HK Express
 

I'm flying with the family HKG - HAN, DAD - HKG on HK Express.... only flights that fit our schedule. Have I made a terrible mistake, or will all be well? Flight reviews are wither 5* or 1* .... not sure what to trust.

It's a fairly standard Low Cost Carrier. You get transported from A to B in a small seat in a metal tube. As long as you don't expect more than that then you should be fine.

Somewhat
As in fly them in school holidays and expect something to go wrong - whether minor or major (canx) is up to luck.
And as with all carriers, better when school's in session.

I have flown those routes with UO, CX and VN.
UO is a standard LCC, and not among the best.
After a couple of incidents, I go out of my way to avoid HK Express.

Fairly standard low cost carrier. Better than the likes of Ryanair but I don't have much expectations when paying that cheap fare. Planes are mostly new and Danang is only 1.5 hours away anyway.

Be aware outside food is not allowed on board so if you need a meal, pre-book it.

"incidents": one of the incidents included contract (ground) staff confiscating passenger-brought food and eating it (rule: passengers not allowed to eat their own food but staff not allowed to confiscate it)?

Thanks everyone. Not going to show this thread to the missus..... and hope for the best. trip is end July. what do school holidays have to do with it?

Used them a couple of times and it is fine for short flights.

in school holidays a lot of families go to vacation. not to mention UO doesn't only get Hong Kong vacationers, also a lot of transit from mainland china and a lot of other foreigners as well. it makes very cramped, overcrowded planes, but to be fair all other LCCs have this issue.

pay to sit in the first row (significantly more legroom / less interaction with the riff raff) and ufirst for priority boarding and counter access. Check in online and get your boarding pass. Yes you will have to pay for bottled water.

Honestly it's not that bad, it's better than FR for sure. It's not the same as a KA 320/1 in J like in the good old days but for an 1-2 hour segment you'll live.

Flown them to DAD.

Perfectly acceptable for flight of that duration.

For better experience you can order food in advance.

Out of HKG pay for U-First.

Return from DAD will make less of a difference.

First row better than exit row?

You'd get off faster, if that means anything

at 6'4" I'm all about leg room...

In Dec last year, I used HK Express for a positioning flight to KIX. At that time, I could still book a fare that included 7kg of hand carry. I booked the exit row 26F on an A321ceo. I did not prebook any meal, nor did I purchase a meal on board.

The flight was perfectly fine, and with the extra leg room of the exit row seat, it felt like sitting in 60K of Cathay's A350's. There was not much extra service, but I did not expect any for an LCC.

The flight attendant sitting across from me was quite chatting and pleasant; she was quite friendly. In hindsight, though, I probably would book 26A instead, since the A seat does not have the flight attendant in front of you, and you can enjoy the extra leg room throughout the entire flight.

The exit row numbers depend on the plane they are using.
https://www.aerolopa.com/uo

I find the 1st row good (I am 6"2), especially C&D where you can stretch your feet in the alley/galley.
Pay for U-First, order some food. With a bsg, it will take you to a typical CX fare without lounge and troubles in case of IRROPS.

As CX members (SL/GO/DM), do we get any form of recognition or perks when flying UO?

No, not a thing.

Just an example on how UO is trying to milk customers. I had mentioned it before but it is still hurting.
At HKG checking (U-First) my wife was slapped with a huge "change name" fee. French passport for married women are issued with surname "MAIDEN ép. MARRIED", with both the maiden (birth) name and the married (husband) name. The "ép." is the shortening of "épouse" (spouse). In four decades of flying we used simply the "MARRIED" name, or "MAIDEN MARRIED" as in this case with UO. Never any problem.
The UO agent insisted that the ticket surname missed the "ép.". Called supervisor who showed me a document that ticket name must be exactly as on passport, and that she would be denied boarding if she did not pay the name change fee. And this was at HKG. Time was running out and I accepted. Taken to a separate counter, the agent had difficulty entering the "." so simply added "ep" rather than "ép.", but we made the flight. Later I wrote a complaint at UO with the documents. Never got an answer. My time was not worth the money and stress involved. That plus an IRROPS that was miserably handled at DAD and I stopped using UO.

unfortnuately you get only what you pay for, and don't get what you didn't pay for


https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/36403991-post8.html
isn't it already in the airline's name?
you board to get whisked to your destination, get off for them to 're-accomodate' their next lot, and whatever happens in between is your tough luck
as you say, their recent track record has been (to mildly put it) a bit tarnished as well

HK Express service - Indifferent. Took a friend's mother to NRT. Did the online check-in and brought her to check in at NRT. Agent reiterated there would only be person item allowed, carry-ons, checked luggage. We responded 'we were aware of that, thank you.'

Pretty grumpy from the ground service and inflight service. Another friend of mine has different schedule so she took a different flight than her mother, and managed to grab all of her luggage so her mother didn't bring a thing, but the agent's facial expression seemed to imply we were trying to break any rules.

I never set foot on UO/HX but maybe I'd have to do that later for the destinations to which only UO/HX flies.

I'm not quite as tall as you but I always take the first row instead of the exit row - imagine LH 320 J but with 1-2" extra legroom. It's perfectly comfortable for a short flight, especially if you get a ceo with proper padded reclining seats. The first row is also quieter if the flight isn't full - UO charges for seat assignments in the first couple of rows and doesn't assign passengers to those seats unless they pay.

HX does fly to DAD now, but the schedule isn't as good and there are frequent delays. Also note that the cost of J on HX is about 3x the cost of Y incl. seat assignment, ufirst, etc. so you may want to consider getting 2-3 seats on UO instead. That's what many of my industry colleagues do (we frequently fly to a destination that was formerly well served by KA but is now UO).

HX is also nothing special and also annoyingly parks at the midfield. And not every flight has J.

As far as I know, there is only one seat configuration of the mentioned A321ceo.

At the moment, we'll be on 320CEO or NEO...so I booked 2x exit row and 2x row 1 for the family..... but it will be in July 25 and I expect changes in the mean time...

WOW, you book a LCC 9 months ahead.
As the ancillary services often cost as much as the basic fare,and tickets are nonrefundable, this is a bit surprising.
Schedules can easily change. As these flights were the only ones that fit your schedule, might have been a good idea to wait until the summer 25 schedule is confirmed and then pick the optimal airline.

There was a error-not-error fare last week with UO for Xmas 2025 and CNY 2026
(Not an outright error, but peak pricing was not applied when the fares were loaded)

https://www.facebook.com/share/1JFBvViVne/

https://www.facebook.com/share/b4e2gMqLpf3rivyA/

Clearly, you've not met my wife...