Having reopened all five of its Hong Kong lounges, Cathay Pacific has slated its lounges at Taipei and San Francisco as the next to unlock their doors.
It’s welcome news for Cathay and Oneworld passengers from both cities as the airline contains on the road to full pre-pandemic capacity by the end of 2024.
While Cathay Pacific hasn’t nominated a firm date, the airline says travellers can “expect to experience our Taipei and San Francisco lounges again in the near future.”
Cathay’s Taipei lounge, which debuted in November 2015 with seating for 245 people, shares the same contemporary design ethos of ‘understand residential luxury’ as its regional siblings in Bangkok, Tokyo Haneda and Manila.
Alongside the familiar Wonton Noodle soup and Dan Dan Noodles served at the signature Noodle Bar, guests were also treated to local dishes such as Taiwanese Beef Noodles, Minced Pork Rice and Bubble Milk Tea.
The Cathay Pacific San Francisco lounge will also roll out the welcome mat soon, and is in line for an upgrade to that same warm style that’s become a hallmark of the airline.
“We’ll be renovating the whole lounge,” Vivian Lo, Cathay’s General Manager for Customer Experience & Design, tells Executive Traveller, with what she describes as “the next iteration.”
“We now a very clear kind of strategic road map between now and the next five years, in terms of what to do at each (lounge) location.”
In the meantime, British Airways’ SFO business lounge remains the go-to for Oneworld travellers soaring out from San Fran, provide their flights align with BA’s lounge opening hours of 1.30pm to 8.45pm.
As previously reported, Cathay will also cut the ribbon on an all-new lounge at Shenzhen’s Shekou port terminal, where fast ferry services whisk travellers straight to the the SkyPier at Hong Kong Airport and onto their Cathay Pacific flight.
“This is our first seaside lounge, it’s like an airport lounge in the Shekou pier,” Lavinia Lau, Cathay Pacific’s Chief Customer and Commercial Officer, tells Executive Traveller.
Concept images for Cathay Pacific’s Shekou Ferry Pier Lounge.
Concept images for Cathay Pacific’s Shekou Ferry Pier Lounge.
“It will give people a taste of what they are going to have at Hong Kong airport,” she added, emphasising the Shekou ‘seaport’ lounge is part of Cathay’s push into the Greater Bay Area.
Further ahead in the Cathay loungescape is a fresh flagship lounge at Hong Kong following the late 2024 reopening of the airport’s Terminal 2, which will free up more space in the main T1 for Cathay to quite literally spread its wings.
The move could also result in the return of an arrivals lounge where Cathay’s premium passengers can make a pit-stop before heading into the city.
Source: https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/cathay-pacific-taipei-san-francisco-lounges-reopen
