Flight 7: HKG-PEK - Part 1 SQ Lounge
Now that we had a nice Hong Kong stamp in our passports, our challenge if any was to check in for our 3 remianing segments, hoping that we would be allowed to transit without a visa in Beijing.
So, to the business counter we went. I gave the check in agent our itinary and asked her to check us in as well as our luggages all the way to Oslo. We then started to wait. And wait. And wait some more. At this point, I was starting to feel a bit nervous.
Obvisouly I had checked
Timatic on Star Alliance's webpage in advance. I had also read several thread on FT, most reassuring me about the TWOV possibility. However the Chinese Embassy in Oslo was adamant we would not be able to leave the airport, which is the reason behind our idea to check in luggages from HKG all the way to OSL, just in case we would not be allowed to pick up our luggage in PEK.
Anyway, after a really long wait, and many minutes watching the young check in lady typing on her computer we ended with 3 Air China branded boarding cards each, 1 for each of our 3 future segments.
Of course I was not very happy about the Air China branding for the Lufthansa First Class leg, but we would fix that in PEK
All we needed now was an actual boarding pass for our flight out of PEK the day after our arrival. This way TWOV should be easy.
With that in order, we went through security, and immigration, once again. The original plan was to get out of the airport and take the train to Disneyland, but since we had used so much time in different queues, time was running out. Next time.
While we were checking in, queues had not diminished, quite the opposite, and there were no priority line. After a long while it was time to head for the Singapore Airlines lounge. The SQ lounge is of course not the one Air China uses in HKG, but my *A Gold status would be put to use for the first time in the trip.
That lounge, turned out to be pretty great! It was large with many seating places organized in different sections. There was a big area with computers (both PCS and Macs) and with many tables for people with laptops. The catering was definitely on the top of the scale, with plenty of drink choices, cold and warm food. Cold food consisted of makis, sandwiches, salads, and fruit salads. hot food that afternoon was Singapore noodles, Fried rice, Vegetarian curry, and many different king of steamed and fried dumplings. All choices were excellent.
The only thing I missed in this lounge is a sport channel on the TVs... They just had CNN and a couple of Chinese channels. The point, beeing to be able to watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix, live, that was taking place that day in Shanghai. Since that was not working (and the front staff was of no help) I had therefore to turn on the laptop and watch it on the BBC iPlayer which was buffering every now and then because of the relatively low bandwidth. Still better than nothing.
After the Grand Prix it was about time to head for our departure gate. Before that I thought I'd checked out the "official" Air China lounge and see what I had missed....
It turned out I did not miss anything... How surprising! The lounge was much smaller, with a nice choice of drinks, but almost no food, only a few sandwiches and crackers. So, no regrets.