Santander

There is no way they would build it land-side.

QRC3288

I wonder if this is indication that SFO will be getting a third daily next year? Presumably they're not just building the lounge for the hell of it, but because they may have more flights than BA now at SFO. BA's two SFO-LHR flights depart at something like 4pm and 8pm in the evening. So CX right now with the noon and midnight departure don't put a huge strain on the lounge. A third flight in the middle, however....say CX does a flight departing SFO at like 6pm, so they would have a noon, 6pm and midnight flight....might give them reason to have their own lounge?

If CX did that, the ex-HKG departure would be presumably early evening as well, say like 7pm HK time.

Pure speculation here

eae

I hope you are right but it's not like there's a ton of empty space air-side in the A pier.

I wish they would just work with BA to update the exciting lounge instead.

bagold

"Cathay Pacific / The Club News

Lounges opening in San Francisco and Frankfurt this November


Cathay Pacific will open its first premium lounge in the United States in mid-November this year. Located on the fourth floor of the South departure hall at San Francisco International Terminal, the new lounge offers over 100 seats with abundant natural light and design elements inspired by our Hong Kong flagship lounges. The lounge features our signature “Noodle Bar,” as well as a variety of Western and Asian dining options."

Cannot figure out if this is before or after security? Must be after right?

garykung

I wish they have some sort of welcoming party for non-traveling MPC for that opening...

So I can go in and peak...

SFO777

Wow, this is great news. No more slumming it in the terrible BA lounge. ^

Likely just inside security with everyone else except BA...

goldengate

This indeed is great news... The current BA lounge is not good for CX's brand reputation... the first class lounge is like a glorified conference room and often the business lounge has more space /is nicer. Oh wait, that reminds me of The Wing, maybe it IS consistent with their brand! ha ha just joking.

Way to go CX!!

Santander

Ever been to the "fake" BA F lounge at JFK?
(real one is CR)

CX828

Its great to see CX expanding its worldwide lounge offerings. Its always good to have your own branded lounge as opposed to other carriers. It also usually means a better lounge!

Maybe we might see a 3rd daily HKG-SFO as someone has suggested.

Its also interesting to see that FRA will get a lounge. Could we see 10x weekly soon? It seems CX lounge offering is better in Europe as opposed to N.America. Europe now has CX lounge in CDG, LHR and FRA. This might be because partner airlines like BA dont have particularly good lounges due to the nature of their shorthaul operations. In N.America BA is flying longhaul so lounges are better and CX can use them. Just a thought.

With 4x daily into JFK, I think CX could open their own lounges, but perhaps they are happy with the quality of the BA lounge there.

Santander

The BA C lounge at JFK is one of the best international lounges in North America imo. It's just the F lounge (more like a OW Emerald/BA Gold lounge) which is a bit of an oddity. I'm happy with the BA lounge during the rare times I'm at JFK.

AZbba

perhaps it's because of competition with SQ on SFO-HKG as SQ has their own lounge at SFO right?

QRC3288

Alas, I'm skeptical CX cares much about the "quality" of the lounges in the way that we do. They indeed have standards to meet, but all the griping and nit-picking the small details is probably exclusive to those of us here on...

I think more important determinants to CX are probably a.) does the lounge have the capacity to serve the people entitled to use the lounge (BA's lounges at JFK are considerably larger than SFO, whose J+F lounge may not even be adequate if CX or BA introduces an additional flight that overlaps with one another), and b.) what is the situation with the partner airline with whom CX may be sharing the lounge with. At JFK, I suspect BA/Iberia still handle heaps more pax than CX does. At SFO, it seems to make sense CX would have their own lounge if they intend to have more flights at SFO, which would give them more pax throughput there than BA.

Why pay BA to use their average lounge when CX could, if flight #s increased, get good usage out of their own lounge at comparable cost using BA's, with the added benefit of having control over the branding (aka, having the noodle bar, etc., things that represent CX's differentiation in the market)? From a OW pax perspective, CX's Asian heritage definitely represents a differentiated lounge product versus the western-style AA/BA/QF offerings.

To me, this just seems like an obvious gesture towards preparing for another SFO flight. SFO is CX's North American (?) headquarters and there is no CX lounge at LAX, despite more frequencies than SFO. Even if you're a skeptic about this, the pending retirements of the 74As will mean at some point SFO gets a capacity downgrade (777) unless they add another flight. I just don't see that happening, especially with high pricing for SFO premium seats and high load factors. As new 777-300ER deliveries come in, presumably they'll be deploying them to either new destinations or added long-haul frequencies?

Frayed_Yak

So exciting...I'm looking forward to visiting it at the end of November

cxfan1960

I am thinking about returning to HKG this Thanksgiving week (~19 November). I hope to visit the new lounge.

I never expect too much from an outport lounge.

Grande Annee

Exciting news........I will be there next March. Would appreciate some pics for those of you visiting the new lounge before then