Originally Posted by
tmm1012
In November, I will be flying on CX845 JFK-HKG in J, arriving 5:40 am. I am ticketed to continue on to HKT on KA214, HKG-HKT also in J, departing at 2:45 pm, so I have a ~9 hour layover.
This ticket has already been purchased (award ticket), but plans have changed and I will now be flying on a separate ticket on Thai Air Asia 516 HKG-CNX (in Y), departing at 10:35 am. Putting aside the risk of separate tickets, and assuming an on-time arrival into HKG, I'm trying to figure out what my best option is for using lounges in HKG. To make life easy, I will be carrying on, so no checked luggage.
One option would be to arrive HKG and proceed to The Arrivals Lounge. Access to that lounge appears to require a 4+ hour connection, so I should be eligible for this and claim that I am going into HKG during my ticketed 9 hour layover...then simply check in with Air Asia as a local departing passenger. But since the other CX lounges (Wing/Bridge/Cabin) sound nicer, I'm wondering if I can proceed as a Transit passenger, and use these lounges without exiting Arrivals.
Essentially, I think the question comes down to the layout of the terminal, and whether the departures area for the CX flight HKG-HKT and Air Asia flight HKG-CNX are connected. If so, I believe that upon arrival from JFK, I could proceed as a transit passenger and use the HKG-HKT boarding pass (in J) to access the lounges, and then simply proceed to the departure gate for Air Asia (I'll have to figure out how to get a boarding pass, but likely could print one through online check-in at a CX lounge).
Can anyone advise on the terminal layout of HKG and whether I can easily use the CX lounges prior to the Air Asia flight?
As a separate question, are there any issues of essentially throw-away ticketing the HKG-HKT segment (i.e. since according to my JFK-HKG-HKT ticket, I'm still hanging out somewhere in HKG)?
All flights depart from the same departures area at Hong Kong, and you can freely move between all gates 1-72. Smaller aircraft may depart from a remote stand, or the smaller satellite terminal, but you'd take a bus to these shortly before boarding opens.
To progress from arrivals to departures you will need a boarding pass to clear transit security, and once done, you are in the main departures area.
You could use your KA boarding pass (or lounge invite) at that stage to access any of the CX lounges.
On arrival at the lounge your lounge invite (or boarding pass) will be scanned. I'm not entirely sure if this 'confirms' your check-in and your intentions to fly on that flight. In any event, if you decide to skip the last leg to HKT, you should inform the lounge staff so they can off-load you (a simple 'I managed to find an earlier flight on Air Asia' is understandable and will do the trick).
If your original award ticket is one way only (JFK-HKT) you'll have no problems throwing away the last leg. If the ticket is return, skipping the last leg will cancel the rest of the flights, including your return.