Originally Posted by
katsgone
To be clear...and please forgive me I am not great with all the abbreviations and acronyms...if I am coming in on Cathay Pacific in First Class but connecting to another flight where I will be seated in Business Class, I can access Cathay Pacific's flagship First Class lounge while on the layover in HKG airport, awaiting my Business Class flight?
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Thanks for any help you can give.
yes. just to provide a nudge, this is one of the most oft-asked question here! we have numerous threads and links about it in here too.
Long story short, the OneWorld rules provide for a passenger connecting from a long-haul first class ticket with an onward boarding pass for aOneWorld flight to use the F lounge. The catch: it must be same day. You cannot land on Day 1 in F, and depart on Day 2 in J or Y (even if it's on a OneWorld carrier) and still use the F lounge.
A few small quirks here and there. For example a "day" is defined by the airline / airport definition. at HKIA, generally a day is from the first departure of the day ~6am until the last departure at night, say 2-3am. It doesn't cutoff straight at midnight as that would be impractical. Aka you land Day 1 at 7pm, and depart at midnight in J class you can use the F lounge (aka they won't screw you over and say "it's the 'next' day! too bad!").
But where a lot of people here get caught up is buying these cheapo Alaska mileage tickets which allow free stopovers. They'll book F and land on Day 1, fart around in HK for a few days, and then fly in J class a few days later and expect/hope to get the F lounge on that departure. Their argument is "but F wasn't available on my next flight!" Irrelevant...not allowed.
F = First Class
J = Business Class
You should also read about Pier J lounge in HK, next to the F lounge which I discuss above and we discuss extensively elsewhere. Although everyone has their own desires and it's not my place to judge, just on an absolute standard the Pier J lounge is absolutely superb and - despite me having access to the F lounge whenever I want it - I *choose* the J lounge over F half the time. I don't fully grasp the hardcore need for the F lounge.