Spending 15 hours on a plane in Economy might sound daunting — but don’t give up on your travel dreams just yet. It might not be so bad. We thought so at least, and we made the journey with a 5 year old.
In this post, I’ll review our experience flying Cathay Pacific Economy from New York to Hong Kong on the Airbus A350. I’ll explain why we chose to fly economy, the details of the seat, what you can expect from the inflight service, and more.
I don’t review too many economy flights — mostly because people tend to know what they’re getting — but this one felt like an exception. It’s less about reviewing the economy experience, and more about reviewing the actual flight experience. What is it like to fly 15 hours in economy? Should I sleep and will I be able to? What will the food situation be? Am I mad to attempt it with a child? Well, buckle up because we’re going to answer all those questions and more.
Keep reading to learn what it’s like to fly Cathay Pacific on the A350 in Economy from New York (JFK) to Hong Kong (HKG).
Booking Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong
Before we get into the details of the actual flight, let’s briefly discuss how we settled on this specific product.
We were traveling to Hong Kong from NYC for a spring break trip. Our itinerary included Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. We decided to fly roundtrip out of Hong Kong, even though it meant an extra flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong at the end of our trip. This decision cost a few hundred dollars and half a day to travel, but it was still cheaper than two one-way flights between different cities.
Once we settled on round trip to Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific was a quick decision. As the flag-carrier airline of Hong Kong, Cathay offered the best options (times and prices) for direct flights to Hong Kong. Most notably, Cathay Pacific is the only airline that offers non-stop flights from NYC to Hong Kong.
We decided to fly Economy, and booked directly on the Cathay website. We bought our tickets in November for an April trip and paid $4,037 USD (cash rate) for the three of us. That came out to $1,400 per adult and $1,100 for our one child (age 5). For context, business class seats on this route cost $8,000+ or 200,000+ points a piece.
Why we Chose to Fly Economy
Choosing economy over business was where the real thought process came in. Since our child was born, we’ve invested our credit card points heavily in business class seats for long-haul flights. This is usually a great use of points, and makes overnight flights with a child significantly easier.
Read more! We used points to fly Emirates Business Class to Dubai when our child was 2. You can find our review of that flight on our sister site.
This was never going to be a long-term strategy, though — we only have so many points and miles. For this flight, we made the leap to economy. And here’s why.
Note: We briefly considered Premium Economy but those seats don’t have adjustable armrests. That meant our child couldn’t lay across our laps, making it a worse option.
For a 15-hour flight and 12-hour time change, there was actually less pressure to sleep on the flight than say, a 7.5 hour flight to Paris. You fly to Europe overnight, and you basically have to fall asleep immediately and sleep the entire time or you’re doomed. On those routes, you land early in the morning and then have to make it through an entire day at your destination.
With the 15-hour flight to Hong Kong, you have much more flexibility to fall asleep whenever you can. Whatever time you fly, you span a “daytime” and “nighttime” and land in Hong Kong a day and a half later with the time change factored in. It becomes a so-bad-it’s-good situation. You’re on the plane for so long, you’ll get tired enough to sleep at some point.
When there’s less pressure to sleep on a set schedule, the high cost of a business class seat is harder to justify. And speaking of those business class seats, it’s less that we decided against them and more that there was just no good points redemptions available. And for such a short trip, we weren’t going to shell out the cash rate for them.
Then there’s the fact that our child is older now. At 5 (almost 6), they’re better able to understand that it’s bedtime, even when we’re on a plane. We can tell them to lay down and rest, and they’re (usually) capable of doing that. A sleep deficit won’t completely ruin them in the way it did when they were a baby.
They’re also still small enough to put their head on one of us, and their feet on the other, and actually get fairly comfortable. This means they actually get a lie-flat seat situation. As for us, we invested in a good neck pillow. More on that later, though.
Ultimately, we just needed to rip the bandaid. We needed to find out if we could handle a flight of this duration in economy. This flight turned out to be the time we’d find out.
What’s included with Cathay Pacific Economy
Let’s start by briefly outlining what is included with Economy fares on Cathay Pacific long-haul flights, specifically this one from New York to Hong Kong.
I often forget just how good long-haul international flights actually are in economy. When you compare the experience to a domestic flight in economy, it already feels like an upgrade.
Here’s what you get with a Cathay Pacific Economy fare from NYC to Hong Kong.
- Basic seat (width: 18 inches / pitch: 32 inches / recline: 5 – 6 inches)
- Seat selection (complimentary for Essential and Flex fares or for an additional fee for Light)
- Blanket and small pillow
- Headsets (basic wired over-the-head headphones)
- Meal service: 2 single-course meals including entree, side, dessert and drink
- Drink service: selection of hot and cold soft drinks (coffee, tea, soda, juice), as well as complimentary alcoholic beverages (wine, beer, select hard liquors)
- Snack service: light galley snacks between meals
- Free checked bag
Departure from JFK
Cathay Pacific flies out of Terminal 8 at JFK airport in NYC. You can get there via car or subway + AirTrain. Our flight was early, so we Ubered.
Like most international flights, the carry-on baggage allotment for this flight was by item size and weight. Each passenger is allowed a carry-on and personal item, but the total weight must not exceed 15 pounds. That is really hard to hit, so we had to check both of our carry-on suitcases, plus our child’s carseat. (We travel with the Pico Portable Car Seat.)
We arrived at the check-in desk at 7 AM for our 10 AM flight (9:30 AM boarding time). There was a short wait at the desk, but it moved quickly. It took about 30 minutes to check our bags and get through security with TSA Pre-Check.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but economy tickets do not include lounge access. We have Priority Pass and the AmEx Platinum card which get us into select lounges sometimes, but neither of those were any good in Terminal 8. Instead, we took our talents to the nearby Dunkin Donuts.
JFK’s Terminal 8 actually has a pretty decent food court and shopping options. Beyond the foodcourt, there’s also a Starbucks. I was shocked to see that the airport Starbucks had absolutely no line at 9 AM. If that is not a recession indicator, I don’t know what is.
We were easily able to fill our time and make it to our gate before it began boarding. The flight was scheduled to board at 9:30 AM, but it actually started about 10 minutes before that.
The flight boarded by group and utilized eGates. We got to skip the eGates because we were traveling with a child, which saved us a bit of time in the queue. We were on the plane by 9:33.
Economy Seats on Cathay Pacific A350
Meet your home for the next 15 hours.
The Cathay Pacific Economy seats on the A350 are your average – maybe slightly above average – economy seat. They have a width of 18 inches, a pitch of 32 inches and recline about 5 – 6 inches.
Each seat is padded, and includes an adjustable headrest and armrests. There is a standard tray table, which folds out and can slide a few inches forward. There is a secondary smaller tray above that, which has a cupholder and a ledge for holding a personal device, such as a tablet.
As far as tech goes, there is an 11-inch seat-back screen, which featured a wide variety of entertainment options (one of the best selections that I’ve seen in a while.) Basic headsets are provided at each seat. For charging, there is a USB port below the screen and AC power outlets under the seat — 2 outlets for every 3 seats.
The storage situation is actually pretty good. (If you have read any of my flight reviews, you know how much I care about in-seat storage.) The under-the-seat storage is spacious for it’s size, as it is largely unobstructed by protruding seat parts. The middle and window seat share one large storage space, while the aisle storage space is separated.
Since most everyone has to check their carry-on suitcases, the over-head bin space is plentiful. Once everyone boarded, there was plenty of space to move smaller bags into the bins as well. There is of course the seat-back pocket, plus a small mesh pocket behind the mini tray.
Each seat had a small pillow, light blanket and menu on top upon boarding. The pillow was admittedly not very useful, but the blanket was nice. We’ll talk more about the menu in the food section.
Overall, the economy seats are good for economy seats. They didn’t feel too cramped, there was adequate storage to keep your things organized, and the seating was relatively comfortable.
If there was one thing missing that I might expect from a long-haul flight, even in economy, it would be a basic amenity kit. So if you know you’re going to need to brush your teeth or moisturize your hands, be sure to pack that in your carry on.
Seat Configuration & Selection
The economy section on the Cathay Pacific on the A350-900 is a 3-3-3 configuration. As a family of three, this was perfect for us. Couples and families of four may want to considered this route on Cathay’s 777 instead, which offers a 3-4 configuration.
My husband loves a window seat, so we booked seats A, B, C along the left window side in row 44. He got his takeoff view over NYC, but we probably wouldn’t make this choice again.
For a flight this long — with a kid in the middle and chords, snacks and tray tables constantly in the way — a middle cluster of three would have been way better. The later would have granted both Kenny and I immediate aisle access, which would have saved a lot of shuffling at every bathroom break.
Other than aisle access, the other thing we think about with seat selection is the cabin size. As you can see on the seat map, the economy seats are broken into two sections. The section further up has about half as many rows as the section in the back. We always opt for the smaller section. That means fewer people moving past you, fewer people making noise, and in many cases, it often means quicker meal service.
Unfortunately, I have no magic hack for seat selection that guarantees you won’t have someone sneezing behind you or not using headphones in front of you or snoring beside you. Send those requests straight to the airline gods.
Food & Beverage Service in Cathay Economy
When I say I forget how good economy is on international flights, I guess what I’m really talking about is the food and beverage service. Compared to domestic economy, international economy is an upgrade in and of itself.
Shortly after takeoff, the flight attendants distributed bottled water. I think they probably could have placed these on our seats with our menus, but that’s fine. Full drink service commenced shortly after that. The beverage selection included soda, juice, tea, coffee, wine, beer and select hard alcohol — all of which were complimentary. They also offered packaged peanuts with drink service.
Next was our first meal, which was lunch on our flight (10 AM departure.) You can’t pre-order a specific meal in Cathay Economy like you can in Business Class, but you can pre-order special dietary meals. For example, Cathay offers vegetarian, kosher and diabetic meal options, as well as children’s and baby meals. The flight attendants will confirm these meal selections at the start of the flight.
We’re vegetarian, so we pre-ordered vegetarian meals. Our child is also vegetarian, and unfortunately there is not a vegetarian children’s meal option. Instead, we pre-ordered the fruit plate for them, which seemed like the best way to guarantee we’d get food they’d actually eat.
The perk to pre-ordering is that your meal is usually served first, which was the case here. After delivering the pre-orders, flight attendants came through with a cart. Passengers could choose from a few menu options, none of which ran out in our section.
The quantity of food was less than you’d have in a premium cabin — a single course instead of multiple — but the quality (of the vegetarian meal at least) was still there. The food was good and substantial enough for us. They also did a second drink service with the meal distribution.
About 8 hours later, this process repeated. We received another round of drinks, followed by a second full meal and a last round of drinks. I ordered a beer this time — for free! — which felt like a fun economy flex. Our second meal was also quite tasty, and just different enough from the first round to not feel redundant.
In between meals, snacks were available in the galley and by request. The most popular snack was the cup noodles, which seemed like half the plane was enjoying. (Generally these contain chicken broth, so we opted out.) There was also bananas and packaged palmier cookies in the galley. (This was fine, but a steep drop-off from the gummy bears, which were my forever favorite galley snack on Finnair.)
As a final note on meals, I’d compliment the flight attendants for their quick service. They distributed meals quickly, which meant that aisles to the bathroom were rarely fully blocked by carts. They also cleared dishes efficiently, which we really appreciated. (On a previous flight on SWISS, service items took forever to clear.) If I had one complaint, it’d be the trash collection was sparse, but it did not cause a problem.
Sleeping in Cathay Economy
The flight from NYC to Hong Kong on this particular day took 14 hours and 54 minutes. Most flights on this route (CX841) come in within 30 minutes either side of that. That, plus a 12-hour time change (forward in this direction), means you’re probably going to want to sleep.
The cabin is dimmed for most of the flight, outside of the meals. On the flight to Hong Kong, they instructed all passengers to close their window shades, which created a pretty dark cabin. (On the return flight, lowering shades was stated as optional, and the cabin was significantly brighter. It might depend on your flight time and cabin crew.)
The seats have a few things going for them. They do recline 5-6 inches, which helps. People have feelings about reclining your seat in economy, but for long-haul flights it’s tolerated, if not assumed. (Except for the lady behind me on my return fight who threw sass my way, even though the person in front of me had their seat fully reclined the entire flight and I didn’t say a word … but I digress.)
The headrests also bend in a smidge, which offers some head support.
The real winner though, was this travel pillow. I’ve never actually used these pillows before, but I brought it for my kid who didn’t want it. To be honest, I always found these to be super cringe, but consider me a convert. I was shocked at how it provided such substantial support. It deserves all the credit for the actual sleep I got on the plane, which is something I don’t always get even in lie-flat seats. I slept for probably 4-5 hours, on and off.
As far as leg room goes, it is a little tight to stretch out, and we’re not even tall people. We made it work, but it wasn’t the most comfortable I’ve ever been. The biggest tip here is to put your personal item in the overhead bin if you can. There’s usually space, because most people check their larger bags. It also helps if you’re traveling with everyone in your row, because then you can angle yourself across your row to stretch out a bit more.
Then there is our 5-year-old, who weaseled into their own little DIY lie-flat seat. We lifted the arm rests, and they could lie down pretty comfortably with their head on my lap and feet on my husband’s. They grew tired of the position near they end, but managed to sleep for close to 6 hours after the second meal service.
Note: Cathay’s Premium Economy seats do not have adjustable armrests. This was notable for us, because that “upgrade” would mean Zoe couldn’t lie on us across our 3 seats.
Flying with a Child for 15 Hours
I’ll start out by saying that I don’t have anything groundbreaking here. We tend not to over-pack flight activities, but also all kids are different. These are just the things that go us through.
My one real tip is to pre-order a children’s meal. You have to do this online at least 24 hours before your departure. For omnivore kids, the standard kids and baby meals are great. They are smaller portions of kid-friendly foods, and typically include a juice box and special dessert treat. For a little vegetarian and moderately picky eater, we opted for the fruit tray.
On the ground, we pretty strictly limit our child’s screen time, but we don’t usually bring those rules into the air. A pretty hefty dose of entertainment on this flight definitely came from the seat-back device and their tablet, which we loaded up with all our kid’s favorites.
However, even our screen-restricted child can’t binge on screens for a full 15 hours. We still brought a variety of other items to keep busy.
A top priority was definitely books. We brought a stockpile of kid’s books and a few easy chapter books, which would double as bedtime books during the trip.
We also brought this drawing board, which we do not go anywhere without. This screen-free tablet is perfect for drawing and doodling, but also for letter practice, writing and math. (Which yes, we did insist our child do later over their spring break.)
In addition to the drawing board, we brought a paper notebook for drawing and writing, a small activity book (mazes, word searches, etc), along with pencils and a small pack of crayons. One stuffy and one fidget toy, and that was it for our child’s backpack.
The last thing I did — which is parenting 101 but not something I personally ever do — was pack an entire bag of snacks. Because I checked my suitcase (drink!), I had an extra bag allowance. I also happened to be at Target the night before the flight, which was a perfect excuse to stock up. I filled my extra bag with Dots pretzels, Chex mix, fruit rolls, trail mix, and some Nerds clusters because #15hourflight. With proper allocation, this made the time between meals fly by.
And then there is sleep. After the second meal, which was after 8 PM New York time, our child went to sleep with little fuss. They slept for the rest of the flight, which made keeping them busy pretty easy.
Arrival into Hong Kong
After what felt simultaneously like forever and no time at all, we were descending into Hong Kong.
Deplaning went surprisingly quickly, which I credit again to most people checking their larger bags. (Did I mention that most people check their larger bags?) It was a relatively short walk to the train, which quickly shuttled us the main terminal where Immigration was located.
There was a moderate queue for foreigners at Immigration when we arrived, but there were a lot of agents and they moved people through quickly. We only waited for about 15 minutes.
Americans visiting Hong Kong for less than 90 days do not need a visa. There was also no arrivals paperwork required. It was a standard passport check with very few questions.
We got our stamp. Welcome to Hong Kong!
Leaving Hong Kong International Airport
Hong Kong International Airport is located on Lantau Island, just east of Hong Kong’s Central and and Tsim Sha Tsui (Kowloon) districts. There is great signage around the airport directing you to onward transportation options.
Connections to the city center are simple and quick on public transportation. The Airport Express train runs every 10-15 minutes from the airport, and will get you to TST or Central in under 30 minutes for HK60 or less.
Taxi services are also available, and are located outside of the arrivals hall. Taxis in Hong Kong are color-coded based on their operating area, and there are separate queues for each. If you’re traveling to the city center (e.g. Central or TST), you’ll need the red taxis. For travel within Lantau Island — to say, Hong Kong Disneyland — you’ll use the Blue taxis.
If you’re a rideshare person, Uber operates in Hong Kong. Rideshares, including Uber and pre-booked car services, pick-up on Level 3 near Car Park 1, outside of Terminal 1. We used our regular Uber App (the US version), and it worked seamlessly. Our driver picked us up at the designated location, helped with our bags, and quickly got us to our destination.
Lastly, if you’re going straight into Mainland China or Macau, you might benefit from the ferry service. This unique option allows you to bypass Hong Kong immigration and go directly to Mainland China or Macau to complete immigration checks there. There is a very specific process for this, which we have not personally done. You can learn more about that here.
Closing Thoughts on Cathay Pacific Economy from NYC to Hong Kong
If you’re considering flying Cathay Pacific Economy for 15 hours from NYC to Hong Kong, my key takeaway is that it was not that bad. It wasn’t my favorite flight ever, but honestly, I was comfortable, fed, and entertained from start to finish.
This flight went shockingly well. While sleeping comfortably in my seat wasn’t exactly the highlight — you definitely lose that when you scale down from Business Class — the service surprisingly was. The flight attendants on this flight to exceeded my expectations for Economy service. They were so kind, so helpful, and very efficient. That was definitely something I didn’t expect, that was a very pleasant surprise.
I threw shade at the seats, but they honestly weren’t that bad. With the right neck pillow, I managed to sleep as long as I have in Business on shorter flights. Since we were traveling with everyone in our row, including one child, we were able to stretch our legs out across our row, which added to our relative comfort.
The food and drinks available onboard was another thing that impressed me. When you fly Business domestically, getting a complimentary meal is a perk over Economy. However, for international flights, everyone is getting complimentary meals anyway. While I’m sure the Business Class meals where more varied and likely more substantial, I thought the Economy meals were tasty and filling enough.
On a personal note, our expectations were low. We hoped for the best, but planned for the worst. Much to our surprise, everyone slept, everyone kept busy, and everyone arrived in Hong Kong in good spirits.
Ultimately, this flight unlocked Asia travel for us. “Unlocked” is a term our family uses when we try something new with travel, it goes well, and we can then consider it a viable option moving forward. We are now confident that we can fly to this region in Economy, without spending an arm and a leg in points or dollars, for a relatively sort trip.
Watch out Asia … here we come.
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