If youre connecting on CX then use the CX lounge.

browsing through sabre, DFW-HKG flights have been usually leaving with 100+ open seats the past few weeks but the return flights (AA138 HKG-DFW) have been majorly oversold by at least 10-30 seats depending on the day. Many of the HKG-DFW passengers are onward connections while most DFW-HKG flights ive seen have pax terminating at HKG. AFAIK most SIN bound passengers go through NRT.

These routes are actually not elite heavy believe it or not. Most of the MCE passengers at first glance have paid for those seats. The elites are mostly concentrated in the F/J cabin.

If worried about walking distance gate to gate, there are usually carts waiting right around the Wing that you can take for HKD70 or $10, which will drop you off at a far flung gate; about a 5 minute ride. There is also a people mover that can take you from one end of the terminal to the other, which takes about 12 -15 minutes total travel time.

I suggest that since you're an ExecPlat, take advantage of the Wing (I'm there at least once a month), get a nice sit down meal, take advantage of a cabana (if you can book one), drink some decent liquor and wonder why AA can't have a similar set up.

For those that aren't connecting, getting a meal in an actual restaurant outside of the airport is a far better option. HKG is efficient enough that one doesn't need to budget a lot of insurance time (e.g. can easily get from AEX to gate in 10 minutes if you have eChannel).

if you don't mind sharing, how many of those open seats been in F/J? Curious on people's upgrade chances as I was thinking this route would be a hard upgrade to come by.

Thanks! Yeah I assume that could be the case. Fortunately usually non-AA members aren't my competition for upgrades, however there could be J pax who don't have assigned seats, that's always the risk of using Seatmap, but historically for me it's been good enough to get a gut feeling.

I opted for 33C over middle MCEs, can anyone advise on whether 33C is ok. I understand it's near a lav and galley, that doesn't bother me as much as good leg room to stretch out.

I did have NRT options, but the HKG route was cheaper, and I go to Japan so often and I'm tried of the 777-200, so decided it'd be nice to try the new route, new plane, etc.

Check out this thread for seating options for Y & MCE - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html

I flew 137 and 138 last month. Both were packed. On 137 in MCE there were at least 3 EXPs and 2 Plats that I chatted with. Elite heavy in my book but perhaps an anomaly.

Your upgrade chances (in my opinion) are much greater on the outbound DFW-HKG (AA137) flight than on the inbound HKG-DFW flight.

HKG-DFW has been oversold a good number of days in the past month, while DFW-HKG has gone out with as many as 200 open seats from the random days i looked at.

F has usually been full, but ive seen as many as 16 J seats open on 137.

Interesting. Any insight into the reason for the discrepancy? Are passengers flying to Asia via NRT instead of HKG due to timing of connections? Or are students flying one way to the U.S.? Are stop over rules making it likely that either DFW or HKG get preferentially selected for a particular end of a multi-city trip? Something else?

I dont know the exact reason but i can postulate several theories:

A] AA138 departs (and arrives) at a very convenient time for onward connections. Many of the passengers on AA138 are not on the first segment of their PNR or the last (many are connecting from CX, and continuing on somewhere). UA also flies out of HKG but before noon, and they don't have the connections that CX can provide. Flights into ORD or JFK or LAX (by CX) do not provide as many connection opportunities as DFW.

This is as opposed to AA137 (DFW-HKG) where most of the passengers are terminating their trip at HKG, as opposed to connecting somewhere else. This is due to the late arrival (~6PM) which cuts down on the available connection options.

When i last flew this trip, i noticed on the outward trip (DFW-HKG) the majority of passengers were American, while on the return trip, many were mainland chinese (they seem to love holding out their passports).

I do know for a fact that cargo makes up a significant portion of revenue for AA on this route however. Several flights i've seen have filed flight plans below 30,000 feet due to weight restrictions.

Is it weird that AA137 is showing a 11:45 dept time on 11/2, daylights savings day. Reason I'm asking is I booked a redeye out of lax only because it wouldn't make the 11:15 departure time, but now it's showing 11:45..

Edit: Called it in and they told me the site is wrong.. not cool if trying to book a tight connection

77W DFW-HKG AA 137 / 138 flight experiences, questions
 

[QUOTE=UAL1200;23859753]On my last trip a few weeks ago, I was able to OLCI on the return leg at T-24, but unable to get mobile boarding pass.

I couldn't do OLCI or get a mobile boarding pass even after checked in at the counter.

I arrived just under an hour before departure (~58 min) at the check in counter (no baggage) and the lady simply ignored me (back turned) for about 5 minutes when she could clearly hear me. She finally turned around and yelled "CLOSED, go get ticket exchanged". I was fortunate then able to get a supervisor to check me in and print a boarding pass..

I was under the impression we could check in without baggage 45 minutes beforehand but I could be wrong.

Regardless, had the same type of rudeness with these 3rd party agents that AA uses just like at the SkyPier. There was also no agent at the Kowloon Airport check in.

For future reference, I think I heard one of the other pax mentioning we can check in at the CX stand?

AVOD wasn't functional on AA138 this past Sunday 16 Nov. AA kindly deposited 10K RDMs in my AA account even though I didn't request them or use AVOD at all.

Even more interesting, I used my CX account to earn miles not my AA account. Kudos to AA for their kindness.

Hopefully it was fixed for the next AA137 out of DFW.

[QUOTE=frudd38;23862344]You heard on the thread or in person at the airport?

I'd posted a few pages back asking if it could be done and I asked at Airport Express Kowloon - consensus seemed to be no and that's the answer I got in person as well. Must use the shared AA desk.

FWIW the agent I regularly see at AE Kowloon (middle aged guy) seems ok but I got a pretty rude agent at the airport my last trip.