Which Routes Feature Cathay Pacific First Class?

Back in the day, flying Cathay Pacific first class was basically a rite of passage in the miles & points world. At one point, the airline operated 10 flights per day to the United States with first class cabins, with four daily flights to New York alone. Now, in late 2023, the airline often operates just one flight per day to the United States with a first class cabin.

I wanted to take a closer look at this topic. What’s going on here? Are so many of Cathay Pacific’s planes with first class still grounded, or why are there so few flights with first class? Let’s dig a bit deeper…

Cathay Pacific exclusively has first class on select 777s

The first thing to understand is that Cathay Pacific only offers first class on select Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Only a subset of the carrier’s long haul 777s feature this cabin. So you won’t find first class on any other jets, like the Airbus A350.

Pre-pandemic, Cathay Pacific operated 31 Boeing 777s in a four class configuration (with first class). During the pandemic, the airline ended leases on several of these jets — six of them now fly for Qatar Airways, and one now flies for Air New Zealand. These planes still have nearly identical interiors, and they offer the same first class hard product, so it’s a pretty cool experience if you can fly one of these jets.

These planes won’t be returning to Cathay Pacific’s fleet, so at most, in the future we’ll see 24 Boeing 777s with first class. The good news is that eventually Cathay Pacific should take delivery of Boeing 777-9s, which will feature an all-new first class product. However, this is probably still a few years off.

Cathay Pacific first class is one of my favorite first class products in the world. While it’s not the most private seat out there, it’s such a well-rounded experience.

Which routes feature Cathay Pacific first class?

During the pandemic, Cathay Pacific suspended first class service on all routes:

• The airline grounded most of its 777s, instead focusing on primarily flying Airbus A350s
• There just wasn’t much demand for paid first class, so the airline decided it was more economical to just stop selling the product altogether, to save on staffing, the onboard product, ground services, etc.

With Hong Kong having fully reopened to the world as of late 2022, we saw Cathay Pacific finally resume first class service. However, the airline is only offering first class on a very limited basis.

Currently Cathay Pacific sells first class seats from Hong Kong (HKG) to the following destinations:

• Beijing (PEK) — on an ongoing basis
• London Heathrow (LHR) — on an ongoing basis
• Los Angeles (LAX) — on an ongoing basis
• New York (JFK) — for flights as of March 31, 2024
• Paris (CDG) — on an ongoing basis
• Tokyo Haneda (HND) — on an ongoing basis

The exact frequencies vary, with some markets having less than daily service, and others having up to twice daily service.

Where are all of Cathay Pacific’s 777s with first class?

Why are we seeing such limited routes with first class? Is most of the fleet with first class still grounded, or what? As mentioned above, Cathay Pacific will have at most 24 Boeing 777-300ERs with first class flying in the future (accounting for the seven 777s now flying for other airlines).

Of those up to 24 777-300ERs, the following 17 jets are in service for Cathay Pacific at the moment:

• B-KPA
• B-KPE
• B-KPI
• B-KPO
• B-KPQ
• B-KPR
• B-KPU
• B-KPV
• B-KPW
• B-KPX
• B-KQG
• B-KQH
• B-KQI
• B-KQJ
• B-KQK
• B-KQU
• B-KQV

The remaining jets are all either grounded or undergoing maintenance, and it’s anyone’s guess if/when they’ll fly again.

So, what’s going on here?

How are 17 Cathay Pacific 777s with first class cabins flying, yet the airline has so few first class routes currently for sale?!

One major thing that seems to be happening is that Cathay Pacific is flying many of its Boeing 777s with first class in markets where the airline doesn’t actually sell first class. The airline has been flying some 777s with first class cabins to Brisbane (BNE), Shanghai (PVG), Singapore (SIN), Sydney (SYD), Zurich (ZRH), etc., and is just assigning first class seats to business class passengers.

It seems that Cathay Pacific is largely just assigning aircraft to routes based on the overall economics and capacity on the plane, rather than much consideration for whether or not there’s first class demand.

To summarize, Cathay Pacific doesn’t have as many 777s with first class as pre-pandemic, and even some of the 777s that the carrier still has are grounded. However, Cathay Pacific has 17 777s with first class in service, they’re just not being utilized particularly efficiently, and are also serving routes without first class cabin.

Even though ~55% of Cathay Pacific’s pre-pandemic Boeing 777s are back in service, the airline is only offering about 10% of the first class capacity to the United States as pre-pandemic. The United States is especially badly impacted, because the airline is primarily flying the Airbus A350s to the United States.

That plane doesn’t have first class, but does have amazing economics, and is also lower capacity. Given that Cathay Pacific hasn’t resumed service to many secondary markets in Europe (previously served by A350s), it’s not surprising that so many of these are available and being utilized for the carrier’s longest routes.

Bottom line

As a miles & points geek, I sure do miss flying Cathay Pacific first class! I was excited when the airline resumed first class service in late 2022, and was expecting that the service would be ramped up quickly. Unfortunately that’s not how things have played out.

Pre-pandemic, Cathay Pacific offered up to ten daily flights to the United States with first class, while now the airline typically offers one daily flight to the United States with first class. Fortunately as of March 2024, we’ll see a second first class route to the United States, as four cabin 777s will fly to both Los Angeles and New York.

Cathay Pacific has 17 Boeing 777s with first class in service, though even so, it seems they’re being used really inefficiently. I was hoping this would be temporary, but it’s increasingly looking to me like widespread Cathay Pacific first class between the United States and Hong Kong might be a thing of the past. And let’s not even talk about how stingy Cathay Pacific has become with first class award availability, even when there are open seats…

When do you make of Cathay Pacific’s much smaller first class footprint?