I am flying HKG>BOM on the 7:55 PM flight tomorrow. What is the earliest I can check in at the counters? I have some work to do in the late afternoon and would prefer to do it uninterrupted from the lounge.

Secondly:

I used to buy IT tickets at HKG airport with no problem - a few weeks ago I bought a ticket HKG to BOM 45 minutes before the flight departure. Got the same discount rate as usual online (around $650 RT).

Now IT is basically dead. Today I went and tried to buy a 9W ticket in the airport--wow, bad idea, they wanted about $900 one-way! Miss the good old days of IT. Is there any way to get a reasonably priced 9W ticket in the airport? Bookings close 6 hours before the flight online, and I often decide late in the afternoon that I want to take the red eye to BOM to visit our office there in the morning.