Just took CX806 about a few weeks ago. Was op-upped to J (first long-haul op-up
). Strong tailwinds meant that, as seems to have been the case all winter, we arrived almost an hour or so ahead of schedule.
However, at least for me, any benefit of the early arrival was negated by the long wait at immigration, due to the UA flight from HKG arriving right before us. It also seemed like the day that a bunch of local colleges (I saw Northwestern, UChicago, DePaul) started school, which meant that the visitors' lane was chock full of students from the UA flight. Compounding the problem was the fact that there were four, yes, four, counters serving a 747 and a 777's worth of visitors. There were two other counters marked for foreigners, but citizens were being directed to them. In total I spent maybe 40 minutes in line, which I know isn't terrible, but I feel could be improved significantly by just having two or three more officers come to work. I can't imagine how long the waits were for those in row 67 or those on the flight that came in right after CX (from Europe I believe). Anyways, end of US immigration rant.
I did appreciate the fact that CX has a separate carousel for priority bags. I wonder why they don't do this at JFK or SFO (I believe they also have a similar set up at LAX).
Also, perhaps CX should consider rescheduling their ORD flight so that it arrives 15 minutes before UA's
