YVR-HKG with Hong Kong Air, reviews?

[lilaznviper]

From there website, they run airbus

The Current Fleet of Hong Kong Airlines:

Hong Kong Airlines, operating one of the youngest fleets in the world. Currently, the average age of our fleet stands at just around 5 years. Our current operating fleet has 35 aircraft, consisting of 33 passenger aircraft (ten Airbus A330-300s, nine Airbus A330-200s, eleven Airbus A320s and three Airbus A350-900) and 2 freighters (Airbus A330-200Fs).

[Ikkaku]

For CP, I like the fact that you can randomly order complimentary cup noodles and Haagen daaz ice cream. Hell, they provide you with an actual can of pop instead of half a cup. Their service is miles ahead of AC. I mean, our flight from HK to Shanghai on CP provided better meals than our flight AC from Van to HK and Shanghai back to Van.

Haven't really experienced the newer reclining mechanism that my friends have complained about for CP flights, because I usually don't recline.

Not sure if I can handle a longer flight. I can't sleep on planes.

[see.lai]

I guess I'll have to try Cathay next time,

I had pretty good service from YVR - HKG; can't say the same coming back though. Food was alright. Was a 777.
Ticket was only $647.

Flew an Airbus with HK airlines from HKG to TPE, probably the most ghetto ride I've ever had.
They didn't even have a public washroom (2-3 hour flight). Decent food though.

[DragonChi]

You might want to compare luggage allowance as well, if you are going to be bringing back a bunch of stuff for family.

[Eastwood]

Cathay if you have some extra money to spare.

If you only have to choose between Air Canada and Hong Kong Air, go Air Canada.

[Armind]

Just picked Cathay few minutes ago..

[v_tec]

The amount of misconception in this thread

Originally Posted by hud 91gt

Personally I’d ignore anyone single experience with any airline. Try and take note of people who fly weekly/monthly for the particular flight you are looking at. You’ll find the most “hate” for people who fly very little. Talking to someone who travels weekly will give you a much better idea over many experiences rather then the one time someone missed a connection and ruined their vacation.

Your not going to get a good idea from someone’s single experience.

This.

Originally Posted by Mr.HappySilp

Is not that cheap I usually flight back to HK/Beijing less than $700 sometimes even less than $650. just depends when (low or high season). Also leaving on a Wed and coming back on Tue/Wed is usually cheaper too.

Not just Tue/Wed, but weekdays in general. 1) Some airlines (eg. Cathay) charge extra $25/per way for weekend dates. And 2) demand for weekend flights will obviously be higher = hence higher $ once the lower fares get sold out

Originally Posted by EmperorIS

Cathay rarely have flights sub $1000 though. I find AC consistently have lower prices for a bigger airline company.

CX has been hovering around $650-700 for the past 3 months, and still on going.
AC has one flight a day, CX has 2-3/day for this particular route. Which airline do you think is currently struggling more to fulfill their seats?

Originally Posted by jjson

Usually when there are deals, pricing between AC and HK Air is similar, AC is still higher. HK Air is a 2 hour longer flight than AC though.

Where are you seeing 2 hrs?
AC007 12:05pm - 5:40pm 13h 35m
CX889 01:15am - 7:05am 13h 50m
HX081 10:40am - 5:15pm 14h 35m
CX837 01:10pm - 7:10pm 14h 00m

HX080 12hr 05m / AC008 11h 25m / CX at 11h 25 & 11h 30m

Of course, all these numbers mean nothing in real time after taking into account delays, actual flight time, etc. Certain airlines/routes also add more 'padding' to their timing. But their SCHEDULED flight time are all within the same ball park.

Want a more accurate representation? Look up their historical performance on flightaware like ronald55555 did.

Originally Posted by 68style

It's not knee-jerk though, it's based on actual experience for me. I've taken every option and AC is the worst of the bunch... that flight consistently leaves 1-2hrs late, and the seats, despite having the same numerical measurements as the other airlines for economy, somehow they are excruciatingly uncomfortable. Also, the food/service is terrible.

Cathay is worth the extra money every time on that long of a flight and worth the saving in time over HK Air. If I was already going on HK Air though, I definitely wouldn't pay more to go on AC.

No, the numerical measurements are NOT the same. On the same type of aircraft (777), economy is spread out 3-3-3 on Cathay, whereas Air Canada squish in 3-4-3. Hence why feel a lot more uncomfortable. JL use 787's, HX use 333's, all with a different aircraft width than CX/AC.

Originally Posted by Blah_Teggie

Can't really answer the OP's question cuz I've never flown Hong Kong Air before but I have flown AC to Hong Kong and I wouldn't recommend it. On the flight home, mine and my entire rows IFE did not work. They tried resetting it and still didn't work. Then we finally got tired of complaining. Made for a long flight home.

I had my fair share of IFE's not working on CX flights. But like hud 91gt mentioned, unless you're flying these airlines back to back on a weekly based, this doesn't mean much. Same with those complaining about delays, services, etc.

Originally Posted by 68style

On AC, I got up every 2 hours to walk around because my legs and back were hurting... Cathay, I think I stayed in my seat the entire 15 hours except for 1 time to go to the washroom and I felt comfortable the whole way... customer service is excellent, you get a smile and they respond instantly to any requests... Cathay is HK's pride and joy, so everything is first for them at the airport as well, best docking area, best loading area, etc.

Even at HKG, I had CX flights from anywhere between Gate 2 all the way to 70.

Originally Posted by 68style

Also the food was absolutely phenomenal. Like serious restaurant quality... even in economy.

This has to be an exaggeration, or you were just drunk. I don't think ANYone on flyertalk will agree with you about CX's food quality, even in their first class.

Originally Posted by ronald55555

Flew with Cathay last march and just flew with HKA last week. I was skeptical as well, but it was a $400 difference (600 for HKA vs ~1000 for CP) so I decided to try it.

Comfort:
- HKA flies with airbus A330, which I find quieter than Cathay's 777
- Seating is 2-4-2 on HKA vs 3-3-3 on CP, was flying with the gf, so it was nice having the row by the window to ourselves
- Didn't notice difference in seat comfort or leg room

I tend to find the 777's quite noisy too, but I think this would YMMV with a lot of people.

Originally Posted by ronald55555

IFE:
- CP has integrated headrest IFE system, HKA hands out iPads preloaded with movies. I usually bring my own tablet so makes no difference to me either way.
- CP has more selection of movies
- Headphone jack in the armrest on CP are loose a lot of times, so the sound can have lots of static
- HKA iPads don't show flight progress, CP does, and has those cool exterior cams

The exterior cam's get 'meh' after first few minutes. It's worst than VGA quality, and there's usually not much to see, especially your flight flies in the dark. CX's A350 new IFE has a MUCH nicer flight map/progress than their 777's IFE though.[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by ronald55555

- Asia miles for CP vs I don't remember what HKA has, really depends on what you already have. I had asia miles but for $400 difference I would rather save the cash up front.
- No issues with baggage on either one

0 Asia Miles for the $6xx-7xx CX flights now. And even for those $1xxx+ fares that do offer 50-100% Asia Miles, most people in this thread won't find them useful before their 3 years expiry. As bad as Air Canada is, most YVR-HKG still earns 50-100% Aeroplan even on the $600 fares. And there are A LOT more bank's in Canada that will offer you an Aeroplan credit card (Amex,TD,CIBC,etc) so you can earn / top up your miles faster for a redemption.

Originally Posted by see.lai

Flew an Airbus with HK airlines from HKG to TPE, probably the most ghetto ride I've ever had.
They didn't even have a public washroom (2-3 hour flight). Decent food though.

Originally Posted by FerrariEnzo

Man.. When I was in HK, I booked a flight to Taiwan with HKAir.. the plane they used only had First and Economy.. so I got 2 seats right behind the first class at the front.. this was 3 weeks before the flight date. The day of the flight I go to the airport to get my tickets, found out they switched to a larger plane few days ago and didnt reassign the seat. The seat they had left was at the back..
I was so pissed off.. they didnt email me or call me or anything.. I will never travel with them again.. their lack of customer service skills totally did it..

You guys are judging an airline's experience based on a 50mins HKG-TPE flight in comparison to a long haul experience? That's like saying you had a shitty ride on the Seabus, and refuse to take BC Ferries to Victoria. Your YVR - Calgary flight on Air Canada will obviously not be the same as your YVR - Asia / Europe flight.

You have no idea how many people complain daily about CX's changing aircraft types on their REGIONAL routes daily. On the YVR-HKG route specifically, you should be fine - majority of the time. I don't think CX and AC ever swapped aircraft before on this route, other than once or twice rare occasion in the past decade.

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

unless difference is greater than $300...i would just go for Cathay
I had the option to fly HKA then connecting to Taipei for $500 r/t (but HKG fucked me last time security made me miss my flight so I'm blacklisting that airport for a while unless ridiculous deals)...opted to pay $300 more for direct flight with China Airline's new A350-900

HKG is one of the MOST efficient airport in the world, especially when it comes to transfers, so you must either had some serious delay or you're missing out a lot of details.

Originally Posted by yray

HK Air=MK version of cathay

good thing is they have old style seats, none of the non recline bullshit that CX pulls off. Ipad for IFE which is good for choices and speed but shitty as you have to put it on table.

food service is fair.

When was the last time you boarded a CX flight?
The 'hardshell' seats you're referring to have left CX's longhaul fleet for many, MANY years now.

Originally Posted by Ikkaku

For CP, I like the fact that you can randomly order complimentary cup noodles and Haagen daaz ice cream. Hell, they provide you with an actual can of pop instead of half a cup. Their service is miles ahead of AC. I mean, our flight from HK to Shanghai on CP provided better meals than our flight AC from Van to HK and Shanghai back to Van.

Haven't really experienced the newer reclining mechanism that my friends have complained about for CP flights, because I usually don't recline.

Not sure if I can handle a longer flight. I can't sleep on planes.

CX rarely give you the full can of pop. You must have ordered diet? zero? coke or something as their main drinks usually get poured from the large bottles. Delta Air surprisingly, offer canned pop / canned juice for every passenger, every meal. Nothing poured from bottles.

AC offer Nissan cup noodles too, but honestly on a long haul flight stuck inside a metal tube, in economy class, the last thing you need more of - is MSG.

[FerrariEnzo]

My complaint wasnt about them swapping the airplane.. Im fine with that.. they over booked and need a larger aircraft.. but not telling you that you need to re-pick your seats was just bad.. or at least they could have reassigned the seats to relative where you booked would have been fine also.

[v_tec]

Originally Posted by FerrariEnzo

My complaint wasnt about them swapping the airplane.. Im fine with that.. they over booked and need a larger aircraft.. but not telling you that you need to re-pick your seats was just bad.. or at least they could have reassigned the seats to relative where you booked would have been fine also.

Can you tell me which airline that would? I'm sure there might be some out there, but definitely not any of the 3 airlines mentioned in this thread. They won't even do it for their top tier elites.

Originally Posted by DragonChi

You might want to compare luggage allowance as well, if you are going to be bringing back a bunch of stuff for family.

Same across all 3 direct airlines. Many other factors such as IRROPS I would take into consideration too. But this might be a moot point for OP's mom on a point-to-point flight with presumably families on both sides.


Back to OP's question:

Like Bender Unit mentioned, September is a low/shoulder season, if you're not in an urgent to book right now, I would wait and see if the price margins comes down smaller.

If not, you will have to decide if the $200-250 difference is worth it for
1) A few mediocre airplane meals
2) Having an actual seat-back IFE or iPad for entertainment
3) Mileage articulation if that's important for you
4) Getting a smile or not from the flight attendant

CX might be slightly "nicer" overall, but personally, $200-250 CAD can also get you a very nice meal or two on the ground. That's like 1/3rd of your $700 ticket cost, who cares if it will earn you any miles in a "loyalty" program.

If it's between AC and HX, hands down the latter. No way I would pay $200 more on AC to be seated 3-4-3, not even if they are the same price.

[ronald55555]

Finally, someone with some facts to back up their opinion.

In general, I always check the following (amongst others that has been mentioned already):
flightaware/flightradar24 - historical on-time performance, bonus - you can also look up registration numbers of a few planes that fly the route frequently to see how old they are
google flight - great for comparing prices and dates, shows price trends over time. Sometimes doesn't work for all airlines
Seatguru - shows seating arrangements, pitch, width, bad seats to avoid, and often times pictures of exactly what you will get

[Teriyaki]

If difference is nominal, I will choose Cathay over HK Airlines. Cathay has taken care of me in the past with delays, weather issues well beyond what they needed to do. They've flown me home on their dime, when another carrier had their flights booked out solid for 3 days after I missed their flight (due to cx connector, but bought separately so Cathay had their hands clean once they got me to hkg).

Sometimes, it's not just about yhe cheapest product. It's about the service, both before during and after that you're paying for. Lost luggage, weather issues, etc. I'd put a lot more faith into CX than HX.

And by God, how has no one mentioned that CP is not Cathay Pacific. Its CX. Hong Kong airlines is HX and air Canada is AC. Please and thanks.

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by v_tec

HKG is one of the MOST efficient airport in the world, especially when it comes to transfers, so you must either had some serious delay or you're missing out a lot of details.

they flat out refused to scan the boarding pass QR code on my phone
forced me to go back to line-up at the AirAsia Thai counter to print a hard-copy
by time the it was my turn it was already within 1 hour of take-off and their systems have closed = forfeit

is it fair to judge one airport from one experience with the security staff, no, but I'd rather not go back anytime soon

unrelated but even the HKSAR customs at the ferry terminal to macau really enforces the no loitering rule not at the counter but immediately past the booths, I was literally just taking 5 seconds securing my documents into my bag and they pestered me to kept moving

[Valour]

I would fly HK save $200 and use it in HK for a 141...massa... hotel upgrade.

[jjson]

Originally Posted by Valour

I would fly HK save $200 and use it in HK for a 141...massa... hotel upgrade.

[blkgsr]

flew china airlines to Taipei in december, shit food, but the plane and service was good

flew cathay return about 4 years ago to BKK through HK, good food

AC same flights, not so good a few years ago. AC to HK then cathay to BKK (of course was better). has the same issue of my screen not working on the HK to YVR flight home

[yray]

Originally Posted by v_tec

4) Getting a smile or not from the flight attendant

yea, like we will get a smile from high seniority FAs in our pleb seats

[Tim Budong]

CX hands down
worth the extra $$

AC isn't half bad, just crammed seats

experiences from people that have flown HX was meh.

I've taken HX to NRT, redeye flight, it had IFE... so eventually and hopefully, HX will place IFE onthe YVR route

[EvoFire]

Wait to book your tickets. There's no real reason to book 8 months in advance, I just flew back to HK for a funeral Jan 18 - Jan 23 on CX and it cost me $679 because AC was doing a promo and CX matched the promo price the day after; I also booked my flights a week before I flew. I also got my AsiaMiles with the discount flight.

On my CX flights last week, the food was the same as always, but I've found the service to be not as good as when I flew in the past. Feels like they are cutting corners a little(ie lazier), but they still cater to your needs as much as possible if you ask.
CX flies 2x 777 flights and a A350 flight to Vancouver daily. The best flights imo are the CX888/CX889 flights as they operate out of New York and YVR is just a layover - the timing of the flight and service just flat out seems to be better. CX837 (1pm YVR-HKG) that I was on last week clearly wasn't as good, and the flight took 14:20 which was the longest I've ever been on a plane. On the CX856 flight (11am HKG-YVR) they flew one of their new A350 jets, and I was looking forward to it - I was very disappointed. The interior was wrecked as the washrooms and overhead bins were all damaged. Some panels were being held together with duct tape, and some bins were unusable.

I've flown with AC as well in the last two years and it wasn't that bad. Maybe I got lucky as I booked the aisle seat on the side, the seat was empty beside me, and the window seat was a cute chick.

I would avoid HX until they redo the interiors or replace the YVR-HKG flights with the A350's. My wife flew their A320 from HKG-SHA(Shanghai) and she said it sucked, they had ipads but they ran out(probably cause it was a short flight). I flew a few days after and got on a A350 and the plane was nice. Food definitely sucked though.

I was going to fly with HX and just deal with the shitty food and entertainment stuff because I was flying out on a whim and just wanted the cheapest flight possible. The CX/AC promo made their flights cheaper than HX and it was a no brainer.


For those of you complaining about the 3-4-3 layout on AC's 777's, CX will be redoing their whole 777 fleet to 3-4-3. It's been talked about for a long time, but I heard it's happening starting in March of this year.

[6793026]

^ good overview.
I don't care much about food anymore as I bring sushi and my own food onboard on 99% of the flight.
I found AC's service was really good this time, a lot of the 50+ yr old retired i guess?
I still found JAL the best and then CX.

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

Wait to book your tickets. There's no real reason to book 8 months in advance, I just flew back to HK for a funeral Jan 18 - Jan 23 on CX and it cost me $679 because AC was doing a promo and CX matched the promo price the day after; I also booked my flights a week before I flew.

was probably just a coincidence that AC had a sale
i personally like to book around 8-10 weeks in adv for long hauls

[Hehe]

AC's sardine can better pay me to get on let alone paying more money for it.

Seriously though, economy class nowadays are more or less the same. There's very little comfort to be had and only designed for you to get from A-B. Seats barely makes any difference and food/service, if you actually care, just bring something on board. On long haul flight like YVR-HKG, expect to spend a day after arrival to recover from the trip.

If I were you, I'd do the following: find the cheapest flight if it's just A-B and use the money toward a good meal upon arrival.

[Bender Unit]

These are the Sales we are talking about.
So you should wait and seeing

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...omy_class_sale

[6793026]

Originally Posted by Hehe

If I were you, I'd do the following: find the cheapest flight if it's just A-B and use the money toward a good meal upon arrival.

very true. I have lounge membership and when i was in hk, it was great. I literally saw 3-4 couples getting there like 5 hrs early and just ate non-stop, work, read books before the YVR flight. Cause I did that too.

In Houston, I remember there were massage therapists; made it 10X better before jumping on the flight.

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by 6793026

very true. I have lounge membership and when i was in hk, it was great. I literally saw 3-4 couples getting there like 5 hrs early and just ate non-stop, work, read books before the YVR flight. Cause I did that too.

In Houston, I remember there were massage therapists; made it 10X better before jumping on the flight.

Lol... it's ok once a while... but I remember when I used to travel like 5x a month and my company was kind enough to let us go J for any flight longer than 4hr 59min, I got tired of lounges.

I used to just try to get to the airport as late as possible or if not, I'd just walk around, and only go into lounge to grab some food/drink.

But really though, as I get older, the idea of traveling in economy for long haul no longer appeal to me. I'd rather just move my dates/itinerary for a cheaper J ticket while traveling less.

The rule of thumb is 3x... a lie-flat J seat is roughly 3x the space of Y seats. So, if I can find fare that's around that mark, I'd get it.

[roastpuff]

$679, AC or CX non-stop to HKG.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mile...g-679-cad.html