How did Hong Kong Airlines win a prize for service excellence?

We wrote last week about our astonishment at Hong Kong Airlines receiving a prize from the magazine Capital CEO for its "service excellence in the aviation industry." As readers who have followed our previous reports on this airline will know, it has had considerable difficulties this year and "excellent service" is not what immediately springs to mind when reflecting on the airline.

A reader has been moved by news of the prize to recount his experience with the airline. He writes to say that he missed a return flight from London's Gatwick airport in July this year on Hong Kong Airlines because it printed the incorrect departure time on his ticket. As the airline's representative at Gatwick had no authority to procure a ticket on another airline, our reader purchased a second ticket himself and tried to claim the money back in Hong Kong. HK Airlines only provides an e-mail interface for claiming compensation.

Our reader says the airline ignored his 17 e-mails until he went to the Consumer Council. Then the airline replied but denied any liability until he filed a complaint with the Small Claims Tribunal. Then it immediately paid his claim in full.

He comments: "It is a shame that an operation that claims to be a creditable airline operating out of Hong Kong is allowed to get away without offering even a hotline." He adds that even the phone number for the HK Airlines head office on its website is an unattainable number. All of which leads him to wonder how Capital CEO magazine managed to inform Hong Kong Airlines that it had received an award.