Originally Posted by QRC3288

to summarize, the other posters are giving you spot-on advice.

1.) If you interline you will have heaps of time. There are two different transit desks strategically located, no gate is more than a 5 minute walk from one of them. As HKG is CX's hub, CX has the largest presence in the transfer areas, with multiple agents staffing each one.

2.) If you don't interline, you will still be fine just make sure your passport is of a nationality that's okay to enter HK without a visa. Most major western countries fall into this bucket. You have no option but to a.) clear immigration, b.) collect your bag at reclaim, and c.) exit through customs into the arrival hall. Once in the arrival hall turn around, take the escalator or elevator back upstairs, check-in, and go back through security and immigration and into the departures airside area.

Your biggest variable and potential time drag in #2 is the line at immigration arrivals. Your second biggest potential time drag is departure immigration. Unfortunately although HKIA is amazing at clearing its own citizens and folks with frequent visitor cards, sometimes the visitor arrival immigration line seems to be very long, and I've heard of a 30 minute wait before (although that most certainly isn't normal). Just based on my observations, no science here, but the line seems to be worst for arrivals in mid-to-late afternoon. As for departure immigration, the line seems to occasionally be 10-15 minutes at worst for visitors. Bag collection, customs, getting to the departure area, check-in and security are all a breeze. Bag reclaim is about as efficient as it gets at HKIA.

No matter, even if you hit a worst-case scenario at arrival immigration, assuming your flight is on-time I think you'll have 1+ hours in the airside departure area pre-flight. Tons of time. I've done what you're doing before, and I have have been airside again under 20 minutes after deplaning. That includes reclaiming a bag. I've done this without a bag on numerous occasions, and that can happen under 15 minutes. I have HKID so can clear immigration quicker, but that gives you an idea of how efficient the airport is. If there is one place you'd want to do what you're doing it's at HKIA.