Delirium Propaganda

I had to make a trip to Hong Kong from AUG 21 2008 to AUG 25 2008.

Looking forward to my first trip to Hong Kong since 2000, I booked Cathy Pacific, since it is their national airline. I departed from Singapore’s Changi International Airport, flight CX 706.

When I reached Hong Kong Airport, I had to walk for more than 1 kilometer (ok, maybe I exaggerated, but it is a darn long walk) to reach a place where the direction boards pointed me to go up and down several elevators, before reaching a place when I had to board a presumably terminal transfer train service. Hey, I am supposed to arrive at Terminal 1 arent I? Apparently not it seems. I was later told by a local I met I should have reached another terminal, or did I?

I was on MSN with a friend at the hotel the following day (another bad story) and he told me he faced the same problem previously, he experienced worse since he was travelling with a 2 yr old toddler and his wife. Imagine if you are traveling with older folks, they would have taken double or triple the time than me to complete that walk, although I am not exactly young!

Once I alighted from the transfer train service, I had to walk another 5mins or so. I had to follow the crowd as the experience was totally differently when I previously arrived in HKG.

I finally reached the custom check point, and the queue was relatively short, but the wait was definitely not! The custom officer took their time to scan through all visitors, security is important, presumably tightened security with the Beijing Olympics going on.

The officer attending to me took almost 10 minutes, asking me questions like when was my last visit, and whether I had “any other form of identification issued by my government”. I had to produce my ID and my driver’s license and was finally given a 90 days visit period, not that I am going to stay that long.

I finally got out of my gate. It took me approximately 45minutes from the time I stepped out of the plane to reach the outside world. So much for one of the busiest airports in the world.

I touch down HKG at 2205hrs, and reach the hotel only around 2345hrs. I took the airport express to Kowloon. Well, the cab driver doesnt understand English, and couldnt make out where is Novotel Nathan Road, which apparently was a recently refurbished hotel.

He had to use his call-set to make a call back to his home station to check where it is. Well, Hong Kong cabbies still need to improve on their attitude. I took the cab quite a number of times during my stay, NONE of them impress me in terms of politeness, maybe except the one I took from the hotel to the airport on the last day.

I remember checking from Novotel Nathan Road’s web site, and it showed FREE Internet Access (it no longer does) on its web site, and it showed on the advertisements in the inflight magazines that they provide FREE wireless broadband access. Well, it costs (for wired access, there are no mention of wireless access, nor could I scan any with signals strong enough to connect to) HKD 98 for 24hours access, and HKD300 for 7 days access. I would have chosen another hotel, as I know I would need to be on the net very often during the few days. End up paying for the access on day 2.

The line connection was not user friendly as stated on the hotel info papers lying on the table when I checked in. Luckily I am IT savvy, I got connected finally after several tries (by the way Novotel, your home page hangs when I finally connect to your home page when in the hotel room, I had to close the window and re-open before it runs smoothly).

Around 12.45midnight, I switched on the TV, my goosh, there is an announcement saying Typhoon Nuri is approaching Hong Kong, or Code 8 Typhoon to the Hong Kongers, and Hong Kongers are adviced to stay indoors. The news also said all businesses and schools are to be closed due to the typhoon.

By the way, no announcement for English speaking visitors (yes, I surfed the 20+ channels), I understand Cantonese which is a plus for me.

There goes my plan for the next day. In the morning, I woke up, switched on the TV and was shown a Code 9! There goes my plans for this trip I thought, and the entire day was spent in the hotel doing literally nothing but watch TV, and accessing the Internet. Despite being inside my hotel room, I can see very very heavy wind and rain. I brought the Typhoon to Hong Kong!

On the TV news programs, I saw many (over 400 if I remember correctly) flights being cancelled, frustrated passengers stranded at the airport (which was Aug 22 2008). I told myself, I am glad I am not stranded at the airport!

The following day was much better, nicer weather so I can get what I need to do done. I made a point to check with Cathay Pacific whether the flight is on schedule, and was assured it was.

Checked the news on TV, darn, the queue at the airport, I told myself, I am glad I am not there. The newscaster announced there was approximately 2000 in the queue at the highest point. Let me tell you from experience (the following day), there should be easily 4000 – 5000 in the queue if the queue is that bad as shown on the TV. Why lie?

One visitor from Malaysia said when interviewed, “I came from Malaysia, this is my first visit to Hong Kong, first time I experience Typhoon. I thought this is the first time Hong Kong experience typhoon, but I was told it is not. If it is not, why such poor management?” (the last sentence “if it is not, why such
poor management was censored off in later repeats of the same news segment).

Another (apparently local) said “I queue for 3hours, and now you tell me I am in the wrong queue, why didnt you announce or show sign boards?”

I thought they are being overbearing, little did I know I will be thinking of the same thing the following day.

I told myself, I am glad it will be another 24hours to the time I depart, it should have given Hong Kong airport more than sufficient time to sort out those stranded at the airport and those who are going to fly off.

The following day, I took it upon myself to arrive at the airport earlier, MUCH earlier, around 12noon to be exact. I reached the airport (took a cab directly, didnt want to be late by taking the airport express) at 11.40hrs. My flight was for 4.15pm.

Checked the departure display boards, no mention of my flights yet. Looked around, no sign boards announcing any delays or queue, so decide to go check out an eatery for its Wanton Noodle (which I missed because of the bad weather).

Another visitor whom was with me was departing for ShangHai on China Eastern Airline, checked in without any hassles, less than 2mins in fact. I thought to myself, I am glad I am not going to be in the queue like they had yesterday – DAMN WAS I WRONG!

Arrived early, but no announcements no sign boards. So I stood near the flight announcement board staring intently, eagerly waiting for my flight to show. Finally saw 711 available for boarding at aisles B, C, D, the listing was made at around 2.05pm.

Trying to be smart, I went to aisle B, since it has lesser people, to check in. Was told by two commercial security officers that I can’t do that as it was reserved for Marco Polo, First Class and Business Class travelers ONLY. Fair enough I thought, I asked where I should queue then, they said “C”.

Was walking towards aisle C when I noticed a long queue, and security officers are there to cordon off the area (literally). I was stopped by one of them and told to wait, I asked why? He did not reply. So when they finally “released” the area for people to pass, I asked if I can join the queue, he replied no. I asked why? Again no reply!

By now, I am already quite heated up, I took to him and ask if you do not want me to join the queue here, at least tell me where I should join the queue. Another officer come over and pointed me a queue at least 400m away. I told them off and said “You guys should have just replied instead of making me stand here like an idiot for the past 5mins and refusing to answer my questions!”

By the way, the commercial security officers were from AESCO apparently.

I had to join the queue at the end of the mezzaine floor between the arrival and departure halls. The queue is DAMN long and the wait was very very slow.

Worse is the air-con is not working properly, I can see travelers like myself perspiring. We are not allowed to get off the queue to drink or to visit the toilet, as it would mean giving up your queue and you have to join the end of the queue again. I seriously pity those senior travelers and travelers with little kids with them.

The AESCO security officers and police officers was expressionless, and sarcastic. When a person in the queue complained, one police officer manning the queue told him off “You should have come tomorrow”. What kind of attitude IS THAT? Is this the way you guys want visitors to remember you by Hong Kong? Don’t you know you are representing Hong Kong where you are in a Hong Kong Police uniform?

Another security officer told a visitor “You should check with CX personnel inside”. Firstly, why didn’t Cathay Pacific deploy its own officers to manning the queue and to answer questions then? Secondly, how can we ask questions when we cannot leave the queue?

Frustrated people starting complaining, little toddlers started crying. I saw an old couple exchanging angry words (apparently they are Hong Kongers since they spoke in Cantonese). The man told the wife to jump into the ocean, for her asking him to go overseas at this time.

I started joining the queue at 2.20pm, there was 6 lines of queue at mezzaine floor, moved upwards, and when reach the departure check-in aisles, there was another 4 lines of queues. Each row has approximately 100 – 120 people! At this time, there are easily 3000 people in the queue.

Why didnt Cathay Pacific open at least half of aisle B to check in the travelers is something I cannot understand. There was hardly any queue there! The check-in aisles at C was not 100% manned, at least 4 stations were empty. Another question, why so when you have thousands of people waiting to check-in? Why were there no sign boards, no Cathay Pacific staff to do announcements, airport staff to make announcements etc? Totally unbelievable, and this from an efficient Hong Kong airport!

When I reach last line of the queue, it was already 3.40pm, my flight is 4.15 and I have not checked in yet! There was a man in the queue who kept pestering the Cathay Pacific staff, who finally allowed us to check-in first (thanks to that man, but hey, you should be more hygienic, stop biting your finger nails and smelling it, at least not in public).

There was at least another 400 – 500 people still in the queue, although they may be queuing for another flight.

After check-in, it was a mad dash to Row 29 where the flight is departing.

I boarded CX711, given the seat 59x. The two seats beside me was empty, another seat behind me was empty, another two in front of me were empty. I cannot help but think there are people who had missed the flight because they are still in the queue.

I thought that was the end of the ordeal, well, I am wrong. When the plane took off, during the ascendence, water dropped from the air-con duct. There was a girl sitting on the same row as me who was soaked! The flight stewards or stewardess didn’t even offer her a change of seats (remember, there were quite a number of empty seats)!

Luckily the rest of the flight was relatively smooth, I touched down to Singapore’s Changi International Airport Terminal 1, cleared custom, got into the cab, in less than 20minutes total.

Thumbs down to you Hong Kong, for your poor handling of the check-ins, and the police officers manning the queue. Double thumbs down to you Cathay Pacific, for your poor handling of the back-logged travelers. While I will visit Hong Kong again, I will definitely not be flying Cathay Pacific, not anymore. The cabin crew needs improvement, although I must say both my CX flights were captained by very able pilots, the take off ‘s and landing’s are good.