RTW TP Run: Day 19 – Hong Kong (HKG) to Sydney (SYD)

By Nige on February 5, 2026 at 11:04 pm
Type: Post
Story: Round the World Tier Point Run in Jan 2026 Category: Travel
Tags: HKG | Hong Kong | Qantas Airways | SYD | Sydney

I’d enjoyed a relaxing day in The Pier First Class Lounge at Hong Kong Airport.

It certainly wasn’t the most exciting day of the trip, but it was exactly what I needed ahead of a mega stretch of flights that would take me back across the International Date Line (IDL) and onward to the USA.

My flight was due to depart from Gate 7, which was a fair trek from the lounge near Gate 65.

I was looking forward to settling into seat 02K and closing my eyes, even if only briefly, as we got under way.

Dinner would also help “eat into” the flight time — always a useful tactic.

Two Qantas flights were scheduled to depart from Gates 7 and 8. One had arrived from Sydney and the other from Melbourne, but they were swapping destinations on the return legs.

Gate 7 was a little chaotic when I arrived just before 7pm. The boarding lanes hadn’t been set up, and shortly afterwards the departure slipped to 8pm, with boarding pushed back to 7:30pm.

I positioned myself near the Priority Boarding Groups 1 & 2 sign and waited patiently.

There was a lot of preparation required for passengers needing extra time to board, but the gate crew left setting up the boarding lanes until the last minute and then rushed to get everything in place. Why leave it so late?

Once on board, the seat itself looked impressive. The IFE was responsive and featured an intuitive horizontal scrolling design — easily the best system I’d used on this trip so far. It even offered a “watch with a friend” feature.

The film selection didn’t offer much that appealed to me, but I settled on The Invisible Man starring Elisabeth Moss. To cut to the chase: the plot was predictable and uninspiring, so I wouldn’t recommend it.

What wasn’t impressive was being asked to complete a breakfast order card by ticking boxes.

It felt lazy — surely the crew could capture that information themselves, perhaps using a tablet. All a bit naff.

We pushed back around 50 minutes late, and it took another 20 minutes before we reached the runway.

The menu itself was disappointingly flimsy — literally and figuratively — lacking any real substance. Still, I placed my dinner order.

A mattress topper and light duvet were waiting at my seat, which felt promising. I was hopeful for some decent sleep mid-flight.

I started with the potato and carrot soup, which was hot and full of flavour.

For the main course, I chose the beer-roasted chicken with chilli broccoli. It wasn’t particularly sophisticated, and the limp skin left on the chicken didn’t help the texture or flavour.

What was genuinely bizarre was the shape of the cutlery — the strangest I’ve ever used.

The lie-flat bed itself was comfortable, and I managed around four to five hours of sleep in two phases. When I woke, it was nice to see the sky gradually lightening as the day began.

Breakfast arrived and was surprisingly good. I’d ordered tea, a BLT in croissant form, an additional plain croissant, and a bowl of muesli. All very enjoyable.

I was now looking forward to stretching my legs in Sydney. With luck, I’d be able to avoid border control and immigration by using international transfers.

Final approach into Sydney was a bit murky, so the views weren’t particularly clear. The captain mentioned spotting the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but it clearly wasn’t on my side of the aircraft.

Landing was smooth, and around ten minutes later we arrived at Gate 35.

Next up: A gallery of photos from Day 19 of my Round The World trip of a lifetime.

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Round the World Tier Point Run in Jan 2026