Turns out the missus has a friend who is currently stuck in the UK... Booking for these special Cathay flights opens at 4pm today (April 8th) - do we think it'll be a mad rush, with 1000s of people trying to book a few 100 seats?
Turns out the missus has a friend who is currently stuck in the UK... Booking for these special Cathay flights opens at 4pm today (April 8th) - do we think it'll be a mad rush, with 1000s of people trying to book a few 100 seats?
Only if they can afford to do 21 days in hotel quarantine?
Yes, obviously - although the single designated quarantine hotel for these flights is at the cheaper end, should be $400-$500 per night. At that level, it's possible that the quality of the hotel is a bigger put-off than the price...
The point is, this is the only way to get to HK from the UK (and South Africa, Brazil and Ireland, although I don't expect many transit passengers) without doing 3 weeks somewhere else and then 3 weeks hotel quarantine in Hong Kong. How busy do we think it's going to be?
What is the hotel- is it the Rambler, the one they used for people waiting for overnight test results? Pretty dire, especially the food but I believe there will still be many takers.
I stayed at the Rambler one night before I moved to HK in 2009, it was...adequate and a naked woman ran onto my elevator, being chased by her boyfriend (or "john" or maybe even pimp, whatever). A memorable experience...sign of a quality hotel.
On FB there is the 'HK Quarantine support group', do a search within it for Rambler Hotel and you can see/read just how bad it is.
I truly do not understand why the Govt would select such a god-awful single choice of hotel for these people returning home, other than as some form of dissuasion.
I think the government wants a hotel it can kind of control and they have been calling the shots for this hotel since using it for the people waiting for the tests. My coworker stayed there, said it was...adequate although food was dire. And since government is picking only ONE hotel, it has to be one that everyone can afford. Also they have freaked everyone out to where other hotels probably don't want UK travelers.
Indeed it is truly horrible and the food is of a quarantine camp standard at best. It'll be a shock for the uninitiated as it looks kind of OK/90s chic until you get to the rooms. Deliveroo is gonna be busy around there (if they let them in).
I love that the official advice for those in South Africa is to fly to the UK and then get one of these flights... that's a nasty journey home!