Originally Posted by
Guava
I am struggling to see what makes you think HKIA is this incredibly efficient. Maybe I am missing something terribly here but the distance between each gate at HKIA in my experience is at least twice or more of an average U.S. airport such that to walk even just the distance of 10 gates to get to where you need to be - it's going to take significantly longer in a straight line path no matter how you count the time.
This is not purely a distance issue. HKIA is a single terminal building with no complications. The gates are further apart than in American airports, but there's space to walk quickly without dodging other passengers as it is rarely as congested as say LHR, LGA or ORD, and there are lots of travelators. Immigration is fast, and so is baggage collection. And the airport express will get you to Central in 24 mins, with a maximum wait time of 8 mins. Or a taxi will get you into Central in 35 mins with a wait time of ~5 mins. The total package may not be the best (as some claim) but it is pretty good.
Originally Posted by
Guava
Also, HK has always comes across to me, as a place where the rich get preferential treatment whereas the peasants and the cattle class are left to rot. It's very hard for me to vision an accurate experience of an economy class pax ex-HKG since I have not personally been one as far as I can remember although I have heard quite a bit of horror stories re: how Cathay mistreat economy class pax especially if they are not westerners or on package tours and were left stranded in the airport and etc.. Are these stories not true? I find it hard to believe HKG will be more humane towards economy class pax than some of the more egalitarian major European airports, especially the German ones, just strikes me as quite improbable knowing the prevailing culture in HK vs. Germany.
CX regularly does stuff like rush passengers arriving late to their next flight connection at HKIA regardless of status and class. Not something I have ever seen in egalitarian Germany, or the rest of Europe or the USA.