Review: Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A320 Business Class From Shanghai to Hong Kong
China Review Series:
- United Airbus A319 Economy Plus From Baltimore to San Francisco
- Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A350 Business Class From San Francisco to Hong Kong
- Hong Kong Airlines Airbus Club Autus & A350 Business Class From Hong Kong to Shanghai (PVG)
- Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A320 Business Class From Shanghai (PVG) to Hong Kong
The Flight At A Glance:
| Aircraft: | Airbus A320 |
| Origin: | Shanghai Pudong International Airport |
| Destination: | Hong Kong International Airport |
| Flight Time: | 2h 30m |
| Date: | March 30, 2019 |
| Class of Service: | Business Class |
| Airline: | Hong Kong Airlines |
| Satisfaction: | 9/10 |
| Flight Number: | HX237 |
| Seat Number: | 12A |
| Time of Departure: | 12:45 PM GMT |
| Time of Arrival: | 3:15 PM GMT |
| Departure Terminal: | Terminal 2 |
| Aircraft Tail Number: | B-LGD |
Pre-Flight:
Just to recap, we had booked this flight using Hong Kong Airlines’ amazing mistake fares last August and booked roundtrip flights from San Francisco to Hong Kong for about $600 per person. In my final installment of this trip report series, I’ll be reviewing Hong Kong Airlines’ A320 business class from Shanghai Pudong to Hong Kong. I did take two more flights after that on this trip, but one was on another Hong Kong Airlines A350 (in the same configuration as I reviewed on both my previous flights) and the other on a United 737 in economy which was a very similar experience to my previous review on United’s A319.
I arrived at the airport about three hours before our flight. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the check-in desk, we found out that it wouldn’t open until exactly 2.5 hours before our flight time, at 10:45 AM. After waiting in line for half an hour, and after the check-in personnel seemingly took a group photo (I’m not kidding), taking their sweet time, they finally got to work, and I was able to obtain our boarding passes and lounge access ticket. Since I was traveling on a special-domestic-but-semi-international flight (or as the sign said, “International, Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan Flights”), I had to go through passport control and security. Passport control was not too long, and fortunately, there was a premium line for security, as the regular line was extremely long.
I then headed towards the China Eastern Airlines lounge. What’s funny is that China Eastern actually doesn’t fly to Terminal 2 (it only flies out of Terminal 1), so I guess they operate a lounge there for its partners. The lounge was extremely big and had exclusive areas for passengers traveling on specific airlines such as Cathay Pacific or British Airways. The lounge was situated above the terminal and was in an open air area, which gave the lounge an open, but not very private feel to it. The lounge had a variety of seating areas, which included tables, work areas, and chairs. There also were many hot food items, such as bread, croissants, and some traditional Chinese breakfast items. However, the lounge was understaffed and many tables were left dirty and were not cleaned for extended periods of time, and despite asking multiple workers there, no one seemed to know the WiFi password. Overall, the lounge was a bit crowded, but it was no problem to try to find seats, and on a scale from a bad airport lounge to the Etihad Residence lounge, I would rank this one as average.
I have to say that I personally love how airy and open the terminal was. I honestly wish that that most American airports (Dulles, JFK, Newark, O’Hare, LAX, etc…) wouldn’t be so cramped, dirty, and frankly just hideous. After visiting the lounge, I walked around the airport terminal and took pictures of many exotic aircraft, some of which were of airlines I haven’t seen before.
Soon after, boarding was announced. There was a separate line for business class, and I was first in line. Boarding was called rather discretely, and I then walked down the long jetway and was greeted warmly by the two business class flight attendants.
The Flight
The cabin consisted of eight business class seats. Hong Kong Airlines’ Airbus A320s have eight recliner seats in a 2-2 configuration in business class, without leg rests or footrests. Once the curtain was closed to economy class, the cabin felt very intimate and was pretty cozy and private. The seat had a decent amount of recline and was almost identical to first class seats on domestic flights on United, Delta, or American. The seat also had an adjustable headrest, a large amount of padding, and overall was very comfortable for just a two-hour flight. The seat in front had a pocket where one could put items, and an Evian water bottle was already waiting there. Economy class was located behind the business class section and looked fairly comfortable, although the seats didn’t have entertainment screens.
In terms of in-flight entertainment, each seat had a personal entertainment screen. It had a weird system where one had to move a tray on the side of the armrest to the side, and then the screen would come up once you push down lightly onto it. The entertainment screen didn’t have many movies and TV shows as it featured Hong Kong Airlines’ old entertainment system. However, it was fairly responsive and was more than acceptable for such a short flight. It could be controlled via touch or by a remote which was located by the side of the seat. Also waiting at the seat was a plush pillow and a blanket which were notably different than on the previous flights I’ve had on Hong Kong Airlines, as they were purple instead of gray and were a bit smaller. Headphones were also in the seatback pocket, and were pretty disappointing, as they were what one would normally expect in economy class. The seat also had USB ports and power ports located in between the seats.
About five minutes after I boarded, the flight attendants came around with pre-departure drinks, where I selected water. The purser also came around with the menu for the flight which is attached below. I ordered the Seasoned Beef with
At around 12:40, the captain announced that we would be pushing back soon, but that we would have a long wait in line before we could take off. Sure enough, we soon pushed back and started taxiing towards Runway 34L where we had to wait in line behind about what seemed like about 10 planes and soon took off through the (very heavy) smog of Shanghai and towards Hong Kong.
About five minutes after takeoff the seatbelt sign was turned off and the flight attendants got to work. Unlike my first flight on Hong Kong Airlines, the flight attendants seemed to really care about their jobs and put in a lot of extra effort. For example, right after takeoff, the purser made an effort to take out the entertainment screens for all the passengers (FYI before takeoff they weren’t activated), which was a kind gesture, especially as the method of taking them out was unintuitive. I then started to watch a movie which took up most of the flight.
Ten minutes after takeoff, the purser came around and took the tray tables out for everyone and served the first round of drinks along with a selection of nuts. Five minutes after that, the starter was served. It consisted of beef pastrami with mustard mayonnaise sauce, which wasn’t too dry and was delicious. The starter tray also had a box of crackers, and afterward, the flight attendant came around with the bread selection, where I selected the white bread roll, which was decent.
Soon after, the main course was served, where I had selected the sautéed beef with Chu Hou sauce with jade rice and seasoned vegetables. The beef with the sauce was delicious and very tasty, and the rice was also great. My mother selected the stir-fried diced pork with soy sauce, Shanghai noodles, and seasoned vegetables, which she reported was also great. For dessert, I selected the Coffee mouse cake, which I personally wasn’t fond of. The meal service was done only 45 minutes after takeoff (I don’t think that the starter was served 45 minutes after takeoff from SFO to HKG), which was very impressive after my previous experiences with them. The flight attendants really seemed to work hard and were very efficient.
I then visited the laboratory, which was always kept clean. I’ve talked about the service a lot already, but I’d like to emphasize again that this flight was my best Hong Kong Airlines flight in terms of service as the flight attendants really actually seemed to care, always greeted the passengers, and were quick and efficient while not seeming to try and rush the service. One other thing to note – there were two overhead screens at the front of the cabin that showed the safety video and also showed short Chinese TV shows throughout the flight.
At that point, I finished my movie and viewed the airshow for the rest of the flight, and the captain soon after announced that we would be landing on time in Hong Kong. The crew made their final preparations for landing (which involved stowing the in-flight entertainment screens). We landed in Hong Kong at about 3:15 PM and had a pretty rough landing. It was very foggy in Hong Kong, and we soon after taxied to our gate at the midfield terminal at HKG.
We then headed towards the train which would take us to immigration. We had an overnight layover in Hong Kong in between this flight and the flight the next day to San Francisco (which I won’t review). I was surprised at the speed of immigration at Hong Kong Airport as we were through immigration in less than five minutes. We were in a taxi on our way to downtown Hong Kong within thirty minutes of landing.
Conclusion
I was honestly very impressed with the flight. Sure, the seat wasn’t amazing, but a recliner seat is much more than enough for a flight just over two hours. What impressed me wasn’t the seat, but was the great, friendly, and efficient service and the delicious food. Also, the flight was on time (always a bonus) and the entertainment selection was good, which made the flight even better. This does conclude my review series as again, I am not reviewing the two more flights I took on this trip from Hong Kong to San Francisco and from San Francisco to Washington Dulles as the flight experiences were too similar to the inbound flights I took.
