Hong Kong Airlines

Horrible customer service. They don’t honor refunds to their customers even when acknowledging that they are obliged to. This company needs to shut down. Don’t waste your money here.

I took advantage of the airline’s cheap J class ticket to fly this airline from Beijing to Taipei via Hong Kong and return. I got to say I am disappointed with the outdated website as I couldn’t view my bookings to make changes to my seats. The only way to do that is call the local office. Even so, the seat numbers for my booking and the online check-​in seat number is different, as a result, my originally assigned seat was changed! Hopefully this airline does something about it.
As for my flights, only 1 out of 4 was on time. Why? The Captain blamed it on the Airport Traffic Control, and that’s a common excuse if you ask me, strangelyI don’t see much problems with its competitor, Cathay Pacific. As for the inflight service, I was treated well and the meal that comes along on all 4 flights were good. I am quite lucky to experience the airline’s old and new J class cabin. The new J class was on the airline’s A330−300 and old J class cabin on the Airbus A330−200. The –300 series carries more passengers than the –200. Which product do I prefer? The staggering style cabin or the old traditional cabin. My answer: Old cabin. Why?
Privacy and more width space. The only advantage the newer cabin has is the IFE (in-​flight entertainment) system.
Unfortunately the IFE system wasn’t working on one of the sectors, at least crew was apologetic about it and the flight was a short 1 hour 20 mins, so not too bad.
Improvement can be made by focusing on the airline’s punctuality and cleaning the exterior of the aircraft, some of them are so dirty!
Overall, this airline offers decent J class product on both the Airbus A320 and A330.
Old J class cabin: A320, A330−200
New J class cabin: A330−200V and A330−300

I’ve flown with Hong Kong Airlines a few times. Last one was this weekend, return flight HK — Beijing, and it was as smooth as usual. Right on time on the outbound flight and a little earlier than scheduled on the inbound, which allowed me to take on the Airport Express and to be home an hour after the plane had landed. On my way to Beijing the aircraft was smaller than on the way back and the only entertainment onboard was a couple of magazines that are actually okay information wise (I noted a couple of restaurants to try out). I arrived really early at the airport and checked in in a matter of seconds. On board, the cabin crew has usually been very friendly and solicitous. I had asked for a gluten-​free meal (I always do when they give you the option… why would you not?) and, as I expected, first thing they do when I get to my seat is to make sure I’m the GFM customer and ask me which drink I want to have. Also, they serve especial meals before standard ones.
On my way back, again, all really smooth; I get to my seat, the crew distributes earphones, blankets, wet towels… and then somebody comes and makes sure I’m GF. The GF meals are okay — they are gluten free! It doesn’t sound exciting but actually, they aren’t too bad for plane food. I had an omelet for breakfast (see picture) when I flew in, and fish with veggies on my way back last night. Plus the sides: fruits /​veggies and prawns. All accompanied by GF breads which I didn’t touch. Unfortunately they serve margarine instead of butter…(why?). On this aircraft last night there was a screen incorporated in the front seat so there was a little bit of research on the music and movies’ list; nothing too exciting until… I clicked on their Europass button and found out they had one of my favorite singer’s albums! Whaaat? It made my day, and my weekend! if it wasn’t already made by the amount of experiences that I had collected in Beijing. I tried to keep it quite while I silently sang his songs as if I was at one of his concerts. I had a ‘I love you HK Airlines’ moment… The excitement lasted for a while, since an announcement was made that we were arriving earlier than expected.
I also had a not so good experience with them but it ended really well. I went to Hanoi with a friend and three days before flying they rescheduled our flight to a day later without offering alternatives, which meant our stay was a lot shorter and we had to replan everything again. So I called them and ask for a solution: they gave me three options and one of them was to rebook with another airline with no cost, on the same initial day but an hour earlier. Brilliant. Their customer service was great but they could have included this information in their notification email, to easy anxiety.
For me, overall, it’s excellent news when I fly with them… I know what I’m getting and it’s usually pretty good. Compared to low cost airlines in Europe… it goes from pretty good to great.

I took Hong Kong Airlines for the first and only time round-​trip between Hong Kong and Taipei a few months ago (May 2014). We were delayed on our arrival flight, which I wasn’t surprised about. Hong Kong Airlines is actually known for its delays, and my friend who had flown Hong Kong Airlines to Taipei about a month ago was delayed for a little over an hour. We actually lost a lot of time on our first day because of this delay, because by the time we arrived in Taipei it was rush hour and it took us close to two hours to get to our hostel. The airline promises in-​flight entertainment, but this is only about 20% true — because only about 20% of the movies and shows that were listed in the in-​flight entertainment guide actually worked on the screen. Majority of the ‘channels’ couldn’t even be accessed, and if I remember correctly most of the English movies and shows couldn’t be clicked into and watched. The bun that they served on the flight was surprisingly not too bad — it was served piping hot, and I wasn’t actually sure what was in it (some kind of spinach purée?) but it was alright.
Overall, it wasn’t a terrible experience or anything, but I was disappointed by the (expected) delay and the lack of in-​flight entertainment. Oh, and at all costs, do NOT miss your flight with HK Airlines. I know somebody who missed her return flight by a couple of minutes, and the airline staff did nothing to help her schedule another flight. She ended up having to stay another night there and paying full price for a one-​way flight ticket back to HK.