VA to HKG from Jul 5 2017, ex MEL

[mel-world]

I'm in Shenzhen and Guangzhou region and weather really marginal. I would expect delays into and out of HKG. Colleague took train to Shanghai when faced with 6 hour domestic delay ex CAN. Train is around 6 hours.

 

[Melburnian1]

OTP has been pretty bad this week (ex HKG) any news on this?

Sunstar320, I listed a few lengthy delays (one hour to two hours, typically) for flights arriving in east coast Oz that had departed from HKG during the evening of Tuesday 18 July. ('OTP' = 'on time performance', which typically does not become 'late' until a flight arrives more than 15 minutes late.)

CX, QF and VA were all affected which led me to a hypothesis that there was adverse weather (or an airport congestion or other issue) in HKG on Tuesday evening. I did not look up previously issued weather reports.

Today (Wednesday 19) some QF HKG-bound flights are late, largely because the above inbounds from HKG were delayed this morning.

mel-world's comment above that weather was 'marginal' is a nice way of saying 'difficult' or 'adverse.' Once again, high speed trains domestically are shown by mel-world to be far more reliable than domestic (in this case mainland Chinese) airlines.

Have a look at the respective airline delays/ cancellations threads on AFF for more details.

 

[Flyinfish]

Flying MEL HKG in November (flybuys fare) and am on a Saturday red eye flight (0135 departure). Will the Etihad lounge be open at this time? If not what are arrangements for Gold flyers at this time of night?

 

[Bagpuss]

The outbound flight from Melbourne is going to be standardized ... well between end Oct - end March.

Virgin Australia standardises Melbourne-Hong Kong flight times | Australian Aviation

Aircraft utilization will be much better.

 

[Flyinfish]

How annoying! I have prior commitments on both the Friday and Saturday ((

 

[andyhui01]

would have preferred if they had 2 red-eyes but I guess it isn't efficient unless they fly twice daily. Both my HKG bookings are on the 1230am flight

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Anybody flown VA to HKG then onto PVG with HX? If YES how was the experience on HX?

 

[redwoodw]

Anybody flown VA to HKG then onto PVG with HX? If YES how was the experience on HX?

HX is not budget but not premium like QF/CX either. Quite like VA in this regards actually. Transfer in HKG shouldn't be too much too much of a hassle.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

HX is not budget but not premium like QF/CX either. Quite like VA in this regards actually. Transfer in HKG shouldn't be too much too much of a hassle.

Ah huh but have you actually flown HKG-PVG on HX and can comment on hard / soft product.

 

[redwoodw]

Ah huh but have you actually flown HKG-PVG on HX and can comment on hard / soft product.

Unfortunately not flown on HKG-PVG on HX so can't comment on soft product. Hard product wise I've been on an HX 330 before and for Y it's pretty average. J is staggered 1-2-1 somewhat similar to QF 330 J suites. IFE is meh but will do the job for such a short flight.

 

[andyhui01]

Finally got a chance to fly VA MEL-HKG. I might be unlucky but I did not feel like I was on a VA flight. The crew were really "unpolished". Announcements were really poorly read, crew just seemed disorientated and cold compared to VA Dom/lax crew

i have 3 more VA HKG flights this month so maybe it was my crew but the VA I flew did not feel like the VA Dom or LAX experience. Will post back.

personal acknowledgement from lead cabin crew and offering a first choice of meal from a printed menu was a very nice gesture

 

[grubbidok]

I did a return leg in Y about 3 weeks ago. The trip up was a bit of a dog's breakfast (though TBF, this was largely due to many things beyond VA control with gate changes etc which flowed on to lack of priority boarding and a crew both overwhelmed by complaints due to this and inexperienced enough for it t flow onto other aspects). But the trip back was great. IMO it is a superior product to their Trans-Pacs when they get it right.

 

[Melburnian1]

I did a return leg in Y about 3 weeks ago. The trip up was a bit of a dog's breakfast (though TBF, this was largely due to many things beyond VA control with gate changes etc which flowed on to lack of priority boarding and a crew both overwhelmed by complaints due to this and inexperienced enough for it t flow onto other aspects)....

Do passengers really, really complain about 'priority boarding' not occurring?

It's not as if they were left behind. Seems an extremely trivial matter about which to complain.

 

[jpk]

Do passengers really, really complain about 'priority boarding' not occurring?

It's not as if they were left behind. Seems an extremely trivial matter about which to complain.

Sounds like something VA customer relations would say. It's a published benefit - it should be honoured. And yes it does matter.

 

[grubbidok]

Do passengers really, really complain about 'priority boarding' not occurring?

It's not as if they were left behind. Seems an extremely trivial matter about which to complain.

IMO it does make a *big* difference if you travel a lot. Waiting around once or twice isn't so bad, but when you're doing it a couple of times each week it is rather ordinary

WRT above, it wasn't really VA's fault as they had a last minute gate change to a gate which could simply not accommodate the number of people which resulted in a mass of people at the entrance (no lines, 5 across, filling whole area). Then they put everyone on packed buses which waited around 10mins and then took us 10mins out into the paddocks to put us on a plane. An ordinary experience, but it was apparently out of their control. However, in saying that, they should have made some announcement that this was not their normal MO, as I heard several people complain about never using them again if this was how their flights ran, and I only found out it wasn't standard because when on the plane in my usual WP greeting it was explained to me.

 

[andyhui01]

My return flight back on Sat night was much better. Ground staff still a little green, she wasn't sure if a WP was supposed to get lounge access and had to check. Surely I was not the only WP/SG in Y on that flight. No issues with PB

I had the same crew again. Was told the senior crew came from 777 and the rest were from A330 Dom. So much better this time, felt like a true VA flight. Bubbly crew with heaps of energy, good balance of fun/professionalism and fun to talk to. The HK Airlines ambassador was so much better as well.

I managed to get a center row to myself coming into MEL and 1 empty seat outbound despite being a full flight all around me. Not sure if it was luck or if WP's actually get a shadow.

Will write again on my next HKG trip at the end of the month.

 

[serfty]

Do any have experience with check-in opening time for the 12:35am flight.

Three hours before would put it at 9:35pm but does it open any earlier?

 

[Flyinfish]

Do any have experience with check-in opening time for the 12:35am flight.

You are departing before Oct 30 I take it? My November flight has been changed to 10.55am the following day.

 

[serfty]

Yip ... September

 

[andyhui01]

Are trying to get to the EY lounge before the EY flight leaves? If so, I was there after the EY flight left and there were 3 hot food choices, couple of snacks and the full bar.