Hong Kong airlines (HX) becomes the last surviving local competitor to CX, and maybe not for long. Hence, I would like to share my recent HX experiences and comparison with CX. I must add that I mostly love CX (except its food).

Wifey and I have done quite a few “regional” HX lately (widebodies) PEK, BKK, DPS, and have been very impressed both in Y and J.

We just flew to DPS in J with HX. This is a 5 hour flight. Both flights with very comfy flat beds (332V and 332S) and more spacious then CX Cirrus; they fit only 18 seats where CX fit many more. Video is very responsive and comparable selection of movies as CX. Service (3 FAs for a max of 18 J) is excellent, faster and more motivated than CX. Food is good to excellent. Some original foie gras dish as starter. Very tasty creative main dishes as opposed to the bland and tasteless CX/KA food. Wines as bad as on CX/KA. The Autus lounge in HKG is very nice and HX uses the same lounge as CX/KA in DPS. Courtesy channel at HKG (It only saves a couple of minutes).

CX/KA used to have only regional ac on that route. They feel HX competition, which has now higher frequency than CX/KA. They have recently reintroduced some LH ac, but that is a minority and open to Russian roulette.

The guarantee of a good J seat for 5h is a must for my bad back (HX worst is an old generation 60” lie-flat). The other major point is that CX/KA public fare is three times HX (18k vs 6k). Sure, fare conditions are not the same, but for the price difference… And you can even buy a cheap refund guarantee. I know that I can get somewhat better CX/KA J fares (nonchangeable) through a TA if I combine hotel+flight. But I rent a private villa and cannot do that. In the end a couple saves 24k and gets a better J product. The only drawback is the FF, but for such a price/product difference it is a no brainer.

We all know the problems facing HX, the lack of network for corporate clients, the poor website. But HX offers a great product at a great price. When/if it disappears, that will be bad news for long regional flights.

BTW: an interesting video