Quotes from a site that reviews airlines.
AKL-AMS, AMS-HKG-AKL. As many reviewers have written, the hardshell seats in economy are ridiculous! I'm not tall but my legs were touching the seat in front when in reclined position. Not that pleasant on reasonably long flights. Food and Inflight Entertainment okay. Flights were cheap as booked 7 months in advance.
Economy seats really not up to Long Haul for comfort. Video selection makes up for this to some extent but cabin crew are now of the kind that would never have been hired by CX 20 years ago. Political correctness now dictates that most crew are hired in Hong Kong, not across Asia - a pity.
CGK-SIN-JFK. The check-in staff were nice, though in-flight staff weren't as responsive as they should be. The food was tasteless and seat was so uncomfortable. Good thing was the entertainment was quite up-to-date.
PVG-HKG-BKK, very disappointed about Cathay Pacific this time, seats are hard and uncomfortable, food very simple, no second round drink service! Return flight HKG-PVG codeshare with DragonAir, delayed for 1 hr, much better service than Cathay Pacific.
Are Cathy Pacific standards slipping? Two recent flights suggest they are - YVR to JFK return. Check in at each location fine, but food onboard, outbound from YVR was barely edible. Returning from JFK to YVR food inedible. Service below what one expects of this airline. Seats uncomfortable and cabin out of JFK not very clean.
LHR-HKG-BNE Economy Class, B747 LHR to HKG, Crew pleasant and service good. A choice of meals for Dinner, light meal also good and AVOD entertainment great. The economy seats are a bit uncomfortable but better than seats of A330 on HKG-BNE leg.
MEL-HKG-LHR return. Online check in easy and bag drop with no queue. It was great not to have the seat in front reclining into your face and I felt that I had more personal space than on some airlines. However the non reclining seats come at a price and that of course means comfort, and coupled with the fact that the seat designer must have been an alien with no understanding of the human body shape left me feeling crippled at the end of the flight. But I would fly Cathay Pacific again but please get some better seats and larger and better meals would be nice also.
FRA-CEB-FRA. Check-In fast and friendly, FRA-HKG-CEB with B747. Nice service, food good. Entertainment very good, but change the seats - they are terrible for longhaul flights. CEB-HKG A330 friendly crew. Meal service fast and good. Old seats, but better than the B747. HKG-FRA B747 and same problem with the seats. Friendly crew and food served very quick. IFE very good.
JFK-HKG return B777-300ER. Check in a breeze at Kennedy, friendly staff. Boarding a bit chaotic. Seats a big disappointment. Certainly doesn't allow for comfortable sleep if you're tall. Luckily, IFE was fantastic. Food was pretty lousy compared to other 4 and 5-star airlines. FAs friendly though. Overall, worth the money if you take advantage of a good deal but nowhere near as comfortable and enjoyable as I've had with ANA or Air New Zealand.
BNE-HKG-ICN Economy Class A330-300. Cabin clean and tidy, crew pleasant and reasonably attentive during the BNE-HKG leg. Dinner + Light refreshment - both meals well presented and a choice of main course offered. AVOD onboard was excellent. I would normally recommend Cathay Pacific - except for one major minus in my opinion. The new non-reclining shell type economy seat is a complete abomination. HK -ICN was an older variant of the A330 with older reclining seats - 100% better than the new economy seat that Cathay promotes as a new and better offer.
Crew good and efficient but not like the Cathay of a few years back. A330 Hong Kong to Seoul old. Seats in economy appalling. Can't recline but just sink into the floor. Had a terrible flight with the seat Sydney to Hong Kong. I would never choose Cathay in economy again on a long haul flight in their A330.
Ok these are just the bad reviews but there were not many good ones most were like these.
Why not put theses seats into flights under 4 hours and get something that reclines on long flights, would be awesome for that as it is annoying having a seat in your face when the flight is short and not worth sleeping on.