SKYBAR
Here is once again where the F/As shine. It is sad that A350s will not have these bars. They have a F/A stationed there, who was friendly. They were all excited about this trip because it was their first visit to Vancouver. I showed them pictures of the inaugural flights and then had some friendly chat about my hobbies and their work.
The snack basket features apples, pears, Lay’s chips, Joe & Seph’s Popcorns, toblerone chocolate bars, and peanuts.
Economy passengers got different snacks but basically no brand name bags of nuts, Kit Kats, and cookies. The F/As told me that they don’t have menus in economy class but they each receive an amenity kit with toothbrush set, eye masks, and socks.
17A and 17H are just not good seats, as the F/As kept on walking back and forth, and then there is a locker right beneath the magazine rack. Plus, it is a mostly daytime flight so folks kept on talking in the bar. I don’t blame them, but I just could not get a deep sleep. Avoid these seats at all costs.
Breakfast was served about two hours prior to arrival. There was a juice and hot towel service, and the two-course breakfast was much better than the pre-arrival light meal I had the day before. The first course featured a fruit bowl, a strawberry yogurt, and then a breadbasket featuring coconut Danish, blueberry muffin, and croissants. For the entrée, there were three choices (and then a fourth light option), and I got the noodles and dim sum option. The dim sums featured today were siu mai – steamed pork dumpling with mushrooms and a kind of shrimp and preserved vegetable dumpling.
Descent soon began at 9:18am Vancouver local time.
Along the Nanaimo’s coast
Landing at R/W8L
Busy Sunday here in YVR with many planes
We parked at gate D54 at 10:01am!
Goodbye to B-LNL
The immigration and custom hall was actually not crazy but with my NEXUS card, I was the first one waiting at the baggage claim. The first bag showed up at 10:19am but priority tags did not work at all. Bags just came out in random order.
FFP:
One of the weakness of flying Hong Kong Airlines is the lack of a good FFP. Fortune Wings Club (unsurprisingly FFP of its mother company Hainan Airlines) is your only option now. Plus I want to warn you that some of the business saver fares actually earn no miles. I used expertflyer to double check now. The main issue is that HX has a "Z" fare out especially on one way flights between HKG and YVR.
While they are not cheap, Z fare is not eligible for earning any miles. While emailing their customer service is not that bad, they don't always understand my concerns and my questions. So just a head up! Find out the fare basis before booking the ticket... sometimes even some of the fares may not earn miles.
In conclusion, Hong Kong Airlines has some work to do, and despite their relatively lower price, there are still minor things that they can do. Serving simpler dishes for the pre-arrival meals possibly save them money, and stocking some instant noodles instead of some awkward calzone or tortilla wraps will save them money. The current suites are fine and I actually love the SKYBAR, which will unfortunately be cut on the new A350s. Hong Kong Airlines just files a preliminary nonstop flight between HKG and LAX this past weekend, so I have a feeling that Vancouver might be stuck with A330-200s for a while. I hope my feedbacks will help Hong Kong Airlines prepared the meals on these ultra-long-haul flights better, and they need a more substantial meal and better midflight snacks. Given how successful this inaugural flight is, I am definitely interested in the new LAX inaugural flight.
But I just want to reiterate how great the crews were on my flights and they are definitely some of the nicest F/As I have come across. These long-haul flights and the SKYBAR allows some interesting conversations. I don’t know if I am going to go out of my way to do the YVR flights, but with the new LAX flights and the affordable fare in business class, I am definitely going to give the LAX flights a try. I hope you enjoy this trip report.
Carfield