I’ve flown Cathay Pacific pre pandemic several times but this was my first post pandemic experience and it was bad. Nov 20 LAX-HKG-HYD old plane, seats (premium economy) didn’t work well to... See more
While we don't verify specific claims because reviewers' opinions are their own, we may label reviews as "Verified" when we can confirm a business interaction took place. Read more
To protect platform integrity, every review on our platform—verified or not—is screened by our 24/7 automated software. This technology is designed to identify and remove content that breaches our guidelines, including reviews that are not based on a genuine experience. We recognise we may not catch everything, and you can flag anything you think we may have missed. Read more
Review summary
Created with AI, based on recent reviews
What people talk about most
Reviews shaping this summary
Company details
Information provided by various external sources
Find international and Asia pacific flights and tickets. Cathay Pacific Airways is a top rated airline that provides economy class, business class and first class flights to travel destinations around the world.
Contact info
Had high expectations despite being in…
Had high expectations despite being in economy. Nice new plane Awful seats.. crew very pleasant but in 8hrs Perth to HK and 15hrs HK to Manchester not as much as a cup of water was offered between the meal service. Being sat near the back I spotted a cardboard box with a post it note saying "help yourself" and the box contained pretzels, tomato and orange juice. The food was mediocre and nothing like Virgin or the Middle Eastern carriers. Flights were on time Good value And staff smiled but the rest of the actual experience was an endurance test
I had a very very nasty experience by…
I had a very very nasty experience by flying with catahy
paciic and neec to send a report and claim expenses.
ehich email shoud i write to?
Poor quality control
I took the CX flight from Hong Kong to Taipei last Sunday. The flight was CX400. The original scheduled take off time was 13:00. But it has been delayed to 14:30 due to aircraft technical issue. The actually taking off time was 14:50. And the arrival time to Taipei was 16:23. It is totally waste of my time. Don’t you expect a flight of about one hour now lasts almost 3 and a half hours. Most importantly, the pilot announcement had English only but no Cantonese. What a shame for an airline based in Hong Kong.
The website and service are TERRIBLE
The website is TERRIBLE. Simple changes can't be made, and customer service over the phone is useless. Everthing ends with "You have to do it at the airport service desk" Even something as simple as adding my frequent flyer number to the booking. DON'T FLY THIS AIRLINE IF AT ALL POSSIBLE.
Worst and scariest Flight experience…
Worst and scariest Flight experience ever. Flight CX698 at 27 November Choosed the wrong landing lane and had to start again just again After wheels almost touched the ground. Horrible experience. Never again Cathay. I Choose in Future Lufthansa, Vietnam Airlines , Emirates or something Else. Thank You for the attention!
Flights booked through Flight centre…
Flights booked through Flight centre UK. Had to cancel and I didn't get £528 refund although cancelled 8 week's before. My holiday was cancelled they gave me a refund within 48 hours.
Not my favourite airline anymore unfortunately.
Still better than BA and I’m sure many other airlines.
But today’s CPA is far below the standards of its past.
The economy seats used to be wider, leather and generally more ergonomic and comfortable. Now it’s a rough fabric upholstery, very narrow and it feels like it’s designed to purposely make you uncomfortable. There’s quite literally no comfortable position to be in.
The TV was glitching/lagging and I noticed everyone else’s was too, most of us sucked it up and didn’t complain.
The food .. oh god! The food! I mean, I know “plane food” was never known to be “delicious” but I’m sure there’s a way to make it taste and look a lot less like some slop that a stray dog would reject. Tickets aren’t cheap and what is the cost of such a meal? 20p? 50p? 2.50£? Whatever it is, for a 800-900£ ticket.. I’m sure they could chef up meals that doesn’t give us an upset tummy for 2-3 days after.
Not my favourite airline anymore unfortunately.
Quite disappointing :(
DO NOT BOOK A TRIP WITH THIS AIRLINE!
DO NOT BOOK A TRIP WITH THIS AIRLINE!
We were very disappointed with Cathay. We wanted to make sure we had a smooth trip for our honeymoon and thought we could trust Cathay but we were really let down - both on outbound and return flights.
The check in process is completely dysfunctional. It seems we tried a mixture of every method to simply have seats together for our honeymoon, and try for my partner to have an aisle seat as he is very tall and finds it uncomfortable not to have enough space - we spend hours and hours of our honeymoon (as we had been disappointed for the outbound flight) trying to make sure we were ready at our laptops on the exact time of check in opening - but the website glitched out and incorrectly acted like we did not have membership. We were not able to speak with anyone directly and only over WhatsApp.
Cathay were totally unhelpful and unsympathetic. They didn't bother to look into the matter in any detail and didn't seem well informed.
Both for outgoing and inbound flights there was no care that it was our honeymoon and the amount of stress it was taking to simply check in appropriately. There even appeared to be a solution - to upgrade us given the stress caused, they didn't take that route.
Really caused a lot of stress on our honeymoon and will never fly with them again, and suggest others don't either.
watched Cathy pacific
watched Cathy pacific Youtube hi airport.
Baby crying.
I gave birth Keeva Lydia Bubb.
9 December 2022.
Werribee mercy Catholic public hospital hoppers lane Werribee.
she sounds like I imagine so soft and loving Irish Celt.
I can upload photos and write Werribee Mercy outpatients.
Website.
Love you Keeva L Bubb.
Mum Mrs Jenni O Bubb.
Werribee.
Victoria.
Worse customer service in air line industry
Cathy Pacific must pride itself on having the worse customer service of all airlines. Call centre staff totally unhelpful and disinterested staff. Complete waste of time contacting them. All I wanted to do was add wife onto account and redeem points. Terrible service
Scammed or not scammed, that is the question
Booked a flight to Japan back in January for a trip in Septmber. Had a change of plan , went on line to see if it was possible. Yes, managed to delay my outward flight by 14 days, no problem and even a small (£50) saving. Then, three days before my rescheduled flight, I went on-line to check details: horror of horrors - no record of my flight reference, I could not log in to my flight at all. Spent 2.5 hours on the phone waiting for someone to pick up my call but no answer. Trailled out to Heathrow the next day and they could not find my booking. Not amused. Eventually found my booking but said they could not now acommodate me on booked flight but could get me on another flight a few days later - for an additional payment of £200+. Forfeit £900 already paid or cough up another £200? Has this happened to anyone else? Was I scammed or just a mug?
And the flight itself? OK but certainly not the standard of yesteryear
Not baby friendly…
We travelled with Cathay Pacific last May from the Philippines to the UK with our family—my 1-year-old son, 3-year-old daughter, my husband, and my mum. I was given a bassinet seat, but it was not next to my family. Considering it was a long-haul flight and I had a 1-year-old with me, it was going to be incredibly difficult to manage alone. I asked if my husband could be seated beside me, but we were told it wasn’t possible because other adult passengers had paid for seats in the bassinet area. They told us that families with babies are not their priority, which left me shocked and very disappointed.
If only I had known that Cathay Pacific does not prioritise families with infants, I would have paid extra just to ensure I was seated together with my family. I honestly didn’t consider it because I assumed their system was similar to Singapore Airlines.
This experience was completely different from our flights with Singapore Airlines, who were extremely baby-friendly. With them, bassinet seats are automatically assigned to families with infants, and they make sure parents sit together. They also prioritize parents during meal service, serving either me or my husband first so we could take turns holding the baby. We requested the same consideration from Cathay Pacific, but they refused.
To make matters worse, one flight attendant even told my husband to keep our baby from being “too noisy” because the three adults beside me were “not happy.” What did they expect? My child is one year old. Should a baby really be the one adjusting for adults on a long flight?
Both our flights—going to the Philippines and returning to the UK—had the same issue: bassinet seats were never automatically reserved for families with infants. I used to travel with Cathay Pacific before I had kids and thought their service was fine, but based on this experience, they are not family-friendly at all.
Thankfully, a kind passenger volunteered to swap seats with my husband so he could be closer and help me through the long journey. If it weren’t for him, the experience would have been even more stressful. Sadly, I cannot say the same about the cabin crew—most of them were not helpful at all.
Overall, I was very disappointed with Cathay Pacific’s service, especially for families travelling with young children. I expected much better.
Miles never received in the program…
Miles never received in the program indicated during reservation.
Cathay pacific is the sadest company ever with the worst customers!
Cathay pacific works with very disrespectful people. They lie, play with you and they don’t care about it! When we arrived in Manilla ninyoy airport to check in for our flight to Brussel, the customer said: the gate is change. Go to A. We asked: are you sure? He said yes. But it wasn’t change. We where in the wrong terminal because of him!! They closed the gate end laughing in our face. We where 5 minutes late. We tell them how this happens, but they never agree, like : we did nothing wrong. I was almost crying en they said: if you want to go home, rebook and pay 2300 extra. I spend my last money on a flight to go back home with Etihad.
It was my first and last time with Cathay Pacific. It’s very disappointing. My sister have also booked a flight in december with cathay pacific to Bangkok. She is going to rebook with qatar now.
During China Holiday
During China Holiday, I have broke my Knie.
Came to München over Guangzhou, Hongkong.
I have got wheel Chair and quick Transfer at the all three Airports.
Air Crew members dealed me as a Special guest.
Thank you all.
Worst airline I’ve ever dealt with
Had a flight on 17th of Oct from AMS - TOKYO and it couldn’t have been any worse. We went to the airport and it started with the queue for checking in being really long. In the end we stayed at that exact same queue for 8 hours, with delay after delay and ultimately cancellation… as they had no service desk at Schiphol we called them immediately and the girl from customer service said ‘sorry, we don’t have any flights to Tokyo till the end of October…’ we thought our dreamtrip was over. After calling them the rest of the day (no exaggeration: about 30 calls further, they couldn’t assist us well and it was the most frustrating afternoon we could ever have) they finally got us a flight 24 hours later, where others had a flight the same day and others had a flight 3/4 days later… image how they ruin people’s whole trips. The next day we flew with another airline to Tokyo. On the way back home, our flight was again delayed and again they had to put us on a different flight to get us home, Im glad they even got us home after the first experience… now being back and trying to get a refund for the cancelled flight is also a drama, as the website has hidden the page to start the process really well, I can’t seem to find it and customer service is reaallly bad. Never flying them again!! Heard they were the KLM of Asia, but nothing could be further from the truth…
On October 29
On October 29, 2025, I was robbed on board a Cathay Pacific flight from Dubai to Hong Kong. All my money — AED 7,000 (around USD 2,000) — was stolen from my backpack during the flight.
When I discovered the theft upon arrival in Hong Kong, I immediately informed the cabin crew. Unfortunately, the flight attendants were completely indifferent and unhelpful; they seemed more concerned about discussing the situation among themselves than assisting me. Their faces showed a mix of fear and apathy, and no real action was taken.
I refused to leave the aircraft until the police arrived, but even the police appeared more sympathetic to the airline than to a passenger who had just lost all his money in a foreign country.
My advice: If you ever fly with Cathay Pacific, never leave your money or valuables in your bag. Keep them in a small pouch around your waist or in your pockets, because if you fall asleep or leave your seat to use the restroom, you might be robbed — and they will still ask you for witnesses to prove it happened.
Not flying with them again!
I spent 2 hours speaking to 4 different customer service reps trying to change a flight. Two dropped out of the chat for no reason. One told me my personal details (email address, name etc) were incorrect & left the chat even though these were the same (correct) details I'd been supplying to the previous customer service agents! In the end I gave up trying to change my flight & adjusted my travel plans even though that wasn't what I wanted. Travel on-board is totally unpleasant as well - tiny seats, below average food, grumpy flight attendants etc. The only positive was in HK when the ground staff gave me assistance to board a flight due to an injury to my knee.
Swapped seats without consultation, inedible food
Changed our pre-chosen and paid for premium economy seats without consultation to bad ones. Were meant to advise us. This is despite booking 11 months prior to our flight.
The gluten free food is also really bad. Nothing but tasteless fish, which we found inedible. So hungry over a 24-hour flight, and forced to pay for meals prior to and in between our 2 flights. Also, no regular water - had to ask and gave up in the end.
So frustrating to have paid a premium for this treatment. They just don’t care.
They use dynamic pricing which is…
They use dynamic pricing which is ridiculous - flights triple price in a matter of hours. Not very ethical.
The Trustpilot Experience
Anyone can write a Trustpilot review. People who write reviews have ownership to edit or delete them at any time, and they’ll be displayed as long as an account is active.
Companies can ask for reviews via automatic invitations. Labeled Verified, they’re about genuine experiences.
Learn more about other kinds of reviews.
We use dedicated people and clever technology to safeguard our platform. Find out how we combat fake reviews.
Learn about Trustpilot’s review process.
Here are 8 tips for writing great reviews.
Verification can help ensure real people are writing the reviews you read on Trustpilot.
Offering incentives for reviews or asking for them selectively can bias the TrustScore, which goes against our guidelines.








