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THE ALVIATOR'S VERDICT
I'd consider this airline slightly higher-brow than HK Express – a generous 20 kg check-in baggage policy for every passenger, good seats with tech, and an impressive buy-on-board food selection, though subpar IT and no IFE/WiFi whatsoever |
4.0
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In August 2024, I flew Greater Bay Airlines from Hong Kong to Bangkok. As part of my mission to get to know and compare low cost airlines intra-Asia, I wanted to be able to fly both HK Express and Greater Bay Airlines on the same trip, so I could compare them (which I’ve already done here). This ended up working well, as I found an EVA Air one-way premium economy ticket from Bangkok to London, so booked a well-timed Greater Bay Airlines as a positioning flight to Bangkok.
Greater Bay Airlines emerged in 2022 as a Hong Kong-based low-cost airline backed by Chinese carrier Donghai Airlines. The airline operates a fleet of eight 737s, though they have 15 737 MAX aircraft on the way, slated to be delivered between this year and 2027 – this would still make the airline fleet size around half the size of competitor HK Express. The airline competes most directly with HK Express, running regular service to popular destinations such as Tokyo, Taipei and Bangkok, as well as more leisure point-to-point destinations such as Guilin, Zhangjiajie, Yonago, and Phu Quoc. However, I’d say that the airline is more of a leisure low-cost carrier, whereas HK Express is more of an ultra low-cost carrier – the airline has more generous baggage policies, though you’re less likely to find extremely cheap fares (for UK readers, think the difference between Jet2/TUI and Ryanair/easyJet). For example, Greater Bay Airlines has much more generous “baseline” baggage policies, allowing a 7 kg cabin bag and 20 kg worth of check-in baggage even on their cheapest fares, though you’re less likely to find a very cheap ticket with them compared to with HK Express.
After my flight on Greater Bay Airlines, I’d say that the airline provides a neck-and-neck experience with HK Express. My particular plane featured USB-A power ports, though otherwise there are low-cost airline style seats without entertainment or WiFi, and a good buy-on-board food selection of local specialties.
Booking My Greater Bay Airlines Flight
My Greater Bay Airlines flight cost HK$1,312 (£123.56), including a base fare of HK$770 (£72.50) and HK$542 (£51.03) worth of taxes and fees. Now, this was on the steeper end as I wasn’t booking very far in advance. During a dummy booking I pulled up of the same flight during a very similar season, I found an all-inclusive ticket of HK$763 (£71.84). For comparison, the cheapest HK Express fare is HK$587 (£55.26) including taxes, though didn’t come with a cabin bag or check-in baggage.
Greater Bay Airlines offer three fare bundles – for reference, Value Go has a lower rebooking fee than Go Go.
The booking system then requires you to complete a CAPTCHA of sorts, before you’re then invited to select a seat, as well as pre-order a meal (which I’ll talk more about later in the post).
It’s worth noting that managing my booking was significantly more difficult due to the airline’s lackluster IT – for example, I wasn’t able to change my seat, and I couldn’t pull the booking up on the Greater Bay Airlines app.
Greater Bay Airlines Ground Experience
I was able to check-in online with Greater Bay Airlines, so got to the airport at 6:15 AM ahead of my 7:40 AM flight. My flight was departing from the Midfield Concourse (gates 201-230), so I headed there in order to get ready to board my Greater Bay Airlines flight to Bangkok.
Hong Kong Airport Midfield Concourse
I was able to see the Greater Bay Airlines 737 taking me to Bangkok at gate 208. This was B-KJD, an 11-year-old 737. This particular aircraft used to fly for China Airlines, was stored in Czechia for a while, before beginning to fly for Greater Bay Airlines in 2023.
Greater Bay Airlines 737 at Hong Kong Airport
Greater Bay Airlines boards the plane by rows, starting with the back half of the plane. They also weren’t strict about the 7 kg onboard limit, as nobody was weighing carry-ons at the gate.
Greater Bay Airlines Gate Area
We were asked to line up at 7 AM ahead of a scheduled 7:10 AM boarding time. Boarding began exactly as scheduled, starting with infants and infirm, before being opened up to general boarding.
I like to be first onboard so I can get “clean” cabin photos, and even went to the desk beforehand to verify that all my documents had been correctly checked for this one-way flight. Still, I got pulled aside during boarding, as the staff member had done my document check incorrectly (he got a bit of a telling off for it by a supervisor) – a few passengers went past me during the process of getting my documents re-checked.
Greater Bay Airlines 737 at Hong Kong Airport
Greater Bay Airlines Flight HB281
Friday, August 16, 2024
Origin: Hong Kong (HKG) Gate: 208 Dep: 07:40 (07:50)
Destination: Bangkok (BKK) Gate: E6 Arr: 09:40 (09:35)
Duration: 3 hr (2 hr 45 min)
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800 Reg: B-KJD
Seat: 63A (Standard Class)
This particular 737 featured the Boeing Sky Interior, so the overhead bins were large and the plane felt modern. The rows on this plane start from row 21 and run to row 34, before counting up again from 41 at the mid-wing exit row. My seat was 63A, which is definitely the “highest” row number I’ve gotten on a narrowbody aircraft in the past.
I’m pretty sure that the seats were reupholstered since their China Airlines days, and I also know there’s variance between seats on different aircraft. These seats were almost identical to what I’d flown on TUI the month prior.
Greater Bay Airlines 737 Cabin
The exit row seats are rows 21, 41, and 42, and they have a very sizeable amount of legroom.
Greater Bay Airlines 737 Exit Row Seat
My seat 63A was a window seat on the left side, six rows from the back of the plane.
Greater Bay Airlines 737 Seat 63A
Legroom wasn’t generous, though I didn’t find it to be too restrictive either.
Greater Bay Airlines 737 Legroom
A sturdy tray table folded down from the seat in front.
Greater Bay Airlines 737 Tray Table
There were USB-A power ports between seats. In-seat power is a nice option, though as I had a USB-C cable, I was unable to test out whether it worked or not. As you’d expect for a low-cost carrier, there were no 110V power ports between seats.
Greater Bay Airlines 737 In-Seat Power
As you’d expect from a 737, the plane featured air nozzles as well.
These are fairly standard seats for a low-cost airline, though I did like that they featured power ports. These aircraft aren’t equipped with entertainment or WiFi of any sort, however.
Taking Off from Hong Kong Airport
Boarding was completed swiftly, and the door closed at around 7:35 AM, just ahead of our departure time. The flight was full as far as I could tell, mainly with young Hong Kong students/professionals travelling to Bangkok on holiday.
At this time, a friendly crewmember came over to my seat and confirmed my meal order. I’d actually hugely over-estimated how much I could eat this early in the morning, and had ordered two meals to try. The flight attendant suggested me to have one after takeoff and one before landing – I asked whether I could forfeit one of the meals, as I was completely stuffed, and asked if it could be handed out to another passenger or shared amongst the crew.
Afterwards, the captain came onto the crew, announcing Bangkok’s thunderstorm-y weather and 30°C temperature, and saying that we were going to be in line for takeoff after one previous takeoff as well as one landing. He also mentioned our flight time of 2h 20m, as well as our flying altitude of 34,000 feet. This was followed by a manual safety demonstration, after which senior purser came onto the PA to welcome us.
We pushed back at 7:50 AM, and pushed back from the Midfield concourse, heading towards runway 07R for our departure
Taxiing at Hong Kong Airport
We jetted off runway 07R at 8 AM, and first there was a great view over the airport, including some Cathay Pacific planes by the main concourse.
Taking off from Hong Kong Airport
We turned right late enough that I could see the city center in the distance. I always love flying over Hong Kong, and consider it a treat whenever I get to do so, especially given that there’s no “default” takeoff or approach path (unlike Heathrow, where most flights fly past the city center on final approach).
Views upon climbout from Hong Kong Airport
After takeoff, the crew came over handing out bottles of Tibet spring water.
Greater Bay Airlines water
Greater Bay Airlines Inflight Entertainment and WiFi
Greater Bay Airlines has no inflight entertainment or WiFi, in line with most other southeast Asian low-cost carriers – you’re stuck with their inflight magazine.
Greater Bay Airlines 737 Inflight Entertainment
Greater Bay Airlines Buy-On-Board Service
Greater Bay Airlines offers a buy-on-board service onboard their flights. They have an inflight menu, which was located in the seat pocket in front. The menu read as follows:
Greater Bay Airlines Buy-On-Board Menu
There’s a greater range of favourites on offer when pre-ordering during booking, and it’s also possible to add a meal pre-booking afterwards (though you can’t change anything that you’ve already booked). This looked as follows:
Greater Bay Airlines Buy-On-Board Menu
As you can see, this is a rather exciting menu with lots of local options, very similar to what HK Express offers on their buy-on-board menu. The prices are neck and neck as well.
On my flight, a “chicken, mushroom and Chinese sausage” rice was being served. It’s hard to go wrong with that flavour combination, and it indeed delivered – everything was flavourful, and I finished the dish easily. The dish was also served with Lee Kum Kee soy sauce, and I appreciated the local flair.
Greater Bay Airlines Meal – Chicken, Mushroom and Chinese Sausage Rice
The dish was served with some sturdy cutlery made with plant starch.
Greater Bay Airlines Cutlery
Greater Bay Airlines Duty-Free Selection
After the buy-on-board meal service was complete, there was a (not very fluent) announcement delivered announcing that there were multiple duty free items on sale onboard this flight.
I didn’t have much more space in my cabin bag, though I had to stop myself from getting one of these extremely cute Greater Bay merch items, including aircraft models, plush toys, keychains, and more.
Greater Bay Airlines Duty-Free Selection
Greater Bay Airlines Service
While there wasn’t much interaction with the crew in economy class on this low-cost airline, I’ve got to say that the crew generally were friendly and eager to please. I was very impressed by my earlier interaction with the crew about the double meal order I’d done, and they acted professionally during all crucial parts, including safety checks.
I did think that there were a couple of areas (including the non-fluent duty free announcement) that showed the airline’s youth and future training opportunities, though I found the crew extremely pleasant to fly with overall.
Landing into Suvarnabhumi Airport
At around 8:55 AM, the captain came onto the PA to announce that we’d be landing into Bangkok in 30 minutes. At this point the cabin was lit up with some orange mood lighting, ahead of our descent into Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Greater Bay Airlines 737 Cabin
The seatbelt sign came on around 9:05 AM. The weather was on the cloudy side as we landed into Suvarnabhumi Airport, before we touched down onto runway 19 at 9:25 AM.
Landing into Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport
From there, it was a 10-minute taxi into gate E6, where we parked next to an Emirates A380.
Views upon taxiing at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport
We disembarked from the front door, and I made my way to the Oman Air Lounge Bangkok. I actually won’t be reviewing it – it left Priority Pass recently due to some airport restructuring – though I will be reviewing the subsequent EVA Air 777 flight in premium economy that I took back to London.
Conclusion: My Greater Bay Airlines Flight
My Greater Bay Airlines flight was pleasant, and got me from Hong Kong to Bangkok smoothly and on time. The plane was modern, the seats were comfortable with USB-A power ports, friendly crew, and I really enjoyed the local flair in the buy-on-board food selection. I also found the cabin crew to be friendly, even with the training debacle with my doc checks at Hong Kong Airport. On top of that, the airline definitely has more generous baggage policies than most ultra low-cost carriers, even within Asia.
However, as with HK Express, you don’t get much in the way of inflight entertainment with Greater Bay Airlines. I also thought that the website IT was substantially worse than what I’d experienced with HK Express, and can’t imagine that the airline is particularly good at dealing with inops. While the airline’s route network is expanding, it also can’t compete with HK Express or other key Asian low-cost carriers (such as Jetstar Asia and AirAsia).
Greater Bay Airlines sometimes can have fairly competitive pricing on lower-yield flights (it’s generally priced higher than HK Express, but not always and not by that much), and I’d recommend them, given the generally pleasant experience and generous baggage policies. I’d say that the airline does have a more high-brow feel compared to its competitor, HK Express (I’ve detailed a neck-and-neck comparison here) – it feels more like a Hong Kong holiday airline, as opposed to an ultra low-cost carrier. However, certainly don’t expect anywhere near a full-service intra-Asia economy class experience, and the airline’s tech and IT could benefit from some improvement.
If you’ve flown Greater Bay Airlines before, how was your experience?
