Originally Posted by
clansey1973
Back-in-the-day BA's service to Taipei operated LHR-HKG-TPE and was operated by a wholly owned subsidiary of BA called "British Asia Airways". If you google-it you'll be able to see the British Asia Airways aircraft had a different livery and IIRC operated under IATA code BR instead of BA. This all stopped after 9/11. The alliance with Cathay Pacific probably means it's a lot easier for BA to interline with CX over HKG for TPE and MNL passengers. I have flown from HKG to both TPE & MNL on BA metal, they used to sell really good discounted fares in Hongkong!
Going via HKG is fine, as you're allowed to fly over (mainland) China to get to HKG, and from HKG to TPE doesn't go over China. It's flying direct LHR-TPE (or should I say non-stop, or whatever the correct marketing term is) that would involve a long detour.