Now all it needs is a spa
March 24, 2002 | 12:00am
What makes your airline different from all the rest? I once asked Lydia Castillo, PR lady of Cathay Pacific Airways, in the Seventies.
"When you take other airlines, it’s like you’re riding a Beetle or a Ford Escort. But when you choose Cathay, you ride sleekly to your destination in a Rolls Royce."
Fast forward to 2002. I ask the same question to Cathay’s assistant marketing manager Bettina Palpal-latoc.
"Oh, did you know that Cathay has a private dressing room, a cocktail bar, a refreshment area, and a Business Class seat that is now the longest, widest stretch-flat bed in the sky?" Bettina answers.
Oh, wow.
And the best way for you to find out is to experience it yourself, adds Bettina, getting an instant "Yes!" from myself and two other lifestyle editors, Chelo Banal-Formoso of Inquirer and Ethel Soliven-Timbol of Bulletin . The media familiarization tour (read: rest from presswork) began at Cathay’s Airbus A330 and on to the Peninsula Hong Kong, The Cathay Pacific City and ended at the Chek Lap Kok Airport.
Well, Bettina was right. The new Business Class area does have a dressing area with a full length mirror, made private by folding doors. It has a mini bar where passengers can meet and have a chat. The new seats are 20.5 inches wide excluding the big armrests and cocktail tray. Each seat has a larger meal table plus a second table stowed in front so you can get up without having to clear away your stuff. There is an extra personal stowage space, a coat hook at every seat, a bigger pocket for books and newspapers, and yes a mineral water bottle holder in the seat arm. How thoughtful.
The new seat is also surrounded by a privacy "cocoon" so you can sleep without too much disturbance. This new personal space allows you to work on board, as Cathay Pacific is the first airline in the world to offer high-speed data network. So you can have access to e-mail and web content from selected news, sports and entertainment sites inflight. All seats provide a personal telephone, a laptop power supply and flexible, dimmable reading lights.
And the best news for TV/movie addicts: you can choose the movie you want, at the time you want to watch them! The 10.4-inch personal TV (double the size of current screens) is fixed in front of you, there’s no need to pull and put them back into some ditch.
Where do all these bright ideas come from?
The answer came when we took a tour of the Cathay Pacific City led by Cathay product manager Sarah Blomfield, corporate communication manager Betty Law and corporate communication executive Julie Lo.
This city–a US$625 Million building complex on four hectares–is where Cathay’s over 3,000 staffers brainstorm, work, rest and play. It has its own bank, supermart, photoshop, salon, clinic, auditorium and restaurants. Why, it even has a 501-room hotel (offering four-star facilities at "dorm" rates to employees) and a leisure club.
Obviously the "tourist attraction" in Cathay City is its Flight Training Centre, the only one of its type in the world with 14 flight stimulators stacked on two levels. This is the training ground where pilots practice for flights of the future. Why, it may as well be named Cathay Pacific University!
"Our aim is to make passengers as comfortable in the air as they are on land," explains Sarah as she shows the group of Asian media people we joined, the whys and hows of Cathay’s new Business Class via audiovisuals. So much research goes into making Cathay endlessly evolve with the times, but the constant, says Sarah is this: service straight from the heart.
Cathay’s commitment to serve is so obvious in its lounge at the Hong Kong International Airport. Actually there are two: The Pier, recently opened and covering 3,900 square meters, and The Wing, opened in 1998 and named first in Forbes magazine’s list of The World’s Ten Best Airport Lounges.
Together the two lounges offer more that 1,000 seats for passengers to unwind in before a flight.
The food is good on board Cathay, but even better at its lounges which offer Asian and European cuisine courtesy of the renowned Peninsula Group. Both The Wing and The Pier have five venues for food and drink: The Noodle Bar which serves up around 600 bowls daily; The Short Bar for a range of international coffees, wine, liquor, cocktails and softdrinks; The Smoking Bar (thank God smokers have an area of their own); The Long Bar which is truly long (55 feet long at The Pier and 80 feet at The Wing) and where one can watch large TV screens or simply the view outside; and The Haven, its First Class resto. State-of-the-art technology keeps travelers connected to the world at the lounges, where Personal Living Spaces (PLS) are equipped with computers, laptops and modem ports.
And of course, there are bathrooms and showers, spas and salons offering massages and facials, libraries, reading rooms and personal entertainment systems in the lounges.
Oh, wow.
Coffee, tea, or a facial? Is that what Cathay Pacific flight attendants will soon be asking passengers?
Next question: When will there be mini-spas up in the air?
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