Tens of thousands try their luck in Hong Kong airline ticket giveaway for return trips from Singapore
- At one point, more than 80,000 people were in the queue for Cathay’s latest giveaway
- Singaporean Devi Rajaram, 33, said she felt ‘disappointed after the long wait’
Tens of thousands of hopefuls were left disappointed after trying to win one of 12,500 free airline tickets to Hong Kong from Singapore when the city’s flagship carrier launched another round of giveaways on Thursday.
Some said they found more than 14,000 others were already ahead of them in the queue when they visited Cathay Pacific Airways’ website after registration began at noon. The return ticket bonanza ended within 45 minutes of its launch, with Cathay saying the campaign quota had been reached.
At one point, more than 80,000 people were in the queue for Cathay’s latest giveaway, part of the government’s “Hello Hong Kong” campaign that has tasked four carriers with handing out more than 500,000 free airline tickets.
Hong Kong’s airline ticket giveaway: chaos, long waits for Southeast Asian hopefuls
Among those hoping to score a free ticket was Singaporean Devi Rajaram who wanted to fulfil her dream of visiting Hong Kong for the first time. The 33-year-old media worker told the Post she and her husband were excited to try their luck when registration opened.
But when she entered the site 14,700 people were already in front of her in the queue, and more than 40,000 ahead of her husband. “I feel disappointed after the long wait, but at least we tried. I guess, next time, then,” she said.
To be eligible, applicants are required to sign up for free Cathay membership on the company’s website, then answer three quiz questions correctly. Winners will be announced on the carrier’s campaign website between March 17 and April 5.
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Hong Kong to give away 500,000 airline tickets as part of a HK$2 billion promotion campaign
A Post reporter signed into their Cathay account 30 minutes before kick-off and waited 15 minutes to complete the questionnaire. More than 2,700 users were ahead in the queue.
Digital marketer Marcus Khoo, 27, said he rushed to end a work meeting early to take part. He entered the website at 11.55am but to his dismay it said he had to wait 55 minutes to join the giveaway, with more than 10,000 people in front of him.
There were also separate queues to enter the homepage and sign in with his Cathay account. He got several error messages, including the website at one point telling him there was a problem putting him through.
But Khoo eventually managed to enter the giveaway by 12.50pm, after considering giving up.
“It was one of the more tricky giveaways I’ve taken part in only because the site kept crashing initially,” he said. “It would have been better if there were more specific details … like advising participants to log in prior to the giveaway start time.”
Hello Hong Kong: how do I get free airline tickets and what else is on offer?
He also suggested Cathay create a separate microsite for the giveaway, so as to not disrupt customers who wanted to book flight tickets.
Another Singaporean, Josephine Tan, complained she did not understand why each winner could only get one free ticket.
“Usually people prefer to travel in a group. They should give away tickets at least in pairs,” said Tan, a property agent in her 50s. “It’s so boring if I have to travel alone.”
Authorities hope the campaign will attract 1.5 million visitors and give tourism a much-needed boost.
Cathay’s “World of Winners” campaign will hand out 80,000 free round-trip tickets to people in Southeast Asian countries this month.
The carrier opened up registration for 17,400 round-trip economy-class tickets to Hong Kong from Thailand on Wednesday. Thursday’s Singapore offering will be followed on Friday by 20,400 tickets from the Philippines. Tickets will also be allocated for tourists from Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Hong Kong Airlines, meanwhile, rolled out 6,000 round-trip “zero-dollar” tickets to the city from Bangkok, Hanoi and Manila on Wednesday.
The long waiting times on the two carriers’ websites on Wednesday, amid a surge in visitor traffic, left some tourists blaming the chaos for denying them the chance to snag a free ticket.
News about airline websites crashing and long waiting times also turned off Singaporeans such as Vinice Yeo, 26, a senior marketer who gave up plans to participate in the lucky draw as the effort to enter sounded like too much trouble.
“I’m not even going to try … I don’t win giveaways with 100 other submissions anyway, so competing with millions of others for this campaign does not seem worth the effort,” she said.
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Tommy Tam Kwong-shun, chairman of the Society of IATA Passenger Agents, a coalition of the largest travel agencies in Hong Kong, said the giveaways would be positive for rebuilding the local tourism trade.
“As far as we heard, [they] were the talk of the town in many countries like Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. Some tourists may reconsider or even switch their next travel destination to Hong Kong,” he said.
He added winners were unlikely to travel alone, so friends and family would be encouraged to also buy tickets.
“Hence, there will be some multiplier effects with the incoming tourist headcount,” he said.
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But Freddy Yip Hing-ning, president of the Hong Kong Travel Agent Owners Association, said the giveaway campaign alone would not lure more visitors to the city.
“Lowering airfares and accommodation [prices] would help more,” he said.
Hong Kong air passenger traffic in January reached 32 per cent of its pre-pandemic levels, with the airport handling 2.1 million travellers.
About 500,000 people visited the city that month, an almost 7,000 per cent increase from a year ago. The figure included about 84,000 visitors from short-haul destinations excluding mainland China and Macau, such as Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Only 552 people from those markets visited the city in January last year.
The city is on the path of recovery following the end of Covid-19 restrictions on international arrivals in December and the resumption of quarantine-free travel with the mainland the following month.
On Wednesday the city removed its mask mandate, the last major pandemic restriction, after nearly three years.
