A Happy Mistake

A very quiet airport at 3am, walking all the way to Gate 36

I made a happy mistake when I booked my hotel accommodation. I didn't look too carefully at my flight departure time of 1am December 1, and instead had the room reserved until noon that day.

After a whirlwind trip of two weeks that packed in not only Hong Kong, but also side trips to Shenzhen, Macau, Zhongshan and my mother's hometown of Mui Yuen, just over 470km north east of Hong Kong, we were tired and ready to go home.

On November 30, we had dinner and then packed the rest of our items in our luggage and were ready to vacate our hotel room around 9pm.

We arrived at a cavernous, empty airport

But at 8.38pm we received a text message that our Cathay Pacific flight was delayed and would not depart until 4.30am December 1!

Apparently it was a maintenance issue of the aircraft. Surely CX had another plane on hand -- in its home base -- that we could use instead? But no.

So... we took a nap (well whatever shuteye we could get) and left the hotel at 1.45am to get to Hong Kong International Airport by Uber.

Our ride took just over half an hour and we entered a cavernous, empty airport.

When we checked in, the ground staff explained as compensation for the flight delay we would get HK$200 in food after we went through security. All we had to do was present our boarding pass.

"What kind of food options are there at this hour?" I asked.

"Probably McDonald's," was the reply.

How delightful...

We went through security and the immigration -- no one was even manning the booths, let alone the automated immigration clearance or e-channel.

Dumplings with noodles, soup and choy sum

All the duty-free shops had shut long ago, passed by a Labubu statue where he too had a boarding pass in his pocket, and we wandered to where there was a food court.

Thankfully there was more than just McDonald's open!

There was ramen at Bari-Uma, sandwiches and salads at Gordon Ramsay Plane Food to Go, Fujianese dishes at Putien, and finally Tasty Congee & Noodle Wantun Shop.

We went to the latter and ordered dumplings with noodles. The man at the counter encouraged us to order more food to reach HK$200, so I also had choy sum and two bottles of water.

Other than us, there were only ground staff hanging out, who either were aircraft engineers or moved luggage and cargo around.

When we finished eating, it was about time to reach our gate, Gate 36 -- down at the far end. 

Really? We had the last flight out before 7am and we had to walk all the way down to the end of the airport to board the plane.

By the time we got to the gate, we saw people already in line anxious to get on the plane, but we were kept waiting because the pilots hadn't boarded yet, nor the flight crew.

Labubu looking perky at this hour 

Passengers were exhausted and when we finally boarded, there were some terse exchanges because people didn't want to patiently wait and just wanted to get into their seats and start flying.

While the pilot apologised again, stating it was a maintenance issue of the aircraft and that it was safe to fly, many of us had already fallen asleep in our seats.

We didn't actually take off until 5am, and landed in Vancouver International Airport at just after midnight December 1.

It's a good thing I made the mistake in the hotel booking otherwise we would have been very miserable and tired hanging out in the airport for hours!