Here's the simple routing for the flights featured in this report, showed with the help of Great Circle Mapper:
October 20
As I only bought a oneway for the Airport Express, I couldn't use that to get back to the airport, but as I still had a valid pass for unlimited rides on the metro, I could use that one to get to Tung Chung, located very close to the airport, and from where I could take a cheap bus to the terminal.
The metro system was efficient and pleasant, so I used it a fair bit during my stay in Hong Kong.
A doubledecker bus brought me cheaply (3 HKD IIRC) from Tung Chung to the terminals in just a few minutes.
View from my front row seat on the upper deck, with the Ngong Ping 360 cable car I went on a couple of days earlier visible:
Some nice views during the bus ride:
Once inside the terminal I was again impressed by the shear size of the terminal, the check-in hall was huge.
Arrival hall downstairs and check in hall upstairs:
FIDS:
Aisle K of T1's check in area was dedicated to the HNA group, and hence it was the place I went to for check in to my Hong Kong Airlines flight:
There were a big queue at the economy class check in desks, so I went to one of the SSK's with no queue at all to see if I could check in (OLCI hadn't worked for me, for some reason), and I was happily surprised to see it working perfectly and I got my BP printed.
I then went to the OLCI/SSK bag drop desk, with close to no queue, and my bag were tagged and sent off quickly.
The entire check in process was very quick and efficient, completed in a matter of minutes. I wonder how long it would have taken to stand in the queue to check in manually!
Next thing to do was to head through security, just a stones throw away from the check-in area.
The BP's were checked before entering the security check area.
Not much of a queue at security so I was quickly through.
Before being allowed airside there was some queuing for immigration, in separate queues for each desk (something I dislike). It took 10 minutes or so to get through, but I was stamped out of Hong Kong without any problem.
Then I was let out to HKIA airside. And my impression that the airport was huge did not change one bit! The place was nice though. Clean, modern and a good variety of shops and restaurants.
Some nice views were never far away, with the huge glass walls to the apron:
I had some brunch at at the food court using the last HKD cash I had, which were enough to get me a fish burger menu.
The food court:
What I ate:
It wasn't a culinary delight in any way, but it did its job to fill me up.
Once done with the meal I begun to head to the gate assigned for HX280 this day, which was gate 35.
View down the pier:
To get there, one was directed downstairs, to an automated train that runs below the pier, to the end of said pier. Although it is possible to walk to the gate as well.
The train was smooth and efficient though, and I reached the end of the pier in no time.
Once there, I looked around the area.
View down the pier, in the other direction now:
View down one of the “small” piers at the end of the large pier:
I also saw a few interesting planes around.
Beautiful UA 744:
I hope to fly you, or one of your pals, later in this very report!
Another competitor on the HKG-TPE route:
And then finally, the A332 that would bring me to TPE, B-LNF:
A stylish and great looking livery, the A332 pulls it off nicely:
I sat down at some seats adjacent to the gate, where I had a good view of the plane, to wait for boarding.
Gate area:
Soon it was announced that boarding was about to commence, and a line was formed in front of the Economy boarding scanner. I managed to be among the first 15 or so in said line.
While waiting to be let aboard, the gate agents begun to check passports and BP's of the people in the line. Once an agent reached me, he excused himself and walked away to the gate computer with my passport, probably to check if there were any visa requirements for Swedish citizens.
A minute later I got it back and they went on with the line.
Just a few minutes later boarding was commenced, and my BP was scanned and I was let down the jetway.
HX280
HKG-TPE
Airbus A330-200
B-LNF
Down to the jetways I went, and the one connected to L2 was the one for economy class passengers.
In the cabin I was greeted by a male FA, and as I walked down the cabin I was greeted by many other FA's as well. Most seemed to be female and fairly young, but I got the impression that they were polite and professional.
The cabin ambiance also felt nice as I wandered down to the rearmost cabin, where my seat, 33A, was located. I had chosen the seat when booking the flight on the HX webpage.
It was a comfy blue cloth seat, with a winged headrest:
I sat down and was quite impressed by the hard product, considering the short flight.
A blanket was waiting for me at the seat. I'd have preferred a pillow if anything for a short daytime flight like this.
The legroom was also quite nice:
And last but not least, the entertainment equipment box was way smaller than on QR, and not annoying or in the way at all:
The IFE wasn't turned on while on the ground, the PTV showed this welcome screen:
Also note the remote on the seatback in front, I definitely prefer this way instead of having it in/on the armrest.
View out my window while on stand:
View of the other seats before the seats filled up:
Cabin view:
Overhead panels, first time I flew with an aircraft with “Please Turn Off Electronic Devices” light instead of the classic no smoking.
Boarding took some time, and I believe it was quite a full flight. I was quite surprised to see that as the price hadn't changed much since I did my booking (there were no way of viewing/managing my booking online when booking with HX, so I begun dummy bookings whenever I wanted to check if there were any equipment changes, hence I had seen the fare development).
Due to the good load I got a seat mate as well, a girl which I believe was from Taiwan who had her friends across the aisle.
I did not see any open seats at all.
The guys in the front office did a welcome announcement, mentioning the flight time as 1hr 20mins.
Before takeoff we were handed some cheap looking earphones (which were collected before landing) and an “Antiseptic Towelette”:
A safety video was shown on the screens:
Soon enough we pushed back.
A friend seen after we pushed back:
This was followed by engine start-up and commencing of taxiing.
During taxi some nice views were to be seen.
We had to queue for a while before we were let on to runway 07R.
The queue unsurprisingly continued after us as well:
We took off, and I got some nice views of the airport as we climbed.
Bye HKG:
Some nice urban views as well, but not much:
Taking off towards the east meant we didn't have to do much turning at all to line up towards Taiwan, and we had soon climbed high enough for the seatbelt sign to be turned off.
Great looking winglet:
The IFE system was turned on around this time as well. I begun by setting it to the airshow:
Nice ocean views with some scattered clouds outside:
The crew jumped in to service quite quickly, and it didn't take long until I was served a meal tray, with a generous portion of a risotto kind of dish.
While I can't complain on the dish in any way, it wasn't really to my liking due to the fact it had different kinds of shellfish in it, something which I am not a fan of.
The fruits were tasty though, so that together with the little I ate of the main dish filled me up quite nicely anyway.
It seems like those that said no to the main meal was offered noodle cups instead, which I found to be a fairly nice touch.
I also had a cup of coffee, which didn't taste good at all, but it did it's job I guess.
Flight status after the meal:
And cabin view:
After the meal I decided to check out the IFE system, it was quite nice and responsive. It could be controlled either by the handset or on the touchscreen. Easy menus, and the offerings seemed good enough, but not as good as Oryx on QR.
“Pleasant Goat 2”? No thanks.
If one prefers other kinds of IFE, here's what was in the seat pocket:
This is also a good IFE:
I like these foldable tray tables:
We cruised over the Taiwan Strait for a while, before commencing descent outside of Taiwan. At some point of time the crew handed out immigration forms for the Republic of China.
Our route for this flight:
During early descent the cabin crew distributed fortune cookies, which I thought was another nice touch.
I also saw them handing over a bunch of those cookies to someone who wanted more.
The crew also gathered the earphones and blankets.
Outside my window I could see the Penghu Islands.
And soon also Taiwan “mainland”.
We approached from the west, which meant we didn't have to adjust our heading much and that we'd land on one of the 05's.
Soon enough we did indeed touch down on 05L, on time.
The landing was smooth but when braking on the runway it felt quite shaky, it felt like it was due to non-optimal runway surface.
We left the runway, and did quite a long taxi, around both terminals, to reach our gate at the very end of Terminal 2's southern pier.
Not that I minded it though, as I was treated with some interesting things to look at.
Why, thank you too!
Dedicated to gabrielchew, who flew this aircraft a few hours later:
We soon docked to our jetway equipped gate and deboarding commenced.
I snapped a couple of cabin pictures as I followed the stream to the exit.
I thanked the crew as I left the aircraft.
Once inside the terminal I filled out the immigration form, and then headed to immigration.
Some 20 or so minutes of queuing followed before I reached a desk, and once there I was quickly stamped in to the Republic of China without any problems.
The luggage was already waiting for me on the belt when I reached the baggage reclaim hall, and then I went out to the arrivals hall.
And here's the check-in hall upstairs:
A couple of weeks earlier, I had learned that Gabriel, gabrielchew here on A.net, would depart from TPE a few hours after my arrival. So before I went in to town we met up and did some chatting at the airport. It was great meeting you, Gab, and again thanks for the tips about HK and Taipei!
Before I was gonna head in to town I needed some cash. No ATM wouldn't let me have any though. Luckily TPE offers free WiFi, so I managed to find out that my bank for some reason had blocked my card from purchases and deposits outside of Sweden. Very weird, as I had used the card in Hong Kong that same week.
Once the card-hassle was over and I had some New Taiwan Dollars I bought a bus ticket to get to Taipei Main Station.
The busride was cheap at about 2-3 EUR, but it took over an hour to get in to town due to a lot of traffic.
From the Taipei Main Station I took the metro a couple of stations to my hotel, located nearby the Shuanglian Station.
Exterior of the Taipei Main Station:
Wish Hotel Taipei was my hotel. A decent and cheap facility.
The hotel room was nice and comfortable, there were no views out the window though (unless you count another concrete building as a “view”).
The toilet was one of those high tech ones.
Breakfast was included, there wasn't a buffet as I was expecting though. You could choose western or Chinese. I had western on my first morning, it wasn't very good so on morning 2 and 3 I had my breakfast elsewhere (on day 3 I had to leave to early to eat breakfast at the hotel anyway).
Here's the western breakfast tray:
deltamartin From Sweden, joined Dec 2010, 1059 posts, RR: 9 Reply 1, posted (5 months 2 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 8598 times:
October 21-22
I spent a couple of enjoyable days in Taipei. The first thing I did the morning after I arrived was to go to Taipei 101, the worlds second tallest building.
It's a very impressive structure.
I went up, it cost about 15 EUR. Good views from the indoor observation deck, here's central Taipei:
And the old Taipei Songshan airport, nowadays serving as a city airport:
List of the tallest buildings in the world:
The observation deck was large with quite a lot of people around. It wasn't too crowded though:
Sadly the outdoor deck was closed due to renovation or something.
Here's the huge tuned mass damper, which reduces movement of the building in case of earthquakes or heavy wind:
One last look at this great building, from the ground:
This pretty much sums up Taipei, “Why only have a green light, when we can add a little extra technology by adding a countdown and an animation showing how to walk across the street”:
I also visited the Chiang Kai-shek memorial, which also was a pretty cool place.
The metro was nice and convenient in Taipei as well, I used it a lot:
Seen on my way up from the metro platform:
I went up to the seaside Tamsui district.
I bathed at a hot spring in Xinbeitou, where they also had a hot spring museum, which was closed on that day, sadly:
Xinbeitou valley:
The Shilin Night Market was cool, it's probably the most famous night market in Taipei, and you can find most things here:
Just like Gabriel I also went to a place under the approach to Taipei's city airport to do a little spotting. I'll include my favorite picture of the few I took:
And of course some food related pictures from Taipei.
This is a noodle dish I had on the food court beneath Shilin Night Market:
This was probably the tastiest of all meals I had on this trip, I believe it was curry pork dumplings:
This is a snack, it's sweet potato and dragon fruit covered in syrup:
This was something they sold at 7-Elevens, I don't really know what it was, some kind of snack I assume. I expected it to be sweet but it wasn't:
Lovely milk-pearl-tea:
I believe this was watermelon juice with milk, quite tasty I must say:
deltamartin From Sweden, joined Dec 2010, 1059 posts, RR: 9 Reply 2, posted (5 months 2 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 8598 times:
October 23
A fairly early departure at 8.20, which meant a wake up call ahead of 6 and by 6 I was checked out and on the curbside looking for a taxi.
It didn't take too long to find one but once I was in it it was quite difficult to get the taxi driver to understand where I wanted to go, but luckily I remembered that I had a Taipei map cached in my smartphone, so I set it to showing Taipei Taoyuan Airport, the name was also written in Chinese so he got it immediately and we drove off.
A 50 or so minute drive later I was only 25 EUR poorer and I was at TPE T2 curbside.
Check-in hall as seen from upstairs:
First thing to do once inside the terminal was to check in and drop the bag off. I found an open EVA Air economy class desk and it was quickly taken care of, knowing that the 747-400M I'd fly was equipped with “Evergreen Deluxe Class” (EVA's old Premium Economy) despite not selling tickets for that class on this leg, I asked for a window seat in the front (I couldn't choose seat for the EVA flight when booking on HX's webpage, and as I mentioned, I couldn't find any way of managing the HX booking online). This was granted as I received a BP with the seat 24K.
Next I went to security, but not before snapping this picture of the Hello Kitty check-in area:
Security didn't have much queue and I was easily through in just a couple of minutes. A couple of minutes queuing to the immigration desk followed before I was stamped out of the Republic of China without any problems.
The main airside area of TPE's Terminal 2 was nice enough. There were the usual restaurants and duty free stores. I also saw a couple of EVA lounges, no access for me though since they aren't in Star Alliance yet.
FIDS:
I walked around a bit before I went on to the gate area.
The gate area wasn't very exciting either but still a pleasant enough place to be. There were some small shops and cafe's around.
And a few windows where one could see pretty things:
One of BR's five (soon to be 6 I believe) Hello Kitty jets:
Barry was in town:
Nice tails:
Once I reached my gate, C1, I saw a 747 which I suspected wasn't a 744M parked. My suspicion was confirmed online by using the free WiFi offered by the airport.
Luckily the ordinary 747-400 was soon towed away and replaced by B-16408, a 747-400M.
I bought a soda and sat down in front of a window at the gate area, waiting for the holding pen to open.
Gate area:
Once the holding pen was opened I walked downstairs to said holding pen as one of the first ones, so I grabbed a comfy seater in front of a TV showing a football game, while I waited for boarding to be called.
A closer look at the good looking bird which would fly me to Hong Kong on this day:
After a while it was called out over the PA that there was a 15 minute delay of our scheduled boarding time.
And exactly at the new boarding time boarding was called out for Zone 1, which were Business class passengers and EVA status holders. Me, being seated in the nose of our 747, was in boarding zone 2, so it didn't take long before I got to board.
Boarding zone 1 boarding:
BR851
TPE-HKG
Boeing 747-400M
B-16408
I walked down the jetway and I was soon at door L1 of the green and white 747.
I was greeted by a female FA once inside the aircraft (all FA's on this flight were fairly young women) to whom I showed my BP and were directed in the direction of my seat.
A few steps later I was there, an Asian businessman was already seated on the aisle seat.
The seat was definitely old-fashioned, but comfortable and with a nice amount of legroom. Very nice comfort for an economy class fare on such a short flight.
Cabin view:
View out my window:
Boarding didn't take too long. The Premium Economy section of the aircraft had a decent load at maybe 70%. One of the two Economy sections were quite busy while the second one was completely empty, as I noted later on in the flight.
I'm not sure about the upstairs Business Class cabin but I don't think the load was very good there either, as I didn't see too many board during boarding zone 1.
Two seats were open in the middle of the nose section, so my seatmate moved over to there already while on the ground.
The safety video was played on the PTV's and on the overhead screens as well.
We pushed back shortly after.
Once our engines were started and we begun taxiing the ramp workers waved us off:
Taxi to runway 05R followed, some nice views on the way.
That really is a gorgeous livery:
Evergreen hangars:
With a giant inside:
Some other traffic is also around but soon we were allowed to enter the threshold and begin our take off roll.
It didn't take long before we were above the cloud layer.
Airshow was shown on the overhead screens for a while:
After takeoff we banked to the left and did a 180 degree turn to line us towards Hong Kong.
After not too long the seatbelt sign was turned off, and the crew quickly jumped in to service.
I was soon served this tray:
The hot dish was quite nice with chicken, rice and some vegetables. The quality was nice and the taste was okay. The fresh fruits was tasty as well.
I was very surprised of the quality of the plastic cutlery, very nice and not the least bit flimsy.
After the meal I had some coffee in the nice looking coffee-mug.
Once the tray was collected and the cabin was a little calm after the service I decided to explore the seat and the cabin.
Seatpocket contents:
Here's my seat:
Seatback in front of me:
Always a nice touch:
The nose section:
The aft Premium Economy section:
The forward “normal” economy section:
And the completely empty aft economy section:
I sat down at a seat to see how the comfort was, the legroom was okay but the seat wasn't very soft. It also felt rather worn.
I only took one close-up winglet shot on this flight, shame it didn't turn out too well since I was facing the sun, but here it is:
I also did a lavatorial visit:
I was surprised to see a flower and a nice stock of amenities in there:
This was in a lavatory for Premium Economy though so I'm not sure how the “normal” economy lavatories were.
Once back at my seat I checked to see if the entertainment system could be used for anything. I could get it to change the channels but it didn't show anything else than promotions etc, so I'm guessing it wasn't turned on for this flight. Here's the IFE control panel:
The overhead screens mostly also showed the promotions, but not synced with the PTV's.
Cabin view during cruise:
My two personal windows:
At some point of time the crew also distributed immigration forms, so I filled out my second HK immigration form in a week.
It didn't take long before we begun our descent and the seatbelt sign was turned on shortly after.
Not long thereafter I was treated with some nice views of central Hong Kong, first of East Kowloon with the old Kai Tak airport clearly visible:
And then over Hong Kong Island, with the Central Skyscrapers visible:
Then it got more hazy and we banked to the right, and we soon touched down on HKG's runway 07L.
We didn't have to taxi for long at all to reach our gate 60.
Once docked to the jetway I stayed put for a while, snapping some pictures, to deboard as the last one. Deboarding didn't take long though with the light load and two jetways used.
Here's a picture from the nose, as deboarding was in process:
Last look at my seat (& the surrounding ones):
I thanked the crew as I left the aircraft.
Once inside the terminal the signs ushered us to go downstairs to the automated train to reach immigration, so that's were I went as well.
A quick trainride later I arrived at the base of the pier, where another 10 minute queue for immigration was waiting for me, but once at the desk I was quickly stamped in to Hong Kong, again.
The bag was waiting for me on the belt in the luggage hall, so once I picked it up I went through customs and I again found myself in the gigantic arrival hall of HKG T1.
That's the end of this tripreport, the next part will pick up here.
To sum things up:
Hong Kong Airlines offered the cheapest return ticket to Taipei from Hong Kong, and despite being the cheapest I was not disappointed one bit.
On the flight operated by Hong Kong Airlines I was impressed by the service. The quantity of the meal was very impressive and the quality wasn't bad either, even if the dish wasn't really to my taste.
The crew was nice and the aircraft was clean, modern and comfortable. I could have seen myself flying longhaul with such hardware (which begs the question why they didn't have any proper economy class on their short-lived LGW service).
The crew was also very nice, and didn't feel as reserved as on my QR and BR flights.
EVA Air was also a nice experience. I like their trademark green theme (reminds me of a Latvian airline, though) and I was also impressed by the food on my flight with them.
The hardware was outdated (especially in the “normal” economy cabin) but it was made up by being able to sit in Premium Economy, and their 747-400M's are hardly their flagship nowadays. Speaking of flagship, I'd like to try one of their 77W's on a longhaul one day.
The crew was nice and professional, but rather reserved and not very personal. I don't mind that though.
HKG airport was huge and great. Not much more to say really.
TPE was an okay airport and probably works fine as one of the minor SE-Asia hubs. The soon to be railway will make it nicer to travel in to town.
Taipei itself was an interesting place, that's for sure. I had a great time there but one probably should know Chinese to enjoy this place fully.
Thank you all for reading my report, I hope you enjoyed it and feel free to leave a comment.
My next report will cover my flights on QR to get back to Sweden.
PlaneHunter From Germany, joined Mar 2006, 6183 posts, RR: 79 Reply 3, posted (5 months 2 weeks 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 7974 times:
Hi Martin,
great report with many good pictures! You were lucky with the weather in Taipei, it looked lovely there!
Excellent choice of airlines - relatively new A332 and a retro 744. Hong Airlines is rather rare here, good to see how it compares to Hainan.
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): And last but not least, the entertainment equipment box was way smaller than on QR, and not annoying or in the way at all:
Almost as small as EK's.
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): While I can't complain on the dish in any way, it wasn't really to my liking due to the fact it had different kinds of shellfish in it, something which I am not a fan of.
No alternative to that seafood meal?
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter):
The hot dish was quite nice with chicken, rice and some vegetables. The quality was nice and the taste was okay. The fresh fruits was tasty as well.
That looks much better than what I got on EVA between TPE and HKG.
817Dreamliiner From Montserrat, joined Jul 2008, 1402 posts, RR: 1 Reply 4, posted (5 months 2 weeks 4 days 3 hours ago) and read 7450 times:
Really nice report!
Was really an interesting read and lots of photos from both stations. Would really like to travel to these places someday, HKG was always on my list, Should add TPE on my list as well . The food options looks pretty good from both airlines, though the interior of the EVA 747 looked pretty worn out.
Thanks for sharing your report!
Blast Reality, Burst it into shreds! Banishment, This World!
adamspotter From Netherlands, joined Feb 2011, 774 posts, RR: 2 Reply 5, posted (5 months 2 weeks 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 7108 times:
Hi Martin!
Nice to see part 2 of your Asia series online!
Another excellent report with many good pictures, kept me entertained from start to finish!
What a great idea to try Hong Kong Airlines and Eva Air. Both of them look pretty nice despite the EVA hardware being worn. Sitting at the nose of a 747 is something I have always wanted to do, you sure got lucky there!
Great pictures of Taipei, really enjoyed them
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): And last but not least, the entertainment equipment box was way smaller than on QR, and not annoying or in the way at all:
The way it should be!
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): We took off, and I got some nice views of the airport as we climbed
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): The crew jumped in to service quite quickly, and it didn't take long until I was served a meal tray, with a generous portion of a risotto kind of dish.
Looks very nice and generous for such a short flight. Although not a fan of any seafood here either
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): I also had a cup of coffee, which didn't taste good at all, but it did it's job I guess
That looks more like a "dead" coke then coffee, no wonder it didn't taste well
deltamartin From Sweden, joined Dec 2010, 1059 posts, RR: 9 Reply 6, posted (5 months 2 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 7011 times:
Hello, and thanks for the comments!
Quoting PlaneHunter (Reply 3): great report with many good pictures! You were lucky with the weather in Taipei, it looked lovely there!
Thank you, PH! Indeed, great weather in Taipei during my visit.
Quoting PlaneHunter (Reply 3): Excellent choice of airlines - relatively new A332 and a retro 744. Hong Airlines is rather rare here, good to see how it compares to Hainan.
Yeah, I had nice flights on both frames. I wouldn't mind flying either of the airlines again!
Was really an interesting read and lots of photos from both stations.
Thank you!
Quoting 817Dreamliiner (Reply 4): Would really like to travel to these places someday, HKG was always on my list, Should add TPE on my list as well
Definitely recommend you to visit both places!
Quoting 817Dreamliiner (Reply 4): The food options looks pretty good from both airlines, though the interior of the EVA 747 looked pretty worn out.
Yeah was pleased with the food. The cabin was worn but comfortable upfront.
Quoting adamspotter (Reply 5): Nice to see part 2 of your Asia series online!
Another excellent report with many good pictures, kept me entertained from start to finish!
Thank you, Brendan!
Quoting adamspotter (Reply 5): Sitting at the nose of a 747 is something I have always wanted to do, you sure got lucky there!
Indeed, it's a great way to fly! You can't even see the wing!
Carfield From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 1727 posts, RR: 9 Reply 7, posted (5 months 2 weeks 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 6989 times:
Thanks Martin for an interesting trip report!
It is interesting to note that Cathay Pacific is the only airline that does not offer full hot meal on all its Hong Kong to Taipei flights. CX offers "warmed bread rolls/sandwiches" on some flights operating non-traditional meal hours.
Good to see healthy loads with HX flights. They rely on many connecting passengers from the Mainland China and I hope the codeshare with BR will help its profitability.
MSS658 From Belgium, joined Oct 2010, 2202 posts, RR: 14 Reply 8, posted (5 months 2 weeks 3 days 10 hours ago) and read 6604 times:
Hello Martin
Nice to see the second part online! I did learn quite some new things in the report.
Hong Kong airlines looks very impressive and can definite complete with the bigger players on the market.
EVA on the other side leaves me with rather mixed impressions, especially the older cabin condition.
Great you where able to meet Gabriel as well, TPE looks very interesting
sultanils From Belgium, joined Mar 2010, 1173 posts, RR: 29 Reply 9, posted (5 months 2 weeks 3 days 9 hours ago) and read 6599 times:
Hello Martin,
Nice 2nd part of your grand Asia voyage. 2 less known airlines featured, that was a really nice read. Lucky you with the weather on takeoff in HKG and in Taipei in general, the pics are really nice.
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): A stylish and great looking livery, the A332 pulls it off nicely
That livery reminds me of the Hainan Airlines livery. They look very similar.
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): first time I flew with an aircraft with “Please Turn Off Electronic Devices” light instead of the classic no smoking
Congrats. The plane you flew was built in 2010. It makes much more sense nowadays to use this message iso 'no smoking'.
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): it wasn't really to my liking due to the fact it had different kinds of shellfish in it, something which I am not a fan of.
Welcome to the club
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): Good views from the indoor observation deck, here's central Taipei
Wow, what a great view!
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): A closer look at the good looking bird which would fly me to Hong Kong on this day:
I've always found EVA Air a bit off an odd-ball airline. I don't know what to think of their livery. I do like the big decalls on the B777-300ER.
CXB77L From Australia, joined Feb 2009, 2183 posts, RR: 4 Reply 10, posted (5 months 2 weeks 3 days 9 hours ago) and read 6568 times:
AIRLINERS.NET CREW CHAT OPERATOR
Hi Martin, thank you for the trip report. I was only in HKG last month (a few weeks after you) so this brought back some very pleasant memories of my trip.
Thanks also for the review on Hong Kong Airlines. I've always wondered how this airline fares, but based on what you've written, they seem to be pretty good. I only have a couple of comments.
It's not often that you get to fly in the nose of the 747 without mortgaging your house for a F ticket! But I agree, the cabin hard product - including the lavatory - appears to be very dated. They could at least update the interior ...
gabrielchew From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2005, 2512 posts, RR: 14 Reply 11, posted (5 months 2 weeks 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 6433 times:
Nice report Martin! Looks like you took my advice, and had a good time in Taipei!
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): And last but not least, the entertainment equipment box was way smaller than on QR, and not annoying or in the way at all:
I hope other airlines start adopting things like this
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): The crew jumped in to service quite quickly, and it didn't take long until I was served a meal tray, with a generous portion of a risotto kind of dish.
Looks very tasty. Shame you don't eat shellfish. Being on an Asian route, I think they were trying more for fried rice than risotto!
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): During early descent the cabin crew distributed fortune cookies, which I thought was another nice touch.
Ha, this is SO un-Asian!
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): Luckily the ordinary 747-400 was soon towed away and replaced by B-16408, a 747-400M.
I got B-16409 on my TPE-HKG flight a few years ago. The cabins look identical
tommy525 From United States of America, joined Nov 2012, 30 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (5 months 2 weeks 3 days 2 hours ago) and read 6285 times:
FAIK EVA had 4 74M combi and now two are sold , likely to be scrapped. The other two will follow soon. They are nearly 20 years old. I flew in two of them earlier this year. You won't have a chance to fly on them for much longer.
deltamartin From Sweden, joined Dec 2010, 1059 posts, RR: 9 Reply 13, posted (5 months 2 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 6108 times:
Hello everyone, and thanks for the additional feedback!
Quoting Carfield (Reply 7): Thanks Martin for an interesting trip report!
Thank you, Carfield!
Quoting Carfield (Reply 7): It is interesting to note that Cathay Pacific is the only airline that does not offer full hot meal on all its Hong Kong to Taipei flights. CX offers "warmed bread rolls/sandwiches" on some flights operating non-traditional meal hours.
That is interesting indeed, I didn't know that.
Quoting Carfield (Reply 7): Good to see healthy loads with HX flights. They rely on many connecting passengers from the Mainland China and I hope the codeshare with BR will help its profitability.
Indeed. I was expecting the opposite really, a good load on BR and a not too good load on HX.
Quoting MSS658 (Reply 8): Hong Kong airlines looks very impressive and can definite complete with the bigger players on the market.
I sure wouldn't mind flying them again.
Quoting MSS658 (Reply 8): EVA on the other side leaves me with rather mixed impressions, especially the older cabin condition.
Old fashioned cabin indeed, but comfortable to fly upfront.
Quoting sultanils (Reply 9): Nice 2nd part of your grand Asia voyage. 2 less known airlines featured, that was a really nice read.
Thank you, Nils!
Quoting sultanils (Reply 9): Lucky you with the weather on takeoff in HKG and in Taipei in general, the pics are really nice.
Indeed, had nice weather during all my Taipei visit. The day I left Hong Kong for Taipei was the least hazy of the days I spent in Hong Kong so that was a little annoying, but nice anyway with some good views from the airplane.
Indeed, that view was probably the highlight of my visit in Taipei.
Quoting sultanils (Reply 9): How tiny these PTV's are. They must be of the very first generation?
Indeed, I would assume so as well.
Quoting CXB77L (Reply 10): Thanks also for the review on Hong Kong Airlines. I've always wondered how this airline fares, but based on what you've written, they seem to be pretty good
Thank you for commenting, CXB77L! I was indeed pleased with them!
Quoting CXB77L (Reply 10): That's a fried rice - a far cry from a risotto
That makes more sense then! I'm the opposite of a food expert so I apologize for my mistake.
Quoting CXB77L (Reply 10): It's not often that you get to fly in the nose of the 747 without mortgaging your house for a F ticket!
Very true, a nice extra!
Quoting CXB77L (Reply 10): But I agree, the cabin hard product - including the lavatory - appears to be very dated. They could at least update the interior ...
Well I do believe they will be leaving the fleet soon, so I don't know how much sense a retrofit would make.
Quoting gabrielchew (Reply 11): Nice report Martin! Looks like you took my advice, and had a good time in Taipei!
Thanks Gabriel! Indeed I did.
Quoting gabrielchew (Reply 11):
I got B-16409 on my TPE-HKG flight a few years ago. The cabins look identical
Felt just as outdated back then, I presume?
Quoting tommy525 (Reply 12): FAIK EVA had 4 74M combi and now two are sold , likely to be scrapped. The other two will follow soon. They are nearly 20 years old. I flew in two of them earlier this year. You won't have a chance to fly on them for much longer.
Yes that would make sense. I believe they have some more 77W's coming as well. EVA (like many others) seem pleased with their 77W's.
The777Man From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 6079 posts, RR: 56 Reply 14, posted (5 months 2 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 5703 times:
Hi Martin!
Thanks for a nice report with nice pictures !
It seems you had a great time in Hong Kong and Taipei!
Flights seem okay and great to try to different carriers.
Food on Hong Kong Airlines doesn't seem great at all but EVA Air looks very good. I had an awful meal on them BKK-TPE a few years ago.
Interesting layout of the 744 with no galley next to door 1.
Looking forward to your next report !
The777Man
Need a Boeing 777 Firing Order....Further to fly....GA, T5, CI and LX 777s
deltamartin From Sweden, joined Dec 2010, 1059 posts, RR: 9 Reply 16, posted (5 months 2 weeks 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 5320 times:
Hi again and thanks for the additional comments!
Quoting The777Man (Reply 14): Thanks for a nice report with nice pictures !
Thank you!
Quoting The777Man (Reply 14): Food on Hong Kong Airlines doesn't seem great at all but EVA Air looks very good. I had an awful meal on them BKK-TPE a few years ago.
Seems like the meals on BR can be somewhat of a hit and miss.
Quoting The777Man (Reply 14):
Interesting layout of the 744 with no galley next to door 1.
Yeah I noted that as well. Felt very spacious when entering the cabin though.
Quoting tobbry (Reply 15): Again thanks for a nice report!
Thank you again too!
Quoting tobbry (Reply 15): I was very happt to read about Hong Kong Airlines as I'll fly them between HKG-PEK in January.
Nice! I'm sure you'll have a nice flight with them as well! Is the A332 scheduled for your flight as well?
flightsimboy From Canada, joined Sep 2005, 848 posts, RR: 4 Reply 17, posted (5 months 2 weeks 21 hours ago) and read 5204 times:
Hey Deltamartin,
Great to see your trip to Hong Kong and Taipei. Some great pics especially from Taipei which we do not see much off. Glad you could visit the Taipei tower 101 as well.
How long was the pass valid for, 48 hours, a week?
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): I could use that one to get to Tung Chung, located very close to the airport, and from where I could take a cheap bus to the terminal.
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): The soon to be railway will make it nicer to travel in to town.
Looks like neither Hong Kong nor Taipei are linked by rail to the city. Toronto too is not connected that way at all, thought there are many different ways to go get downtown.
Very shocking colours when compared to the gorgeous colours on the outside. Have not seen Hainan's colours but are they the same. These two airlines are associated are they not? Similar colour schemes.
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): We took off, and I got some nice views of the airport as we climbed.
That would be seafood fried rice, and strange just that served!!
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter):
This is a snack, it's sweet potato and dragon fruit covered in syrup:
Very bold of you to eat that....sweet potato and dragon fruit, not my kind of snack lol
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter):
A closer look at the good looking bird which would fly me to Hong Kong on this day:
Nice close up view, but horribly dirty windows. In fact I only landed at TPE once and the holding gate smelt of pesticide for the entire duration we sat there.
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): Very nice comfort for an economy class fare on such a short flight.
eastafspot From France, joined Jan 2008, 467 posts, RR: 4 Reply 18, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 4947 times:
Hey Martin,
What a nice continuation of your QR trip.
Sure you had to meet an European a.net so far from home
It's always a good idea to compare different airline products, especially on a busy route. Actually which one do you prefer between these two?
I'm surprised to see a B747 on such short flight, that's simply awesome!
Nice (and rare) picture of the Ethiopian Cargo and also from your stay in Taïwan
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): I got a seat mate as well, a girl which I believe was from Taiwan who had her friends across the aisle.
Did she/he ask you to swap seat or have you suggested them this idea?
Many thanks for sharing
Léonard
Fly with Air Burundi, Air Tanzania, Air Uganda, Kenya Airways and Rwandair...Jumuiya ya Afrika mashariki
deltamartin From Sweden, joined Dec 2010, 1059 posts, RR: 9 Reply 20, posted (5 months 1 week 5 days 7 hours ago) and read 4593 times:
Hello! And again thanks for the additional feedback, it's very much appreciated!
Quoting flightsimboy (Reply 17): Great to see your trip to Hong Kong and Taipei. Some great pics especially from Taipei which we do not see much off. Glad you could visit the Taipei tower 101 as well.
Thank you, flightsimboy!
Quoting flightsimboy (Reply 17): How long was the pass valid for, 48 hours, a week?
72 hours if I remember correctly.
Quoting flightsimboy (Reply 17): Looks like neither Hong Kong nor Taipei are linked by rail to the city.
Well HK has that high-speed subway line which does the job.
Quoting flightsimboy (Reply 17):
Interesting that it allows you to check in for a flight a few days later...and it shows Taibei lol
I don't think I was able to check-in to that one, still quite odd that it showed up though! And I don't know why it spelled it that way, haha!
Quoting flightsimboy (Reply 17): Lovely clean windows to look out of. I could sit there all day.
Indeed, me too. Especially on such a place like HKG with some very interesting airlines around.
Quoting flightsimboy (Reply 17):
Very shocking colours when compared to the gorgeous colours on the outside. Have not seen Hainan's colours but are they the same. These two airlines are associated are they not? Similar colour schemes.
The livery is very similar to Hainan, both airlines is under the HNA Group.
Quoting flightsimboy (Reply 17):
Such luxury and comfort usually reserved at very high F class fares. Glad you could grab the opportunity.
I'm glad as well!
Quoting flightsimboy (Reply 17): Definitely looks better than the flight on Hong Kong Airlines. I mean you don't just serve rice?
I preferred the meal on EVA as well.
Quoting eastafspot (Reply 18): What a nice continuation of your QR trip.
Thank you, Léonard!
Quoting eastafspot (Reply 18): It's always a good idea to compare different airline products, especially on a busy route. Actually which one do you prefer between these two?
Probably EVA Air in the end. Especially as they are due to join Star Alliance in the future.
Quoting eastafspot (Reply 18): Did she/he ask you to swap seat or have you suggested them this idea?
Actually we didn't speak at all. She had two friends across the aisle so I doubt switching seats would have helped much.
foppishbum From Taiwan, joined Mar 2006, 737 posts, RR: 0 Reply 22, posted (5 months 6 days 18 hours ago) and read 3843 times:
Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): This was something they sold at 7-Elevens, I don't really know what it was, some kind of snack I assume. I expected it to be sweet but it wasn't
I don't know if you want to know...or if you've found out already but the black/white thing in the middle is coagulated pig's blood mix with rice. It's actually quite tasty for a lot of Taiwanese. It's called "zhū xîe gāo" in pinyin and 豬血糕 in Traditional Chinese. The other things seem to be bean curd and may have meat in them. It's a type of Japanese cooking called gūan dōng zhû（関東煮）。It's kinda like skewered hotpot!
deltamartin From Sweden, joined Dec 2010, 1059 posts, RR: 9 Reply 23, posted (5 months 4 days 1 hour ago) and read 3404 times:
Hello and thanks for the additional feedback!
Quoting OA260 (Reply 21): Great second part to the series and I enjoyed it very much . Lovely photos as usual.
Look forward to reading the next part now
Thank you for the kind words, Philip!
Quoting foppishbum (Reply 22):
I don't know if you want to know...or if you've found out already but the black/white thing in the middle is coagulated pig's blood mix with rice. It's actually quite tasty for a lot of Taiwanese. It's called "zhū xîe gāo" in pinyin and 豬血糕 in Traditional Chinese. The other things seem to be bean curd and may have meat in them. It's a type of Japanese cooking called gūan dōng zhû（関東煮）。It's kinda like skewered hotpot!
Haha good to know, thanks for informing me! I did not expect it to be that! I didn't find it too bad though!
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