Hong Kong flagship carrier’s ticket giveaway for return trips from Philippines attracts strong interest, including from domestic helpers, frequent fliers
- More than 50,000 people waited in Cathay Pacific’s online queue at one point for tickets as part of government’s ‘Hello Hong Kong’ campaign to lure travellers
- ‘I hope to go back to the Philippines to see my daughter, and bring her to [Hong Kong] for a trip,’ one hopeful says
More than 20,000 free tickets offered by Hong Kong’s flagship carrier for round trips from the Philippines to the city have attracted tens of thousands of prospective travellers including domestic helpers and frequent flyers, leaving the airline’s website congested once again after its latest round of giveaways.
Cathay Pacific Airway’s “World of Winners” campaign, which began on Wednesday, will hand out 80,000 free round-trip tickets to people in Southeast Asian countries this month, with 20,400 being offered to visitors from the Philippines.
As the latest round of the campaign began at 12pm on Friday, there were about 1,500 people in the online queue and the wait time amounted to 20 minutes, a Post check found. The website also crashed at one point.
At 1.30pm, the site was still accepting registrants as more than 50,000 people waited in line. The number of hopefuls was fewer than on Thursday, when more than 80,000 people at one point tried to get tickets for return trips from Singapore, a drive that ended within 45 minutes of its launch.
Tens of thousands in Singapore try their luck in Hong Kong ticket giveaway
Lia Bonawan, a 44-year-old domestic helper in Hong Kong, was among the hopefuls trying to land a ticket for a family reunion.
“I hope to go back to the Philippines to see my daughter, and bring her to [Hong Kong] for a trip,” she said. “It would be great if at least one of us can get the tickets.”
Bonawan has not seen her daughter in a year as Hong Kong had imposed strict quarantine measures for overseas arrivals amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with the rules being dropped in December last year.
Alfredo Dulay, a 69-year-old retiree in Manila, also tried to win a trip with his wife to visit their daughter’s family in Hong Kong after three years of separation.
“This would be our first trip to Hong Kong since the pandemic began,” said Dulay, who retired four years ago after working in the city for decades. “I really miss the feeling of travelling back to the city and visiting my daughter.
“Even if I don’t get the free tickets, I will buy them so that me and my wife can visit Hong Kong again,” he added.
Agnes Calleja, who lives in Manila and also waited in line for tickets, said she was hoping to visit Hong Kong for her first overseas trip since the start of the pandemic.
“I’m very excited about the thought of travelling abroad again, something I enjoyed doing before 2020 that I will finally resume,” Calleja said, adding that her sister had also joined the campaign with her two children.
“I’m sure there will be so many people who suddenly want to go to Hong Kong,” said the 56-year-old consultant. “Even if people don’t win, they may check out flights and try to visit the city.”
Hong Kong’s airline ticket giveaway: chaos, long waits for Southeast Asian hopefuls
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.
The scheme is part of the government’s “Hello Hong Kong” campaign that aims to lure back travellers. The city’s four carriers were tasked with handing out more than 500,000 free airline tickets between March 1 and September.
Hong Kong Airlines also rolled out 6,000 round-trip “zero-dollar” airline tickets to the city from Bangkok, Hanoi and Manila on Wednesday.
HK Express will reveal details about its free tickets in April, focusing primarily on mainland China and the Greater Bay Area.
Greater Bay Airlines said it would give out round-trip tickets starting in May from Taipei, then Seoul in July, without mentioning how many would be offered.
