Cathay Pacific in Economy with Kids: New York City to Hong Kong
Are you flying on Cathay Pacific in economy with your kids and want to know what to expect?
My kids and I flew on 4 long-haul Cathay Pacific flights in September and October of 2025. As an American living in Australia, I am no stranger to long-haul flights. I thought I had the pattern down, but then Cathay Pacific showed me that they are unlike other airlines.
Usually, we fly from Brisbane or Sydney to California, either Los Angeles or San Francisco. I buy the cheapest flight at the best time. Then, we fly to the East Coast to see my family in Florida.
This time, we flew to New York City and back with a layover in Hong Kong.
I figured the flight time may be longer, but with fewer layovers, there was less chance of a delay.
I am the kind of person who likes to be prepared on flights. What kind of meals and snacks should we expect? How often are we being fed?
I want to know what the entertainment will be like. I want to know what amenities are provided.
If you also want to know what to expect on a Cathay Pacific flight, specifically in economy class with kids, keep reading.
Cathay Pacific Economy Seating
The seating on the plane was 3-3-3, and we chose to sit in 3 seats near the window. I prefer having a window seat when traveling alone with my kids. I don’t mind moving to let them out.
When we got to our seats, they each had a pillow, blanket, bottle of water, and a menu. There were headphones in the seat pocket.
On Board Entertainment
One thing that stayed consistent on all 4 Cathay Pacific long-haul flights was the on-board entertainment.
There are touch screens in the backs of the chairs.
You can set up kids’ mode, but my kids are 10 and 11 and generally set it up themselves when they want to easily find shows and movies to watch. They tend to turn it off to play games.
There is a wide variety of TV shows, movies, games, and audio. Both Western and Asian entertainment is available. There are sections for Indian cinema, European cinema, movies made in Hong Kong, etc.
My family loves the game 2048, but this flight had tons of great games, including Pac-Man, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Tetris, and Solitaire.
Cathay Pacific Menu
One thing I love about Cathay Pacific is that they give you a menu at the beginning of the flight, letting you know what food is available.
For the flight from New York JFK to Hong Kong, leaving at 10 am NYC time, we were served lunch and dinner.
The back of the menu included snacks, which this time were cup noodles, fruit, and galley snacks.
I was a bit disappointed to see that we would not be getting Hong Kong egg tarts as we did on the route from Hong Kong to New York, but I thought maybe we would get them on the flight leaving Hong Kong. We didn’t.
Lunch Meal Service
Our flight took off 20 minutes late, and less than 20 minutes after that, the kids’ meals were served.
Special meals are always served first, no matter the airline.
The kids got breaded chicken with mashed potatoes and mixed veggies as their main meal. The meal included a bowtie pasta salad, a roll with butter, dark chocolate mousse, a mini Twix candy bar, and a box of apple juice.
Slightly more than 30 minutes later, the standard meal service began, along with the drink service.
Each standard meal included a potato salad with smoked salmon, a roll with butter, cheese & crackers, and an ice cream bar.
We had 3 options for the main meal:
- Braised beef with pickled mustard greens and steamed jasmine rice
- Braised chicken thigh and red peppers with scallion mashed potatoes
- Penne pasta with parmesan cream sauce and peas
My daughter asked me to share with her, and she picked the pasta. I likely would have chosen chicken, as I had tried both pasta and chicken on my last 2 Cathay Pacific flights and much preferred the chicken.
Thankfully, this pasta meal was better than the one I tried from Brisbane to Hong Kong.
My son barely eats any of the airplane meals, despite getting a kids’ meal. I always give him my ice cream, but he didn’t eat much of that either, as it was very melty from being put on the hot main entree while serving.
An hour after lunch service, trays were cleared, and coffee and tea were offered. The lights were dimmed 40 minutes later.
Galley Snacks and Drinks
One thing I really like about Cathay Pacific is that they offer snacks you can get when you want them.
The menu on this flight said that there would be cup noodles, fruit, and galley snacks.
I wish the menu mentioned the times of the meals, as I got it wrong on the last flight and had my kids eat cup noodles right before the meal service because I thought the meal service was hours off. Usually, on flights to the US, there is meal service at the beginning of the journey and again at the end. If the flight is long enough, there is a substantial snack in the middle.
This is not the case with Cathay Pacific.
My daughter and I walked around and found the galley snacks. Our options were palmiers, peanuts, chocolate, pretzels, and gummy bears. We had seen the same options on our last flight.
This time, we also found self-serve drinks, though they were only on one side of the plane.
I asked for fruit and was told they didn’t have any. I asked for the time of the next meal service, and as it was in the middle of the flight, we decided to wait until the end of the flight for the cup noodles.
Later, on another walk, the flight attendant recognized me and gave me 2 bananas that she said she had saved for my daughter and me after realizing they had fruit.
We never got the cup noodles as the galley curtains were closed after dinner service. I am not sure if we could have asked for them or not, but we were fine without any more food.
Dinner Meal Service
The lights started to come on around 5:50 NYC time, about 7 and a half hours into the flight.
Kids’ meals and all special meals were served immediately.
The kids’ meal was cheesy pasta with tomato sauce and tomatoes. It came with fruit, rice pudding, a roll with butter, and a chocolate milk.
Standard meal and drink service started 25 minutes later.
The standard meal included fruit, a roll with butter, rice pudding, and the choice between 2 main meals.
We could opt for stir-fried chicken with ginger scallion sauce and jasmine rice or chili pulled pork with herb orzo pasta.
I don’t eat pork, so the choice was easy.
After the meal, the lights were dimmed again, and nothing else was served. We landed at 1:10 am NYC time, 15 hours after taking off.
It was early afternoon in Hong Kong, where we would be staying at the airport hotel until our flight to Brisbane the next day.
How to Survive a Long Haul with Kids
At this point, I must be an expert at surviving a long-haul flight with kids in economy.
According to the internet, a long-haul flight is anything over 6 or 7 hours (and if you don’t hear 6-7 in your head, do you even have kids?)
While flying economy on a 15-hour flight is never easy, there are some items I suggest for making the flight just a bit better.
- a foot hammock
- a heat pack as recommended by my pilates teacher. I never want to travel without one.
- headphones, of course, and next time I hope to have noise-cancelling headphones, as this was the loudest flight.
- a sleep mask, though I have yet to find one I like
- a good neck pillow
- Chapstick
- hair ties
- snacks & water
This is the first flight where I got my daughter compression socks, and she said they really helped. I’ve never used them.
We don’t bring a lot to do as we rely on the TV. My son’s headphones broke on one flight, but Cathay Pacific offers free headphones, so he took mine, and I used theirs.
Otherwise, we all bring a book to read at the airport, and the kids usually have an activity book. That’s it, we like to travel as light as possible.
I am not bringing my skin care routine to complete on the plane.
When possible, we spend the night in a hotel partway through the trip. This time, we stayed at the Regal Airport Hotel in Hong Kong.
Wrap-Up
This was my 3rd long-haul flight with Cathay Pacific. Originally, I had heard that their economy class is spacious, but that is not the case.
It’s fine, but I wouldn’t call it spacious.
I really like how you get a menu of all the meals and snacks at the beginning of the flight. The only way that would be better is if we got it before the flight so that we could prepare. I would also like to know the approximate times of each meal in advance.
On the Hong Kong to New York City flight, both ways, we had 2 meals and then nothing for the last 6 or so hours of the flight.
It seems strange to wake everyone up to eat and then dim the lights again. We were awake anyway, but I would have been irritated to be woken up. I would have also been irritated to miss a meal.
All in all, I am happy with the in-flight entertainment, the variety of meal options, and the ability to get snacks as wanted (though that is not always the case on Cathay Pacific).
If you want to read about other Cathay Pacific flights, they all have slight differences.
Fun Things to Do in Hong Kong with Kids
Though we did not spend time in Hong Kong after this flight, we did enjoy our stay in the Regal Airport Hotel.
We visited Hong Kong almost a year prior, and here are some of the things my kids enjoyed.
NYC with Kids
I lived in NYC for years, and it is where my oldest was born. While we live on the other side of the world now, we go back as often as possible. Here are a few favorites.
Pin for Later
