The Wing access question
 

Hello,

I'm traveling LAX-HKG in First Class, have stopover for 3 days than continue HKG-ICN in Business(No First class). Do I have access to The Wing lounge before HKG-ICN flight?

Thank you.

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The business section, yes.

But not the first class, correct?

Correct, you get access to the fare class you're traveling to, not from. So J section Wing (or any other J lounges)

If it was a transit, you would have been allowed.

You do get the first class lounge in LAX though.

Which one? Qantas First class lounge?

You would have gotten access to the First Class part of The Wing if you were in transit. I don't know at what point you would not be able to access the First Class part of The Wing with your with your LAX-HKG First Class boarding pass.

At LAX, the lounge should be the Oneworld Business Lounge in TBIT.

in transit on a CX ticket is defined as <24 hours, unless for the rare instances whereby a certain flight isn't daily and CX permitted the routing.

Practically speaking, my suspicion is the lounge agents might not be so strict, and allow it until the end of day arrival +1. Even though technically the Cx cutoff at HKIA is 24 hours for "transit" before it's called a "stopover" (ie, 9am arrival on Arrival Day, technically it's a transit if your departing flight is by 8:59am on Arrival Day +1. But methinks you'd have a good shot at getting into the F lounge any time during Arrival Day +1 even though technically a "stopover" at that point)

In the OP's case, his 3 days is well beyond the definition of transit and his inbound BP will not be honored for access to the F side of The Wing for his departing flight in J.

I see. Thanks for clearing things up. I guess I'll keep this in mind for CX award flights.

My plan is to arrive from CX 881 in F at 7:40am, go to The Wing for a shower and breakfast, exit the airport and take the train into Hong Kong. After playing tourist for the day, take the train back to HKIA, have dinner in The Wing, maybe another shower, and depart on CX 611 at 8:10pm in J. According to what you say, I am considered in transit and can use the Wing upon my return to the airport, right?

The Wing is on the airside of HKIA, you technically can't spend some time in the Wing after getting off CX881 if you intend to visit the city. But there is a way to reenter the city from the departure side of the airport. You could tell the lounge agent that you would like to go back to the city, and they will take you through a series of backdoors to be back on landside. I never tried, nor do I intend to in the future so can't comment on how much of a hassle this can be.

I'd use the arrivals lounge but I read it is a zoo and very crowded in the mornings with a wait for showers. I don't want to waste any of the time I have of the 12 hour Hong Kong stopover.

If this is true CX is breaking make security risks. The whole point of customs check is for a nation/place to know who entered and who left. If I entered to the departure side, HK knows I left, but if a CX agent let me back to landside, HK has no idea I've reentered. I really doubt CX will take down my name and passport info and report to customs.

Not to mention any good custom will realized I've tried to leave twice (upon returning), or will CX allow me back on departure side through a series of backdoors again? Sheesh.... whoever said this was possible, I really doubt it... if I'm HK government and realizes CX is doing this type of favorites to their elite fliers, I would be very angry....

No no no, HK does know you reentered the city so don't get me wrong. What I meant by "backdoor" is that the passenger will be taken to a place so that the immigration process for entering HK can be completed again, maybe there is a special passengway from airside that leads to the immigration hall of the arrival level.

One time I was trying to go to Mainland China through a border-crossing in Lok Ma Chau (northern outskirts of HK), only to find that my huixiangjing (direct translation: "go-home card") expired when I got to the Mainland Chinese immigration checkpoint. I was escorted to a special office through a passageway by the customs staff in order to allow me to get back into HK. There has got to be something similar at HKIA.