Hong Kong Airlines apologises for website issues after hundreds of travel hopefuls vying for free plane tickets complain of long waits, error messages
- Travel hopefuls complain of website crashes and long loading times as they seek to land tickets under airline’s second round of freebies
- ‘Our campaign webpage experienced high traffic issues initially, but it quickly recovered and is now up and running,’ carrier says
Hong Kong Airlines apologised for technical issues with its website after hundreds of travel hopefuls vying for 9,800 tickets in a second giveaway round launched by the carrier on Monday complained of long waits and error messages.
The travel hopefuls were jockeying for tickets to Bangkok, Sanya, Beijing, Hangzhou, Nagoya, Nanjing and Seoul.
“Our campaign webpage experienced high traffic issues initially, but it quickly recovered and is now up and running,” the carrier said in a statement. “We apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank our customers for their enthusiastic participation in the event.”
At 4.30pm, the airline said “more than half” of the allotted tickets had been distributed.
The carrier announced on its Facebook page at 4.05pm that flights to Seoul and Nagoya were all sold out.
Earlier on Monday, a Post reporter made numerous attempts to join the online queue soon after the giveaway’s 10am launch and was repeatedly kicked out back to the carrier’s homepage. Repeated attempts at booking flights were also met with errors including website crashes and timeouts.
On the airline’s Facebook page, hundreds of frustrated users shared screenshots of similar error messages and website crashes.
Sin Ying, a Hongkonger who works in sales, told the Post she had opened the website at 10am to secure tickets to Bangkok or Nagoya but quickly grew frustrated with the repeated ejections from the queue.
“I’d rather draw from a lottery,” she said, adding that she stopped trying just an hour into the giveaway after seeing others share similar experiences online.
Fellow Hongkonger Karin Wong, who works in retail, said she was surprised to find an available flight after battling error messages all morning, only to be greeted by a familiar sight.
Tens of thousands vie for free tickets to Hong Kong from Britain, Germany, Switzerland
“I proceeded to the filling-in passenger information page, and it said ‘no seats available’,” she said. “A complete waste of time if you ask me.”
The airline said tickets were offered on a first-come, first-served basis.
The promotion is part of the government’s “Hello Hong Kong” campaign, which will hand out 80,000 free flight tickets to encourage residents to travel abroad in a bid to reboot the city after three years of stringent pandemic restrictions.
Hong Kong Airlines has promised to distribute 25,000 tickets over three rounds of giveaways as part of the campaign.
The first round, on July 24, involved 6,800 tickets for five destinations, Osaka, Chongqing, Bali, Sapporo and Shanghai Hongqiao. The airline said details of the third round for the remaining 8,400 tickets would be announced at a later date.
The free tickets are valid for travel between September 1 this year to March 24 next year, although there are blackout dates corresponding to Mid-Autumn Festival, mainland China’s National Day “golden week” holiday, Christmas and Lunar New Year.
The length of stay has to be between two and seven days, and tickets are non-refundable.
Hongkongers flood HK Express’ website as carrier gives away 21,626 free tickets
Tickets cover 20kg of checked baggage, but travellers are responsible for paying all taxes, surcharges and other applicable fees.
The latest round is slated to run until August 11 or until all flights are sold out.
Last month, HK Express’ own giveaway was marred with delays as many complained they failed to enter the booking page even after hours of waiting. The Cathay Pacific subsidiary said all 21,626 tickets available were snagged by 5.15pm that day.
The Airport Authority bought 500,000 tickets from local airlines in 2020 as air traffic ground to a halt during the coronavirus pandemic, to support the industry and promote recovery.
Some of the tickets were given to tourists from places such as Singapore, Japan and the United Kingdom, with an aim to lure more than 1.5 million visitors to Hong Kong.
