Flying CX, 19 hour layover, baggage rules?
 

Thank you for your help.

I am flying on CX, JFK-HKG-DPS, I have 19 and 20 hour layover each way. I am planning to stay in a hotel over night each time.

Question: Do I need to collect my check-in luggage in Hong Kong or will Cathay hold on to it and put it on my next flight. As you probably understand, I'd rather just have my carry-on with me for 1 night in HKG and not worry about collecting and rechecking my luggage.

Thank you!

Best,

PedroNY

It depends. There shouldn't be a problem to check your bags all the way through to your final destination if it's all on one ticket. I have done KUL-HKG-CTS a few times, which requires an overnight in HKG as the only CTS flight leaves HKG at 9ish am, way before any KUL-HKG flights arrive. The agent at KUL had offered to check my bags all the way to CTS but I preferred to have access to them during my layover.

As a rule, baggage's can be checked through for connecting flights which are less than 24hours from arrival time in HK to departure time of your next flight. So in your case, there should be no problem. Just show both your ticket at the check-in gate in case its not a single ticket.

I was on a circle pacific ticket back in July where in between my last two sectors I had to overnight in SIN on a QF-CX connection as a result of the QF A380 flight arriving into SIN late in the evening. As a result had to overnight at the transit hotel before catching the CX flight the next day. No problem. QF tagged my luggage all the way to HKG and I didn't need to retrieve it in SIN. If QF can do this on a long different day QF-CX connection, I don't see why it should be a problem on a long different day CX-CX connection at their own hub.
I rarely make flight connections in HKG since whenever I fly there it is mostly my final destination, but OP should be fine.

I've done this precise route several times, and it is never a problem. Personally, I suggest the W Hotel in Kowloon, as you can take the train from HKG to Kowloon Station, to which the W is attached. So no need to step outside. 76th floor swimming pool is a real treat. Enjoy Bali.

Thank you for all of your responses! It will certainly make it easier with just my carry one.

Cheers,

PedroNY

The rules for connecting baggage vary by airport as well as airline; so it isn't entirely under CX's control. Luckily the new HKG airport was well designed and built with this in mind, and has excellent baggage sorting facilities including automated storage for connections (few other airports do). Hence the 24 hour rule applies to CX connections in HKG -- very convenient. SIN can too, but NRT, LHR and LAX cannot, for example. I've chosen to route via HKG instead of NRT precisely because of this factor for some trips (even going to the extent of requiring people to fly NRT-HKG-NRT to meet with me as I did not go via NRT). So a strategy that pays off for HKG and CX in attracting more business by providing this service.

HK Airport: CityGate Outlet Mall & Novotel Hotel - 5 minutes away
 

Another option for a short stay in HK without going into "real" downtown Kowloon or Hong Kong Island is to stay on Lantau Island itself, where HKIA is located - at the nearby CityGate Outlet Mall with an excellent indoor food court with international selection of good foods. The Novotel CityGate Hotel attached to the mall is a 5 minutes drive away from the airport or 10 minutes via MTR Subway Train (not the Airport Express Train) - 5 minutes walk inside the airport to the subway train and 5 minutes ride. Banking services, including ATM, 7-11 stores, pharmacies are either inside the mall, on street level/next to the MTR Subway & Bus Terminal, or across the street at the hi-rise residential building towers.

You will be able to shower, sleep & adjust to timezone changes, and still find time to check out outlet-priced Polo and Nike, etc. after sampling various eateries at the food court or just hang out at the local Starbuck or McDonalds.

Good to know HKG can handle long transit luggage. I am wondering if HND can handle the same? I am planning a trip from JFK - HND - HKG - SIN, with AA flight from JFK then connect to CX. Transit time in HND would be around 18 hours and then transit time in HKG would be 22 hours. Thinking about checking through the luggage all the way through to SIN at JFK. That way we can enjoy our short stay at both cities without burden of luggage. Is that possible? We are trying on F/J class all the way

Sorry to resurrect this thread again. I am leaving in about 2 weeks. I called Cathay to confirm this, and I received a weird response of "10 hour" rule about connections. Did something change, or did the customer service rep just does not know about 24 rule? I just dont' want the hassel of checking my bag out an back in if we are in HKG only for 20 hours. Thank you for your help.

Best,

PedroNY

I doubt that HND can handle it (remember that it was domestic airport originally and not designed for international transits!), but you can try. However, HKG definitely cannot handle it as you would need to check-in for the HKG-SIN flight more than 48 hours in advance ... so there are not 1 but 2 iterations of that same flight number. Don't think any airline can handle check-in more than 1 day ahead.

Is this on separate tickets? The rules are different for transit on a single ticket (which is what this thread has been discussing). No idea if it has changed with 10 hour replacing 24 hour rule, but lots of other airlines have been doing that in the past year. So CX may have changed recently. Perhaps someone has done a long transit in the past month and can comment. Worst case you can store baggage landside at the airport, so it won't be catastrophic.

It is all on the same ticket. I will just deal with it at the JFK airport and if necessary at HKG airport. I apprecieate your email response, maybe something changed in last 8 months with Cathay and they shrunk that window from 24 to 10 hours, or CSR didn't know the real answer.

Best,

PedroNY

So, just to double check,.... I'm flying BKK-HKG-JFK in F. First flight arrives HKG 2235, then I depart the next morning at 0920. Can I check through from BKK and not claim or touch my bag in HKG?

an update
 

Just an update, I worried for no reason at all. At JFK we had British Airways (Cathay is at their counter) check us in and they asked us if we wanted our bags to arive directly to our final destination. They tagged them with DPS (Bali) tags and we saw them come off in the Bali airport from the bag line. 20 hour lay over in HKG went off without a hitch.

Cheers,

PedroNY

Thanks for the confirmation that HKG and CX still handle up to 24 hours for connections with aplomb. Getting to be increasingly rare these days, and a big benefit for CX pax.