Cathay’s noodle bar chef Ivy Tran serves up steaming bowl of homey goodness (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
On October 14, Cathay Pacific opens a major addition to its business and first class lounge at San Francisco International Airport. Cathay’s is one of SFO’s most beautiful lounges…. and also one of its busiest.
The Hong Kong-based carrier invited TravelSkills out to the airport this week for a sneak peek at the new space and lunch at its famous noodle bar.
(Here’s our review of the lounge when it opened in 2012)
Here’s what we learned:
The main entrance with its striking marble desk and crystal curtain will remain unchanged (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Cathay is moving into adjacent space in the International Terminal (A side) once occupied by Air France/KLM. This means the lounge will nearly double in size from the current 5,500 square feet to a spacious 9,675 square feet, enough room for up to 175 guests.
Here’s a look at the unfinished main addition to the Cathay lounge (Chris McGinnis)
A wall of windows brightens the big space with views over the tarmac and up to the hills across Highway 101.
Cathay is adding three new shower suites for a total of six (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
The number of Carrera marble and river-pebble sheathed shower suites will double from three to six, which should help with the evening rush when around 15 flyers opt to clean up before their flight.
A new deli counter along with an Italian espresso machine in the new space (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Along with the expanded space comes an expanded menu and a new deli counter and espresso bar (manned by a barista).
Many guests opt to eat a full hot meal in the lounge, then sleep on the plane (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
To handle the extra load, a new free wi-fi system is in place.
There will be 14 of Cathay’s mod-yet-cozy Solus chairs in the new space- up from the current 3 (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
The extra space is definitely needed as airlines play musical lounges over the next few years– and share space with Cathay.
Currently, business and first class flyers on Etihad’s daily nonstop to Abu Dhabi use the Cathay lounge in the early morning hours. Around midday, the lounge is primarily populated by those on Cathay’s 1 pm departure to Hong Kong, as well as a few passengers from Alaska Airlines, which lost its lounge to construction in Terminal 1.
Later in the day the Cathay lounge takes in the overflow Oneworld partner British Airways, its lounge now straining for space due its new A380 flight with 111 biz and first class seats. (Also, BA’s lounge is due for closure and renovation later this winter). And from about 9 pm until 1 am, the lounge hosts Cathay passengers traveling on its 1 am departure to Hong Kong– as well as overflow from the JAL lounge.
Won Ton soup from the noodle bar. The perfect pre-flight meal! (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
And although no decision has been made, we’ve heard that QANTAS is sniffing around for lounge space at SFO when its new Boeing 747 SFO-Sydney nonstops arrive in late December. I’m betting that QANTAS will squeeze in the barely used Emirates lounge due to their partnership. But stay tuned…
Have you had a chance to visit Cathay’s lounge at SFO or elsewhere? Did you try the noodles? What did you think? Please leave your comments below.
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Strike Singapore Airlines from my preferred carrier list, I would need 50k Elite Miles to get Krisflyer Elite Gold Membership required for lounge access. I guess I don’t really have any options if I only fly about 30k miles a year to SE Asia and want lounge access outside of using miles to pay for it. I loved flying into Hong Kong on Cathay at 6am and hitting the lounge to shower and have breakfast and then go on to my next leg to Manila. I’ll have to pay miles to get that same access now.. 🙁
I’m glad that Cathay is doubling the space in it’s SFO lounge but at the same time many of us that are members of Marco Polo Club are going to be left out of that bigger lounge because changes to Marco Polo Club points accrual. Under the old system I was able to gain Silver Status (30k miles), which got me access to the lounges with two round trips tickets to South East Asia at 15 thousand miles on Economy. Under the new system to get 300 points (Silver) I will now have to book three round trip Economy tickets (Y,B,H,K) at 15k miles each to get to the 300 points required for Silver Status. Cathay has done great things for it’s Economy passengers recently, such as removing those god awful fixed “Shell” seating that they had for years but these changes to Marco Polo Club mileage accrual will remove many from Silver status and club lounge access. Because of these changes, I’ll now be looking at Singapore Airlines as my preferred carrier to South East Asia.
It moved downstairs– chris
What lounge will Air France/KLM use now they gave up their spot to CX.
Was recently in the CX lounge at SFO. It was a zoo. I was on the 1am departure, but on several days a week, CX also has a 1:30am departure, effectively doubling the demand at that time. The new space will be a welcome addition.