The fare from the city to the airport costs 35 yuan for Economy Class and 50 for Business Class. Shenzhen was the only other place I've visited in China where the airport line had 2-tiered pricing. But the Economy seats were quite comfortable on my ride into town a few days earlier, so I didn't think I need to splurge this time.
While passengers mostly use their phones' QR codes to scan onto trains, there are also other potential new methods such as using your hand palm scan and facial recognition. I'm not sure whether I want to disclose so many biometrics to anyone though.
There was a sizeable crowd downstairs on the platform. It seems they're not running at full capacity yet as the train only filled up a section of it. I was among the last to board and there were no more seats available, but it's a short trip anyway.
35 yuan may sound like a bargain for an airport train by international standards, but public transport in China is quite cheap. Beijing's subway charges a minimum 3 yuan but a cross-town journey would rarely cost over 6. Over the past 4 days, I spent only about 70 yuan taking buses and subways around the city.
I was standing at the last train car and spotted the driver's cab, which is only separated from the passenger cabin by a flimsy set of plastic flaps.
After about 20 minutes, we pulled into the airport station. Electronic signs above the doors show which direction to exit and your train car's location against station facilities.
Economy class seats are plush and big with small luggage racks by the doors. I didn't see many passengers with large bulky bags though.
Trains arrive at the lowest level while international check-in is all the way up on the 4th floor.
The 3rd floor is for domestic departures. With dark brown wall panelling set against the white tiled floor, the colours offer a good modern contrast although the ceilings were rather low.
The international check-in area is far more sleek and airy with a wavy architectural design. It's a Zaha Hadid creation that costed $11.5 billion with construction starting in 2014.
This is still mostly a domestic airport, with international departures on the 3rd screen only that can't fill up the page for the rest of the afternoon and evening. After the Hong Kong flight leaves at 3:35pm, the next one is almost 2 hours away.
Just a little over 2 hours ahead of departure, I reached an empty check-in aisle for Hong Kong Express. They only have 4 counters open but it was pretty empty. I haven't checked in online the night before to see if I can score a window seat without paying, which is HKD $50 on the website. Unfortunately, getting a seat assignment at the counter would cost twice that, so I was content to have a free middle seat assigned by the computer. My hand carry was slightly over the 7kg limit but the staff affixed the cabin approved tag anyway. As with my prior experiences with Chinese airports, check-in staff don't really give much smiles or greetings.
By now it's 1:45pm and I browsed around looking for lunch. Fearing international prices past security, I headed upstairs land-side to find a restaurant serving traditional Beijing-style zhajianmian, or pork and soy bean paste noodles. Prices are more expensive than the Michelin-recommended restaurant I had in the city, but it was still only 32 yuan here.
Satisfied, it was time to head to my gate. With so few international flights, there wasn't much waiting to go through security, although I was given the full body pat-down, including rolling over my pants' waistline and the tops of my socks.
After security, I walked across a bridge with a massive panoramic view of the terminal to immigration. The agent seemed bewidered and asked whether my plane ticket's name matched my ID card, and gazed at it for a while.
I emerged into an empty airside. It's a massive terminal and I could see the domestic section being quite busy, a huge contrast.
My gate would be all the way down the pier at 85.
Although devoid of humanity, the Family Mart and McDonalds were open, which are good shops to have airside. Near gate 85 is a beautiful outdoor Chinese garden. By the time I reached the gate, it was time to board. It's not even 3pm yet.
It looked like a full flight except the exit rows which were empty. We settled pretty quickly well ahead of our 3:35pm departure and pushed back a minute early, taking off at 3:49pm for the 3 hour flight home.
The crew came by with the buy-on-board cart. Purchases are made with Octopus or credit cards only, and the mainland lady next to me was surprised this low-cost airline doesn't provide free water and she only had a Unionpay card. How someone can travel abroad without a Visa or Mastercard in 2024 is quite bewildering. Meanwhile, a few curious passengers would stray into the exit rows for a more spacious seat throughout the flight, which were kindly sent back by the crew soon after. I guess the concept of low-cost airlines seems relatively new on this new route?
With no entertainment on board, I dozed off a little. The flight had a few small bumps here and there with the captain being quite conservative to switch on the seat belt sign fairly often. I felt the plane veer a bit at these times, which I interpreted as trying to avoid the weather. It was fairly clear skies beneath us but I got the impression the captain was monitoring the situation very closely and doing the best to keep us comfortable.
Today's aircraft is a much older A320 with black seats.
Prices for buy-on-board are not cheap but reasonable by international standards. The traditional Hong Kong-style egg waffle costs more than the noodle I had earlier landside, for comparison.
For a low-cost airline, it seems they expect these cheapskates to splurge on luxury goods shopping instead. The duty-free catalogue seems on-par with traditional airlines.
I started feeling the descent at 5:52pm and the flight deck announced at 6:11pm we would land half hour later.
A good thing about these old planes is they've got regular-sized tray tables, which makes working on the laptop a bit easier.
We touched down on the third runway at 6:42pm and pulled into a parking stand 9 minutes later. Similar to my previous evening arrivals into Hong Kong on this airline, we were sent onto buses the 200-gates satellite terminal to continue by train to immigration. They didn't fill the bus to the brim luckily.
No complaints on this return trip as we left and arrived early, although I was surprised to get a parking stand. I guess this plane won't continue to Japan later in the evening and that's it for today?
