Cathay Pacific Aria Suite (B777-300ER from Hong Kong to Singapore)

Flight Details:

Airline: Cathay Pacific, CX

Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER

Aircraft registration: B-KPO

Route: Hong Kong - Singapore

Flight numbers: CX739

Seat: 21A

Watch my full YouTube video below:

One of the world's most iconic and respected airlines has just unveiled its first new premium seat in decades. This is the Cathay Pacific Aria suite and it is huge news.

The question is, does this seemingly non-revolutionary new seat live up to the standard we expect from such an iconic airline in 2025 where fully enclosed connecting suites, highly custom products, and lavish amenities exist?

Let’s find out.

GROUND

My main focus in this review is the onboard experience, but it would be remiss not to briefly mention Cathay’s business class lounge experience.

Over the years, I've gradually turned into someone who avoids lounges and discourages people from going to the airport early to spend time in them with very few exceptions. I wholeheartedly feel that way about the Cathay Pacific business class lounges. While their first class lounges are amazing, these are more of a place to kill time, not necessarily to enjoy time.

That’s just my honest assessment. That said, there’s plenty of free food and good views, so it’s hard to complain.

ROUTES

Right now, Cathay is only flying the Aria Suite on one scheduled flight, and that is between Hong Kong and London every single day. However they do have a few revolving routes in Asia. In February, when I flew, it operated a few weekly flights to and from Singapore. In March, it's going to be back and forth to Beijing, but there's very few official routes so far, so it's hard to pin it down.

SEAT

The reconfigured Cathay Pacific 777-300ER comes in a three class configuration with economy in a 3-4-3 layout, a brand new premium economy and then 45 Aria business class suites spread across two cabins. If you want to have closer access to the toilet, the forward cabin is preferable since two out of three toilets are all the way at the front. For this flight, I managed to snag the last available window seat at the time of booking—21A—and I couldn’t be happier with it.

TOILETS

These are some of the most premium lavatories I've seen on any aircraft in the world. Even the lock and flush button have a custom design, something I’ve never seen before. The wall feels incredibly premium and it's incredibly spacious as well. I also really appreciate nice luxury soaps and the fact that Cathay Pacific has Bamford on their aircraft is a big tick from me.

The total of three toilets leads to a lavatory ratio of one toilet to 15 passengers, but Cathay Pacific has a genius innovation to minimize wait times. On your entertainment screen at your seat, there is a button at the top that takes us to an overview of the lavatories. It shows us which are available and which are occupied. If all are occupied, the bathroom logo turns red, indicating you don't need to get up from your seat. A genius feature that helps prevent congestion in the galley.

SEAT FEATURES

Now, this entertainment screen is something else!

In addition to the lavatory status button, there’s also one that indicates Wi-Fi availability.

Further to the right, we have Do Not Disturb and then the most advanced seat customization screen I've ever seen in business class.

There is also Bluetooth audio so you can connect your own headphones if you don't want to use the great provided ones. The inflight map looks like this.

Now about the actual entertainment selection, it is fantastic. I mean, they have Veep, one of my favorite shows ever, so it couldn't not be fantastic.

Just like Emirates though, they have a weird selection of Friends episodes that are non-consecutive. I spent the rest of the flight working on the free Wi-Fi for business class passengers, which has some really impressive speeds. Check this out.

We have some more top notch tech in this seat with two USB-C ports, one USB-A, an AC charging port, and there’s also a discreetly hidden wireless charging pad embedded in the faux marble surface.

Above that, we have an unnecessary but fun remote as well as a little closet housing headphones, a water bottle, and a mirror to see how busted we look after waking up from our Aria suite nap.

The side console itself contains a tiny compartment for storage. Below that, we have another seat control panel, and below that, we have a bigger storage bin.

Now to my right, the armrest is more flexible than I'll ever be and can be locked in three different positions. I love that customizability!

Sadly there are no overhead lights and naturally for Cathay, no overhead air vents, but the lack of overhead light is remedied by a massive built-in seat light.

Everything on board is so slick! In my opinion, this is without a doubt one of the most private business class seats I've ever flown in. It almost rivals Qatar Qsuite and it's way more private than any other reverse herringbone out there. In the center seats, you can choose to either have a privacy wall separating your seat or combine both seats so you can see each other.

When I boarded, I was initially quite confused because it didn’t look like the seat/cabin I was expecting because in real life, the cabin is much darker and moodier than it appears in the photos, at least that I've seen before.

At this point I closed the door to see just how private the little suite can get. This is such a luxurious feeling seat, you guys. It's actually stunning.

This is genuinely one of the top three most private business class seats I've ever flown. And the fact they did this with a reverse herringbone, I'm amazed. This is truly your own little pod now, and it feels so spacious as well.

The main controversy when it comes to this seat is undoubtedly the bed. People have complained that the bed is claustrophobic by the feet, but it doesn't look too claustrophobic before I recline.

So here is our reclined bed.

What do you think? As a side sleeper, I find this seat remarkably spacious in bed mode. I would gladly take an overnight flight in this seat. Granted, the 777 is the thing I would try to avoid on overnight flight because I would feel like a prune by the time we land. But seriously, this is super comfortable in my opinion, and the seat is also very nicely padded, which is a big bonus. With the armrests lowered to your side, this is one of the wider business class beds out there.

FOOD

Let’s start with a look at the menu for this flight:

To start, here's a look at the salad and scallop appetizers from the menu. For my starter, I had some sort of mushroom tofu skin salad.

I ordered the vegetarian oriental meal, and sometimes with Cathay Pacific, I feel misled. They put out press releases about their incredible collaborations with OmniFoods and plant-forward initiatives, but in practice, I don’t see much of that onboard.

Here is a look at the regular mains on offer together:

The top is the pork, and the bottom is the rendang beef.

Now, here’s my main meal. I really hope this is just my experience, but I have yet to have a genuinely tasty meal catered out of Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific since COVID.

I don't know what it is, and it's so sad.

I do have to give credit to Cathay Pacific for serving their meals by course, though. We got our starters separately. Our mains came out after that, and now they're bringing around a dessert cart, which is always the best part, right? My choice? Matcha ice cream, yum.

As we got close to Singapore, I had to order an oat milk latte to make myself feel better and I'm going to put a lot of sugar in this. This wad one of the best in-flight coffees I've ever had, so kudos to Cathay.

AMENITIES

Since this was just a four-hour daytime flight, an amenity kit wasn’t really necessary.

The kit includes the usual suspects as well as luxury skincare from British brand Bamford.

If you choose to fly Cathay Pacific on a long-haul day time flight, you can always ask the crew if there are any amenity kits available as often they keep some on hand.

CONCLUSION

Wow guys, this seat is truly one of the best seats I've ever flown in business class.

I am amazed by what Cathay Pacific has been able to do here. One key observation: the layout feels more condensed, with the screen positioned noticeably further forward than in other reverse herringbone seats. Ultimately this layout makes you feel like you have a ton of space.

Also, keep in mind, the soft product in this review is their regional soft product, so of course the bedding, the food, the meal setup, all of that will be different if you flew this to London.

As we land, I can’t help but reflect on how difficult it was to travel in this region between 2020 and 2022. This is my favorite part of the world by far, so I'll never take being able to hop around here again for granted.