Category: Hong Kong Airlines

Hong Kong Airlines Ends Subpar Auckland Service

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Hong Kong Airlines has long been investing in their hard product, and they’ve been getting better and better. I had the chance to fly them around Easter last year, and thought they were solid, if not fantastic. Hong Kong Airlines has also been expanding rather nicely over the past couple of years, and now flies to destinations on the West Coast such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vancouver. Rumour is that they’ll start flying to New York soon, which I’d really look forward to.

Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A330 Business Class Cabin

While most of Hong Kong Airlines’ routes afford a quite comfortable product, there’s one route that features a product that has, unfortunately, fallen behind the times. Hong Kong Airlines currently runs one of their oldest planes to Auckland, New Zealand, and they had no plans to upgrade their product on the route, which made me quite curious.

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YASS – Hong Kong Airlines’ New Economy Meals Show They Understand Their Brand

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I love good airline branding, as it represents what I love about airlines. Airlines have – or are at least supposed to have the unique opportunity to show a certain country’s culture off to its passengers. This makes flying fifth-freedom flights or one-stop itineraries especially fun (say, flying Egyptair from Hong Kong to Bangkok or Qatar Airways from Hong Kong to Munich through Doha), as it exposes you to a culture that you otherwise wouldn’t be visiting.

Airlines have many opportunities to do this – through their cabin design, their service elements, and their food. Obviously there are more opportunities to do this in premium cabins than in economy, but there’s a huge opportunity for airlines to potentially get creative in economy, which most airlines waste. Specifically, that’s through food.

On Tuesday Hong Kong Airlines invited me to have a look at their new economy menu. My expectations weren’t high, but I quickly realised that their new economy class catering is exactly what I’m looking for with airline maximising their culture immersion opportunities.

Here are the Hong Kong options on offer:

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Comparing Cathay Pacific and Hong Kong Airlines’ A350 Business Class Seat

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Last month Hong Kong Airlines introduced their new A350 business class product, which I had the chance to tour and extensively write about. Hong Kong Airlines’ newest A350s all feature reverse herringbone seats in business class, which Cathay Pacific has operated on a majority of their longhaul fleet since 2011 (including on their A350s, even though they evolved their reverse herringbone seat in 2016). Reverse herringbone seats are my favourite business class configuration out there, due to the smart balance between privacy, comfort, and storage, so you’ll have a comfortable flight either way.

However, as you’d expect, having installed this seat quite late in the game, there are definitely many features to Hong Kong Airlines’ reverse herringbone seat on their newest A350s that differ from what you’d find on Cathay Pacific.

Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A350 Business Class Cabin

IMG_0580Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Cabin

I thought I’d put these two seats head-to-head, and decide which seat is more comfortable for a longhaul flight. Both of these seats will be deployed on flights of over 12 hours, so nuances in seat design can really catapult your experience in a business class product on such a long flight.

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VIDEO + GIVEAWAY: Hong Kong Airlines’ New A350 (My New YouTube Channel)

~ Alvin ~ 2 Comments

As you know, last Tuesday I had the amazing opportunity to visit Hong Kong Airlines’ newest A350. While they currently fly four A350s, those were leased after Azul Airlines cancelled their orders, so they’re delivered with staggered seats. Meanwhile, Hong Kong Airlines’ newest Airbus A350s are delivered with reverse herringbone seats, and the economy class seat is also different from what they have on their current four.

Today I released a video detailing my time in Hong Kong Airlines’ newest A350, including footage of their new cabins, as well as interviews from CMO Mr. George Liu, General Manager of Inflight Services Mr. Chris Birt, as well as General Manager of Social Media Mr. Dennis Owen (he’s also a great friend, since I knew him back when he was working at Cathay Pacific). Thanks to them, as well as the airline’s Communications Manager Ms. Tracey Kwong, for making everything happen.

The video’s slightly thrown together, but I wholeheartedly recommend you at least skim through some of the exclusive footage of their new cabins, which I was lucky enough to get:

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Up Close With Hong Kong Airlines’ New A350 Economy Seat

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Yesterday I got to tour one of Hong Kong Airlines’ own Airbus A350s. While Hong Kong Airlines currently already flies four A350s, they were meant to be delivered to Azul, so feature a different onboard product. So the rest of Hong Kong’s 21 A350s from hereon out will be delivered with a different product to the one on the first four.

The biggest hype was surrounding the business class product, so yesterday I gave an extensive tour of the airline’s new business class product. However, I realised that the economy class product was also different from what the airline offers on their other A350s, so I thought I’d be bereft in my duty not to check them out as well.

Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A350 Economy Cabin

So, how is Hong Kong Airlines’ newest A350 economy class product?

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Hong Kong Airlines’ NEW A350 Business Class

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Today I had the chance to have a look at Hong Kong Airlines’ new A350 business class product. I’ve flown Hong Kong Airlines’ A330 with their staggered business class configuration, as well as their A330 with their ex-Singapore Airlines business class configuration. Hong Kong Airlines has a ton of different business class configurations, and this is the one that they’ve been planning to introduce on all of their future longhaul aircraft since 2016.

Reverse herringbone seats are some of my favourite seats in the industry – I actually prefer them to Apex Suites due to the extra storage space. I’m glad to say that Hong Kong Airlines’ newest A350s have a very nice iteration of reverse herringbone seats.

Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A350 Business Class 

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Hong Kong Airlines Will Stop Flying To Miyazaki, Japan

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This quick update is one that I found kind of sad. Hong Kong Airlines flies to many regional destinations around East Asia, and they fly to many destinations in Japan that the Cathay Pacific group doesn’t. While Hong Kong Airlines doesn’t fly to Fukuoka, they fly to Kagoshima and Miyazaki, both of which are pretty big tourist cities in Kyushu. They also fly to Yonago and Okayama, which no other airline flies to.

Hong Kong Airlines isn’t worried about experimenting newer routes with lower fares and lower frequencies, whereas Cathay Dragon strives for consistency, so they won’t launch a route until they’re sure they can fly it at least four or five times a week. Unfortunately this means that there’s less demand for some of the routes that they fly. In the case of their two Kyushu flights this time there’s good news and bad news.

Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A320 Taking Off Hong Kong Airport

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5 Of The World’s Best Business Class Hub Lounges

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Over the past few years I’ve been incredibly lucky to try out quite a few business class products, and with that entailed going to their hub business class lounges as well. I’ve been to a range of lounges and come out with a variety of impressions, and find it such an exciting addition to the airport experience, especially when airlines put effort into it.

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Last year I listed the top 10 things that I look for in an airline lounge. Many airline lounges I know feature a large number, if not all, of these features in their own quirky variations. The five lounges featured below all have at least a majority of these features.

Too many times over the past few years, I’ve come out of a lounge thinking “hmm, this could potentially be one of the best in the world”. I haven’t visited all the business class lounges that I believe would make this list, though I don’t have plans to visit any of them in the near future. For that reason, here are my five favourite business class hub lounges, and I’ll share lounges that I believe potentially make the list as well.

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Cathay Pacific vs. Hong Kong Airlines – Who Has The Better Business Class Product?

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I’m a regular flyer on Cathay Pacific, which has long been known to be Hong Kong’s better airline. They’ve been awarded a Skytrax five-star rating since these rankings existed, and in particular, their business class product has won numerous awards.

Meanwhile, in 2016 Hong Kong Airlines began to take advantage of the opening of the new midfield terminal and majorly up their game, where they’ve made vast improvements to their branding, as well as minor improvements to their product. I recently had the chance to fly them for the first time, where many of these improvements were evident.

Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A350 Hong Kong Airport

I’d like to do a side-by-side comparison of Hong Kong Airlines and Cathay Pacific’s business class products. So, which airline is better?

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Review: Hong Kong Airlines A330 Regional Business Class Osaka to Hong Kong

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Introduction: Feaster Easter in Japan
Hong Kong Airlines Club Bauhinia Lounge Hong Kong Airport
Hong Kong Airlines Club Autus Lounge Hong Kong Airport
Hong Kong Airlines A330 Business Class Hong Kong to Osaka
Hilton Osaka Executive Suite
Yumesenkei Amahara Sumoto Wa-Yo Room
Yumesenkei Amahara Sumoto Dining
Asuka Lounge Osaka Kansai Airport
Hong Kong Airlines A330 Regional Business Class Osaka to Hong Kong

Today we were flying one of Hong Kong Airlines’ ex-Singapore Airlines A330s, featuring an angled flat business class product. On the outbound I reviewed Hong Kong Airlines’ longhaul business class hard product, which almost all of their longhaul routes feature, as well as a large number of the airline’s shorthaul routes. However, as the rate of increase of the airline’s routes exceeded the rate of which their A330s were being delivered, Hong Kong Airlines had to lease some A330s from Singapore Airlines, which operate exclusively regionally. (Hong Kong Airlines also has a few other types of business class seat on their A330-200s.)

Despite the fact that these A330s feature an inferior product, they’re actually less dense than the airline’s longhaul A330s. These A330s feature 30 seats between doors 1 and 2, whereas their longhaul A330s feature 32 seats within the same space.

Our A330 was parked at gate 5, and I had a clear view of our aircraft home from the Wing Express, the “people-mover” taking me to our gate area.

Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A330 Osaka Kansai Airport

Once a boarding call was made at the Asuka Lounge, I made a beeline to the gate, where they were finishing up boarding for the infirm. Due to the sheer amount of families traveling to Osaka for leisure during Easter holidays, there were quite a few wheelchairs for the ground crew to fold up. However, the gate agents were efficient, and my boarding pass was scanned shortly after. Excitedly I made my way down the jetbridge towards door L1.

Before I get into the flight, here’s a video review (it focuses mainly on my outbound flight, so the below video will automatically only play from when I start talking about the return flight):

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