Originally Posted by
teemuflyer
I do wonder why at HKIA they have these rules in the first place. I have had several 12 hour plus layovers in HKG and chosen to go into the city, refreshing up a bit at a restroom before talking the HEX. It would be nice to be ab;e to take a shower at the lounge after a 15+ hour flight before leaving to enjoy Hong Kong proper.
I understand that the lounges are not meant to be an arrivals lounge, but in this case, I'm connecting and require a ticket to prove that. And if I never left the airport after arriving from my first flight, I'd still have access to the showers etc. as soon as I hit the lounge first thing after clearing transit security.
If I wanted to go into town, I'd still have to clear immigration etc. both leaving and reentering the airport, but that would be my choice. In the US, one needs to clear immigration and customs after an international arrival, but after that no one is going to stop you from clearing security, going to a lounge to take a shower, then leaving the airport during a long layover, to return later for your flight, be it a domestic US or another int'l flight.
there are multiple issues at bay but the monotonic thinking procedure leads to a monotonic conclusion. luckily procedures from the past has led to 2 outcomes at entrance procedures that i know of- backtrack during transit leads to “entering HK” and cancellation a flight w HKG as origin leads to Immigrations office having a grilling (at least, of your records)
for your long transit you only need to wait for cx staff to take you back to arrivals level and no need to wait for the immigrations office to check if you’ve broken various laws. this is made worse because you may have to wait longer for a shower back when cx used to run the arrivals lounge than getting a talking to by the lounge staff if you time what you do and play your cards right.
now that they dont even have a lounge it’s led to even funnier conclusions- since you can afford X you should also pay Y but its not of CX’s responsibility to provide you Y as an add-on product although many airlines can provide you a shower (inclusive of towel) and some snacks for the minimum without a ridiculous waiting time.
Of course, there’s less of a case where business travellers w FFP proof has their business meeting cancelled last minute (they should wait landside to wait for confirmations), travellers who forgot something landside should have their stuff confiscated (their responsibility), or health issues (they can either see the airside doctor or at their destination, or fly over and fly back to see their dying relatives- or they shouldn’t be so unfillial and should have cancelled their trip before checking-in) and should be left SOL in case circumstances changes. There should never have been a case of emergency.