[suzi7777]

Thank you all for the encouraging replies. I have contacted Expedia UK who are on to this and trying to get refund from HK airlines. Funnily enough, it was me who told them at Expedia UK about the flight cancellations with HX and Expedia have now confirmed that my mum’s flights are cancelled in September on the LGW-HKG route thanks to me!!

Anyway, put off with HX now and I’ve now seen that BA and Virgin have some great business class deals, think I’ll go that route in a new booking for my mum. Will keep you all posted if and when the refund happens!

[IanFromHKG]

If you used a UK credit card you should be able to get a refund from them

When looking at rebooking, take a look at ANZ as well – not up to CX standards but still decent enough – and of course you should check out CX too as they are unquestionably the best on this route in every respect if you are able to get the 777s with the new business class. If you don’t mind going indirect, try routing through Frankfurt (BA then CX) which will probably be cheaper and where CX has a lovely lounge, with not much walking (but you won’t get the new business class)

Good luck with the refund!

As to HK Airlines – everyone I have spoken to in HK about this has for the last several weeks predicted the service would fold. Hardly surprising given the load factors – my wife did a return trip on this service, and on the second flight there were 16 passengers (3 in Club Premier and 13 in Club Classic) and 11 cabin crew! And despite that, the service was still terrible. The just didn’t get their act together on board, they didn’t get their marketing sorted properly, and they didn’t undercut the established carriers sufficiently to build up loyalty or to offset the disadvantages of much poorer lounges, lack of European connections, going to the “wrong” London airport (even though for some it was more convenient – including us – it just isn’t the airport that most HK passengers seem to want to end up in!), lack of alliance membership and everything else. Doomed to fail…

[Ellwood]

The airline is not actually going bust or anything, they just seem to be pulling a route. They have cancelled your flight so you are entitled to the refund as per any other airline or route.

Your agent will be able to get a refund through BSP as per normal. It may take time but that is what you are entitled to.

As there has been nothing official from them then there is probably no specific policy in place about this yet.

[businessclassgoodfirstclassbetter]

It’s a real shame this route appears to be getting pulled. I travelled LGW-HKG both ways in July and I found the service to be very good in each direction and had no complaints.

Admitedly, the plane was pretty empty – I believe there were 45 passengers going out and 37 on the way back, so I’m not surprised the route is disappearing. I would have used them again, had it not been for the recent hike in fares back to full price which means there is no longer a clear reason to travel with them.

Back to LHR it is….

[IanFromHKG]

It might be worth asking the airline to arrange an alternative flight instead of asking for a refund, if there is a price differential to be paid…

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