Hong Kong Express Airways: A Customer Experience Plane Crash
I appreciate the concept of no-frills budget airlines. But Hong Kong Express Airways, managed by Hong Kong Airlines, is not defined as one. It still provides the basic services and amenities. Like the 1980’s comedy “Airplane!”, what it really cuts on most is common sense.
I recently flew Hong Kong Express Airways for a short trip from Hong Kong to Okinawa, Japan. The airlines industry being one of my favorites in terms of Customer Experience Management and having never flown this airline before, I was looking forward to the experience.
Over the course of relationship it’s possible even with the best companies to experience a few unimpressive interactions. My experience with Hong Kong Express however, over only one trip, provided a negative customer experience at almost every channel; from check-in, through in-flight services and the loyalty program to phone, web and email.
Self-service Check-in
Having booked through an agent, my actual experience directly with the company started at the airport where I opted to use the airline’s self-service check-in kiosks to print my boarding pass. What should be a simple process that can be completed under a minute even by a first-time user turned into a puzzle. I eventually needed to ask help from an assistant whose job it is to assist self-service. Even the staff had difficulty with the interface.
Most airlines’ self-service kiosks I’ve seen suffer from the same lack of usability, defeating the self-service purpose. Companies who decide to implement self-service channels should ensure that people are able to use them by themselves without support.
Self-service in the Plane
When I walked in the plane to take my seat, blankets were piled up on the first seat next to the entrance and a flight attendant was distributing them to passengers as they passed by. This is almost self-service.
Early in the flight, the attendants passed wet towels. Not hot wet towels, but those tiny plastic-wrapped napkins such as those in fast-food restaurants. Instead of giving them to each passenger individually, they gave 3 to the passengers in the aisle seats to distribute to the others in the same row, whether they were together or not. Let the passengers sort it out.
Later, I realize some people were filling out immigration cards. Not being Japanese national or resident, like most people on the flight, I needed one and had to ask a flight attendant. Instead of passing them around to everyone at a certain point, attendants distributed them on a request basis. Not only does this in fact increase the workload for flight attendants but it affects the extended travel customer experience, as travelers who forgot to complete one will have to do so at the last minute waiting in line at immigration.
Is There a Cost-Benefit?
Puzzling is how the airline came to those trade-offs between cost and service quality. How expensive could it be to have someone put a blanket on each seat prior to boarding, or to pass them on later? How much longer would it take to give the wet napkin to each passenger individually? The flight will take the same time regardless, so the company is not saving on staff cost. All it does is give an impression of lower service quality and degrade the customer experience yet for very little or no cost-savings.
In-flight Entertainment
On a positive side, the airline provided free headphones. Since I forgot my own I used the ones provided. They are as cheap quality as they come, but will do the job for a short flight. Air Canada for example charges premium prices for their flights but still charge 6 Canadian dollars for their headphones on local routes (which can be more than 5 hours) as if they were a budget airline.
Foreign Languages
With the intention to test the in-flight entertainment system, I tentatively started a Hollywood movie. I had the choice of English, Russian or German, which is interesting considering the Hong Kong-based airline doesn’t fly to Russia or Germany. I picked English. The movie was actually French dubbing with embedded Chinese subtitles, not in English.
What’s on the Menu
I’ve learned to keep my expectations low on airline food so I’ll skip the food critique, save to say I’ve never had worse than on Hong Kong Express. Continental Airlines is Michelin-starred next to it. I would mention however they didn’t have a menu.
Menus on flights are a good idea, even though you don’t have much choice. They help people decide in advance what they’ll choose. It relieves a bit of the last-second decision stress and communication issues. Although it would be good to mention that most of the time it doesn’t matter what the choices are because whatever you pick it will have the same bland plastic taste.
In this case not having a menu didn’t make much a difference since by the time the cart reached my seat in the middle of the aircraft they had run out of one of the two choices.
In-flight Purchase Disaster
The experiences I had so far were not enough to get me to write a review. Although it doesn’t justify lower service quality, it was about getting free amenities. But when it comes to buying more from the company however, you certainly would expect better service. And this problematic experience led me to other channels which only made things worse.
Won’t Accept Your Credit Card
On my return flight, I peruse the duty-free catalogue. I decide to buy some chocolate-covered freeze-dried strawberries. I’m not much of a sweet-tooth but I thought I’d give it a try. So I tell the flight attendant my choice and hand her my credit card. She comes back after 5 minutes saying she can’t take my credit card. It turns out my card was expiring at the end of the month, and the flight attendant claimed the airline policy is to accept only cards that are valid for at least 6 more months. That is not mentioned in the terms and conditions, which I read later. I thought they were confusing with passport validity as required for entry in some countries. The flight attendant explained that because there is no immediate online or phone validation like in retail shops on the ground, they have to post-process purchases later, hence the 6-months policy.
Establishing a Climate of Distrust
This doesn’t make any sense. Many merchants still don’t have direct phone or internet connection to a bank and will accept credit cards with any validity range on the basis of acceptable risk. In any case, whether a card expiry date is a few years away doesn’t guarantee it is still active. For the sake of arguable risk reduction the airline establishes a relationship of mutual distrust with its customers, becomes inconvenient and negatively impacts the customer experience.
Won’t Give Change
So I decide to pay cash. I had Japanese yen, Hong Kong Dollar and Canadian Dollars. Terms and conditions state that you can only get change if you pay in Hong Kong Dollar. So I decide to pay in Hong Kong dollar but am told that they don’t give change back. At this point I just want to get it over with and decide to forfeit my change.
After pondering on the nonsense of it all, I resign myself and at least seek comfort in my purchase. The strawberries looked nothing like those in the picture on the box, but that’s another story.
Contacting the Company
The day following my trip and with the intention to write a review of my customer experience, I decide to contact the company to hear more about the disparity between the written terms and conditions and their factual policies.
No Website
Hong Kong Express does not have a Website. Its outdated Wikipedia entry points to the “Official Website”, but the link redirects to sister company Hong Kong Airlines’ Website.
This can be confusing to customers who don’t know Hong Kong Express is managed by Hong Kong Airlines and need to, say, book or change a flight. The only hint that the Hong Kong Airlines Website handles both airlines is a small Hong Kong Express logo at the bottom of their homepage. Clicking on it however leads to an error message.
Clicking on the Hong Kong Express logo gives an error page.
Although the link will probably be corrected after the airline picks up on this review, it’s surprising the error was allowed for so long.
Phone: No Answer
I tried to call the number listed for “Headquarter Office”. Not only does it not answer after a minute, but it doesn’t lead to an IVRS or even a voicemail. This is unthinkable a company of such size.
Email: No Reply
I decide to contact “Media Enquiries”, which provides an email for Eva Chan, DGM, Corporate Communications & Marketing. I mention in the email I would like to write an article about them but first would like to have an official statement regarding their T&Cs for in-flight purchases.
While she appears normally outspoken, Mrs. Chan never gave a reply. Perhaps this article will result in one.
Can’t Join Loyalty Program
I can’t say my experience with Hong Kong Express Airways will ensure my repeated business, but I completed a paper form in-flight to sign up to their loyalty program anyway.
A few days after the flight, I receive an email from the “Fortune Wings Club” loyalty program asking me to confirm the email address I used to sign up by clicking on a link.
The link provided leads to a Web page where I get an error message “SORRY! Please, Connection with [email protected]”. I emailed the address to report the system error and ask to please let me know how to proceed.
Clicking on the link provided in the email leads to an error page.
Over a week later I’ve yet to receive a reply.
Comedy or Disaster?
I’ve rarely experienced so many problematic interactions with a company in so little time. While the incredible lack of attention to detail reaches a point where it’s almost comedic, it really is a customer experience management disaster. Out of my entire Travel Customer Experience Lifecycle, only a few interactions were not problematic. Had I booked directly through them, it is likely I would have encountered some issues. Luckily that part of the customer experience was managed by a third-party.
I will certainly not fly Hong Kong Express or Hong Kong Airways again by choice. But if I do fly them again, I will brace myself for impact.
Tagged: | Airlines, Customer Experience, Review, Touch-points
David Jacques is Founder and Principal Consultant of Customer input Ltd and a pioneer in the field of Customer Experience Management. He has created the first Framework that brings together cohesively every aspect of Customer Experience Management. He is also passionate about having an in-depth understanding customer values to create emotionally-engaging customer experiences not only at individual interactions but also seamlessly between them.
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Thanks for the review!
Looking to book a HKG-PEK flight for my boss I found Hong Kong Express has a lot of flights. But before going ahed in the booking I thought I’d better inquire about the company which is unknow to me. I am glad I found your review before putting my boss into bad experience he would sure hold against me.
Guess you saved my job…. Merci.
DO NOT FLY THIS AIRLINE
– Flight delays really do cost us all time & dollars – problems & no compensation or assistance
(addtionally Hong Kong Airline’s staff attitude is very poor & very rude!).
HKG -> BKK (HX775 6/9/2013) –
3+ Hours delay on flight departure / arrival (due to 3am arrival in BKK).
RESULT: We paid ourselves for a taxi to final destination, as the free BKK Airport shuttle bus had finished operation for the night (no public transport options exist at 3am at BKK airport & no staff help from Hong Kong Airlines were their to assist)
BKK -> HKG (HX766 9/7/2012)
3+ hours delay on departure / arrival
Flight original scheduled ETD 8.25pm
RESULT: Lied to and no transportation to final destination offered (arrived home at 5am via self paid taxi)… we were also told that 80 passengers on our flight who had missed onward flight connections to China, were not being taken care of by the airline either (needless to say, all BKK / HKG flights were effected and one can be sure no one on those flights was assisted nor compensated for this problem by Hong Kong Airlines)!
At check-in we were lied to and advised ETD would be delayed to 9.45pm (in fact this was impossible, given that the plane we were to be using ex BKK, had not yet departed HKG!)… so why the lie by HK Airlines staff? … sadly it was so the airline could save on / avoid offering a food coupon for stranded passengers (at 11.30pm after entering the departure gate, we were given an unattractive snack box which I returned to them… unfortunately the gate was not posted until after 10pm and not staffed until 11pm).
Final departure was after mid-night BKK time (which resulted in a 3.38am arrival in HKG).
At BKK we requested HK Airlines ground staff to assist us with providing a taxi to HK Island and were told their staff Adam Peng could assist us on arrival (unfortunately there was no Adam Peng present upon arrival and their ground staff manager Leo, rudely told us he had the authority to decide if he could assist us – he smugly & rudely advised us that he had decided not to help us with taxi transportation to our destination).
NB: Public transport options do not operate at this time of the morning in HKG.
Hong Kong Airlines did suggest a shuttle bus they wanted to put on for stranded passengers, but a slow option deparing the airport at 4am in the morning which doesn’t take you anywhere near your final destination, is not a viable solution when one wants to get some sleep before a days work!
PS: “Hong Kong Airlines” and “Hong Kong Express Airlines” are sister companies, both 45% owned and operated by “Hainan Airlines” (don’t let the airline names confuse you, these two airlines are in fact Hainan Airlines poor service, ruining the good name of Hong Kong!)
We will never fly Hong Kong Airlines nor Hong Kong Express Airlines ever again – any cost savings one dreams they will get using this airline, will be offset by extra transport costs upon arrival (pls also see flight stats for Hong Kong Airlines – unfortunately we now know that this is not a one off incident for them, but a regular scheduled problem for this airline, on most of their routes! Don’t let them ruin your holiday or business trip too!).
andrew,
will you me so mean for asking for the airlines of so many things? taxi request?? for travelling on the economic class??
3 hours delay for arrival at hong kong wouldn’t be possible to take 5 hours back to city at night!! the taxi must be more expensive than the ticket you fly back home.be honest, i think you must be put all things at extraordinary way.
well, i saw they would provide the accommodation and compensation in case of changing flight for staying for one more night. in such the normal way the airlines do.
just to put the way more simply, you can check http://www.hongkongairport.com/flightinfo/eng/chkfltdep.html to see hx on time mostly. or you can compare with dragon or cathay .are they depart on time at the same destination?
lastly,you paid almost half of the cathay pacific price for travelling to the same destination.
Was browsing on the web and randomly popped in.
David, I can tell you why this airline (and Hong Kong Airlines as well) is running so badly as a Hong Kong local – they are subsidiaries of Hainan Airlines, a company based mainland China. Of course there are occasionally good services offered by the mainland Chinese but you should know their usual standards.
CX and KA on the other hand are genuinely HK-based. Their service might not be exceptional but at least acceptable.
I agree with you, Eugene. This is typical mainland Chinese business standard. I’m not surprised.
HKExpress is Horrible. They did not let my 2 adult sons and I to take our flight from Taichung because we arrived 50 minutes prior to our flight, and not 60 minutes. I thought it was 45. They would not print our boarding pass and let us proceed to the gate even though we had more than enough time at our empty airport. They insisted we buy 3 new roundtrip tickets. Wouldn’t even allow us to use our 3 return tickets. We bought 3 new round trip tickets from another airline. Out 600 dollars. Never again. This was outrageous.
just had bad bad experience with the agent. my flt got delayed for 2 hrs so i called to cancel my reservation called from Canada. i uderstand it has to be 48 hrs advance to cancel to reschedule or whatever. the agent named Aileen (in strong thagalog accent) kept telling me “no u can’t get any money refund, thats our policy”. she asked me twice what my email address is which apparently my email addy is right there in her monitor!!she doesnt answer any of my questions but went on and on saying since it’s a budget airline. so what? finally i hung up and called again talked to different agent, she answered all the question i had. emailed me the form to claim the airport tax and he remaining balance after deducting the airfare. she didnt ask me about my email addy at all. now i am gonna report that Aileen thagalog speaking woman when i arrive in hkg. she has a serious issue dealing with customers.
if its a connecting flt.
never fly with hkg express.
no more hkg express for me.
I just hope I had seen this before suffering with hongkong airlines myself last week. The airlines 3+ hours delay (Hong to Bangkok) caused me to lose next flight which I had booked separately. Because the staff there was non existent, I had to book a new round trip to the destination and ended up paying hell lot more that I had planned to save by using this flight service.
This airline is horrible one ever.
They just cancelled my flight without my approval.
customer service is unbelievably rude.
I got no compensation for the cancellation, and had
to book other airline with higher cost than I could at
the moment I book HKexpress one.
The so called low fare advertised is without any checked bags. Anyone going on any reasonably length trips will need more than 7Kg carry-on. Once you factored in the extra luggage cost, their fares are at best only level with other. But then your tickets are 100% non-refundable, 100% non-changeable.
Ground crews that I dealt with were impolite to say the least, after all, I must be some cheap skates to be flying with them, correct?
I saw a few people got lured by their cheap fare and exceeded the 7KG carry on limit. They were required to check their bag at almost double the fees were they to purchase the luggage option at ticket purchase. I found this to be especially sneaky way to do business. I prefer the US carriers’ way to charge for checked bag. I think HKexpress is setting a trap to bait the consumers.
I only flew them once, I will not fly them again.
HKexpress is horrible.
Their ground crew is crude, because they all think that their customers are cheap skates.
Really, their fares are not cheap, once you add back on the luggage fees. Moreover, their tickets are 100% non refundable or changeable, and they have all sorts of excuses to extort big sums of money (compared to the ticket price) once you are at the airport and (they think) at their mercy.
I personally flew with just a backpack since I am visiting family, but I saw two sets of people lured in by their no luggage low fares and ended up carrying over the 7Kg limit (which they enforce). These people ended up paying exorbitant rates on the extra checked bags.
I think this is a very sneaky business and certainly puts a bad name on what is generally good services from Hong Kong.
I flew it once, I will not consider it again.
Absolutely horrific! I have never felt so strongly about any specific airline because they’re all about the same, some better than others. But this airline has compelled me to write a review. I cannot stand the customer service and all the excess rules. I checked in and arrived at the gate on time for my flight but didn’t make the flight because the bus that was supposed to take us to the aircraft had left before the scheduled time. They refused to refund us the money even though we were on time for the flight and we were forced to buy new tickets. Also, I didn’t include a middle name which I never do for any other airline when booking my flight. I ended up having to pay a fee that cost more than my flight! Unbelievable! Not to mention the lady at the check in counter was one of the rudest I’ve ever seen. She was very quick to point out it was my fault. I have never had such a problematic experience for a single flight. I absolutely will never fly them again.
I recently took a flight on Hong Kong Express from KMG to HKG and I found two incidents that were so incredible I have to write and let other flyers know. So be aware when you choose Hong Kong Express on your next trip.
Checked baggage charge – I had to pay CNY 292.00 in cash for my 17kg checked in baggage. I found the charge was so outrageous when I paid CNY 349.00+tax for the ticket. The charge for one piece of regular checked-in baggage was as much as the ticket price – wow! You can see other reviews also complained about the excessive baggage charge. I purchased my tickets on Ctrip and it did not warn about the big charge. I later learn on HKE site about the charges.
Food and Drinks – I forgot the exact words from the announcement but essentially what it said was you are NOT ALLOWED (NOT JOKING) to eat/drink your food or drinks that you have brought on the plane with you. I guess they want to sell you their food and drinks. I don’t know if any other airlines do this… and I have flown on many airlines.