Review of Lucky Air flight from Chongqing to Kunming in Economy

A special kind of pain

Hello and welcome to another Flight Report!!

This is the 2nd leg of my journey from London to Kunming, Yunnan and will be flown on Lucky Air (祥鹏航空), a Chinese low-cost carrier and a member of HNA Aviation, the same group that also owns Hainan Airlines, Tianjin Airlines, and others. The airline is based in Kunming and operates a fleet of A320s, A330s, and Boeing 737s to destinations around China and Southeast Asia. As I mentioned in my last FR, this trip was booked somewhat last-minute on Ctrip, a Chinese travel agency that's better known as Trip.com abroad. I recommend using them in China as it saves the hassle of having to navigate the terrible websites Chinese airlines are known for (especially as most of them don't have an English version). I don't usually recommend using third parties, but they're really the only way to book tickets on these 'smaller' airlines (if you don't speak Chinese). Their customer service is alright (at least for Ctrip if you speak Chinese). Can't say anything about Trip.com or their English service as I've never used it. 

Now let's talk about Kunming, another city often overlooked by foreigners visiting China. It's the capital and largest city in Yunnan, China's Southwesternmost province bordering Myanmar and Laos. The city is the gateway for people heading deeper into Yunnan. The province is still rather underdeveloped (compared to other parts of China), especially if you head further Southwest into the mountains, which are mostly inhabited by ethnic minorities, accounting for 38% of the province's population. The province is a popular tourist destination for domestic tourists, who are attracted to the province's culture and natural beauty. See my tourism bonus at the very end for more!

I aim to offset all of my CO2 emissions from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard.

Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport (CKG)

You join me outside of Terminal 2 at CKG after my flight from London. There's a free shuttle bus connecting Terminal 2 and 3 however it's very crowded with 90% of the passengers being airport workers (it also stops at the admin and cargo areas of the airport). 

Unlike a lot of airports in China (especially newer ones), CKG is located rather close to downtown with a lot of development nearby. 

Oh and by the way, it's 30°C here… in late March. It's crazy the temperature difference between here and Beijing (where it's around 15°C). 

And here's the check-in area. T2 is much older than T3 and was opened in 2004. 

Check-in done! Like most international-domestic transfers in China, they're treated the same as if you bought the tickets separately. You'd have to go through baggage reclaim, customs, and recheck your bag. Larger airlines like China Southern or Air China should™ allow you to check in both legs online at the same time (at least in the past), but you'd still have to recheck your bag and get your boarding pass during your transfer. Because of this, plan plenty of time (I'd recommend 3+ hours, at least in larger airports like Beijing/Shanghai). 

Unfortunately, because I couldn't check in both legs in London, by the time I got to the check-in, all seats were taken apart from three middle ones. This doesn't make sense as I did this 3.5 hours before the flight, before most people have even arrived. Either everyone found ways to check in online (unlikely but not impossible), or here's my theory: the system pre-assigns seats for everyone, and if you use the self-service kiosk, it'll only let you choose the leftover ones. I found that out as I was leaving Kunming on another domestic flight; the same situation occurred. However, because the kiosk gave me an error, I had to go to an agent, who gave me a seat that was unavailable according to the kiosk. I have a feeling the agent can override the pre-assigned seats but the kiosk can't? Not sure what's going on there, but I'll be avoiding the kiosks from now on, especially if I want a window seat. 

Anyway, security took 10 minutes and here we are airside. 

A lot of closed shops, which is surprising considering it's only 9pm.  

Looking at the state of the stores… I doubt many of them were open in the first place! 

There were a handful of restaurants and souvenir/book stores but not a lot considering the size of the airport/terminal. 

The gates. 

The flight

Flight time to Chongqing will be an hour and here's our route: 

Photo of the seats during boarding. 

Seatback pocket and tray table. 

Legroom is terrible by Western standards… but average for Asian LCC standards. Legroom, on average, is a lot less in Asia compared to Europe/Africa as people are shorter here.

Overhead screens for the safety video. This is so much better than having the crew try to do it in English, which more often than not, ends up being impossible to understand. 

Photo of the cabin during taxi. 

Ugh… I hate not having a window seat, especially for a FR. Granted, this flight is at night so you wouldn't be able to see anything, but having just a black photo with the caption 'takeoff!' sets the scene and the storytelling sooo much better. Without it, I feel like it's rather dull to read… sorry!

Anyway, we took off around 10 minutes early with a cruising time of just 20 minutes. Shortly after takeoff, the crew came around with some water. Lucky Air, being an LCC, doesn't hand out free meals (not like they could in 20 minutes). 

If you read my Tianjin FR, you'd have read my frustration with the crew having to read out their duty-free catalogue on the PA. Well, surprise surprise! Lucky Air does the same. For around 15 minutes (or 75% of the flight), the crew listed everything they were selling, from water bottles to plane models and perfumes. It was soooo frustrating and infuriating, having to listen to all that at midnight when you're desperately trying to sleep after a 12-hour long-haul. I don't understand why they couldn't have a duty-free catalogue like every other airline outside the country. Maybe it sells better, but the last thing I want to do after being subjected to a 15-minute sales pitch (at midnight) is to buy something from said sales pitch. It's by far the most infuriating part of the flight; it's a special kind of pain, trying to sleep while that's in the background. 

Descent/landing was rather bumpy but otherwise uneventful. Interestingly, before descent, the crew made an announcement saying that due to it being windy season in Kunming, we were expected to encounter heavy turbulence. It's a rather nice touch, especially for nervous flyers. 

Kunming Changshui International Airport (KMG)

Walking to baggage reclaim. 

And here it is. 

Still rather crowded at half past midnight. The last flights come in at around 2am (minus any delays). 

Welcome to China! You get some interesting quirks here, like CCTV camera footage of the baggage handlers loading bags onto the belt. I guess it gives you something interesting to watch with the added benefit of seeing your bags getting destroyed in real-time! ;) 

The final few arrivals for the day. 

And here we are landside. This is a relatively new airport opened in 2012. 

Photo of the entire concourse from departures upstairs. 

And here we are outside! Kunming is nicknamed the City of Eternal Spring thanks to its warm winters and cool summers. The city is known for its flowers, being the province that supplies most of the country's flowers. 

The sign says 'Kunming International Airport' in traditional Chinese. 

I'll end this FR here. Not a whole lot of plane photos thanks to my middle seat. It's quite annoying not being able to check in online and having to stress about getting a window every time I fly (especially for long-hauls). The next FR in this series will cover the long haul back to the UK (where I got a window seat… just). Thanks for reading and see you there! 

P.S. Feel free to check out the tourism bonus at the end!