6,800 tickets snapped up fast as Hong Kong Airlines commences giveaway promotion

6,800 air tickets to various Asian cities such as Osaka and Bali have been snapped up fast within hours after Hong Kong Airlines commenced a ticket giveaway promotion "Click & Go" yesterday.

Sponsored by Hong Kong International Airport’s “World of Winners” ticket giveaway campaign, the airline aims to distribute 25,000 free round-trip tickets in total from Hong Kong to 20 cities across six countries in Asia, in an effort to contribute to the Hong Kong tourism industry after the pandemic. 

The 25,000 tickets will be distributed in three phases, with the first round of delivery starting on 24 July, and the remaining two rounds will be delivered in August. 

Delivered on a first-come-first-served basis, the first round of giveaway offers tickets to five destinations across Asia, including Osaka, Bali Chongqing, Shanghai and Sapporo. The free tickets are available to redeem from 1 September until 24 March 2024, which will include 20kg of checked baggage. However, passengers will need to pay for taxes and surcharges.

A check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE saw that there are only 2,000 tickets to Chongqing available one day after the start of the giveaway. 

Media intelligence firm CARMA saw over over 3,500 social media mentions regarding the giveaway over the past two days, with the majority of them being generated on the day the campaign commenced. Among these mentions, 23.9% were negative, while 10% were positive.

Netizens were generally excited about the campaign and shared real-time updates on their progress as they queued for the free tickets, said Charles Cheung, CARMA’s HK GM.

However, there are a number of negative comments from netizens, particularly users on LIHKG. These comments were mainly focused on Hong Kong Airlines' website, which was deemed to be outdated and not user-friendly, Cheung replenished.

Don't miss: Cathay Pacific clarifies winners of ticket giveaway campaign responsible for surcharges

Apart from Hong Kong Airlines, back in March this year, Cathay Pacific launched a giveaway of 12,500 free flight tickets from Singapore to Hong Kong, as part of the HK$1bn global promotional campaign "Hello Hong Kong". Citizens could join the giveaway by first signing in as members of Cathay Pacific, they could then answer three questions. Prizes would be awarded to the first 12,500 entrants who answer the questions correctly.

In February this year, the Hong Kong government said it looked to give away 500,000 free air tickets and city-wide offers to overseas visitors and 80,000 to HongKongers as part of the "Hello Hong Kong" global promotional campaign. The majority of air tickets are provided by three local airline companies including Cathay Pacific, HK Express and HK Airlines. "The tickets will be distributed via lucky draws, games, 'buy-one-get-one-free' offers, some will be provided by tourism industry and government departments," said Airport Authority Hong Kong's CEO Fred Lam.

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