HKG Arrivals lounges / ground transfers / 1 day visit

[global_samurai]

Originally Posted by CarlTheWebmaster

Exactly. Train + Cab sounds like the best option to me (applies to Tokyo, and many other cities as well).



Great tip -- just as I do in Beijing.

Thanks again all for the helpful information. This is exactly why FT is so great -- many others have been there and done that!

My pleasure ... safe trip...

[bearbrick]

my goodness !

reading the OP's plans and the subsequent suggestions has given me a headache !!

why alll that dash and possibly slap and tickle .......are we THAT short of time ?

unless we are meeting eg HK and shenzhen or even guangzhou or TYO and OSAKA or BEIJING and Tianjin ..

we need to know if the meeting is THAT important ...which i imagine it is..then at least spend a night in HK ........that would solve everything......i wouldnt like to give an impression to the meeting that you are running short of time....and they can get overtime

get into HK early and i would suggest NOT to time to time everything to that last second cos ........the unexpected always happen.....egg.taxis are difficult at certain times of the day and ..the MTR connecting walkways can be ridiculously long.....

get to HK early and stay overnight in HK .......that my suggestion

[CarlTheWebmaster]

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Originally Posted by bearbrick

my goodness !

reading the OP's plans and the subsequent suggestions has given me a headache !!

why alll that dash and possibly slap and tickle .......are we THAT short of time ?

unless we are meeting eg HK and shenzhen or even guangzhou or TYO and OSAKA or BEIJING and Tianjin ..

we need to know if the meeting is THAT important ...which i imagine it is..then at least spend a night in HK ........that would solve everything......i wouldnt like to give an impression to the meeting that you are running short of time....and they can get overtime

get into HK early and i would suggest NOT to time to time everything to that last second cos ........the unexpected always happen.....egg.taxis are difficult at certain times of the day and ..the MTR connecting walkways can be ridiculously long.....

get to HK early and stay overnight in HK .......that my suggestion

Ah but too late now. I think it'll be ok as long as the snow holds off....and if not I'll go the next time.

[CarlTheWebmaster]

Well it all worked. Notes:

• Snow in Beijing this morning meant a two hour delay for deicing and a two hour delay in arrival time. PEK has only two deicing trucks for the entire airport.
• Bus gate and long-ish line at immigration added to the delay
• I foolishly waited to buy an Airport Express ticket from the counter just outside Immigration. Much quicker to use the machines.
• Taxi from Central to the meeting location took a bit -- long wait for a cab and then traffic. MTR would have been a lot faster but I was not sure of the exact location of the meeting.
• I arrived 45 minutes late to the meeting but it was a success nonetheless. @thursday next time in HKG I'll buy you a beer and tell you all the gory details.
• Return with walk to Causeway Bay MTR and airport express was probably 40 minutes total door to checkin counter in T1

Lessons:

• Take the first flight of the day! My 930 flight was delayed; the 8am flight was not.
• Don't take cabs. Use MTR.
• Buy Airport Express tickets from the machine - don't wait in line.
• Spend more time in Hong Kong than 3 hours. I literally saw nothing but a train, a cab, an office, and the MTR. Did grab some tasty food at the Silver Kris lounge (why is there no bathroom inside the lounge?) -- but calling that 'tasty food' in a city like Hong Kong is almost a crime.
• You can easily change into a suit in a bathroom on an Air Macau Airbus narrow-body. And change back out of it in an HKG bathroom before your return flight.
• FT rocks - thanks for the tips which literally saved this meeting for me.

Arrival back in PEK was early but we had to wait for the jet bridge, then it started to snow in earnest just as I got in a cab. Raging blizzard/lightning/thunder along the airport expressway with more than one Cab and truck spinning out of control. Got back to the hotel after midnight after 7am start, but all in all a good day! Now I should be sleeping but instead am posting on FT.

What can you do?

Thanks again to all who posted suggestions.

-C

[ChrisLi]

Glad that everything workout for you! For the next challenger actually I got some more to add... (I never assume a longish delay for you but well .. that's life for flying in and out of China)

Originally Posted by CarlTheWebmaster

Buy Airport Express tickets from the machine - don't wait in line.

Actually you can do it at the counter of town station also. You can jump on train straight ahead and fix the ticket @ Tsing Yi / Kowloon / Hong Kong Station when you arrive.