Virginia Emery

No one in their right mind would try to save a few bucks knowing the time/money it would take to get a visa, and in this case it's a Canadian TOURIST visa at least, not even a TRANSIT visa

As soon as HK Air puts up that banner on their website I would guess they can forget about any passengers connecting through YVR

Like I've said, lesson learned here is to avoid HK Airlines

xamde5755

Let's make it clear.

I was not the one that asking HK Airline to reroute to SFO/LAX. Why I want to go to San Fran since I booked a hotel in Seattle city.
Instead, I asked what they could do to help, and they were the one who offered me to reroute to SFO, and asked me to wait for a confirmation.
Unfortunately, they let me wait in the airport for more than 5 hours to be confirmed that this option is actually not valid even they were the one that offered me first.

However, they still offered me to get a refund instead. But they just throw me to talk to another guy in the phone. After talking for a while, a phone guy told me that refund was not viable option as well.

This wasted my time in the airport doing nothing for the whole day. it felt very exhausted and helpless, without knowing which fight I could catch to Seattle, or which hotel should I stay further in HK.
I would appreciate more if they made it end quickly even I got nothing, instead of offering hope and letting me wait for nearly a day, but rejecting them all in the end.

Thank you for your sharing.

blandy62

Even if I totally agree that ultimately the passenger is responsible to make sure he has all the documentation they need, considering that there seem to be quite a bit of gray area surrounding this transit in Canada (and the fact that HX seems to be treated differently from other airlines), HX should at least have a proper warning displayed when someone is trying to make such a booking.

Now with particular case, I still agree that the airlines has no responsibility whatsoever. But the OP booked it with absolutely no knowledge of this, I think HX could offer at least a partial refund. But unfortunately they are handling it the HongKong way....

nanyang

Quite a story and it must have been a stressful experience.

Incidentally, 2 weeks ago I needed to book a one-way flight to SEA as well. In the end, my options were the following:
1. JL SIN-TYO(NRT or HND, can't remember)-YVR-SEA (the last leg on Horizon probably)
2. BR HKG-TPE-SEA

Tried to do some research regarding the connection at YVR - assumed I would need the Canadian eTA, so applied for that just in case. Have only ever connected int'l to int'l in Canada once (EWR-YYZ-TPE) and it was a hassle. I do not think JAL had any red flags on their website regarding the connection in Canada. I could be wrong on that front.

In any case, ended up booking BR via TPE as I needed to visit HKG briefly before the US.

Kacee

Anyone else find this thread title misleading?

It really has nothing to do with Hong Kong Airlines, which is the information I was hoping to find.

I'll just add to the chorus that visa requirements are always the passenger's responsibility.

plunet

Absolutely, although an airline might be able to point you in the right direction based upon the nationality of your passport, so many of the regulations refer to the visas that might exist in the passport, family and employment circumstances, etc. None of which can be easily and succinctly summarised in a few drop down boxes. So it has to be down to the traveller to understand the rules, and if they don't understand to go to the correct authorities to seek advice.

The fundamental flaw here was to assume that HK Airlines had a visa free transit path to their parter airline flight at YVR, which they don't.

blandy62

I think overall the OP is of course very annoyed by this visa thing. But I think his main complain is more about HX keeping him for the whole day telling him they will try to help him with rebooking or refund and eventually after 5-6 hours they just told nothing will happen.

hkskyline

Well, the airline could have rejected him right away, but they were nice to give him a ray of hope that he could hop onto a later flight. Of course, this is subject to availability at the last minute after check-in is done, much like a standby passenger.

blandy62

HKairlines is not really an example of customer service... Some time ago time, flew PVG-HKG. Was booked on the 9:15am flight. Flight got cancelled and they rebooked me on 16:55 flight (11:55 flight was apparently full by the time I checked-in). Enquired with them if they could rebook me on an other airlines considering we were talking about an 8 hours delay. Just got a "No sorry, your ticket is with HX we won't rebook you". Eventually booked a last minutes ticket with Spring and came back to HKG. I never even bother to try to claim anything from HX, just a waste of time ...

hkskyline

You need to check the T&C on the ticket, which, like many other international airlines, will only take you from A to B, not the fastest option in case of rerouting. If it is due to ATC flow control, which is typical for PVG and PEK these days, they may even be extraordinary circumstances outside the airline's control so they don't even need to compensate for the delay. This is where travel insurance comes in to help.

I suspect if they have a seat on their metal, that's where you will go, rather than for them to buy an expensive ticket on another airline. After all, they only need to get you from A to B, not in the fastest manner.

blandy62

I know. But original flight was cancelled due to plane having technical issues .... Anyhow I don't want to highjack the thread. Just wanted to point out that hx has the best customer service in the world when it comes to address issue

kaka

spin88

I think that the OPs point is that HK Air (aka Hainan) is not a reputable airline, and avoid it.

The issue - IMHO - is NOT the OPs fault. Canada allows visa free access to the US (and other countries, specifically in central/south america/cuba) for a long list of airlines. They do this since YVR is a sterile airport, they just run you from your flight to US customs, which per-clears at YVR. There is a massive amount of traffic that connects at YVR, and the system works very well.

What happened here is that Hong Kong Air is incompetent and never did or completed the process to allow visa free access, which I believe is simply the sharing of flight manifests and some forms. Instead they sold an itinerary that on nearly any other airline would NOT have been an issue, but is a major issue for OP. The airline is the expert, not some guy from Thailand. The airline failed here, and the CS response was horrible.

OP, I would file a compliant with the Hong Kong Consumer Counsel. Explain how they - unlike CX, etc - don't warn, and are not set up for the flights they sold you. Link is here: https://www.consumer.org.hk/ws_en/co...ocomplain.html

good luck!

m.y

Only the following airlines are eligible:

• Air Canada
• Air Canada Rouge
• Air China
• Air Georgian
• Cathay Pacific
• China Eastern
• China Southern
• Hainan Airlines
• Jazz Air
• Philippines Airlines
• Sky Regional Airlines Inc.
• Xiamen Airlines
• WestJet

None of the Korean, Japanese or Taiwanese airlines participate even though ICN, NRT, TPE are eligible airports and they carry lots of passengers from the effected countries.

spin88

The likely answer is that all three countries (Korea, Japan, Taiwan) have visa free entry into Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...s-country.html Also all three have substantial service into US airports, YVR is NOT a connection point for them. I would bet that all three also have a very clear warning that pops up on their web-site. I'll go one step further and suggest that I seriously doubt that any of these carriers route any traffic sold on their web-site via YVR at all.

Here Kong Kong Air is carry lots of PRC Chinese - who don't get a visa waver for Canada - but unlike the other Chinese Carriers they did not get into the transit program. Had Kong Kong Air make it clear on their web-site it would be a different matter, but they sold a ticket with a major hidden catch. Given what other HKG/Chinese carriers do, I blame them for not taking the reasonable steps to protect their customers.