Review: Cathay Pacific Business Class A330 Hong Kong to Taipei

Introduction
Planning & Booking
Singapore Airlines 777-300ER First Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Grand Hyatt Hong Kong
The Bridge Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge
Cathay Pacific A330 Business Class Hong Kong to Taipei
W Taipei
Cathay Pacific 777-300ER Business Class Taipei to Hong Kong
The Wing Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge
Cathay Pacific 777-300 ER First Class Hong Kong to Los Angeles

After a bit of shopping and a few more selfies, we were on our way to Taipei.  Boarding was called on time and we bounded down the jetway for what would be the first of three Cathay Pacific flights on this trip.  

PDB Champagne

The distance between Hong Kong and Taipei is 505 miles.  That's essentially the same distance between San Diego and San Francisco.  On the latter route, you'll see all single aisle aircraft.  A319s, A320s, 737s, maybe a 757.  Between Hong Kong and Taipei, Cathay is flying a mix of wide body aircraft that include A330s, 777s, and 747s!

Cathay Pacific A330 Business Class

View of the cabin

Reverse herringbone window seat

Once onboard, we settled in and begin to explore the seat.  My idea is exploration is checking out the entertainment system, headphones on offer, recline, and storage.  Emily usually snaps the pics for the blog (thanks Em!) but on this trip, she just took about 100 selfies of her sitting in the seat.  In the US, it would have been totally awkward.  In Asia, it's par for the course.

Selfie # 1

Selfie # 2

On this sector, we'd get Cathay's long haul A330 with "reverse herringbone" business class seats in a 1-2-1 design.  These are among the best business class seats on any airline and we thoroughly enjoyed them for the 1 hour flight to Taipei.  The seats all have direct aisle access, and privacy partitions.  Window seats are angled towards the window.  The middle section of seats are angled towards one another - ideal for a couple traveling together.  They would be more than adequate for a long haul flight to/from the US as well.

Cathay's offering on a 1 hour flight

Cathay serves a multi course meal on this flight complete with menu choices.  United - take note!  The entertainment system features a camera (mounted below the fuselage) which we both watched during takeoff and landing - very cool.

The business class load was very light.  There were maybe 8 seats occupied out of 39 business class seats.  So, once we landed in Taipei, we were the first ones at the door ready to get off the plane.  The weather upon landing was gorgeous.  We were expecting 55 and rain.  It was 72 and sunny!  After deplaning and waiting in a long (20 minutes) line for immigration, we collected our bags from baggage claim and were grabbed a cab to the W.