Ordinary Gweilo

I was reading this report about Air New Zealand, which says that they are struggling to fill their new Hong Kong – London service, in part because of the impact of Oasis.  Maybe, but Air NZ are new to what has become a very competitive route, and they have a daytime flight to London, which won’t suit everyone. 

Anyway, it also mentions that Air NZ now has the only round-the-world service on a single carrier.  Indeed it does, but it’s a rather eccentric one, certainly if you start from here (Hong Kong – London – Los Angeles – Auckland – Hong Kong).  I can think of worse places to go, but I can’t quite imagine how I would want to visit of all of them in one trip. 

According to the SCMP Sunday travel section, the RTW fare from Hong Kong on Air NZ is about HK$10k for economy and about HK$30k for business. The latter is actually cheaper than the standard business class return fare for Hong Kong – London, which looks odd at first sight, but the explanation is presumably that this is really a leisure fare.  Anyone flying on business from Hong Kong would be highly unlikely to want to go to London, Auckland and Los Angeles in one trip. 

Yes, I know that some companies insist that staff flying from Hong Kong to the States should buy a round-the-world ticket and come back via London because it is cheaper.  However, making you go via Auckland one way and London on the way back would be cruel and unusual punishment, I feel, but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if some bean counter somewhere decided that it would be a good idea.