Review: Cathay Pacific lounge, Beijing

There’s no mistaking the importance of Beijing to Cathay Pacific, and the city’s premier Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) boasts a Cathay ‘flagship’ lounge to reflect the city’s status.

Part of a trio of lounges on the Chinese mainland – you’ll find similar outposts at Shanghai and Shenzhen/Shekou – it shares that same warm residential vibe which has become Cathay’s signature in Hong Kong, across Asia, and also at London, Vancouver and soon New York.

This is not a massive lounge, but it shows how a thoughtful approach to design can unlock the potential of this long, narrow footprint, creating a variety of distinct areas where travellers can find their own space to relax.

Location

In the cavernous halls of Terminal 3E, the Cathay Pacific lounge is easy to miss.

Tucked away on the upper mezzanine level, between gates E20 and E21, its presence is almost subtle and understated.

Opening hours & access

Cathay Pacific’s Beijing lounge is open almost around the clock, to suit Cathay’s packed schedule of up to seven daily flights – spanning from 3am to 8pm – making the four-hour dash to Hong Kong.

(And those flights are on a range of aircraft, from the single-aisle A321neo to the regional A330 workhorse and the big-gun Boeing 777 with first class.)

The lounge rolls out the welcome mat to the following travellers:

• first and business class passengers on Cathay Pacific and Oneworld member airlines
• Cathay Diamond, Gold and Silver members (yes, lounge access is a perk of Cathay’s entry-level elite status)
• Oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members

Exploring Cathay Pacific’s Beijing lounge

Beyond the reception area and discrete luggage lockers, Cathay’s Beijing lounge fans out into two wings, each with their own ‘terrace’ treatment facing out to the runway.

This helps flood the lounge with natural light, and Cathay has overhauled the air conditioning system so that guests are no longer subject to the extremes of hot and cold which were a drawback of the original lounge.

Turn right from reception, and you’ll discover the quietest part of the lounge.

This includes a nook called the Teahouse, where you can sample speciality Jing teas sourced from regions across China for their unique origin and flavour profiles.

The delightfully considered and methodical tea service encourages you to slow your own pace and ease into the lounge experience, dropping back a few gears from the usual pre-flight rush.

I chose the Phoenix Oolong tea from Guangdong – a floral, fruity blend layered with peach, orchid, and honey notes – and added the obligatory black sesame cookie.

Adjacent to the Teahouse is a self-serve area for snacks and drinks (including Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée Brut Champagne).

Stretching beyond this, as the terrace narrows, are a handful of wide chairs ideal for relaxing or working.

Each has an individual LED reading light plus several power options, including wireless charging built into the table.

Cleverly squared away behind the Solo chairs is a ‘sitting room’.

This is the perfect spot where groups or solo travellers can take time out with that cup of tea.

If you’re after something more substantial, head to the other wing of the lounge, back past the reception.

The spacious open-ceiling Food Hall balcony offers self-serve Asian and international dishes plus a generous variety of light bites.

When I visited, the selection included ratatouille, xiao long bao and siu mai, panini and banh mi, focaccia, glutinous rice cakes, soup, salads, cold cuts, slices of pear tart, and tubs of Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

But the highlight of dining at the Beijing lounge is Cathay’s iconic Noodle Bar, which sits at the far end of the Food Hall.

In addition to familiar freshly-prepared wonton and dan dan noodles, the Noodle Bar also serves regional specialities such as rich and savoury Beijing bean paste noodles, steamed custard egg buns and steamed corn.

With your appetite sated, retire to the ‘living room’ space, just off the other end of the Food Hall.

Just ahead of this, behind frosted glass doors, is a reserved VIP space.

I couldn’t help but reflect that despite its compact size, this lounge is incredibly well appointed – it has pretty much everything you would expect from a regional Cathay lounge, with the exception of showers (and for coffee snobs like me, a barista pulling espresso shots).

Something else to appreciate: power outlets are pretty much everywhere you’d want them to be, even under those high stone benchtops in the dining room.

Between between chairs and sofas, a slide-out drawer on Cathay’s clever side tables (which I would love to have in my apartment) contains high-power USB-A and USB-C sockets plus two types of AC outlets.

Wireless charging points are also embedded into the communal dining benches, although the lack of guides such as raised rubber markings can make it frustrating to properly position your phone at just the right point.

The sole let-down in all of this was connecting to Wi-Fi.

In addition to the usual Wi-Fi password, the network login screen requires your mobile phone number so it can send a separate login code via text – and once connected, the speed was a dismal 15Mbps even when the lounge was almost empty.

Also read: Here is Cathay Pacific’s new A330 Aria Studio business class

David Flynn travelled to Beijing as a guest of Cathay Pacific.