I was privileged to fly international first class on three One World airlines this Fall:  Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways, and British Airways.  Yes all three were wonderful, but which one rises to the top as the best?

Details like seat pitch, luggage storage space, and boarding ease are important in the village called economy class, but certainly not in first class.   In first class, the ratings include caviar service, pajama comfort, and how perfectly chilled the Krug is.   As such, I picked 11 first class criteria with which to evaluate each airlines.  Before I get to the winners in each category, I provide a summary of the flights.

(All photos were taken by or of me).

 

 

The Flights

Cathay Pacific CX 811

  • Route:  Boston to Hong Kong
  • Flight duration (scheduled): 15 hrs 25 min
  • Departure time:  1:37 am
  • Arrival time: 4:30 am (40 min early)
  • Equipment: 777-300ER (4 classes)
  • Seat:  1A

See detailed review:  Cathay Pacific International First Class Review

Qatar Airways QR 833

  • Route:  Bangkok to Doha, Qatar
  • Flight duration: 7 hrs 25 min
  • Departure time:  19:30 (7:30 PM)
  • Arrival time: 22:55 (10:55 PM on time)
  • Equipment: A380 (3 classes)
  • Seat:  2F

See detailed review: Qatar Airways International First Class Review

British Airways BA 122

  • Route:  Doha, Qatar to London Heathrow
  • Flight duration: 7 hrs 35 min
  • Departure time:  8:55 AM
  • Arrival time: 13:30 (1:30 PM on time)
  • Equipment: 777-200 (4 classes)
  • Seat:  2A

See detailed review: British Airways International First Class Review

First Class Criteria

The first set of criteria falls under the category of “soft product” as it is primarily the services offered:

Best Caviar Service

Both Cathay Pacific and Qatar offer lovely caviar service with all the proper garnishes, including a mother-of-pearl spoon which of course is the only appropriate utensil for caviar.  The edge goes to Cathay for the overall quality and taste.  Category winner is Cathay Pacific.

Cathay Pacific Caviar Service
Cathay Pacific Caviar Service….Notice the mother-of-pearl spoon to the left of the caviar.

Best Arabic Coffee and Dates Service

Both Qatar and British Airways offer an Arabic Coffee and Date service to start the flight.  Qatar’s dates where in sealed plastic packaging which just sort of took away from the moment.  Category winner is British Airways.

British Airways Arabic Coffee and Dates
British Airways Arabic Coffee and Date Service…..such a nice way to start a flight.

 

Best Champagne/Wine/Bar Service

All three offered an extensive and high-end wine and bar list each with their own highlights: Krug Grande Cuvee, Johnnie Walker Blue, Tesseron Lot 76 Tradition Cognac, and Chateau Leoville Poyferre Saint-Julien 2008 ($120 Bordeaux that made me emotional in its beauty), and so much more.

Based on the breadth of the high-quality offering, the category winner is Qatar.

Best Food

All three airlines offer dine-anytime with any combination of food from their extensive menus.  All three airlines had tasty and classy first class food, and never did they run out of anything I asked for.

There were certainly highlights on all three airlines.  For example, I had a Harira soup (a savory lentil and chickpea soup cooked in a lamb broth) on British Airways that was just over the top delicious.  And the ice cream service on Qatar…well enough said there.

Prior to my flight, I had read such mixed reviews about Cathay Pacific’s food. I had an honest conversation about the food with the lead attendant and she advised that being a Chinese airline their best food was their Chinese offerings (makes total sense) but she recommended trying both western and Chinese which I did.  Cathay’s western offerings were very nice and tasty.  Their Chinese offerings were equal to what I would expect at a highly-rated restaurant.  Category winner is Cathay Pacific.

Cathay Pacific Dim Sum
Cathay Pacific Dim Sum.  Shrimp and scallop; pork, shrimp, and mushroom; shrimp and chive; vegetable sticky rice.  Delicious.

Best Tea Service

As formal tea is such a British thing, if British Airways were not the best in this category, I would fear something was wrong with the world.  But the world is amazing as was British Airways’ tea service.  The Sencha green tea was very nice but the highlight were those warm scones with that heavenly clotted cream.  Mmmmmm so good.  And no tea would be complete without a glass of port, in this case a smooth Warre’s 2000 Colheita Tawney Port.  Category winner is British Airways.

British Airways Tea Service
British Airways wonderfully over-the-top formal tea.  I almost thought a string quartet was going to wonder the plane.

Best Pajamas

Cathay Pacific has wonderful and stylish pajamas that I would have love to worn at home – except they did not have any in my size (they only had large sizes left).  Qatar’s pajamas are warm, stylish, and comfortable as are British Airways.  However, British Airways pajamas have a fitted cut to them and breathe well.  Category winner is British Airways.

Qatar Airlines A380 Bathroom
Albeit I am wearing Qatar’s pajamas in this picture, British Airways are even better.  By the way, this picture is in Qatar’s first class, spacious bathroom (and the flowers are fresh).

Best Crew

Each member of each crew was professional, warm, helpful, friendly, hard working, and truly seemed to care about me and my experience.  I commend all of them and could easily call this category a tie.  But in the end, there was one little thing that stood out to me about the Cathay Pacific crew – they seemed so happy that I was so happy, the happiness was contagious.  Category winner is Cathay Pacific.

The next set of criteria fall are “hard product” – the airplane itself:

Best Airplane

Sorry Boeing, but an Airbus 380 and all its features including the air quality wins over a Boeing 777 for any flight.  Category winner is Qatar.

Best Seat/Bed/Suite

All three airlines have a well-designed and well appointed suite, each with different benefits and highlights.  Although Qatar’s is the least private, I found it to be the most comfortable with the biggest video screen and best features.  Category winner is Qatar.

Qatar Seat
Qatar’s A380 first class seat.  Enough said.

Best Bathrooms

British Airways first class bathroom is sadly a regular, cramped airplane bathroom.  Cathay Pacific’s bathroom is slightly larger with a nice sink.  Qatar’s bathroom is an event unto its own.  Category winner is Qatar.

Best On-board Bar

The Boeing 777 does not have an on-board bar (though it could), so Qatar automatically wins this category.  But the automatic win is not to take anything away from Qatar, because their bar is brilliant.  I had previously written about Emirates’ wonderful and tasty on-board bar which I am a huge fan of, and Qatar’s is even better.  Category winner is Qatar.

Qatar Airlines A380 Bar
Lets get this party started!  Lets get this disco dancing!  My new favorite bar at 40,000 feet!

Overall Best First Class

Believe me that I would be happy to fly international first class on any one of these airlines again, but which one rises to the top as the best?

Cathay Pacific and British Airways scored some strong points in the soft-product categories.  Clearly Qatar cleaned up in the hard-product categories but was it enough.

I do not think an amazing hard product like an A380 can ever make up for a mediocre soft product.  All three of these airlines had wonderful soft products with with their own strengths.  The A380 enables Qatar’s soft product to rise to new levels, therefore the best overall winner among these three airlines is Qatar Airways.

Lets make no mistake, I would be thrilled to fly any of these airlines again!!!  All are wonderful.

Have you flown any of these in international first class?  Let me know if your thoughts in the comment sections.  Any other comments or questions are welcome.