Hong Kong airline HK Express apologises to passengers for seat swap with ‘monster parents’

Two ‘furious’ travellers offered refunds after being asked to give up paid seats to parents demanding to be seated with their children

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HK Express has again encountered unhappy customers after a change in aircraft led to crew having to swap passenger seats. Photo: May Tse

Published: 6:53pm, 16 Jul 2024Updated: 7:00pm, 16 Jul 2024

HK Express, Cathay Pacific Airways’ budget wing, has apologised and offered a refund to two passengers on board a Japan-bound flight, a day after they were asked to give up their selected seats for a family of four due to a change in aircraft type by the carrier.

A Facebook post written by a fellow passenger, Vicky Fu, said “monster parents” had used their children as an excuse to sit together and “snatched” seats paid for by other passengers, a request which HK Express acceded to.

This made the passengers who had to give up their seats “furious”, even though the cabin crew told them they could apply for a refund, according to Fu’s post.

In a reply to the Post on Tuesday, HK Express said due to a change in the aircraft type for flight 690 to Nagoya on Monday, the seats the family originally booked became those immediately adjacent to the emergency exit, which minors are not allowed to occupy.

“According to regulations, two of the passengers who are minors could not be seated in the emergency exit row. Therefore, after explaining the need to reassign seats for the affected family and obtaining the consent of four other passengers seated in another row (which included two passengers who had paid for preselected seats), we promptly arranged the seat swaps,” the statement said.