on Cathay Pacific's premium ecnomy seats here.

I've flown in them and find them quite good, but would but Qantas ahead in terms of comfort - for example, all QF premium economy seats have an integrated padded legrest, but that's found only in the first row of CX premium economy (the rest have a small metal footrest which swings down from the seat in front of you).

The food is actually better than economy class, with the main menu being drawn from the business class selection for that flight - you get fewer dishes on the menu than in business class but they're the same.

Overall, if I was offered a choice between the two seats and all else being the same, I'd opt for Qantas, but I don't believe that CX premium economy is a massive step down - it's certainly not as much so as, say, BA or Virgin Atlantic.

Thanks for all the feed back - Given the large price difference I think I might give CX a go for this trip. I have flown QF PE a number of times and there is little doubt that it is a great product. Sounds like the seats are fairly similiar but the level of service and quality of catering sound better on QF.

Good choice michael. While the CX PE product is not as good as QF's, it is relatively cheaper, with good food and entertainment options.

Try scoring the bulkhead seat if you can. I personally found it to make a difference, even if your legs do hang out of the footrest, which is poorly designed.

But one other important point to note is that, for the purposes of accruing FF miles/points, it may work out cheaper to purchase a PE seat than it is to book an Economy seat at a booking code that allows for mileage accrual, since all PE booking (W,R,E) accrue miles/points at a rate of 100%, whilst only some (the more expensive H,K,B,Y) Economy class booking are accruable.

You've summarised the differences well.  I recently flew CX from SYD-HKG in PE and then to SIN in Y. The wines were the same in both classes and my meal in PE was certainly from Y not business (I checked - it may be an aberrationl though...). Service in PE on CX is also distinctly Y whilst on QF it is a step above. 

By the way, you can extend the leg rests in the bulkhead seats on CX so they are full length by pushing out the metal piece, but it's quite a difficult task. 

Sometimes there is a big difference in price, sometimes there isn't. Where there isn't, I'd choose QF every day. 

Good call on the points, I have a QF Gold card at the moment also so I am keen to check out the new CX lounge in Hong Kong

I would also recommend flying with Qantas PE! From my experience, Qantas PE is better than Cathay PE-Qantas PE has also been voted the worlds best PE!