Review: Cathay Pacific The Pier Business Class Lounge, Hong Kong Airport

After a 15+ hour flight in economy class from Dulles to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific, Shae and I were looking forward to accessing an airport lounge.

Needless to say, our economy tickets wouldn’t get us access, but we had numerous options at Hong Kong airport thanks to three different avenues:

• American Express Platinum Card – This gave us access to the Centurion lounge.
• Priority Pass – Shae and I both have multiple Priority Pass accounts thanks to various credit cards.
• Oneworld – I have Platinum status with American Airlines which in turn gives Oneworld Sapphire status. That can be used to access business class lounges for any Oneworld airline, including Cathay Pacific.

Seeing as Hong Kong airport is Cathay Pacific’s home base, they have lots of different airport lounge options. After emailing with Greg and Nick from Frequent Miler and Stefan from Rapid Travel Chai, I ruled out the Centurion lounge and Priority Pass options, as well as the Qantas and Hong Kong Airlines lounges we could access through my Oneworld status.

That left us with four Cathay Pacific lounges to choose from. Cathay Pacific has a few additional lounges, but those are for First Class passengers and those with Oneworld Emerald status.

Of those four lounges, it looked like one of them – the Pier business class lounge – was close to where I thought our departure gate would be, so we decided to visit there. In the end, our departure gate was a little farther away, but it wasn’t too long of a walk.

With lots of seating options, a noodle bar, Teahouse, buffet, Relaxation Room and showers, the Cathay Pacific Pier business class lounge was a great choice – here’s my review.

Our flight arrived just before 5am; by the time we got off the plane and walked to the lounge it was 5:28am. I’d not checked the lounge’s opening times beforehand, so we got lucky that it opened at 5:30am, just after we got there.

Not only did this mean we didn’t have to find somewhere else to go, it also meant I was able to get photos of the lounge while it was still pretty much empty.

Cathay Pacific’s The Pier business class lounge is split into several different zones; although they’re clearly distinguishable, they flow through to one another nicely.

Food Hall

The first section you come to is the Food Hall. This is where the main buffet area is located and has some long tables and benches, as well as round tables you can stand at.

Despite it being buffet style, the lounge staff plate the food for you rather than it being self-service. We were there during breakfast and there was a fairly good selection of food. If you like your eggs scrambled hard, you’re out of luck – the scrambled eggs more closely resembled soup than anything solid. I’m not a big fan of drinking my eggs so I left those on my plate, but the rest of the food was good.

Bar

In the next zone along there was a bar area which had a good selection of beer, wine and spirits. While the spirits weren’t ultra premium, some of the whiskey options were Johnnie Walker Black Label and Jameson, so not the cheapest options either.

Noodle Bar

Beyond that was the Noodle Bar where there was a lot of booth seating.

In addition to noodle bowls that you could create at the bar, there were soft drinks and other snacks (I think it was options like dim sum, etc.)

Teahouse

The Noodle Bar led through to the Teahouse where, in addition to tea, they served small desserts and cakes.

Relaxation Room

Past the Teahouse was the Relaxation Room. In the center of the room there were two L-shaped sectional couches.

Behind the wall dividers were some day beds. When researching our lounge options beforehand, I’d seen that the lounge had these day beds which is one of the reasons I’d picked it, figuring that we might want to nap after a 15 hour flight in economy class.

Lounge Seating

As it turned out, I slept surprisingly well on the plane. I therefore took advantage of my alertness to do some work in the lounge before our next flight on to Bali.

All the zones above run through to each other on the left side of the lounge. On the right hand side of the lounge there’s a lot of other seating available.

There were different types of armchairs throughout the lounge, along with several types of tables and chairs with footrests. My only complaint about the lounge (well, apart from the scrambled egg juice/smoothie) is that there were very few power outlets available. Considering it’s a business class lounge, this was very surprising.

We eventually found a few power outlets that were hidden away in drawers in the side tables, but other than those there didn’t seem to be any way to power your devices. If there were, they’re kept so well-hidden that they can’t be found.

The power outlets that they do have don’t feature universal plugs, so you’ll need your own adapter. Their outlets take UK-style plugs and I’d brought a couple of those adapters with me, so it wasn’t a problem for us. Just be aware that their power outlets are probably 220-240v which is fine for laptops, but shouldn’t be used for charging phones, tablets, etc. from the US.

This area of the lounge also had some soft drinks, snacks, newspapers and magazines.

The lounge has its own Wi-Fi network which required a password. The connection seemed to be very good – I didn’t have any issues with downloading and uploading photos during our time there.

Showers

Another reason I’d chosen this lounge is so that we could take a shower upon arrival. There are 13 shower rooms which seemed to be available on a first come, first serve basis. I took my shower a couple of hours after we arrived and didn’t have to wait, but it’s probably worth having a shower sooner rather than later as they seemed to get busier as the morning went on.

The shower rooms themselves were a decent enough size and also contained a toilet. The shower contained shampoo, conditioner and shower gel dispensers, as well as both a rainfall shower head and handheld shower head. The water pressure for the rainfall shower was good and I left feeling much more refreshed.

There’s a luggage rack to keep your items dry, as well as a hairdryer.

A towel and washcloth are stored beneath the room’s sink, with other toiletries on top.

There were also several amenity kits including a toothbrush and toothpaste, shower cap, cotton buds, etc.

Overall Thoughts

Shae and I greatly enjoyed our time in the Cathay Pacific The Pier Business Class Lounge at Hong Kong Airport. The decor was beautiful and the lounge itself was relaxing, despite me spending most of my time there working.

The food was good (other than the scrambled liquidized eggs), the abundance of shower rooms was appreciated and it was nice that there were so many different zones you could choose depending on how you wanted to relax or work.

If and when we next fly through Hong Kong airport, I wouldn’t have any hesitation in visiting Cathay Pacific’s The Pier lounge again.

Bali Trip Report

You can check out all our posts from our 15th anniversary trip to Bali below:

• We’re Going To Bali For 10 Nights For (Almost) Free – Here’s How
• Flight Antics On The Way To Bali – Here’s What Happened
• Flight Review: Cathay Pacific Economy – Washington Dulles (IAD) To Hong Kong (HKG)
• Review: Cathay Pacific The Pier Business Class Lounge, Hong Kong Airport
• 12 Fun Things To Do In Bali (& 1 To Avoid)
• Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Bali
• Hiring A Driver In Bali – Is It Worth It?
• Having Elephant Mud Fun At The Bali Zoo
• Flight Review: Garuda Indonesia Economy – Denpasar (DPS) To Tokyo Narita (NRT)
• Flight Review: Delta Economy – Tokyo Narita (NRT) To Atlanta (ATL)