Hong Kong Express - Odd Online Booking Experience

[Ratsima]

My daughter lives on Saipan where I spent 26 years. I plan to visit later this year. It used to be easy to travel between Bangkok and Saipan. Northwest had a particularly convenient and reasonable connection via Tokyo: US$750 rt Business Class including a free overnight stay, including meals, at their Narita hotel.

It has become much more difficult. My last few trips have involved nasty layovers in Manila and/or Guam. Currently the cheapest fares are on budget Korean airlines and involve a 12 hour layover in Seoul. A friend suggested I fly Hong Kong Express between HK and Saipan and any old airline between Bangkok and HK.

I checked HK Express and was shocked to see that the basic economy rt fare was over US$1500. It’s only about 3400K!

I checked again the next day and was surprised to see that the fare for the same trip was around $500! So, I tried to book it. Every card I tried was denied. Three US Visa cards, AmEx and a Kasikorn Web Shopping card. I decided to change currency to Thai Baht. Instead of the expected 15000 baht it was almost 45000. I switched back to US Dollars and the fare was back to the appalling $1500.

I tried again yesterday using a US based VPN. I got the $500 basic fare. I tried to buy it. All three Visa cards were rejected. But, the AmEx worked. So, I ended up paying just under $600, including the extras of baggage, seat selection, etc.

Here’s the real odd part. The receipt I got shows Pricing Currency HKD 593, Transaction Currency USD 80, 1 HKD 0.02 USD. Clearly their currency conversation is whacko. It also shows Payment total USD 593.

I’m now hoping they won’t try to renege on the deal.

[migrant]

Hopefully Hong Kong will calm down before then!