Shirley Sung secured flight to Kuala Lumpur for HK$6,000, spent HK$2,000 in hotel fees for two nights, before catching an AirAsia flight to Hong Kong for HK$3,000
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenOscar LiuandVivian AuPublished: 9:36pm, 8 Mar 2026Updated: 9:38pm, 8 Mar 2026Hongkonger Shirley Sung finally returned home on Sunday after being stranded in Dubai for a week and making eight failed attempts to secure a flight, ultimately paying HK$11,000 (US$1,406) to escape the Middle East conflict via Kuala Lumpur.
The 30-year-old solo traveller, who had flown to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a wedding, found herself in a tense situation as she witnessed missile interceptions and sought shelter in a hotel car park during Tehran’s retaliatory attacks amid US-Israel strikes on Iran.
After purchasing nine tickets – eight of which were cancelled for free – Sung eventually secured a one-way flight to Kuala Lumpur from Dubai last Friday for HK$6,000.
She then spent two nights in the Malaysian capital city, paying around HK$2,000 in hotel fees, before catching an AirAsia flight to Hong Kong for HK$3,000, arriving home on Sunday evening.
“I started looking at Emirates [airline] and booked two tickets to available Asian destinations each day for four days, but it was a repetitive cycle of hope and disappointment. I would book one and then it would be cancelled. The process was very frustrating,” Sung, a sales representative, told the South China Morning Post upon landing in Hong Kong on Sunday evening.
The regional conflict has thrown Middle Eastern air traffic into disarray.
