llbad

I purchased a one-way first class ticket from HK to PDX. I showed up to the airport an hour and a half prior to my flight takeoff, and there was no AA ticketing booth open. Oh well. I wasn't checking any luggage, so I went to the self-check in to print my boarding pass; scanned my Passport, and it printed out an eticket receipt for a completely different passenger with no boarding pass...? I won't post that because it might contain personal information in Mandarin, ha. The AA check-in area was still non-existant at this point, so I went to the airport customer service and asked what the deal was. They said I needed to go find someone in the pink skirt. I wandered back to where AA was supposed to be located, and standing in the very middle of the grandiose ticketing hallway, one sole agent was standing with a jacket covering her outfit. She was clearly ready to leave.

At this point there is about an hour and fifteen minutes until my flight takes off. There was no line at security. The agent brought me over to a computer, booted it up, and made me reschedule my flight over the phone. There were no first class flights available, so they downgraded me to business, and made me pay $150 to get the difference in points between business and first back (17,500 points...). The flight they rescheduled me to was a different city (ORD) than the one I had left my luggage in prior to coming to Hong Kong (PDX), so I had to pay ~$250 to ship my laptop and luggage back to me in Chicago. The overnight hotel was about $150.

Fortunately, I had enough time there that I boated over to Macau, pulled an all-nighter, and won over a grand on the blackjack tables.

Here's the fun part though. The flight they rescheduled me to was Cathay, which, for those who do not know, is based out of hong kong. I was feeling confident that AA had really <messed> up by not letting a 1st class passenger with no checked luggage board a flight an hour and a half before takeoff, so I decided to test the waters by again showing up an hour and a half prior to my flight.

I arrived at the ticketing counter where they printed me out my ticket, as well as....
http://i.imgur.com/7vgyYs3.jpg

A piece of paper showing that even for the farthest gates, only 40 minutes was required. The security line looked about the same as it did before, and I had plenty of time, so I decided to time myself from the start of security to the farthest gate. 20 minutes. I made it back to my actual gate with plenty of time to spare, and enjoyed my flight home.

Clearly, I should have arrived earlier for my original flight to be safe. However, how the <heck> there was not an AA agent standing by an hour and a half prior to a flight is beyond me. How, with an hour and fifteen minutes prior to my flight, I can be standing there rescheduling to another flight, instead of just walking to my plane, is just <totally> beyond me as well.

I wrote customer service but they cited some obscene rule where passengers should be 3.5 hours early to international flights... Whatever. If that's your rule, fine. But moving forward, I'll be putting all business and personal spend on alaska/southwest/united in that order whenever possible.

Fortunately, Macau turned out amazing ^

Dr. HFH

So you arrived at the ticket counter substantially after the published rules required you to be there. Got it.

Also, I'm not clear on the PDX thing. You weren't flying AA HKG-PDX as ex-HKG, AA only flies to DFW. So why would you expect to fly CX on that route? What was your original routing? What was the re-routed routing?

Good luck on those AS, WN and UA HKG-PDX flights. Do let us know how they work out for you.

Seriously, though, congratulations on the Macau win!! I know exactly how you feel, -- isn't it great?!?!?!??!?!?

MSPeconomist

Sorry, but what serious airline has published rules requiring a FC passenger to get to the airport three and a half hours in advance of departure? This might be recommended for charter flights or for coach passengers flying on LCCs, but not for business or first class passengers unless it's some unusual airport situation, which is not the case for HKG.

I suspect that the real deadline was for the OP to be checked in by T-60, which he/she should have insisted be done since as a FC passenger, he was on time.

airplanegod

UA certainly has more flights out of HKG than AA does, and SFO is a lot closer to PDX than DFW. Even if you take Delta to Seattle, still a lot closer than DFW.

hiima

You should have been at the check in desk at least 2 hours prior to take off, or 1.5 hours prior to boarding. If them, you would've been fine, but 1.5 hours prior to take off is not enough, not even close.

MSPeconomist

If this is the rule for a FC or business class passenger, then that is an airline I will not use. Note that I'm talking about requirements, not whatever time some phone agent recommends.

abk

Minimum checkin as per AA.com is 60 minutes and the counter is supposed to close at 12:40 with the flight leaving an hour later. I fly out of HKG often and although I am an hour and a half guy that generally leaves me at least a half hour in the lounge.

travelinmanS

Is this your personal rule? I always show up 1:10 to 1:05 before takeoff on my AA flights from China. It is well within the rules and I've never been refused checkin.

From HKG I imagine the rules are the same, a 60 minute cutoff. If that's the case then there is no reason that the OP should have been denied boarding and AA is in the wrong. I frequently show up 50-45 mins before my CX or KA flights from HKG and haven't missed a flight yet.

If AA has a rule requiring 1.5 or 2 hours advance checkin at HKG it's a dumb rule, but I doubt they do.

_kurt

I would recommend using the in-town check-in next time if possible. You can receive your boarding pass as you're getting on the airport express train (or the night before, if you're conveniently passing through the MTR at that time). I've done this with both AA and CX and it works quite well.

oysterhead43

Let us know how AA compensates you.

Exec_Plat

Not that it matters at all, but this is confusing. Purchase is not points.

I am surprised there was nobody there..the RULE is 60 minutes.

While it is fine to recommend more, if AA states it is 60 they should staff the counter until 60....

brodielayne

Was online check-in not available?

llbad

Hey all. I did not expect such a response. Sorry in advance for any typos, I am on my phone. To answer some questions:

At the time of receiving correspondence back from AA, Hong Kong WAS listed on this list under the 210 minutes area (http://www.aa.com/i18n/travelInforma...e=arrivaltimes). It seems that this is no longer the case.... Possibly as a result of my complaint, since they escalated it 3 or 4 levels.

I did NOT receive compensation, and they were very clear that I would not be due to not following the arrival time rule.

I could not check in online because my phone was dead and I didn't have service. Definitely will be making online check in a priority in the future though...

Here's a more articulate breakdown of the pdx thing:
-I flew from ord to pdx and had a 3 day stopover to visit people. Left my work laptop and work carry-on there.
-Flew one way emirates to asia
-was expecting to fly back into pdx, pick up my belongings, and continue back to ORD.
-when aa made me reschedule, there were no other flights back to pdx until the middle of the work week. So I had to go directly back to ORD instead
-it's not AAs fault I left my stuff in pdx, but the situation did end up costing me money because of their fault (IMO).

I also wanted too note that I was not the only person 'late' by their standards for this flight. There was another woman who came at the same time as me who was equally shocked that she had to reschedule. There was also a handicap person who they DID push through security and let board.

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. With no checked baggage and first class, and no visible security line, it should have been a breeze. I suspect they might have given away my seat or something.

corncob

So how exactly did your ticket have you getting back to PDX? Through DFW?

AAerSTL

The AA operation at HKG is contracted to SATS, formerly a unit of Singapore Airlines/SQ with a supervising CK rep and management personnel. I've flown AA to HKG about a half dozen times and generally the staff is good.