On this Boeing 777-300, the layout is 2-3-2 (one seat fewer in each row than premium economy), and the seats have surprisingly held their comfort level quite well, particularly in the Z-position when reclining. Unusually for your 6’3” reporter, the legrest supported my legs properly rather than hitting me either behind the knees or in the Achilles tendon, and I enjoyed relaxing with a movie. I was, however, struck by the necessity for airlines not to build hard product choices around any one period of personal entertainment devices: not only was the round iPod eXport socket still present (alongside a low-powered USB outlet), the centrally located mobile phone holders were far too small for modern devices, looking like they could just about hold an iPhone 5, but not much more. It really surprised me how out of date a cabin without mood-lighting feels these days, though. The beige cabin lighting felt truly ancient, as if I was living through a sepia filter.

The crew on board were very pleasant but were stretched by the size of the cabin, particularly around offering drinks refills during the dinner service. As Cathay rethinks its dining concept, it needs to figure out how to solve that: is it by dedicating specific crew to a drinks run? Larger or supplementary pours? And in general, there’s this weird thing with Cathay Pacific service where every time I board one of their flights the crew seem to be very numerous yet frantically active moving things around the galley or dashing between cabins without paying attention to passengers on the way who might like their coat hung up or a welcome drink. I don’t seem to be the only one who notices this, and I’m not sure why it is, but it also represents an area for improvement by the airline.

Cathay’s inflight meal was disappointing. The highlight was the chilled seafood starter and the soba noodles, but the main course was very poor. Not only did all but one option run out, the remaining doggy-dish western chicken was cold by the time it reached my seat in the last row, and even the fresh-from-the-oven one the crew brought after I mentioned it was deeply boring. Having launched its new long-haul dining programme, Cathay needs to figure out how to bring its medium-haul service up to snuff. Highlights, however, were the availability of non-alcoholic beverages on the flight, with the Cathay Delight kiwi mocktail making a welcome appearance alongside the option of coconut water, a trendy but particularly delicious choice in the air.

Cathay has done some upgrading work on the inflight entertainment product, notably with what was a very quickly reacting Panasonic eX2 IFE system, branded by the airline as StudioCX, although the screen quality wasn’t superb. As usual, it was mostly the general Hollywood fare, and I enjoyed Crazy Rich Asians with dinner. But Cathay needs to figure out what kind of airline it is when it comes to the incessant shilling of duty-free. On the IFE, an advert adjacent to the “next” button impeded use, the pre-show ads were excessive. An ad was also handed out with the landing card like junk mail, crew wandered through the cabin waving physical signs and calling out “ duty-free”, and my movie was so frequently interrupted with trilingual English-Cantonese-Japanese spruiks for inflight shopping that I missed entire scenes. Unfortunately, no inflight Internet was available.

The airline is supposedly well advanced in its search for its next-generation regional business class seat, but this product will be sticking around for a while. I think the question for most passengers is: if there’s a better-timed flight for a short leg, should I take this or take an inconvenient flight on one of the “strategically underutilized” long-haul aircraft. In my view, for this flight blocked at 3h30, it was just about fine. Much longer than that, though, or at a time of day when I really fancied a few hours’ sleep in a flatbed, and I’d pick the better seats. John Walton was a guest of Cathay Pacific, but as ever all editorial observations are his own.