Originally Posted by
PsiFighter37
Got a fun one to ask about here...so on my third try, I think I have finally gotten my HKG-TPE-NTG award itinerary to book. First leg is on BR, while second leg is on ZH. However, when I look up my BR itinerary online, it only shows the first leg. Ergo, two questions - one probably more about the vagueries of MP award bookings, and one about TPE itself:
1) Do folks think I will be able to have the agents (presumably BR, since that is my first leg) get me checked through entirely to NTG when I get to HKG? Or if there are truly two separate itineraries per leg, on different PNRs, I will have to pick up my bags in TPE and re-check in?
2) Any idea on transit time of 1h55m being enough time should maximal contingencies occur? I feel like it might be cutting it a tad close.
In my experience, Asian airlines and their employees tend to be very strict about rules and procedures. Usually anything that isn't concisely included in their training and procedures is outright denied. However, since both BR and ZH are *A members, it's possible the BR agents in HK would be willing to do this, but I am going to give an opinion that more likely than not, they will refuse because you're on two different tickets and PNRs and they will be confused by this if it's not documented in their regulations. What you can do is call BR reservations and ask them for their official policy on something like this.
Given this, can you change the itinerary to add more transit time? Worst case, the HK agents transfer the bags through and you can wait in a lounge vs sweating it out in the immigration line which can get very, very long depending on your arrival time, then back upstairs to check in with ZH before cutoff, and re-clear outbound security and immigration again.