I had an amazing day yesterday, doing my little HKG day trip ex-BKK. I suggest everyone should try it, it gives nice variety to a Thai holiday, and it’s always good to experience other OW carriers, too.
Award availability was wide open when I booked with BA miles. The J ticket cost 33 000 Avios and €77. (About €20 is called Passenger Service Charge (Domestic) - Thailand. Sounds like it should be charged for domestic Thai itineraries only?)
BKK: The QR Premium Lounge
They call it Premium (it is!) and have their own rules for admitting people in. If not flying QR, you need to both hold OWS/OWE status
and be flying in J or F on a OW airline.
I was here from 6:20 to 7:15 am. The lounge was practically empty, with only about 10 pax. Where do all those QR pax spend their time? QR has flights to DOH at 8:05 and 9:05, so you’d expect the lounge to be busy at this hour.
Service was very attentive from the moment I entered to the moment I left. In the dining area, there’s a breakfast buffet which, in my opinion, is substantial enough so you don’t need to have breakfast at your hotel. Fruit, yoghurt, hot items both Western and Asian, fruit juices and à la carte eggs prepared by a chef. No pork, obviously, so it’s beef bacon. You can also order hot drinks, and they serve ice cream, too. They cleared away empty plates and brought refills with such enthusiasm and courtesy that they’d beat an average five-star hotel service any day.
After breakfast, I had time to sit down and relax a bit before my flight. I considered going to the CX lounge, which was on the way to my gate, but skipped it because I had just had a good breakfast and wasn’t into any noodle cups right now.
CX700, BKK-HKG
The flight left on time and arrived a bit early (they pad the schedule here with a good 30 minutes). An A330 with lie-flat seats that looked the same as AY’s, but had a lot more room and were more comfortable. Attentive service with a OWE welcome (or that’s what I think it was, I didn’t see the purser welcoming other pax around me). I was addressed by name several times, which is always a nice touch.
Breakfast was quite alright. Having woken up some five hours before the flight, I felt like it was lunch time already, so I chose the Asian main course. Perhaps noodles with (big, juicy pieces of) chicken are considered breakfast, but for me, it was as good as lunch.
HKG
Apparently there used to be an arrivals lounge but it has closed down.
No queue at immigration. My flight touched down at 11:50 and at 12:55, I stepped off the Airport Express in Central. The train was largely empty, and I was to find the city rather empty, too, even if it was Monday afternoon. The upper deck on the Star Ferry had only a handful of pax, and on my way back from Kowloon to Central, I got a seat on the metro… Saw very few non-Asians. I guess the tourists stay away. Otherwise, it was business as usual, except nobody wore black t-shirts. And I mean nobody. I probably wouldn’t have realised this unless I had paid attention.
Spent 1.5 hours in the city and at 2:30 pm I hopped on the metro to take me back to Central. The journey from Tsim Sha Tsui via Central to the airport took 45 minutes and at 3:15 I was at the CX check-in desk.
I was looking for the F desk, but found a row of empty J desks and just went there. I wanted them to print a BP for me with my AY+ number and status on it, since this was a BA award ticket and I don’t hold status with BA. I found this the easier way, instead of perhaps having to argue with a dragon at the F lounge entrance… The agent was friendly and quickly produced a new BP with my status mentioned.
No priority security here, but no queue either, so I was through security and automated immigration in a breeze.
HKG: The Wing F
The sign I saw only said The Wing Business Class Lounge, but when I asked the agent where the F lounge was, she just scanned my BP and told me to turn right at the top of the stairs. That’s what I did, and on the second floor, nobody asked me anything. For all I know, any J pax could do the same and just enter…
The lounge was long, narrow and busy, and did not have that peaceful First Class vibe. Actually, I didn’t find it that different from a regular J lounge.
At 3:30 pm, the Cabanas were all occupied, and had a queue of five people, so I chose to just take a shower. The shower room didn’t differ from your average Admirals Club shower. It did the job, but it was a small room, the shampoo came in a generic one-litre container that didn’t feel very First Class, the mirror became so misty that it was impossible to see anything… There was a tray of amenities (think dental kits, make up remover etc) but the one thing that I always miss in a lounge shower, a deodorant, wasn’t there. However, I was happy to find a note on the shower area reception desk, listing amenities that were available on request. Deodorant was listed, and I asked for it. I thought they’d give me one of those mini deo sprays, or perhaps just a 2 ml sachet deo like AA does, but no. The indifferent lady produced a €2 Nivea Deo Spray from behind the counter and I lifted my shirt, sprayed my armpits and gave it back to her for the next guest to use. I wonder if the ”shaving kit” would have been a second-hand Gillette… First Class Deodorant, CX, really?
I took a look at the à la carte dining list, but it was short and there was nothing that I found especially exciting. I snacked on the buffet, though. The salmon and cold cuts were delicious, and the pear tart was excellent, as well. I guess I had a bit too much to eat, considering that I was to have dinner at The Pier in a moment…
The Wing didn’t feel like a place where to pass time, so I decided to proceed to The Pier.
HKG: The Pier F
When I left The Wing, I noticed that my flight now had a gate assigned, and it was departing from gate 70. Perfect, I wouldn’t need to walk back to the main terminal from The Pier and could maximize my time there!
My BP was efficiently scanned, and when I asked the lady who I could talk to about a massage, she asked me to go to the counter right behind the wall. That’s where I went, but there was no one there. I waited for a while for someone to emerge from the back, but when that didn’t happen, I went back out and asked if they had anyone working there. One of the scanner ladies quickly came, went behind the counter and asked what kind of assistance I needed. Massage? Yes, you need to proceed to the right and bla bla talk to someone at the other counter. Really? Couldn’t the scanner lady have told me that in the first place?
Next, the indifferent massage counter lady appeared inconvenienced and informed me that the massages are available on a first come, first serve basis and the next appointment would be in 2.5 hours, which was 15 minutes after my flight would have departed. She didn’t offer it, but I was well-educated to ask, and got a beeper nevertheless, in case someone didn’t turn up for their appointment. (Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and when I tried to return the bepper, there was no one at the counter, and a queue of three people. I waited for a while and when no one came, just left the beeper there.)
I did, however, get a day suite. The name is a bit misleading, it’s basically a daybed behind a thick curtain, not a suite as such. But it was great for lying down and taking it easy for 30 minutes. Wifi didn’t reach the daybed area, but that was okay, I wasn’t there to browse the web after all. There was a sign limiting the use to 90 minutes per pax.
Next, I went to the dining room. I waited for a while at the door where they have a small reception, but since all three waiters a few meters away just stood there and ignored me, I decided to walk right in and greet them and was then taken to a table.
The menu was versatile and comparable to a restaurant menu. I skipped the appetizer, but had a pretty good fish linguine and a coconut pannacotta, and then asked for some vanilla ice cream as a second dessert. I liked the food and the ambience in the dining room.
After dinner, I went to check out the buffet offerings. Didn’t have room for anything, but the buffet looked almost the same as in The Wing.
Then I sat down for a while, waiting for my flight to start boarding. The lounge didn’t feel busy, but it wasn’t deserted, either. The layout is exceptional since the lounge consists of many rooms instead of one big hall, and this, in my opinion, gives it a more intimate feeling.
CX613, HKG-BKK
This flight was on time, too. This time it was an A330 with recliner seats. It felt odd to be in J and have someone next to you, so close that your arms touch. But the seat was fine and I actually slept for most of the flight, having woken up after 3 am due to jetlag.
The Bangkok-based crew delivered a very friendly service and served a three-course meal with three choices for mains and three different Häagen Dazs for dessert. Initially, I thought I’d ask for a second ice cream to try another flavour, but I really didn’t have room for it. White peach and raspberry was very good, though.
While there wasn’t a OWE welcome as such, I felt like I was getting better service. They for instance brought me the main course right away after I had finished the appetizer, and only later came out with the cart, distributing main courses to other pax.
Bottom Line
I had a long but great day! It was good to be back in HKG after so many years, and now I’m actually considering a mass tourism trip there. 1.5 hours really isn’t enough
I don’t regret spending the extra Avios to fly J instead of Y. It was nice to see that a seat so similar to AY’s could be so much more comfortable. (I wonder if there’s any way AY could keep 8 rows of J but still make the seat pitch larger. Move the lavs?) And in Y, I wouldn’t have gotten access to the QR lounge, which, actually was my favourite of all three lounges.
Of the three lounges, the QR lounge in BKK had by far the most attentive staff, they were friendlier and cared about what they did, and about me. They made me feel welcome. In the CX lounges, no one was rude per se, but I got the feeling they didn’t really give sh*t, either. They were unenthusiastic and perhaps even a bit reluctant.
Moreover, I feel that CX might have equipped their lounges with what’s more a marketing gimmick than an actual service available to pax. The Wing was a let down, and if I had been travelling in paid F, and been told that there is no Cabana, no massage etc, I wouldn’t have been very happy. They seriously want me to be at the airport several hours before my flight so I can book those?
My suggestion here would be to reserve those extras solely for pax travelling in CX F, and making sure they have enough availability so that all F pax actually have a realistic chance of enjoying the perks. Otherwise, it’s more a marketing gimmick than anything else.