Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Arrival Shower at HKG

Please forgive if you've seen this sort of question before.

We're arriving from LAX, in First Class, in early October, and wonder if CX offers arrivals showers to customers (even without connections?)

No.

I'm guessing you are asking this question because of the fact that the flight from LAX arrives so early in the morning (around 7:00am), you do not know if you can check-in at your hotel at that early hour. And since you believe that you can't check-in so early, you would like to find a place to shower after such a long flight.

If this is indeed your concern, then I would head straight to your hotel. There will likely be a room available for you to check-in when you arrive around 8:00am or so. Even if there wasn't, I'm sure you could use their health club facilities and shower there while you wait for an available room.

Or, request an early check in. Given that demand for hotels is still not fully back to normal in HK, I imagine most places would happily play ball.

Thank you Swanhunter and francophile for your thoughtful responses.

this is a big issue for me that CX does not offer and arrivals lounge - had this conversation with them many times. I agree with the advice about checking with hotels re early check in or ask if you can at least shower at their health club (most have showers and lockers).

I still don{t understand why CX does not offer passengers flying into HKG fist or biz a lounge - they need to get one!

Why not try this:

Book a separate, refundable ticket on CX to a destination beyond HKG. Check-in for that flight either in your originating city or at a CX transfer desk at HKG. Go through the transit point with your new BP and enter the Wing or Pier. Take a shower and have some breakfast. Then, leave the lounge, exit the airport and call CX to cancel the ticket. You get an arrivals lounge and CX gets an interest-free loan for a while. A win-win situation!

[This message has been edited by PresRDC (edited 08-25-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PresRDC:
A win-win situation! </font>

A win situation for the passenger who shall use The Wing/The Pier as an "arrivals lounge", yes. But not for Cathay Pacific who held a seat for a passenger who never intended to show up (there by making the seat a perished commodity). Nor for a potential customer who, if the flight was fully booked, wanted to purchase a seat on that flight and actually wanted to board it but was denied the chance.

do CX have fully refundable tickets ex-HKG? all of my tickets including F and J tickets have had a refund fee.

isn't it easier just to go to your hotel? what would you do with your checked baggage?

I can well see why CX does not have an arrivals lounge, or permit use of their showers upon arrival. Anyone who has been to BA's superb facility at LHR knows the demand and crowds that can gather, but at least its morning arrivals are staggered over several hours. CX would be deluged as it has so many NAmerican flights arriving at the same early hour, plus those from other parts of the world. It could never maintain high standards that would be expected.

Further, as others have noted, hotels are quite likely to accommodate an early morning arrival. Several cities in this part of the world, and Australia, are used to their customers arriving very early in the morning, given the flight arrivals times. They can generally accommodate such arrivals because they also have customers who depart very early in the morning to catch their 7 to 9am flights.

And when such rooms are not cleaned yet, I have always been offered a small room where I could shower and change, then check my bags until later in the day.