Hong Kong airlines business class

[dean]

I just saw a “mistake fare” on Facebook, for LAX to BKK for next March on Hong Kong airlines. For business class, it was $666 round trip.  I have until the end of the day on the 18th to cancel with no penalties.  There is also a chance that the airline will cancel the mistake fare.  I’ve never flown Hong Kong airlines and have not flown through Hong Kong.  I hated flying through Shanghai my last two trips.  Is Hong Kong any better?  I’m hoping that Hong Kong airlines is a better quality airline than China Eastern (who I’m suing over the “lost bag”)   I’m sure at the price that I paid that business class is worth it but has anyone flown it and could give me their observations?  Is it worth it to schedule a 1 day layover in Hong Kong, since I’ve never been there?

[radioman]

I can't comment on Hong Kong Airlines, other than it's a fairly new player but seems to be positioning itself above the bottom rung tour group cattle shippers that predominate. That said I'm sure they ship plenty of cattle.

Hong Kong on the other hand is still a great place to visit and if you've never been then a day is going to be a bit of a shame. The airport is on an island away from the main populated areas of Hong Kong and it takes approximately 40 minutes by high speed train to reach the city Kowloon station, another 5 minutes or so to reach the station on Hong Kong island. Taxis and shuttle buses to all the major hotel are available at the stations.

It's changed a lot over the years but a night or two in HK before and after spending anytime in mainland China is for me a must, just to get back to some relative sanity.

Leaving Hong Kong, again take the train where you can check in,leave your bag and get your boarding pass just as you would at the airport then get on the train. Be sure to buy a return ticket on arrival.

Overall the airport is on a different level to anywhere else in China, or East Asia for that matter, the only other places similar would be Narita, Incheon and Singapore.

 

[buffalo_bill]

Mr dean,

I suggest you register on a website called flyertalk and search for Hongkong Airlines which will make you an expert in no time. Usually the airlines cancel aforementioned errorfares once somebody finds out what they have done. To spend a day in HKG no prompremm .

 

[dean]

The CEO of Hong Kong airlines was nice enough to honor the mistake fare tickets.  Once I saw the mistake fare on Facebook, I went over to Flyertalk and members were posting at an average of one post every 3 minutes over a 7 hour hour period.  The concensus was that Hong Kong airlines would not honor the fare, so that shows how much most of them know.  This ticket gives me less incentive to try to rent out my house.  However, we have a second studio house in an orchard outside of Chiangmai which, while small, will be alright for a two week’s stay.  I just hope that the Chinese running the Hong Kong airport aren’t like the pricks that run the airport in Shanghai.

[buffalo_bill]

Congratulation, although there is no way to "know" what happens to an errorfare once it has been published everywhere. Usually they appear on codeshare flights when somebody misinterprets something that the actually flying company offers.

Flyertalk is one of the great assembly points of bullshit worldwide which is why I call them liartalk.

[radioman]

For the most part the 'Chinese' running Hong Kong would be utterly dismayed to face any comparison with their mainland counterparts. Japan, Korea and Singapore are their peers and relative competition whilst Beijing and Shanghai are more akin to Dhaka, Mumbai, or Manila.

 

[buffalo_bill]

Mr radioman,

in defense of PVG airport staff I may officially publish here that in February of this very year 2018 I found myself stranded within a crowd of an estimated 200.000 Chinese citizen struggling to get through security at about 05:00 in the morning . I did approach a Chinese official in a blue uniform explaining that I had no intention to ask for a favour of any kind but if he knew an alternative to pass security in a somewhat more elegant way he accompanied myself  to a counter for maybe members of the Long March or appointed enemies of Donald Trump and I got through in no time. Dealing with them Chinese in uniforms leads into nothing if they think you do not respect them. Be wise and dress well.

[radioman]

Haha, yes, it can indeed help, and no matter the scenario always be beyond polite and, most important, speak in a hushed voice, even whilst the tenor of your message would be to murder the stinking shit and his/her entire family for being such ignorant and arrogant twats. Do this at low volume and with a big smile . I would hazard that in the case of your queue bypassing said 'official' might have just been graced by favours bestowed by his mistress in an oral fashion.

Speaking of immigration queues I'm always reminded of the situation where I was entering a country on the sub-continent with a colleague. Though formerly a British colony it has subsequently developed a sort of super bureaucracy where every detail is hyper managed and verified, to no purpose and often with impressively large amounts of incompetence. There are a few of these. Seeing the large queue at the 'foreigner' entry my colleague decided we should instead join the queue for locals which was much much shorter.  On seeing this, an otherwise idle official, short and gruff but with a uniform, and a hat, rapidly approached us with some significant arm gestures. Said official appeared to have an odd facial colour that was a virulent shade found when something brown is fast becoming something violet. In a quite amusing and lilting form of English accompanied by a large amount of head wobbling he informed us as sternly as anyone of such stature, appearance and ill fitting garb could that we were in the wrong bloody queue and that the queue for foreigners was several aisles down. My colleague, a man known for his very English coolness calmly responded that, rather than foreigners we were in fact English and it was in fact he who was Johnny foreigner. I've never seen blood vessels explode but I think its accompanied by a large amount of non-English gobbledegook. We passed through the local queue with no further distractions.