2024 Aviation Showcase Gallery - 1st Half
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I expected Korea during the winter can't be as nasty as eastern Canada, and a cheap fare convinced me to go ahead with this trip.Automation is increasingly permeating across the entire flight experience. Now, the Hong Kong airport authorities are trying to push passengers to drop their own bags into the belts. However, the system they use is not the best in the industry, requiring the passenger to scan the bag on the belt using the gun, when other cities have taken out that step, having installed scanners on the belt to scan the bag in automatically without human intervention.
Nevertheless, departures out of here can get quite scenic with beautiful aerial views of the city. Always get a window seat when flying out!
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Since Hong Kong Express became part of the Cathay Pacific group, it has become possible to use Asia Miles to redeem flights on this low-cost airline, and sometimes they have super specials that are hard to ignore. I snatched up a roundtrip to Bangkok during the low season for a mere 6000 miles for a hand-carry only ticket. Historically, Cathay would charge 20,000 miles for the same journey.Spotting is always pleasant at this airport thanks to the long line of huge windows along the terminal.
Today's flight is on a full A321 with almost 40 rows of seats. Despite the lack of amenities, it's only a short journey of 2 hours 40 minutes, a good length for a low-cost model to work while passengers can endure the no frills experience. However, with deeper pockets, you can fly Emirates' fifth freedom flight on the same route, which regularly has cheap Business Class tickets and you can take a shower on their A380.
While no frills, in-flight menu prices are reasonable with a good selection of Hong Kong specialties. Nevertheless, it's not industry leading, with the crown going to AirAsia for great value for money food. I have never flown on a low-cost airline with as cheap meals as AirAsia.
Many airlines have tried and failed with their A380s. I've flown on Thai's over a decade ago to Europe and had a great red-eye flight, so it's a bit sad to see them parked at Bangkok's airport.
Thailand is a huge magnate for foreign tourists but Bangkok's airport arrival experience is absolutely awful, which hasn't improved over the years and hence it has never made to any best airport list despite being relatively new.
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Bangkok's traffic is notoriously crazy, so I opted to take the reliable and cheaper train to return to the airport even though taxis are very affordable here. However, the trains are run under different brands with separate fares and long walks to interchange.
The airport was bursting around the dinner hour and it was extremely busy. It took a while to navigate the crowds and find the elusive food court where prices are not inflated to international standards. The food is decent so do take the trouble to get here and resist the restaurants' temptations along the way.
Many tourists were buying up the mango sticky rice to bring onto the plane. It's quite expensive here although I don't think it's possible to haul it from the city amidst the hot winter weather.
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Similar to my Bangkok trip earlier which costed 6000 Asia Miles, I snatched this Hong Kong Express flight with my miles. At 7000 miles roundtrip for a flight half the length of Bangkok, it's still less than redeeming a Cathay flight on the same route, so I was still a happy customer.Hong Kong Express has a relatively new fleet of narrowbodies and I'm fine with the hardware given these are short flights. The slim seats with the small tray table are enough for the price I paid. I've always been bewildered why anyone would pay a fortune to redeem a Business Class seat to Taiwan. You can barely eat a 3-course meal with just an hour from wheels up to wheels down.
Critics have long lamblasted why Taoyuan airport didn't have a direct rail link to the city. That is no longer the case and the Taoyuan Metro is a very affordable and quick way to get into Taipei.
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Taichung's airport is quite far from the city and there is no rail link. Overall, this city has a poor metro network and residents rely on buses. It was a long ride on the city bus and I even think it was longer than the flight back to Hong Kong.
This is a small airport so I didn't need to worry about the crowds. The terminal was really quiet and it seems residents are content taking the high-speed train up to Taipei to fly out.
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Being a fan of Hong Kong Express with a few recent flights, I was particularly interested when they announced a new route to Beijing Daxing. That airport just opened so I wanted to give it a try. The basic fare was quite cheap at HKD $1200 only. I guess this airline is really more known for vacations to Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and Thailand. Being a new route and not a typical airline to fly to China, their technology has not caught up with our travel documents so we couldn't use the kiosk but go for the manual line to check in.
Daxing looks like a huge airport and there wasn't much activity this afternoon. Being an international arrival, it was a long walk through empty corridors. There aren't that many international flights out of here yet, a good change to the busy Capital airport across town.
A new high-speed train line takes you into the city for only 35 yuan, either payable by a traditional ticket or by palm or facial recognition. Overall, I had a very good experience using this airport and it was quite painless.
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Being happy with my arrival experience, I had high hopes to photograph this huge new airport on the flight home. The architecture is stunning and they even built an outdoor Chinese garden in between gates.
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Continuing my year of low-cost airline travel, I opted for Hong Kong Express again for an Easter trip to Japan. They've recovered well after the borders re-opened as Hong Kongers are avid Japan fans and a revenge tourism boom ensued, flying to a number of secondary cities in addition to the main hubs.Since they ban consuming outside food on board, I used one of my credit cards to get a free pastry and drink at the gate.
Then I enjoyed some nice views of Taiwan's mountains along the way.
There is a huge tourism boom to Japan recently thanks to the extremely cheap yen. It's not just Hong Kongers who have returned in droves but also plenty of other foreigners. However, the arrival exprerience is a bit clunky. Get ahead of the curve by filling in the forms and customs declaration online beforehand and you will use the QR code issued to get through immigration seamlessly. Everyone then had to go to a customs counter similar to an Australia arrival, but since I was prepared, I exited within half hour of getting off the plane.
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My 2 week trip to Japan is divided into 3 parts and I decided to redeem a flight from Osaka to Tokyo. It's a bargain basement price of only 7500 Asia Miles with no further surcharges and I get to fly out of the old domestic airport. A limousine bus from near Namba station takes me directly to the terminal in comfort for only 650 yen.
Japan seems to be stuck in the good old days of aviation and the observation deck is one of these bright spots. It's pretty much just JAL and ANA here but the huge open space is very nice and I could spot the city's skyline in the distance.
Another good thing about flying in Japan is eating or shopping here won't cost extra compared to in the city, and there are plenty of choices available. Itami has been well maintained and clean with lots of seating so the crowds spread out.
Otherwise, the Dreamliner flight was nothing special given the short journey of just over an hour. I carefully selected a left window to hopefully spot Mount Fuji but the weather turned cloudy below me soon after departure.
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My redemption spree continued and I was lucky to be able to secure a seat on JAL from Tokyo back to Hong Kong for only 14,300 avios during the Easter peak season. Haneda is far quicker to reach and my preferred airport if the price is right. Similar to Osaka, I headed up to the observation deck to check out the birds with Skytree in the distance.
A wonderful shop at this airport is the 7-11, which is well-stocked with souvenirs, sandwiches, and rice balls. If flying low-cost, this would be a great place to eat a meal on the cheap before leaving Japan.
Today's Dreamliner has a more spacious layout in a 2-4-2 configuration, 1 less seat than other competitors. With a right window, I set my eyes closely for beautiful aerials on departure and I was not disappointed. I got to see Tokyo and Yokohama's massive urban landscaped and Mount Fuji soon came into view.
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Cathay's London frequencies have pretty much returned to pre-pandemic levels with up to 5 flights a day to Heathrow. They had flown to Gatwick before which hasn't returned still. During the late evening, 3 Cathay and 2 BA flights head off to London within a 35 minute period.When flying in Business, my go-to drink is Cathay Delight, a kiwi-based drink that has lasted multiple CEOs and rebrandings over the decades. With a lie-flat seat, they started to provide a mattress cover in addition to the blanket to make the sleeping position more comfortable. However, it feels less private since there is no wall with my neighbour and no door to the aisle. While comfortable, it's no longer an industry game changer seat.
With a late evening departure, I wasn't interested in eating a full dinner. I scanned the menu and noticed a few local delights such as egg tarts and weird additions such as experimental wines from Ningxia, China. I did, however, enjoy a Chinese breakfast with congee and dim sum. The selection doesn't seem so much different than Economy Class although it's better plated here with bigger portions. The pairing with a Jing brand tea is also very nice.
However, I wasn't impressed Business Class passengers have to pay for wifi.
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Terminal 5 was bustling despite the early morning when I should still be in bed. However, similar to Japan, there are convenience stores selling meal deal sandwiches for a quick bite. For my short flight to Edinburgh, I don't expect them to serve a breakfast on board anyway.
With a left window, I enjoyed spotting Windsor Castle on departure and Edinburgh on final approach. I don't expect much on these short-haul flights within Europe. Receiving a small snack and bottle of water were already beyond my expectations!
However, I appreciated free messaging for Executive Club members, something even Cathay could not offer at the front of the plane.
Getting into the city from Edinburgh's airport is quite easy. The tram line ends at the airport but there is an extra surcharge, costing 9 pounds. As it was still early at just after 8:30am and most attractions have yet to open, I decided to walk 1 stop down the line, where the fare drops to only 2 pounds.
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After a few days of intense sightseeing amidst beautiful weather, I decided to take a more luxurious but value for money option to get back to the airport. Bright Bus charges only 4 pounds for their airport route.
The terminal is nothing to rave about. It's a Costco warehouse and not a place you want to spend longer than you absolutely need to. Scanning the departure boards, I guessed the reason is because this airport is dominated by easyJet and Ryanair.
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Much of Europe is overrun by tourists during the summer, and I didn't want to get caught up in the crowds further south. So I picked Sweden for a short getaway and BA offered redemption seats for their 3 daily flights to Gothenburg out of Heathrow. At 9250 avios one-way, it's a steal. I seem to be quite lucky with redemptions in both Asia and Europe so far this year.BA actually operates a select few flights out of Terminal 3, which was initially a surprise since I had thought everything was consolidated into their new Terminal 5. Luckily, I checked and re-checked beforehand to prevent showing up at the wrong terminal on the day of.
While this terminal won't win any architectural prizes, plane spotting was great with a good variety of airlines and plenty of windows.
Flying on a full narrowbody on a traditional carrier can be very troublesome. The overhead compartments don't have enough space for everyone's hand baggage, so I can understand why the low-cost airlines now charge to bring anything bigger than a backpack on board. It took a while to sort everything out on board today, and passengers were not exactly helpful to resolve the situation either. Having taken cues from my previous short-haul flight to Edinburgh earlier, I was happy to get a small snack and a bottle of water for this short 1.5 hour delayed flight to Gothenburg. Meanwhile, the weather was quite good and I think that's Stansted below us.
However, with a left window, I wasn't successful to spot Gothenburg's skyline on approach. However, the islands dotted in the sea looked stunning as we came in.
Traditionally, people liked to sit at the front of the plane so they can get off first. However, in Europe, it's not unusual even for a legacy airline to board by staircase, and I was among the lucky first few off as the back stairs opened.
Gothenburg's airport has a Nordic design feel with smart features, nothing over the top, and a good feel.
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