The sliding privacy door on Cathay’s Collins Aerospace seat creates a “mini-suite” setup, with that fresh new car smell. It makes you feel cocooned; shut off from aisle traffic, particularly during meal service. The catch is that given the Aria Suites are being retrofitted gradually into all 30 of Cathay’s 777-300ERs, there’s not much of this product in the skies yet. 

The lowdown

Cathay’s retrofitted 777s comprise 45 lie-flat business class Aria Suites, 48 seats in premium economy and 268 economy seats. I flew London Heathrow to Hong Kong on CX250 (12 hours, 40 minutes) in an Aria Suite on a retrofitted 777s, then CX161 Hong Kong to Sydney (in about nine hours) in an older-style business class seat, also on a 777-300ER. 

Aria Suites can be found on selected Hong Kong-London flights (CX250/255) – and Hong Kong-Sydney from March 18. From early April, you’ll find the retrofitted product on flights CX162/CX161 in and out of Sydney. (Just remember that all flights can be subject to operational changes.) 

Cathay Pacific’s London lounge

I check in hassle-free well ahead of departure, then head directly to the Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge in Heathrow’s Terminal 3. This light, bright lounge overlooks the tarmac. It has showers, a Noodle Bar, plus Western-style buffet. The steamed dumplings are impossible to resist, as is a Cathay Delight – the airline’s signature drink of coconut milk, kiwi juice and fresh mint. 

Welcome on-board 

Credit: Cathay Pacific

Crew are attentive, no-nonsense, and efficient, and there are plenty to go around throughout the flight. Once everyone is seated, out come the hot facecloths – a ritual that always clicks me straight into flight mode. Two glasses of pre-flight Taittinger Brut Reserve definitely also helped. 

The seat 

Credit: Cathay Pacific

The 45 all-aisle-access business class seats are arranged as 1-2-1. Seats are 53.3 cm wide (21 inches), with a pitch of 109.2 cm (43 inches), and 190.5 cm long (75 inches) when fully flat. So comfortable is this ergonomic seat with breathable natural-wool cover that I forget to recline it until an hour into the flight. Admittedly, I was distracted by the compelling first half of Conclave. 

The standout storage feature for me is a small rectangular shaped box built into the faux-marble side table, with a slide-shut cover. Dump all your important items – phone, glasses, passport and wallet – in there before take off, and you can easily locate them during the flight.  All manner of charging ports are available, including a built-in wireless charger.  

The cabin 

Credit: Cathay Pacific

Overall look and feel is more “quiet luxury” boutique hotel or private club than aeroplane, including pale shades of grey and beige, unique art works (on my flight, it was Liquid Metropolis #1 by William Furniss), soft LED lighting, and stylish dark slatted walls around the galley, and other public areas. It has three state-of-the-art bathrooms, with touchless flush and tap functions, plus foot-operated rubbish bins. 

Amenities & bed linen

Credit: Cathay Pacific

The chic Bamford amenity kit is on the lean side with just the basics like moisturising balm, eye mask, and mouthwash. And only first class passengers get PJs, but the bed linen compensates: Cathay’s quilted mattress topper is more padded than many of its competitors’ thinner versions and it is all-cotton, as is the 400-thread count duvet. 

Entertainment

Credit: Cathay Pacific

If you’re a movie buff, the Aria Suite will become your new go-to business class. The 4000 ultra-high-definition screen is 60.9cm and the Smart TV interface is next level, including a ‘live’ cabin map showing exactly which toilets are free. You’ll just need a few round-the-world tickets to get through the 4200 movies, box sets and albums on offer.

Food & beverages

Credit: Cathay Pacific

On both legs, some of my initial meal choices were unavailable – given I was in the last row of business class (23K), they’d been snapped up. For dinner out of London, I had the ‘pea soup risotto’ followed by very tasty ‘braised pork belly with jasmine rice, pak choy and shiitake mushrooms’, plus a glass of the Domaine De La Bressande Rully from Burgundy. 

After a solid eight-hour sleep, I feasted on a souffle omelette with cherry tomatoes and kale. Cathay partners with Michelin-starred Hong Kong institutions Chinese Duddell’s and French Louise. 

What’s hot 

That sliding door! And an entertainment screen that’s a whopping 60.9cm. Not much else in business class comes close, bar the 58.4cm screen on Emirates. 

What’s not 

Despite the fact the seat is cutting-edge design, there’s no overhead direct spotlighting for night-time print reading; the side light wasn’t quite bright enough for me. 

The verdict

Truly something special and solid value for money. The famous Cathay touch lives on. 9.5/10. The Aria Suite is the same price as Cathay’s other business class product; London-Sydney via Hong Kong is available from around $11,549.

The writer flew courtesy of Cathay Pacific. This article originally appeared on escape.com.au. It has been published here with permission. 

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