Morning view from my room at the InterContinental Hong Kong.

Hong Kong was the first of two destinations we took for our honeymoon, which began two days after Christmas and actually coincided with our one-year anniversary. We selected an early morning flight from Reagan National in Washington, D.C. to Chicago O’Hare (ORD) so we would have time to experience the American Airlines (AA) Flagship Lounge. (Flying business class on Cathay Pacific (CP) gives you access to the lounge.) I can never afford to fly business class, especially on international trips, so I was excited to have the opportunity to finally experience this lounge. The Flagship Lounge at ORD shares the same check-in with the AA Admirals Club (AC) and I’ve always been jealous of seeing passengers go into it while I always get ushered to the AC every time I connect through ORD. (I’m assuming it’s the same kind of curiosity and feeling others in the terminal, who never experienced any sort of lounge, have when seeing passengers like myself go into one.

There are countless reviews of ORD’s AA Flagship Lounge so I won’t include a review. Let’s just say I’m the Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when it comes to free things in airport lounges, especially when it comes to free alcohol and food. For some reason, stale yogurt covered pretzels taste much better in a lounge than eating a store bought bag in the terminal. Unlike the AC where bar tenders pour you drinks, this lounge had self pouring options.

Self-pouring options in the Flagship Lounge. Shocked none of it was chained as to prevent people like me from taking the bottle.

After spending a few hours in the lounge and trying every type of macaroon, we headed to the gate to make our 2:05pm departure. There was a Swissport Lounge in the vicinity of the gate and anyone with Priority Pass has access to it so naturally we stepped in to see what it had to offer. It offered light snacks and probably would be just fine, but having just experienced the Flagship Lounge, it felt that the selling point for this lounge was it’s proximity to the gate. We were in the first boarding group. Picture the scene from Wayne’s World where Wayne and Garth made their way backstage using their VIP access. That was us making our way pass others who crowded the gate. There’s a fine balance of acting like you routinely fly in business class and being giddy taking pictures of everything in the cabin and trying to nonchalantly understand what all the buttons do. (I don’t think I’ll ever learn the balance.) This was my first time to experience a lay flat seat on a flight. Upon landing in Hong Kong, my husband thanked me for tucking him in after he fell asleep, but admittedly, I had no idea what he was talking about. (We concluded a flight attendant did that.)

One of the traditions I started thanks to my husband is taking hop on/off buses in cities I visit. I was opposed to it since it’s very touristy, but it’s a great way to get a layout of a city and it often comes with free or discounted tickets for other tourist attractions. As an example, our hop on/off included a free ticket for the Sky100 Hong Kong Observation Deck, which we wanted to do anyway. We also did a food tasting walking tour on our first full day. There are several companies to choose from and prices vary. We did the Central & Sheung Wan Foodie tour. We were fortunate to have an intimate tour since there was only one other couple (a mother and adult daughter from South Africa). The walking tour consisted of six restaurants. I highly recommend trying Char Siu Faan (barbecued pork rice) and if you like dim sum go to Dim Sum Square (27 Hillier Street, Sheung Wan). It was so good we went back later in the trip. (Expect a line outside that wraps around the corner if you go during lunch hours.) Since we were in Hong Kong for five full days, this gave us an idea of what to eat. We didn’t eat anything out of the norm during the tour, but we did have snake soup (se gang) on another day. It was very slimy and not worth having again, but because the snakes were said to be poisonous and considered a Cantonese delicacy, we had to try. We were eating next to crates with holes in them and the waiter must have read our curiosity so he opened one of them. Sure enough, the crates had live snakes.

She Wong Lam restaurant.

Prior to our trip, I wanted to surprise my husband with photos of Sandia Mountain (Albuquerque, New Mexico) where we got married in our room so I reached out to the InterContinental Hong Kong and explained to them it was our honeymoon/anniversary and requested to have the large prints displayed in our room on night three of our stay. The concierge staff got the night wrong and actually had the photos waiting on our arrival with a balloon, macaroons, and a bottle of Perrier Jouet, which were all nice surprises to me.

InterContinental Hong Kong recognizing our anniversary.

One of the reasons we wanted to stay at the InterContinental Hong Kong was because it is on the harbor and offered a prime New Year’s Eve firework viewing spot. The city started closing streets around 6pm and people flocked to the harbor even earlier to get a spot. I would liken the crowd to Time Square in New York. Security was increased at the hotel and non-guests were prevented from walking onto the hotel property. I normally don’t order room service because I think it prevents me from having a genuine feel for a city and its cuisine offerings, but expecting crowds, we planned to have room service on New Year’s Eve. It was nice to walk out onto the lobby’s terrace at 11:30pm and not be stuck in a crowd along the harbor for hours. The firework show was the best I’ve ever seen and words can’t describe it. (There are several YouTube videos of Hong Kong’s NYE shows.)

Other excursions we did included:

Taking a walk along Flower Market Road. All kinds of flowers for sale.

Flower Market Road.

We walked along Yuen Po Street Bird Garden to see the birds and insect food for sell.

Bird Garden on Yuen Po Street.

We took the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car to see the Ngong Ping Village, Po Lin Monastery, and the Big Buddha.

Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car.

We walked through the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery. (Spoiler alert. There are more than 10,000 Buddha statues.)

One of Ten Thousand Buddhas.

We had a snack in the Sky100 Hong Kong Observation Deck one evening.

Evening view from the Sky100 Hong Kong Observation Deck.

(We also took a day trip to Macau on New Year’s Day which will be a separate post.)

Similar to my desire to experience the Flagship Lounge in ORD, I wanted to explore the CP business class lounges at HKG so we intentionally arrived at the airport about six hours early. I think this CP commercial sums us up perfectly. We visited four CP business class lounges (The Bridge, The Wing, The cabin, The Pier) before our flight to the Maldives and I hesitantly admit that I had at least one, if not two, glasses of Champagne in each. Your boarding pass gets stamped with the name of the lounge you visit so it kind of serves as a “passport” for all the HKG lounges you visit.

CP Lounges.

Tips:

Hong Kong is a cash (Hong Kong Dollar (HKD)) city, which was contrary to what I expected a major Asian financial city to be. You must have HKD to leave the airport (e.g., Octopus/train ticket is cash only, taxis are cash only). Additionally, most restaurants don’t accept credit cards. You can use Octopus cards at several restaurants, but it’s never a guarantee.

An Octopus card was HKD 150 at the airport. HKD 50 was a deposit and you get it back when returning it to the airport. You’ll also get unused money back from the card. They charge HKD 9 for each returned card if returned within a three month period; no charge for returns after three months.

Go to Starbucks in airport (there is at least one located in Terminal 1 near CP counters) to put remaining HKD on your Starbucks card before going through customs. Saves you from losing value exchange rate back into your home currency. You can do this in increments of HKD 50.

Carry napkins to restaurants as many places do not have napkins for use.

Restaurants will put snacks (e.g., peanuts) on your table without asking once you’re seated. You’ll be charged a nominal fee. Ask the server to take it away immediately; otherwise, you’ll be charged even if you don’t touch them.

You’ll need to calculate an extra toll when taking a taxi across the Victoria Harbor. The extra charge is so the taxi can return to the side you were picked up (even if they have a passenger after you needing to cross). This fee is stated in the taxi. They’re not over charging you. Uber exists in Hong Kong; however, it is limited and not necessarily reliable. (An alternative is the Mass Transit Railway, which is easy to navigate.)

Buy tickets online (e.g., https://www.klook.com/city/2-hong-kongwww.klook.com) for tourist attractions. It’s often at least a few dollars cheaper than in-person and in some situations, there are specific lines for online ticket holders (e.g., Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car), which tend to be significantly shorter.

If you’re a guest of the Intercontinental Hong Kong on New Year’s Eve and want to have a prime view from the terrace, you’ll need to make a dinner reservation as early as possible prior to check in. Only those who have a dinner reservation are allowed onto the terrace for the firework show. There are other viewing areas on the property, but the terrace has unobstructed views. We were lucky enough to have access to the terrace without dinner reservations thanks to the head concierge trying to make up for the anniversary surprise occurring on a different night than requested. (I never brought the error to the hotel’s attention. It wasn’t that upsetting. She realized the error on her own after checking on the request during our stay.)

How I did it:

I’ll start by saying I planned this trip over a year and a half out, which I don’t normally do when it comes to travel. AA is a partner of CP so I was able to use 180,000 AA miles (for one passenger) to fly round trip in CP business class. (Breakdown: 70,000 AA miles for DCA-ORD-HKG; 40,000 AA miles for HKG-MLE; 70,000 AA miles for MLE-HKG-ORD-DCA.) I understand not everyone has that many airline miles lying around (plus enough for a companion), but I use credit cards to accrue miles and points. I spent $174 out of pocket on taxes for what I estimated to be around $19,829 in plane tickets for just one of us had we not used miles. You can do it for fewer miles if you’re willing to fly in economy, but flying business class through ORD gave us access to the AA Flagship Lounge, lay flat seats, and access to all the CP business lounges in HKG.

Our six nights at the InterContinental Hong Kong were free. I used 180,000 points for three nights, my IHG anniversary credit card night for one night, the Ambassador free night certificate for another, and my mother paid for a night as a wedding present. I saved about $3,699 on lodging in Hong Kong. The IHG credit card I have [this version is no longer offered] has a $49 annual fee, but offers a free annual night. I used an additional IHG 32,000 points to get Ambassador status specifically for the trip, which came with a free night and automatic room upgrade (based on a paid room). Considering a room with points cost 60,000 points, using the 32,000 for Ambassador status that came with a free night, really saved me points. I understand not everyone has thousands of hotel points to use. It takes time to accumulate and you need a strategy, which comes with planning. IHG is known for its generous credit card signup bonus and routine offers of extra points through its Accelerate promotions (e.g., receive an additional 4,000 points for a weekend stay, use the IHG credit card and receive 1,500 points, and receive a 10% rebate on points with credit card).