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THE ALVIATOR'S VERDICT
Buy-on-board food menus are an X-factor for many intra-Asian low-cost carriers including HK Express, and leaps and bounds ahead of low-cost carrier flying in Europe or America. However, the experience is otherwise bog-standard with bare-bones seats and no WiFi, and I'd only fly it if the price was significantly cheaper than a full-service airline in economy class (which it usually, but not always is) |
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In August 2024, I flew HK Express’ A321 from Manila to Hong Kong. I’d last flown the airline back before it was rebranded as a low-cost carrier, was called Hong Kong Express, and was a subsidiary of Hong Kong Airlines. 11 years later, the airline sits as a fully owned subsidiary of Cathay Pacific, and is Hong Kong’s largest ultra low-cost carrier. After doing lots of intra-Europe low-cost carrier flying, I was very interested to see how my HK Express flight compared.
So how was it? Pleasant, I’d say. The seats are bog standard for a low-cost carrier, with no power or WiFi, though there is an extremely extensive buy-on-board selection.
I’ve actually already compared HK Express and Greater Bay Airlines head to head after my flight – I flew both of these airlines within the same week. However, here’s my full review of my HK Express nighttime flight from Manila to Hong Kong.
Booking My Flight on HK Express
My one-way HK Express flight from Manila to Hong Kong cost PHP 3,210 (£43.6/HK$451) sans add-ons, including a PHP 1,700 (£23/HK$239) base fare, PHP 1,160 (£15.75/HK$163) in taxes, and a PHP 350 (£4.75/HK$49) reservation fee.
For reference, here are the four different pricing packages offered by HK Express (the dummy booking here shows cheaper base fares than what was available on the day I was flying, though keep in mind that this is before taxes and reservation fees – low-cost airlines aren’t required to show the all-in price on the booking page).
In terms of add-ons, HK Express sells priority services as a standalone add-on, which cost PHP 400 (£5.43/HK$56) on this flight. This included priority check-in and boarding. For me this was a no-brainer, since I was reviewing HK Express for the first time, and wanted to get “clean” cabin pictures.
I also selected a standard seat within the cabin, which set me back another PHP 400. We also pre-ordered some meals in advance (I wanted to go all-out, since I was reviewing the flight), though without meals the total price came to PHP 4,010 (£54.46/HK$563).
HK Express Ground Experience at Manila Airport
I was flying with my dad, and we spent a great few hours trying to tour as much of Manila as we could. Since I had heard horror stories about Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport, we decided to make it back to the airport a couple of hours before our flight, where there was a quick boarding pass and security check before we entered the terminal.
When flying HK Express from Manila, check in online if you’ve got a bag. The check-in counter was chaos, though the online check-in line was empty, and there was a separate lane for U-First passengers.
HK Express Check-In at Manila Airport
Outbound immigration didn’t take too long, as we were ushered into the diplomats/APEC card queue (due to it being empty). Around 25 minutes later, we were on our way airside.
NAIA’s Terminal 3 isn’t exciting by any stretch of the imagination, though it does have some duty free vendors that sell delicious dried mangoes and ube ice cream. We took advantage of those (and bought some to bring home – duty free bags don’t count as part of the onboard allowance).
I also went past the Manila Cigars shop, which quite famously has a wide range of model planes for purchase. I’m not embarrassed by the amount of time I spent window shopping here…
Manila Cigars Model Airplanes at NAIA T3
I mean, who wouldn’t want a model of this EVA Air Hello Kitty A380 (which I 100% would go out of my way to fly if it existed, by the way)? On another note, I imagine you’d only want to purchase a model of a DHL freighter if you either worked at DHL, or were a very specific type of avgeek.
EVA Air Hello Kitty A380 (?!?) at NAIA T3
Since we had walked around all day, eventually we did decide to sit down for a while in the gate area, which was arranged with rows of seats facing the same direction.
NAIA T3 Gate 111
We were at the gate area quite early, as we had budgeted a lot of time to navigate NAIA. This meant that we’d actually beaten our HK Express plane. The plane did eventually show up and pull into gate 111 at around 8 PM, 10 minutes before its scheduled arrival time (and around 1h 10m before we were scheduled to depart).
HK Express A321 at Manila Airport
Boarding was just done in two unmarked rows, and was called by group. Bag sizes were not checked ahead of our flight.
HK Express Boarding Gate at Manila Airport
Boarding started around 45 minutes before departure, at 8:35 PM. This began with passengers that required assistance as well as U-First passengers. As nobody travelling on our flight was infirm or required assistance, and we were the only passengers who had booked U-First, we were first in the jetbridge by a margin – we were asked to wait for a couple of minutes before being invited to board the aircraft.
Manila Airport Jetbridge
HK Express Flight UO515
Monday, August 12, 2024
Origin: Manila (MNL) T: 3 Gate: 111 Dep: 21:10 (21:05)
Destination: Hong Kong (HKG) Gate: Bus Arr: 23:30 (23:15)
Duration: 2 hr 20 min (2 hr 10 min)
Aircraft: Airbus A321 Reg: B-LEG
Seat: 12C (Standard Class)
It was time to board our 7-year-old A321, which would be my first time on the airline in 11 years (and my first time ever since they rebranded as a low-cost airline).
HK Express A321 Cabin and Seat
The HK Express A321 features 230 seats across 39 rows. It’s a long aircraft, and rows 1, 11-12, and 26 are set as exit rows (row 11 doesn’t have window seats, so the window seats in row 12 are exit row seats).
HK Express A321 Cabin
Seat pitch at standard seats is a fairly reasonable 30″ for a low-cost carrier, and the airline uses Safran Z85 seats.
HK Express A321 Seats
I wanted my dad to have a comfortable flight, and I also wanted to review the “standard” HK Express experience. This ended up being fairly easy – I booked row 12, where I gave my dad the window seat with infinite legroom, and I just took the aisle, hoping the middle seat would stay empty. It did.
HK Express A321 Row 12
The legroom at each seat is very consistent with what I’d experienced on other low-cost carriers.
HK Express A321 Legroom
Each seat reclines a little, more so than I’ve seen on most low-cost carriers I’ve flown in the past. It’s still not enough to get particularly comfortable (and nowhere comparable to any longhaul economy class seat), though noticeable if the person in front of you reclines.
HK Express A321 Recline
While the tray table (folding down from the seat in front) wasn’t bi-fold, it was quite large and sturdy.
HK Express A321 Tray Table
The overhead panel featured lights and air nozzles.
HK Express A321 Air Nozzles
Unfortunately, there’s no in-seat power on any HK Express aircraft (or WiFi, for that matter).
HK Express’ newer A321neos feature RECARO SL3710 seats, which are identical to what you’ll find on Wizz Air.
Taking Off from Manila Airport
Boarding was done quite swiftly, and closed at 9 PM. At this point, we were welcomed by the German captain, who announced our cruising altitude of 38,000 feet, and mentioned that we’d hit some chop throughout the flight due to weather. This was followed by a manual safety demonstration.
We pushed back at 9:05 PM, five minutes before our scheduled departure time. From there it was a 25 minute taxi to runway 24, where we took off at around 9:25 PM. Unfortunately as I was in an aisle seat, I didn’t get much in the way of photos as we departed Manila, despite the fact that we climbed over the Manila Bay coastline.
HK Express Inflight Entertainment and WiFi (or lack thereof)
HK Express doesn’t feature streaming entertainment or WiFi on any of their planes, and as far as I know, has no future plans to do so.
HK Express A321 Buy-On-Board Meal Selection
HK Express operates a buy-on-board meal selection, which is extremely extensive – I was very impressed as I was browsing through, while booking my flight. The menu features lots of Hong Kong local eats, as well as a few other hot options that I’d be happy to have at a restaurant. Highlights include curry fish balls, minced pork with salted egg on rice, and even taro and coconut milk purple rice dessert.
HK Express Buy-On-Board Menu
As you’d expect for a travel blogger like me, I went all-out – I ordered 1,340 PHP (£18/HK$188) worth of food, trying various items on the menu. This was delivered around 5 minutes after takeoff (and right after the seatbelt sign was turned off), and was a slightly comical amount of food for a low-cost airline.
Feast on HK Express
The steamed minced pork with salted egg on rice was impressively decent for a plane, and cost 440 PHP (£5.94/HK$61.6).
HK Express Buy-On-Board Menu – Steamed Minced Pork with Salted Egg on Rice
The signature pork chop with vegetable rice was flavourful, and not too tough. It tasted like what you’d get at a good cafeteria, and also set me back 440 PHP (£5.94/HK$61.6). It was a dish made in partnership with dim sum restaurant Ging Sun Ho, a casual Chinese eatery specialising in pan fried buns.
HK Express Buy-On-Board Menu – Ging Sun Ho Signature Pork Chop with Veggie Rice
As you’d expect from Ging Sun Ho, of course pan fried buns were provided. These lacked the crispy base that you’d typically get from shengjianbao in Hong Kong or Shanghai, though did the trick for a plane.
HK Express Buy-On-Board Menu – Ging Sun Ho Soup Bursting Pan-Fried Pork Bun
Lastly, I couldn’t resist trying the airline’s signature onboard egg waffles as well. Once again, these weren’t anywhere near crispy, though were a cute representation of the airline’s culture.
HK Express Buy-On-Board Menu – Classic HK Style Egg Waffle
I won’t detail the inflight service in a separate section on this 2h flight on a low-cost airline. Cabin crew were courteous and efficient, though we didn’t interact with them much outside of them serving us our meals, and collecting rubbish before landing.
There are some airplane meals that are just as good onboard as you’ll find on the ground. This is not the case on HK Express. However, for a food offering onboard an airplane, I love the local flair, and thought that the prices were relatively reasonable as well.
Also, isn’t the branding for the above food options on point? Both the egg waffles and the pan-fried pork buns came in some adorable custom packaging.
This isn’t something I’d have in in place of a last meal in Hong Kong (even at the airport, where you can get many of these eats for almost as good quality as you’d find in the city), though I’d indulge in a taste of the city if I was transferring through Hong Kong on HK Express. This is miles better than anything you’d get on a buy-on-board food menu in Europe.
HK Express A321 Lavatory
HK Express’ A321s feature lavatories at the front and back of the plane. As is standard for an A321 on a low-cost carrier, all 230 passengers share three lavatories in total, which is a 77:1 passenger to lavatory ratio.
The lavatories felt tired, though were clean enough throughout the duration of the journey.
HK Express A321 Lavatory
Landing into Hong Kong Airport
At 10:30 PM, the captain came onto the PA announcing that we’d begin descending in about 10 minutes, and also announced an arrival time of 11:10 PM. The cabin lights were subsequently turned up all the way at 10:40 PM, then dimmed again as we descended into Hong Kong.
Our approach from the west of Hong Kong onto runway 07L meant that I could see Macao in the distance.
Landing into Hong Kong Airport
We touched down at 11:10 PM, and had a 5-minute taxi to a bus gate, where we parked next to a beautiful HK Express A321neo.
HK Express A321neo at Hong Kong Airport
We had a nice view of our A321 in the old livery once we deplaned.
HK Express A321 at Hong Kong Airport
While we got a proper gate at Manila Airport, I was reminded that we were on a low-cost carrier when we deplaned from a bus gate…from a terminal that required a separate train to get to immigration. We were first onto the second bus that shuttled us over to the Midfield Concourse, where we then hopped onto the train that took us to immigration.
Taking a bus to the Midfield Concourse at Hong Kong Airport
Once we got to the Midfield Concourse (primarily used by Hong Kong Airlines and HK Express planes), we headed down the escalators and took the airport train towards immigration, where we were swiftly on our way home.
Midfield Concourse at Hong Kong Airport
Conclusion: HK Express A321
HK Express’ seats are bog-standard low-cost airline seats, and do the trick for short flights. I was pleased by the fact that add-ons were affordable, and the buy-on-board menu was affordable had a lot of local flair. I’ll be writing a full review of Greater Bay Airlines next, and they have a comparable onboard menu – flying low-cost carriers intra-Asia really is on a completely different level to buying food on board intra-Europe, both in terms of food quality and value for money. The airline’s IT is also solid, and I found the airline’s website easy to navigate.
There is a significant difference between flying HK Express and flying Hong Kong Airlines/Cathay Pacific or another full-service Asian airline in economy class on a shorthaul flight. I’d certainly pick a full-service airline if the price was comparable (which sometimes happens especially during peak season), or even higher by a slight margin. However, I generally wouldn’t hesitate to fly this airline if the price was right.
