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Smooth take-off for Cathay Pacific’s free ticket drive aimed at Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area residents, with 27,000 round trips up for grabs

  • Registration process mostly smooth, but some users complain of being unable to find link to fill in form
  • Move is part of government’s 700,000-ticket bonanza under ‘Hello Hong Kong’ campaign

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Cathay planes at Hong Kong’s airport. The city’s flag carrier is among local airlines rolling out a ticket bonanza under a government drive to lure visitors back. Photo: Winson Wong
Rachel Yeo
Hong Kong flagship carrier Cathay Pacific Airways on Monday morning rolled out more than 27,000 tickets to 26 countries, available to city residents and those in the Greater Bay Area.
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The online process to qualify for the round-trip, economy-class tickets was mostly smooth, but some users reported difficulties in finding a link for the giveaway form, which launched at 10am.

The promotional drive is part of a 700,000-ticket lucky draw handled by local airlines under the government’s “Hello Hong Kong” campaign. The city is seeking to lure visitors back after being closed off from the world for three years amid tough pandemic curbs.

In the latest round, hopefuls can choose 26 countries offering 46 destination cities, including Malaysia, the United States and Australia. To enter the giveaway, participants must be Cathay Pacific members. They then need to fill in a form by providing their name and email address before choosing one preferred destination.

While there are no restrictions on nationality, the website is only available in simplified Chinese. Applicants are reminded to write their names in pinyin – spelling in Mandarin – based on their travel documents. The phone number prefix is, by default, mainland China’s “+86” in the registration process.

The current round will end on April 30 and winners will be notified by email on May 3. Users cannot change the destination city of the free ticket issued to them, which will be selected randomly from the countries they have picked.

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“This particular campaign phase is designed to encourage people from the mainland to visit Hong Kong, and also to travel overseas via the Hong Kong aviation hub,” the carrier said, without addressing queries on why the campaign website was not available in English or traditional Chinese.

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