Hong Kong Airlines will honor its $500-600 business class fares from the U.S. to Asia. That warrants praise…and an ethics lesson.
While not $0 fares, these business class fares were equivalent to economy class prices. Consequently, I had some concern Hong Kong Airlines would try to wiggle out of honoring them. Quite the contrary, Hong Kong confirmed on Twitter it would be honoring the fares:
https://twitter.com/hkairlines/status/1030609428758781953
I wasn’t even thinking about the new A350s with reverse herringbone seats, but this makes me even more excited to take my trip later this fall.
Compare Hong Kong Airlines to Aeroplan/SWISS, who cancelled first class award tickets I had booked for my family several days after ticketing them. That wasn’t even a mistake fare: I paid published pricing and Aeroplan simply decided it would not honor its ticketed reservations because SWISS was unhappy. Months later, the issue still has not been resolved to my satisfaction, even as I continue to go back and forth with them. A lot of you have assumed I have not mentioned this issue because I’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement. I’ve signed nothing. The archaic back-and-forth process with Aeroplan has produced many offers, but none that I am willing to accept. I owe all of you transparency on that issue and will provide a final update once I have final resolution.
A Publicity Stunt?
View from the Wing and God Save the Points have speculated that this whole incident may have just been a publicity stunt. Perhaps. It would not surprise me and is precisely why customers should not be forced to decide if/when a deal is too good to be true.
While George Liu, Chief Marketing Officer for Hong Kong Airlines, unequivocally denied this was a mistake fare, he is a marketing officer after all.
No, it wasn't intentional…definitely not a marketing gimmick. We really screwed up.
It hit when I was BBQing at a friend's house on my vacation. We have decided to honor the tickets at our own cost.
We are willing to pay a price to keep our promises as a brand. https://t.co/YKhNtXqxvV
— George Liu/CMO Hong Kong Airlines (@GeorgeJLiu) August 17, 2018
But his sentiment is so refreshing: we are willing to pay a price to keep our promises as a brand.
That’s how all airlines should act.
CONCLUSION
I’m looking forward to my trip on Hong Kong Airlines and offer effusive praise to the airline for honoring these fares. Whether or not this was intentional is besides the point: the point is that I am flying to Hong Kong and Bangkok in business class for under $700 r/t on a brand new A350 with lie-flat beds. I’m excited!
image: Hong Kong Airlines
Thanks for the AP SWISS update. Care to share what they have offered?
I’ll just say this and nothing else for now. They haven’t agreed to pay for my ZRH-LAX Swiss First Class tickets. At least not yet.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. So you paid out of pocket? Congrats. Serves you right with your self-righteous stunt.
I had an amazing flight:
https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2018/02/08/swiss-777-300er-first-class-review/
And what of legal action? I believe you have retained counsel (in addition to yourself lol)?
You may be interested to read this FT thread. Apparently Canadian CoC’s are called tariffs and their legal system is bizarro world. Of course, you could invoke personal jurisdiction as well. I am very interested in the FULL write up!
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-canada-aeroplan/1740854-super-elite-suspended-lawsuit-filed-but-amicably-settled-out-court.html
I still feel that you’re taking advantage of this situation, first of all you knew that Swiss First was not allowed to be booked by Aeroplan. Secondly the inventory populated as a clear mistake, which was great that you were able to book them. But you sir always knew that it should not have been bookable.
So a couple days later when they cancelled the tickets, you turned and cried foul.
I just don’t see why, and then you turn and book a PAID first class ticket for your family…because you did not want to take a “connection” on Lufthansa First class via Germany or any other airline they offered as compensation!
Sir all along you knew that that you would sue or get close to the point in order to make some profit off their mistake!
I think that is shameful at the end of the day.
I also think that more and more of your blogs are becoming just complaints, and seeking compensation vs just right pure straight up reviews. Maybe others like these types of reviews, but I miss you genuine clear cut reviews as yours were some of the best.
Appreciate your comment, but two thoughts. First, I had no idea the SWISS award space was a clear mistake. Aeroplan merely said SWISS wasn’t “available”, not that redemption in SWISS First Class was “prohibited”. That was because SWISS stopped releasing first class space to Aeroplan, not because Aeroplan blocked SWISS. When SWISS released the space, it became “available” again. Note that all the SWISS First Class space booked with United miles was honored.
Second, look at my posts over the last week. I offer “pure straight up” reviews all the time: more than ever before. I realize not all of my posts will be attractive to everyone, but hope you can still find something you like in the four articles I write per day.
Thank you for reading!
In my opinion, HK, Japan and Singapore have the highest ethics and integrity that I know of. I hope HK will maintain such virtues indefinitely, despite the fact that it is under China jurisdiction since 1999. China is insanely corrupt and a huge bully . Back in the 1960s, when CIA tried to bride and coerce Lee Kuan Yeu of Singapore to carry out its request, he laughed and said they did not know who they were dealing with. Japan receives highest regard in the Arab world. That is a main factor why these three island nations have a robust economy, despite the absence of natural resources. I am not aware of any African country that can boast about its vibrant economy. The jury is still out on the sustainable economy of the six wealthy Gulf states, but I won’t hold my breath once the oil and gas resource dries up. As for Swiss Air FAs, they are the most arrogant airline staff I have encountered with. I do not fly domestic airlines and withhold my opinion.
Let’s write some trip reports and positive social media for HK Airlines. They are a stand up company in the midst of dogs.
My review will be honest, but this is my goal!
The difference between this and Aeroplan is not a matter of ethics, it’s a difference in situation. HK chose to honor a fare for their own airline. Aeroplan couldn’t possibly do the same, since they have no airline with which to honor the mistake. You might say that Aeroplan could possibly have forced the issue with Swiss somehow, but inciting a war with an ally is generally a bad idea. Accordingly, Aeroplan was stuck with only terrible choices, while HK can look at this as offering promotional samples at a sale price, assuming that this was truly a mistake at all.
Aeroplan could indeed have resolved the issue by purchasing the trips that that had been ticketed.
There’s an extremely simple difference here – Aeroplan is expecting customers to pay for their mistakes, whilst Hong Kong Airlines is focusing on winning and keeping the trust of their customers.
If Aeroplan owned an airline, you would be completely correct.
I am completely correct – currency exists, and is what is actually used to purchase airfares. There is precisely nothing stopping Aeroplan from doing so in this particular instance other than a dogmatic insistence on customers paying for their mistakes.
Of course, market rates for fares are always much higher than the rates loyalty programs pay for tickets – that’s a cost the organisation has to decide how they’ll fund and allocate internally but is not the concern of the customer.
Aeroplan sold me the ticket, even with some help from Air Canada. I still believe they should be held accountable.
If anyone needs an ethics lesson I think it might be you Matthew! I would say that 95% of the people who book those HK airlines $500 fares were referred by some blogger that clearly stated this was most likely a mistake fare and may not be honored. The vast majority of people knew that they were taking advantage of a mistake by the airline and with your vast knowledge of the airline industry and fares you 100% knew it was a mistake but booked it anyway. Then you try to teach us a lesson in ethics between Aeroplan and HK airlines. I don’t think you would be the best person to do that after your actions.
You miss the point Kim. Where’s the line drawn? Why is on a consumer to know?
Matthew is correct here.
The concept of customers having to pay for a company’s mistakes is disgusting.
Hi Matthew. I love your blog.
One thing I think would be interesting and potentially helpful is if you could go through a contract that the average traveler “accepts” by purchasing a ticket, and describe what kinds of rights the airline reserves for itself. You say that the airline had an ethical as opposed to contractual duty to honor the price. Presumably this is because there is some language in the contract that allows the airline to cancel the contract if they feel like it? Isn’t this illusory? Please let us know the pitfalls the average consumer should be aware of. Thank you!
I’m really looking forward to your update ont he Swiss debacle.
I doubt they will pay your LX First Class ticket in full to be honest, while you argue that is a valid ticket and purchase they should have honored, Swiss (to my knowledge) have explicitly exempted First class mileage ticekts being sold via aeroplan in their agreement. So essentially aeroplan is to blame (in my opinion) since it was their job to prevent Swiss F tickets being sold. Does that go as far as them being liable to buy you a full fare F ticket, I doubt it, but we will see.
But I’d really like to know how the whole ordeal went down and who is essentially to blame / who cancelled the tickets and how everything went down.
Cheers.