Extremely disappointing and unacceptable experience with Hong Kong Express.
The airline cancelled my flight from Hanoi to Hong Kong at short notice and simply offered to move it to the following day or to another date that does not work for me. I have hotel bookings and travel arrangements that cannot be changed, and apparently this is of no concern to them.
What makes this even worse is their refund policy: despite the cancellation being entirely their responsibility, their website indicates that certain taxes and fees are non-refundable. So they cancel your flight, disrupt your travel plans, and then expect you to bear the financial loss. Absolutely unacceptable.
To make matters worse, contacting customer service is incredibly difficult. There is little accountability, no meaningful assistance, and a complete lack of consideration for the customers who pay for their services.
Hong Kong Express seems to believe it can change your travel plans at will and leave you to deal with the consequences. This is not how an airline should treat its passengers.
I expect a full refund of 100% of the amount paid, with no deductions. I will certainly think twice before booking with this airline again, and I strongly advise other travellers to be aware of how it handles flight cancellations and refunds.
Budget airlines... I confirm that they will try to charge you anything extra...
The new terminal 2 at international Hong Kong Airport is impressive but what a waste of time, complicated... Lot of walk to finally arrive at terminal 1...also the self check in will charge you for even 100gr extra... Be aware
Nothing special about it. No refreshments etc as expected as budget airline.
Using it because it’s the only
Direct flight Penang to HK return. And the only available flight with good timing on last min booking.
Unpleasant experience at Koashiung airport boarding to HK 18/7, is it the HK Express staff or is it Kaoshiung people characteristic being racist??
Just not happy that, I was asked to put my little gift pineapple tart box into my bag, which is full, it certainly can go under the seat, in addition to the one item bag I carry, the staff at boarding suggested I opened up gift and spread it … I gave it to her in the end… can’t be bothered.
However, I will make sure I won’t need to have to fly HK express again. Not cheap either. Not a pleasant experience overall.
Absolute scam airline to avoid at all costs. I just fell into a trap with their 4 ticket options, choosing the 3rd most expensive "Essential" option, which - totally illogically - skipped the carry-on (which is included in the 2nd most expensive and the most expensive, all inclusive 4th option), I was very negatively surprised at the airport when they charged me an extra 44 USD for a carry-on bag! The ticket from Hong Kong to Kota Kinabalu was not cheap at all for a "budget airline" (170 USD one way!) and with the hefty 44 USD extra fee it went over 200 USD. Even the guy at the HKK airport who did the check-in honestly told me that a lot of people keep falling into this trap, assuming that the carry-on is included in the quite expensive Essential option and are then extorted by the airline at the airport. It is not about the money, it is about the HK Express dishonest scam-like online booking practices (leaving even experienced travellers like me stunned) and draconian baggage rules, to get some extra cash. However, once bitten twice shy, passengers always remember this kind of treatment and will never again fly with such a scam airline, so at the end, it's HK Express who will be losing more and more customers, not smart ...
The worst flying experience in more than 40 years! They offer no service at all. Online check in? Forget about it, it is not working. The check in machines at the airport? Same story, not working! With only handluggage, the staff, send you to a very long queu where many unexperienced travellers are busy on their phones, talking and staring at their oversized luggages instead of moving forward. No one to ensure things go forward and to get the work done fluently. They started boarding 15 minutes before normal time to let you wait in an overcrowded bus for more than 20 minutes. Finally the plane could go to the runway with almost one hour of delay. What a bunch of incompetent bunglers! Never again!
"Budget airline"? What a joke.
They lure you in with a cheap fare, then make up the difference by nickel-and-diming you for everything—especially carry-on baggage. The baggage rules seem to change depending on who's at the counter, and suddenly you're paying ridiculous fees for a bag that was supposedly within the limit.
Then comes the service: unfriendly staff, long queues, no complimentary water, and an overall experience that makes you feel like an inconvenience rather than a paying customer. You're treated as if basic customer service is a luxury.
By the time you've paid for baggage, drinks, and every other "optional" extra, you've spent as much as—or even more than—a full-service airline, except with far more hassle and a much worse experience.
Next time, I'll happily pay a little more to fly with an airline that values its passengers instead of treating them like walking wallets.
Very disappointed by the company. They tear families apart, they don’t allow them to sit together, in order to earn an extra couple of bucks. My seat next to me is free, but my husband is not allowed to sit next to me and my daughter without us paying extra money. I do understand paying extra for better seats, but this is just next level.
On another flight I saw an autistic boy having to sit alone as well, while his mother and little sister were somewhere else in the airplane, not allowed to sit next to him.
Families, avoid this airline.
Lost Checked Luggage, Damaged Suitcase, and 5 Months of Wasted Time with Zero Compensation
Hong Kong Express customer service is nonexistent, and they have absolutely zero accountability.
My friends and I flew to Sendai, Japan, for a snowboard trip in January 2026. Upon arrival, HK Express lost our sports equipment luggage, causing a miserable three-day delay that completely ruined the start of our trip and forced us to incur significant extra expenses. Shockingly, the airline flat-out refused to compensate us for these costs, and they even denied my request for a refund on that flight's checked baggage fee.
Because I had completely lost trust in them, I deliberately chose not to use my pre-paid checked baggage for the return flight two weeks later. To make matters worse, when we arrived back in Hong Kong, I found that they had damaged my suitcase as well.
After returning, I demanded compensation for the three-day baggage delay, the broken suitcase, and a refund for the unused return baggage fee. What followed was five long months of exhausting, difficult email correspondence. They dragged it out until May 2026, only to give me a final rejection stating they would not provide a single cent of compensation or refunds.
They completely wasted five months of my time and ruined my travel experience. Save yourself the stress and money—do not fly with HK Express.
I recently flew with HK express from HK to Nagoya. The experience was terrible!
1. HK express lures you into buying their tickets thru cheap prices, but the prices don't include any small item, carry-on or check-in baggage. After adding the fees for these items, the ticket prices are the same as other airlines with better services.
2. For 3.5 hour flight, they don't give out any snacks or beverages. You have to purchase them and they don't allow you to bring your own food or drinks. They don't even give you water! First time I see an airline that operates this way.
3. Both round trip flights were delayed for an hour.
Don't think I'll fly with them again until they improve their services.
I recently had a booking change that…was efficiently dealt with by Luna!
I recently had a booking change that Luna Liang kindly helped me with. The customer service capability on WhatsApp and Luna herself were efficient, convenient and the service felt luxury and not 'budget'. Because of this experience, I will purposely use HK Express again! Thanks Luna again
A nightmare from check-in to landing — avoid if you can
I flew Hong Kong to Bangkok with HK Express and it was one of the worst flight experiences I've had in years of frequent flying.
It started at the airport. The self check-in kiosks weren't working, so I wasted time there before joining an extremely long counter queue. The staff member who served me struggled to communicate in English — I genuinely felt she didn't understand what I was saying, which made an already frustrating situation worse.
Then the baggage fees. The weight limits are very low and not clearly communicated on the website. I ended up paying around HK$1,500 for a second bag — a completely unexpected cost.
On the plane, the seats are rigid and uncomfortable for any flight longer than an hour. But the real problem was the child sitting directly behind me. For three hours straight, the child was screaming, kicking, and standing on the seat in shoes. I was wearing earplugs and still left the flight with a migraine.
What made it unacceptable wasn't the child — kids can be difficult. It was the flight attendant doing absolutely nothing. Every single person around that row was suffering. It is literally their job to manage cabin comfort and at minimum suggest something to the parent. Nothing happened.
I fly very frequently. This stood out as genuinely unacceptable on multiple levels.
I recently flew HK Express.
HK to Osaka.
When we checked in our luggage the clerk asked if we wanted to change seats as we were at the rear.
He gave us extra legroom seats for free.
The plane was spotlessly clean and the staff very polite during the the flight.
As we are from Europe, this was a much better experience than you'd get with Ryanair or Easyjet, by miles.
The flight left on time and we landed ten minutes early.
The luggage arrived quickly to the conveyor belt.
I will certainly fly with HK Express again when back in Asia.
Perplexed by the astonishingly bad reviews they get.
It's five stars from us. 👏👏😎.
If I could give less than one star I would. They cancelled my flight and did not transfer across my paid for seats. Then they refused to honour the paid for seats as other customers (who had not paid) had been randomly assigned middle seats and said they could not change that. As someone with a severe fear of flying, I always ensure I pay for my specific seats and the customer service teams absolute refusal to help and suggestion of letting my and my partner's seat be assigned randomly at check in was some of the worst customer experience I have ever had.
Young Traveler Pressured Into Extra Fees — Never Booking HK Express Again
I booked an HK Express flight for my younger brother as a graduation gift, and this experience was honestly disgusting.
He was flying back to Manila and brought a few tart/food boxes for our grandparents. His ticket clearly included a 7kg personal item allowance, and he did not even use the full weight we paid for. Yet the ground staff still found a way to charge him extra.
The staff member told him to put the tart boxes inside his bag. Funny how this was allowed before, but suddenly became a problem when the passenger was a young traveler who did not know how to argue back. It felt like a complete power trip.
My brother was confused, pressured, and treated poorly instead of being properly assisted. If there was a policy issue, the staff could have explained it professionally. Instead, the situation felt like they were just looking for a reason to squeeze extra money out of him.
To make it worse, he also felt he was treated differently from other passengers. I will not write the full details here, but the experience was upsetting and unacceptable.
HK Express may be cheap upfront, but clearly they make up for it with surprise charges and terrible treatment at the airport. Lesson learned. I will not book with this airline again, and I would strongly warn others to think twice before flying with them. Cheap fare is not worth being treated like this.
Predatory seat allocation practices. Split family members up into separate middle seats. On a plane with plenty of free seats the air hostesses then watch like hawks to prevent people moving to be next to each other again.
Flying from Hong Kong to Phuket, The plane had to land in Bangkok for health emergency, however after the medical staff took the patient, the pilote and crew refuse to continue flight to Phuket and left us in Bangkok without any access to food or drink, they said that they finish their working hours and cannot continue to Phuket, so they left all the passengers all the day at a restricted area of the airport without any information. That was the worst experience of my life, and that shows that the crew dont care about passengers at all.
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