Flight from Hong Kong to Seoul with Hong Kong Airlines
After securing our return tickets from Amsterdam to Hong Kong, we still hadn't gotten our tickets from Hong Kong to Seoul yet. We were considering two airlines at the time, Hong Kong Airlines and Hong Kong Express. The difference was that the tickets from Hong Kong Express were cheaper, but we needed to pay extra for luggage and we wouldn't get any drinks and food on board. I wanted to save some money to have more to spend during our trip in Korea, but the flight was going to be four hours and I thought it would be better to be able to eat and drink on board.
It was on hindsight a very wise decision, as right before we would leave Hong Kong for Korea, a lot of flights from Hong Kong Express were cancelled the last minute. It ruined the vacation of many Hong Kong people, who planned a short getaway during Golden Week holiday. It would have been extra bad for us, as we already paid for the hotel and it was not a matter of "too bad, we can always go next week", since we planned the following week to stay in China to see our sick grandma and the last week in Hong Kong was for our last minute shopping and spending time with family in Hong Kong, before we return back to the Netherlands in a grueling 10+ hours flight. We couldn't have possibly squeezed anything into the tight schedule and I was really looking forward to my first trip to Korea too. The next time I can take such a long vacation to Asia would probably be a few years later.
I wasn't sure if they would announce sudden cancellations again, so I could only breathe a sigh of relief, after sitting in the actual plane (although some airlines could still drag you out). For a four hour flight, I was surprised to get a warm meal, as I expected something like sandwiches. I got the chicken rice meal and someone else got the fish pasta meal. I heard that the fish pasta meal wasn't that tasty, but mine was not bad. The rice and the chicken was reasonable, only the vegetables were a bit too overcooked. The bean sprout salad on the side was nice too. As dessert, we got a sweet tofu dessert, which you can also find in the supermarkets in Hong Kong.
I already felt really lucky that our flight wasn't cancelled, but my luck didn't end there. When we returned to Hong Kong one of our luggage was missing. We waited until nothing was on the belt. It was the first time that this happened to me and I was unsure what to do, until I saw the large sign of the counter for lost luggage. There was a specific counter for each airline. I met a very friendly lady from Hong Kong Airlines, who walked with us to the luggage belt and she tried to find the luggage for us by looking at all the luggage that weren't picked up by people and seeing if the luggage didn't get stuck on the belt somewhere. She asked us how the luggage looks like (color, size, and notable features) and we needed to show her the bar code sticker that you get, when you check in the luggage (I never knew what it was for). She told us that she would do her best to find it for us and asked us to wait for her news, while we sat on the benches near the luggage belt. The longer we waited, the more we feared the worst. We even thought that it might be stolen by one of the passengers. In that case, it would be impossible to get it back. But surprisingly, we heard back from the airline, telling us that they located the luggage in the lounge of the transfer flight. One of the passengers mistakenly took our luggage as theirs. They personally came to apologize to us. I wasn't angry, I just felt really relieved to get it back, as it would have ruined our holiday. Afterwards, I wondered how everything happened. How did they find the luggage in the first place? Did they check every luggage in the lounge, based on our vague description and bar code? If that's the case, I am really impressed by the airline's customer service. (Note to myself: take pictures of my luggage the next time).
It was on hindsight a very wise decision, as right before we would leave Hong Kong for Korea, a lot of flights from Hong Kong Express were cancelled the last minute. It ruined the vacation of many Hong Kong people, who planned a short getaway during Golden Week holiday. It would have been extra bad for us, as we already paid for the hotel and it was not a matter of "too bad, we can always go next week", since we planned the following week to stay in China to see our sick grandma and the last week in Hong Kong was for our last minute shopping and spending time with family in Hong Kong, before we return back to the Netherlands in a grueling 10+ hours flight. We couldn't have possibly squeezed anything into the tight schedule and I was really looking forward to my first trip to Korea too. The next time I can take such a long vacation to Asia would probably be a few years later.
I wasn't sure if they would announce sudden cancellations again, so I could only breathe a sigh of relief, after sitting in the actual plane (although some airlines could still drag you out). For a four hour flight, I was surprised to get a warm meal, as I expected something like sandwiches. I got the chicken rice meal and someone else got the fish pasta meal. I heard that the fish pasta meal wasn't that tasty, but mine was not bad. The rice and the chicken was reasonable, only the vegetables were a bit too overcooked. The bean sprout salad on the side was nice too. As dessert, we got a sweet tofu dessert, which you can also find in the supermarkets in Hong Kong.
I already felt really lucky that our flight wasn't cancelled, but my luck didn't end there. When we returned to Hong Kong one of our luggage was missing. We waited until nothing was on the belt. It was the first time that this happened to me and I was unsure what to do, until I saw the large sign of the counter for lost luggage. There was a specific counter for each airline. I met a very friendly lady from Hong Kong Airlines, who walked with us to the luggage belt and she tried to find the luggage for us by looking at all the luggage that weren't picked up by people and seeing if the luggage didn't get stuck on the belt somewhere. She asked us how the luggage looks like (color, size, and notable features) and we needed to show her the bar code sticker that you get, when you check in the luggage (I never knew what it was for). She told us that she would do her best to find it for us and asked us to wait for her news, while we sat on the benches near the luggage belt. The longer we waited, the more we feared the worst. We even thought that it might be stolen by one of the passengers. In that case, it would be impossible to get it back. But surprisingly, we heard back from the airline, telling us that they located the luggage in the lounge of the transfer flight. One of the passengers mistakenly took our luggage as theirs. They personally came to apologize to us. I wasn't angry, I just felt really relieved to get it back, as it would have ruined our holiday. Afterwards, I wondered how everything happened. How did they find the luggage in the first place? Did they check every luggage in the lounge, based on our vague description and bar code? If that's the case, I am really impressed by the airline's customer service. (Note to myself: take pictures of my luggage the next time).
