Where To Credit Hong Kong Airlines Flights

i sent off for the gold challenge Fri, Aug 17, 9:12 PM pacific, received a (ok, you're signed up) response Sat, Aug 18, 12:23 AM

Fantastic article Tiffany. So clearly laid out and written in an easy to follow and fun way.

Sorry to burst your bubble Lucky, but access to AS Board Rooms with Hainan status is only granted if you have a same-day boarding pass for transpacific travel on Hainan. It's clearly written in the terms.

Thanks Tiffany, this is an extremely useful post! I am going LAX-BKK in November for $640.

@ keitherson -- Oy, thank you! When I asked Ben to check my work because this was all new and I was afraid of missing something dumb, this is the kind of thing I was thinking of 😉

Good article. Crap, I should've read this first. I signed up for Fortune wings thru HK Airlines. No 500 bonus 🙁

@Hal Ditto on the no 500 bonus

Tiffany, great article.
It’s worth noting you can also convert these miles on points.com to more useful currencies like B6 and IHG.
Of course the ratios aren’t stellar, but it might be useful for some.

1) How long do FWC points stay active?

2) From what I can tell, you can exchange FWC points on points.com to another program, albeit, probably for less value than some other options... but maybe useful if you have no other use for them.

Just an FYI that Alaska flies mainline to SBA from SEA, which could be a good alternative to LAX/BUR to get in the under 1500km award redemption range.

That was a fun read!

Reminds me of how much I enjoy your posts - more flight/hotel review from you, pretty please? 🙂

@Tiffany: hah! I was wondering where Lucky found the time had to write such a long thoughtful article. 😉

@ Jay -- Excellent point, adding that!

+1 @David W 🙂

@ David W @ Ben Holz -- Awww, thanks! I'm planning to finish up some trip reports next month, maybe sooner if someone wants to come manage my household and run my Weimaraner! I would happily write and research 10 hours a day if I could, but with everything else on my plate the time to do so at all is really a luxury.

Great article and very timely.

@Tiffany I believe if you have status you get bonus miles too. At least you should get bonus on the return leg if they upgrade your status in time.

Handing all of your personal data and info to Chinese government. Nice!!!!

Just as a data point, I submitted my status challenge last night before bed and got an email from them by the time I woke up. They seem to be moving fairly quick!

LAX-SJC is 495km! BUR-SJC is a little shorter. LAX-LAS works too.

Great article once again.

So 27k mile for a one way LAX-HKG in economy? Thats not a bad deal assuming award space is there. The Amtrak option is also nice.

Also..any chance you'll be doing a lounge post? Trying to find info on which lounges if any we'll have access to in Bangkok with a 2:!5am arrival and then connecting on to a Scoot flight to SIN.

@ Sky -- I don't believe you'd have access to any lounge on arrival in Bangkok (assuming that's the end of your HX ticket). Bangkok has almost a dozen PriorityPass lounges though, so one of those will hopefully work!

Great article! Thanks!

@Tiffany - Points.com seems to be able to convert FWC miles to Aeroplan Miles or other useful program. Any thoughts? worth it ?

How do non-Australians sign up for velocity when they require an Australian address?

@ VK -- I addressed that in the post above! Not a great value, but maybe more convenient for some.

Thanks for the post Tiffany - its useful to know the options. I am UK based though, so none of the options would have been useful to me as I suspected. Fantastic deal though for a business class product!

I'm in for $640 to BKK as well in September.

@ Tiff - Also - just a note you can't utilize Priority Pass on arrival in International Airports - only domestic ones

Since most of the tax on the VA domestic ticket is sales tax, I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t apply to award tickets (since any % of $0 is $0)

@ JJ -- My comment was directed towards someone who is connecting onwards from BKK, so they should be set!

Fantastic post Tiffany! I am Hong Kong based and even the short haul redemptions look decent value.

Is this only if I booked the flight directly? I bought my mistake fare tickets on Expedia.

@ Allen -- Nope! It doesn't matter where you purchased the tickets, just what the fare class is.

Ok so when are we finally seeing a review of lucky air ??

What lounge do they use at LAX?

@ Mike Miller -- They use the "International Lounge" https://onemileatatime.com/los-angeles-international-lounge-lax-review/

I'm having trouble adding the middle name to the Fortune Wings Club account creation. The field asks for First Name and Middle Name and when I tried to do that it will not allow me to put in a space between my first and middle name. Does anyone have this problem? How do I get around this?

Tiffany, I’m really surprised that your article didn’t mention that Fortune Wings Gold and above members get access, +1 guest, to a large selection of VA Domestic and International lounges when flying on a VA flight no.
In addition to lounge access a generous 30kg luggage allowance and priority boarding and checkin.
https://ffp.hnair.com/FFPClub/en/jpjh/jlbxw/3860.shtml

There are two updates that this article could do with regarding crediting to Velocity:

1. The transfer rate from Velocity to KrisFlyer has changed as of 1/Jan/2019 and is now 1.55:1.
2. Family pooling allows for more than just pooling of points - it also allows pooling of Status Credits which is a wonderful feature for families looking to secure status for at least one member (and providing the benefits of that status to all persons on the same reservation). As Velocity only allows long-haul upgrades on VA metal to elite status holders, there's value to be had here.

@NR, have you tried it without using a space?

I got a OW GEG - SEA for 68 USD on DL

@ UA -- Thanks!

Is FWC redeemed AS tickets eligible for elite complimentary upgrades?

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More of this, please! One's got to love to be able to pick the beehive's mind. Thanks Tiff and all the co-authors in the comments section.

I got a similar steal although from Air Serbia's EUR 500 J return promo deal to JFK available shortly before Christmas last year. I don't think it's been covered by OMAAT, just saying. 😀

I booked with Expedia and Fortune Club's online CS team says that because of that I cannot link my account to the reservation. Does that make sense?

Take everything below with a huge grain of salt. IIRC, on flyertea (Chinese flyertalk), there was one post sometimes ago saying that you can redeem HU miles for Etihad Residence. One of the reply even had the amount of tax for AUH-LHR presumably got from customer service. The cost of Residence is supposed to be the same as first class. The poster claimed that one ticket can let two people travel in residence.

In reality, just to make the customer service agent understand that you want to redeem for EY flight is hard enough. Beyond that you also need to let them understand what Residence is. Also this is before all the HU financial crisis.

I will try to find the post again if I can.

Awesome research and article, Tiffany! Incredibly valuable for OMAAT readers who got in on the HX deal.

This may be a silly question. I clicked the link from the article to register for Fortune Wings to get the new member bonus. It took me to the Fortune Wings website and at the bottom there was a link to "Register". When I clicked that, it said I need to login first. Do I create an account and then register or is registering in itself supposed to create my new account?

@Harry, you can first create account as usual, then click the "register" at the bottom in the page. The "register" should be better translated as "enroll in this promo", so you need an account first

The English wording is a bit confusing.

Call me stupid (I'm sure feeling that way), but I've spent an hour trying to sign up for Fortune Wings club. Using the link above for the 500 points, I filled out all the info but the form just won't accept my cell phone number in XXX XXX-XXXX or (xxx) XXXXXX form. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Also tried to sign up for the club via Hong Kong Airlines website. They want you to input a verification code at the end, which they send to you by email, but none of the 4 digit codes worked. Thanks in advance.

Brilliant analysis. And well written.

As a datapoint I have completed my two flights from LAX-BKK with a gold status match: 95,981 points total.

Pauline, try entering your phone number as XXXXXXXXXX

Hope I can snag the gold status match retrospectively. I enrolled in their program before leaving on my trip, but did not know about the status match until now, having returned from Bangkok two days ago. What was tremendously difficult for me though, it was phone support evening just checking in to my flights. Be persistent. I liked the business class very much in Hong Kong alliance. For single people they have a single row of seats one behind the other, The “cubby” is well thought out with storage spaces for small personal items large overhead compartments for your carry-ons, and a nice interactive monitor. The food selections were good both in western and eastern offerings, I am in the business class bathroom pretty standard but seem to of been kept clean and some higher end products. To me, the Comfort level and overall experience exceeded that of United Business Class, and was equal to business class and Turkish Air Lance or us with Sarah. I know some people don’t like Swiss air I liked it. I also used the Hong Kong airlines club lounge in Hong Kong which has showers sleeping areas of very nice buffet it’s large well laid out comfortable I thought that was exceptional. The generic club lounge offered at LAX was not so good.

I tend to go to Thailand once a year. I just got back on my $640 business flight and already have 35,500 miles in account and an upgrade to silver status. I may spend 9 weeks in Thailand next year and may split it up with a 1 week trip to Hong Kong after the 30 day Thai visa runs out . What does the silver status mean to me, in practical terms?

I actually qualified for gold card status. Looking at my options, there are several airlines serving the Hong Kong to Bangkok/Chiangmai route, starting at $170 round trip on Air Asia. I may use the points instead on Alaskan Air flight, particularly LAX to LAS.

Could I get an update please on transferring the points via Points.com? Hainan doesn't seem to be listed as a partner airline. Do other Fortune Wings Club members apply?

Cheers,

Mike