Dragonair (KA) J class from HKG to PVG and back
Sep 8, 2006, 3:11 pm
#1
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Dragonair (KA) J class from HKG to PVG and back
There are not that many reports on KA’s service, so I thought I would post some observations after flying to Shanghai from Dragonair’s home base in Hong Kong.
5/9/06
KA 808 HKG-PVG
Dep 17:00, Arrive 19:30
J Class, Seat 16A
A321
My connection onto this flight was the CX256 from London. By the miracles of the jet stream this landed 40 mins early, giving me a fighting chance of catching the 15:25. Sadly I missed check in closing by about 3 mins despite CX and my legs managing to get me from touchdown to the departure hall in less than 20 minutes. Still, at least I was able to reclaim my carry on bag as HK does not subscribe the UK/US hysteria on hang baggage and mouth wash.
Check in at HKIA is Zone F, with plenty of desks open for business. Y has the usual fair queuing system, while First, Business and ‘The Elite’ (KA’s FFP) have another 10 desks between them. I was processed in an efficient but still cold manner, and issued with BP and lounge invitation plus the requisite exemption tag for my carry on bag.
Immigration had the usual queues, though my careful assessment of the number and type of people got me through a little faster. Checking numbers is obvious, but ensuring you are not behind any citizens of the mainland or anyone who looks like an overstaying domestic worker can also reap dividends. Security was brisk, apart from their characteristic obsession with aerosol cans. Evidently toothpaste isn’t a risk in the SAR, but shaving foam is.
The Dragonair lounge is situated up the escalators from Gate 16. It is open air, just like the BA/QF lounge and CX’s The Wing. This means there is plenty of light, but some noise pollution from the indeterminable PA announcements. Good for brushing up your Cantonese and Mandarin numbers! The lounge is pleasant enough, lots and lots of seating, a handful of PC’s (though no free wireless) and a small array of noodly snacks (and bizarrely borscht). A nice touch was a dai pai dong style street stall preparing made to order noodles. Wine selection was very poor, and no champagne on offer. Nothing special, but a pleasant enough place to while away an hour.
The flight was due to depart from somewhere in the 40’s so yet another trip on the people mover and a short shuffle to gate 43. Boarding was slightly delighted for an unspecified reason, but took place in an orderly manner with the customary HKG split gate boarding. This all fell down with only a single door being used on the A321!
On Board
Newspapers were on offer at the door, so I grabbed a South China Morning Post and shuffled down to 16A. The seat was a pretty standard J/US Domestic F offering with a better than average seat pitch – somewhere in the early 40”s in my opinion. The seat back had the usual magazine and in-flight shopping brochure, plus a nasty set of cheap phones. The seat was moderately comfortable, though my leg rest rather misbehaved. The seat back moved in a ‘cradle’ manner a la the very old BA seat. Slightly odd to sit in, and really not that uncomfortable either.
Despite the challenges posed by single door boarding the very cheery crew managed to get round twice with pre-flight drinks. Champagne only on request, but juice, a dodgy cocktail and water was offered on a tray. They also managed to fit in taking the drinks orders for post take off. Having been very restrained so far, I decided that a glass of champagne with a side of water would be appropriate once we were in flight.
Boarding was done fairly swiftly despite a very full load (2 seats free in J, both next to KA Platinum’s in Row 10). Y was 100% full. Despite my normal aversion to bulkheads, Row 10 on the A321 looked to have decent legroom and wouldn’t be a bad bet.
Take off was to the west, so no Hong Kong views and we took the normal but slightly illogical routing to Shanghai, hugging the coast of the PRC the whole way there. Flight time was as advertised at 2:10 mins.
Pre-flight drinks came round speedily after we got away, one of the benefits of having 3 people serving a 32 person cabin. Menu’s followed shortly after, advertising the full 3 course meal on offer, the transcript and tasting notes for the airline food freaks follows:
Starter: Grilled Asparagus, Black Figs and Parma Ham (was served with some lollo bianco, excellent ham and the asparagus was grilled to add some flavour)
Mains:
Sauteed Pork Rolls with Chilli Sauce and Steamed Rice (very tasty, just the right amount of chilli kick)
Seared Scallops with Lemon, Fennel and Spinach Risotto
Sauteed Prawn with XO sauce and stir fried Noodle (seat opponent had this, it looked fab)
Cheese and Cracker (it came with 3 crackers in the end, cheddar, wensleydale and a blue cheese)
Haagen Dazs (no chocolate left so I didn't have any)
Drinks:
Fujian First Class Oolong tea (very freshing), Fuding Jasmine Silver Fur
Other tea - Ceylon and Japanese, Hong Kong Milk Tea and Coffee
Champagne - Piper Hiedseck Brut (fine, a bit thin for altitude, at least it wasn't Moet)
White Wine - Pouilly Fuisse 2004, Riva Ranch Reserve Chardonnay 2003 USA
Red Wine - Robert Skalli Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, Richard Hamilton Shiraz 2003 Australia (which was a classic spicy oaky New World Shiraz)
All in all, a very nice meal service that carriers in North America and Europe could do well to try and emulate. The number of recommended dishes from Hong Kong restaurants seemed unusual by most standards, but is a nice touch in making the food seem more normal than the odd concoctions service on board.
The crew were especially lovely. Good onboard service is the rule rather than the exception on most Asian airlines but this lot really seemed to be putting everything into it. A pleasure!
There is no personal IFE on the A321, but a selection of TV from Hong Kong was playing on the overhead screens. Nothing especially memorable save for a very odd feature about horses (and no, it did not involve eating them despite the Cantonese predilection of chowing down on anything with 4 legs). There was also a broad selection of music channels, but who needs those when you have an iPod.
We landed slightly late thanks to some ATC issues and ended up a long, long walk from Immigration. Nothing like a good leg stretch after a lot of flying, but this really was quite a distant. Immigration and Customs was a breeze and then it was out into the rainy Shanghai night for a slightly unwhelming ride of the Maglev.
Return
7/9/06
KA 801 PVG-HKG
Dep 17:30, Arrive 19:00
J Class, Seat 12K
A330-200
An utterly terrifying 160kph taxi journey out from the city deposited a very shaky, pale Swanhunter at a deserted check in at Zone K. Separate lines for each class, and policed by a slightly aggressive young woman who had me pegged for economy. It must have been the jeans. I was able to get onto an earlier flight without any problems at all, thus getting me closer to a bed and some much needed sleep after a 2:30am start.
Unlike arrival, formalities on departure were more of an irritation. Check in hadn’t given me either form, so I wasted a couple of minutes filling in a utterly pointless. Customs form and then joined the 10 minute queue for immigration. Security weren’t interested in my aerosols this time, but my laptop had to for another trip.
Dragonair seem to specialise in using long distance gates at PVG. We were due to go from Gate 23 (also the location of the lounge) which was a good 4 miles from security. Walk, and walk, and walk. Ugghh.
The gate arrangement at PVG is rather odd. What looks like the gate area at first glance is actually not – BP checking takes place just before you walk onto the jet bridge. It had me puzzled for a little while as to why the sign to the lounge pointed you past the gate and down the stairs! It would seem from signage elsewhere in the terminal that most lounges are arranged on the lower level in this fashion.
KA’s lounge is somewhat smaller than in HKG – unsurprisingly – but pleasant enough with plentiful PC’s. Food offerings were a bit sparse, but the lounge did look like a plague of locusts had cleared it out before boarding the 16:30 flight. A diet coke and peanuts were fine for me.
Our gate changed to 20, involving another schlep down the terminal, which I timed perfectly to arrive just before the unwashed masses. On board, the difference between the A330 and A321 were all too obvious. Leaving aside the obvious differences like 2 aisles and more overhead space, the seating looked much more spacious. In fact, on further investigation it proved to be a version of Virgin’s J2000 seat – one of the earlier flat-on-an-incline efforts. To my highly tired eyes, this was most welcome.
Drinks and menus came around before pushback, which was accomplished on time. I’d love to be able to report on the onboard service but I put my bed down shortly after take off and had to be shaken awake before landing! Very sweetly one of the crew then popped back to see if I would like some water or biscuits before landing, as I had missed the meal. Very thoughtful.
Gate 23 welcomed us to CLK, and I was through Immigration and on the train into 15 minutes.
In summary, Dragonair offer an excellent short haul Business product. Some great people, good seating, excellent food and service make them a pleasure to fly. The only negatives would be a lack of showers in the HKG lounge, and the lack of personal IFE on the smaller planes. That really is nit-picking though. Certainly on this route they offer a much superior product to China Eastern (MU).
5/9/06
KA 808 HKG-PVG
Dep 17:00, Arrive 19:30
J Class, Seat 16A
A321
My connection onto this flight was the CX256 from London. By the miracles of the jet stream this landed 40 mins early, giving me a fighting chance of catching the 15:25. Sadly I missed check in closing by about 3 mins despite CX and my legs managing to get me from touchdown to the departure hall in less than 20 minutes. Still, at least I was able to reclaim my carry on bag as HK does not subscribe the UK/US hysteria on hang baggage and mouth wash.
Check in at HKIA is Zone F, with plenty of desks open for business. Y has the usual fair queuing system, while First, Business and ‘The Elite’ (KA’s FFP) have another 10 desks between them. I was processed in an efficient but still cold manner, and issued with BP and lounge invitation plus the requisite exemption tag for my carry on bag.
Immigration had the usual queues, though my careful assessment of the number and type of people got me through a little faster. Checking numbers is obvious, but ensuring you are not behind any citizens of the mainland or anyone who looks like an overstaying domestic worker can also reap dividends. Security was brisk, apart from their characteristic obsession with aerosol cans. Evidently toothpaste isn’t a risk in the SAR, but shaving foam is.
The Dragonair lounge is situated up the escalators from Gate 16. It is open air, just like the BA/QF lounge and CX’s The Wing. This means there is plenty of light, but some noise pollution from the indeterminable PA announcements. Good for brushing up your Cantonese and Mandarin numbers! The lounge is pleasant enough, lots and lots of seating, a handful of PC’s (though no free wireless) and a small array of noodly snacks (and bizarrely borscht). A nice touch was a dai pai dong style street stall preparing made to order noodles. Wine selection was very poor, and no champagne on offer. Nothing special, but a pleasant enough place to while away an hour.
The flight was due to depart from somewhere in the 40’s so yet another trip on the people mover and a short shuffle to gate 43. Boarding was slightly delighted for an unspecified reason, but took place in an orderly manner with the customary HKG split gate boarding. This all fell down with only a single door being used on the A321!
On Board
Newspapers were on offer at the door, so I grabbed a South China Morning Post and shuffled down to 16A. The seat was a pretty standard J/US Domestic F offering with a better than average seat pitch – somewhere in the early 40”s in my opinion. The seat back had the usual magazine and in-flight shopping brochure, plus a nasty set of cheap phones. The seat was moderately comfortable, though my leg rest rather misbehaved. The seat back moved in a ‘cradle’ manner a la the very old BA seat. Slightly odd to sit in, and really not that uncomfortable either.
Despite the challenges posed by single door boarding the very cheery crew managed to get round twice with pre-flight drinks. Champagne only on request, but juice, a dodgy cocktail and water was offered on a tray. They also managed to fit in taking the drinks orders for post take off. Having been very restrained so far, I decided that a glass of champagne with a side of water would be appropriate once we were in flight.
Boarding was done fairly swiftly despite a very full load (2 seats free in J, both next to KA Platinum’s in Row 10). Y was 100% full. Despite my normal aversion to bulkheads, Row 10 on the A321 looked to have decent legroom and wouldn’t be a bad bet.
Take off was to the west, so no Hong Kong views and we took the normal but slightly illogical routing to Shanghai, hugging the coast of the PRC the whole way there. Flight time was as advertised at 2:10 mins.
Pre-flight drinks came round speedily after we got away, one of the benefits of having 3 people serving a 32 person cabin. Menu’s followed shortly after, advertising the full 3 course meal on offer, the transcript and tasting notes for the airline food freaks follows:
Starter: Grilled Asparagus, Black Figs and Parma Ham (was served with some lollo bianco, excellent ham and the asparagus was grilled to add some flavour)
Mains:
Sauteed Pork Rolls with Chilli Sauce and Steamed Rice (very tasty, just the right amount of chilli kick)
Seared Scallops with Lemon, Fennel and Spinach Risotto
Sauteed Prawn with XO sauce and stir fried Noodle (seat opponent had this, it looked fab)
Cheese and Cracker (it came with 3 crackers in the end, cheddar, wensleydale and a blue cheese)
Haagen Dazs (no chocolate left so I didn't have any)
Drinks:
Fujian First Class Oolong tea (very freshing), Fuding Jasmine Silver Fur
Other tea - Ceylon and Japanese, Hong Kong Milk Tea and Coffee
Champagne - Piper Hiedseck Brut (fine, a bit thin for altitude, at least it wasn't Moet)
White Wine - Pouilly Fuisse 2004, Riva Ranch Reserve Chardonnay 2003 USA
Red Wine - Robert Skalli Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, Richard Hamilton Shiraz 2003 Australia (which was a classic spicy oaky New World Shiraz)
All in all, a very nice meal service that carriers in North America and Europe could do well to try and emulate. The number of recommended dishes from Hong Kong restaurants seemed unusual by most standards, but is a nice touch in making the food seem more normal than the odd concoctions service on board.
The crew were especially lovely. Good onboard service is the rule rather than the exception on most Asian airlines but this lot really seemed to be putting everything into it. A pleasure!
There is no personal IFE on the A321, but a selection of TV from Hong Kong was playing on the overhead screens. Nothing especially memorable save for a very odd feature about horses (and no, it did not involve eating them despite the Cantonese predilection of chowing down on anything with 4 legs). There was also a broad selection of music channels, but who needs those when you have an iPod.
We landed slightly late thanks to some ATC issues and ended up a long, long walk from Immigration. Nothing like a good leg stretch after a lot of flying, but this really was quite a distant. Immigration and Customs was a breeze and then it was out into the rainy Shanghai night for a slightly unwhelming ride of the Maglev.
Return
7/9/06
KA 801 PVG-HKG
Dep 17:30, Arrive 19:00
J Class, Seat 12K
A330-200
An utterly terrifying 160kph taxi journey out from the city deposited a very shaky, pale Swanhunter at a deserted check in at Zone K. Separate lines for each class, and policed by a slightly aggressive young woman who had me pegged for economy. It must have been the jeans. I was able to get onto an earlier flight without any problems at all, thus getting me closer to a bed and some much needed sleep after a 2:30am start.
Unlike arrival, formalities on departure were more of an irritation. Check in hadn’t given me either form, so I wasted a couple of minutes filling in a utterly pointless. Customs form and then joined the 10 minute queue for immigration. Security weren’t interested in my aerosols this time, but my laptop had to for another trip.
Dragonair seem to specialise in using long distance gates at PVG. We were due to go from Gate 23 (also the location of the lounge) which was a good 4 miles from security. Walk, and walk, and walk. Ugghh.
The gate arrangement at PVG is rather odd. What looks like the gate area at first glance is actually not – BP checking takes place just before you walk onto the jet bridge. It had me puzzled for a little while as to why the sign to the lounge pointed you past the gate and down the stairs! It would seem from signage elsewhere in the terminal that most lounges are arranged on the lower level in this fashion.
KA’s lounge is somewhat smaller than in HKG – unsurprisingly – but pleasant enough with plentiful PC’s. Food offerings were a bit sparse, but the lounge did look like a plague of locusts had cleared it out before boarding the 16:30 flight. A diet coke and peanuts were fine for me.
Our gate changed to 20, involving another schlep down the terminal, which I timed perfectly to arrive just before the unwashed masses. On board, the difference between the A330 and A321 were all too obvious. Leaving aside the obvious differences like 2 aisles and more overhead space, the seating looked much more spacious. In fact, on further investigation it proved to be a version of Virgin’s J2000 seat – one of the earlier flat-on-an-incline efforts. To my highly tired eyes, this was most welcome.
Drinks and menus came around before pushback, which was accomplished on time. I’d love to be able to report on the onboard service but I put my bed down shortly after take off and had to be shaken awake before landing! Very sweetly one of the crew then popped back to see if I would like some water or biscuits before landing, as I had missed the meal. Very thoughtful.
Gate 23 welcomed us to CLK, and I was through Immigration and on the train into 15 minutes.
In summary, Dragonair offer an excellent short haul Business product. Some great people, good seating, excellent food and service make them a pleasure to fly. The only negatives would be a lack of showers in the HKG lounge, and the lack of personal IFE on the smaller planes. That really is nit-picking though. Certainly on this route they offer a much superior product to China Eastern (MU).
Last edited by Swanhunter; Sep 9, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Sep 8, 2006, 4:16 pm
#2
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: SYD+TYO+GFK
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Posts: 2,805
Thanks for the report, sounds like a positive experience. I love hearing about airlines you don't hear about every day! 
Sep 8, 2006, 7:26 pm
#3
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: HKG
Posts: 1,505
I had a body and bag search before boarding my CX flight to New York last month. All departures to the US had to go through secondary screening near the gates and a whole swath of gates were closed off while a few rows of security officers did their searches. They looked into every zipper on my bag.
Sep 8, 2006, 7:47 pm
#4
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Columbus, OH
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Posts: 297
Thanks for the great report. I took the exact same itinerary in April and found your comments about J and the lounges spot on.
On a lark, I inquired about a paid upgrade from J to F on the return (PVG-HKG). To my suprise, it was available for the equivalent of just under $100USD.
Found the meal to be a bit better than J and the seats were almost fully lie flat. Because it was only a 2 hour morning flight into HKG to connect with CX, I really didn't have a chance to test out its sleeping capabilities.
Overall very pleasant experience
^
On a lark, I inquired about a paid upgrade from J to F on the return (PVG-HKG). To my suprise, it was available for the equivalent of just under $100USD.
Found the meal to be a bit better than J and the seats were almost fully lie flat. Because it was only a 2 hour morning flight into HKG to connect with CX, I really didn't have a chance to test out its sleeping capabilities.
Overall very pleasant experience
^
Sep 9, 2006, 7:42 am
#6
Moderator: GLBT travelers, India-based Airlines and India; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Asia
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Posts: 15,512
Great report Swanhunter. ^
I did PVG-HKG on KA in F on the A330, and had quite a similar experience.
1. The check-in police had me pegged for Y too. And the check-in staff was incredibly cold, despite the F ticket. Totally unlike the staff who man the elite check-in desks for BA,CX and TG etc at HKG. (I have found some of the SQ staff at HKG to be rather cold too.)
2. The miles-long walk to the lounge in PVG, and then a miles long walk to get back to the gate which was on the other side!
3. The food in F is from an identical menu to J, except that there is a paper insert placed inside which lists an additional special from which you can also choose. So basically one extra choice of main. And I think there was one extra type of expensive chinese tea to choose from too!
4. The seats were 2-2-2 in F, and the legroom was huge.
5. I was the only pax in paid F on the day, but the cabin was packed to the gills! The other pax were all elite members who had got upgrades done in the lounge. The lounge receptionist had a stack of new F BPs laid out on her desk and as they exited the lounge they all picked up their new BPs.
I did PVG-HKG on KA in F on the A330, and had quite a similar experience.
1. The check-in police had me pegged for Y too. And the check-in staff was incredibly cold, despite the F ticket. Totally unlike the staff who man the elite check-in desks for BA,CX and TG etc at HKG. (I have found some of the SQ staff at HKG to be rather cold too.)
2. The miles-long walk to the lounge in PVG, and then a miles long walk to get back to the gate which was on the other side!
3. The food in F is from an identical menu to J, except that there is a paper insert placed inside which lists an additional special from which you can also choose. So basically one extra choice of main. And I think there was one extra type of expensive chinese tea to choose from too!
4. The seats were 2-2-2 in F, and the legroom was huge.
5. I was the only pax in paid F on the day, but the cabin was packed to the gills! The other pax were all elite members who had got upgrades done in the lounge. The lounge receptionist had a stack of new F BPs laid out on her desk and as they exited the lounge they all picked up their new BPs.
Sep 10, 2006, 3:18 pm
#8
Moderator: GLBT travelers, India-based Airlines and India; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2004
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Posts: 15,512
Originally Posted by ajamieson
But does Dragonair have real lounge dragons? 