My reply to HKIA

Please judge yourself....

I do not want to add in too much of my comment here.... ^^


Dear Ms Irene Chan,



I appreciate you guys taking the initiative on investigating this case. But, sadly to say, as stated in my first complaint letter, the lady who pushed the old lady’s wheelchair and the man who drove the ‘cart’ had received tips from the old buddies. I am very sure about this. The lady who pushed the wheelchair even raised her voice and talks to the man and hand in his tips to him. She wanted to RETURN the money ONLY when she receives another call from the centre to handle another case. You guys can retrieve this from the CCTV I suppose. I assume that what WFS had told you is another person in charge on helping the old folks on board since the lady had left.


Please have another look on it. I do really hope WFS is not in the hand of covering her staff. WFS should have a list on who is the one who pushed the wheelchair and same goes to the one who drove the cart since this is your last sentence in your text: "In addition, all pre-ordered wheelchair passengers at departure gate 47 you mentioned had already been assisted by WFS for boarding around 1900 hrs on 6 Mar 2011."


Thank you.

Reply from HKIA's Passenger Services Dept dated 31st March 2011

After waiting for more than 2 weeks.... (How efficient and detailed they are going in... ;p)

Here is their reply...


Dear Ms. Chu,



Thank you for sharing your feedback with us on wheelchair services you noticed during your stay at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA). Upon receiving your comment, we have immediately followed it up and it is subsequently confirmed that the service is provided by our licensee, Worldwide Flight Services (WFS).

According to your information and the investigation report from WFS we gathered, WFS responded that the passenger had offered tips to the wheelchair staff but was politely refused by the staff involved. As stipulated in the Licence Agreement with WFS, solicitation of tips for the services provided to passengers is strictly prohibited. To ensure such service performance standard is well maintained during the service delivery, WFS have been requested to step up their trainings/ briefings on customer services as well as the ethical awareness on solicitation of tips and the Authority shall continue conducting audit checks regularly.


In addition, all pre-ordered wheelchair passengers at departure gate 47 you mentioned had already been assisted by WFS for boarding around 1900 hrs on 6 Mar 2011.


Once again, we thank you again for bringing the matter to our attention.



Yours sincerely,

Irene Chan
Assistant General Manager
Terminal 1 Department
Airport Authority

My reply to HKIA and HKTB

This is my reply from them after I received their email dated 11th March...

I replied them on the same day itself....

Sorry for not providing the full detail on this.



I just know that they are departing at gate 47 at 1900 at 06th March 2011.

Reply from HKIA and HKTB dated 11th March 2011

HKIA = Hong Kong International Airport
HKTB = Hong Kong Tourism Board

Below is the replied from them..

Dear Ms Chu,


Thank you for your email. Please rest assured we are most concerned about your comment on wheelchair staff accepted tips from passenger. As there are different wheelchair service providers in the airport, to let us understand more about the matter, we would be grateful if you could advise us the airline that the old lady travelled with, a brief description of the staff concerned and her uniform colour. Your additional information may facilitate our follow up with relevant service provider. Should you have any queries, please feel free to contact us.

Once again, thank you for writing to us.


Yours sincerely,


Customer Service


Hong Kong International Airport


c.c. Hong Kong Tourism Board (Case Ref No. FEED-VRSUP3-20110310-0226575)

Ethics - To tips o not to?

It has been a long time I din update this blog....

I din think up putting this issue up here BUT the reply from Hong Kong International Airport's personnel had changed my mind....

Here is what I sent to the Hong Kong International Airport board and to the Hong Kong tourism board...

The issue below was happening around 1815 at 6th March 2011 near gate 47 at Hong Kong International Airport Terminal 1.

I came across this incident when I was in the queue to get free internet access…. There were one old lady on wheel chair and few (I think there is a total of four of them) old buddies who is not strong physically and need assistant who need to depart at gate 47 which is so far far far far far away from the main gate. When I saw them, they were assisted by the airport crew. One lady helped push the old lady who is on wheel chair and the others were on the cart, heading to gate 47.

Well…. After dropping off them on ground, the old buddies offer some tips to the crew. The crews accepted it and treat it as "coffee money"… After that, the crew who should help them on board accept a call from the counter and need to rush back and she wants to give back the tips she had receive to the old buddies. What is this la…. Of course the old buddies say no to her and say never mind la…. She apologized and went off and says there will be another crew to come over to handle them…. @@

I was not sure whether there is another crew member coming over to take over her place or not. What my concern were…..

(1) Is there anyone coming over to assist them?
(2) If there is someone coming over to assist them, should they pay him/her tips?
(3) Are the old buddies suppose to give tips to the crew?
(4) Should the crew members accept the tips?
(5) If the crew is accepting the tips, what is the main purpose of setting up this service?
(6) If the crew is accepting the tips, do they still get their monthly pay?
(7) If the crew is accepting the tips, should they get their monthly pay?

I just cannot get the whole idea of this. When I first saw them helping the old buddies, I was amazed and was touched with such a high quality service provided by the HK airport. p/s: I had send another copy to the tourism board.