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.

Interesting. I personally have never waited longer than 15 minutes for The Arrival showers, and in that case they're almost certainly faster than the somewhat frowned upon method you're discussing. I did read another fellow say he once waited for an hour, which is nuts. CX has gotta do something about that. Totally defeats the purpose of arrival showers.

Cathay Boy, I don't think it was explained clearly. Immigration will be properly cleared each time. Someone from CX or security personnel will escort the airside (departure) passenger to a side door and elevator, which brings the passenger downstairs to arrivals. Once downstairs on the arrivals level, that passenger will find himself in the flow of arriving passengers, and still must clear immigration before being allowed into HK. And, in order to return to the airside (departure) section, he/she will need to go back through exit immigration. In my experiences doing this, CX tries to ascertain your reason for leaving and the implication is this is not something to be abused.

Basically, what happens if your plans change after clearing immigration but before you board your flight? This is the method to exit the airport. I've done it once or twice myself (out of hundreds of departing flights from HKG), although I had personal issues arise unrelated to lounge hopping. So I have no doubt it's feasible, legal and available to be (ab)used in the manner susiesan mentions. I just hope it doesn't become prevalent because the proposed reason is not why this safety valve exists. I have also heard of more egregious abuses, guys who buy a J or F ticket, go airside, hang out in the lounge all day for free grub, and then cancel their ticket. The way they exit the airport is in the manner described.

The Arrival is usually quite empty. I used The Arrival about 30-40 times in early mornings, and there was only once there was a waitlist for shower. I would say you will spend 20-30 minutes more if you use the Wing.

ditto for me.

I'm with others on this... head for the arrivals lounge.

You'll save time not clearing security to get back to the Wing and you'll save time and bother to the staff asking them to escort you back out from the Wing to immigration.

You can also store your luggage at the arrivals lounge (which is more or less directly under the train to the city).

With a scheduled arrival of 7:40 am is the arrivals lounge very busy at this hour? I was using the info on this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...lways-zoo.html

Is there an easy place to see how many CX arrivals there are at any given time? How many shower stalls are in the arrivals? My husband and I can use the same one if it is crowded so as to speed up things. Are they big enough for 2 people to be in at the same time like the cabanas are?

The situation as in that link is quite unusual. I sometimes stayed for a while before entering the City. There were few people at 8am in my recollection. Of course, if you are really unlucky, you may have to wait. IMHO, the showers are for one person. There are about eight stalls (I think).

If you like to spend more time in the City, you may not be able to use the cabanas anyway. I seldom had to wait for the cabanas before Wing F remodeling, but with now... there was only one time I do not need to wait in the past year (and for that time, the person behind me was on waiting list already - I was ahead of him by about 10 seconds).

Er, no. You really need to educate yourself on the difference between customs, immigration (and emigration) and security.

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In practice, no problem

The problem is ur wait at the wing (showers/cabanas and wait for escort) may or may not be longer than the wait at arrivals.

After reading hundreds of posts I'm glad you finally found a chance to come after me with this one. Was it worth it?

I always find it fascinating that "F fliers" have so much time roaming around here going after another poster every chance he/she gets. Don't you guys have much better things to do, like run a company or something?

This is extraordinary service (escort) to provide. I'm not sure I'm glad CX provides it or not, I guess it's worth it for those that truly needs it....

Personally I have e-channel and I find HKIA very efficient that if I need to run into town for a couple of hours and back, I just use e-channel out (5 min.), go out, do my business, come back, and go through security and e-channel back in again (never more than 15 min. tops).

If you are frequent traveler to HK, e-channel is a MUST.

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Echannel was great today. Had time for a glass of bubbly, grab a paper and help out someone w/ a survey (about tourism to HKG) before my friend made it thru the traditional visitors line.

Echannel is a must, and it makes going in and out of HKIA very smooth. HKIA has a wonderful security line that are always well-manned and efficient (unlike USA Terminals where usually only 1 of 5 security lines are open, and horribly manned and the agents only stood there and yell at you with no assistance whatsoever.)

Can I use echannel as a one time thing? How do I sign up? Is it free?

If you are MPC Silver, Gold or Diamond you are qualify.

If you are not don't despair, if you have traveled to HK 3 times in any three month period you are qualified to apply for e-channel good for the year.

First time application used to be able to do it before customs, but now they moved the office behind the customs. So you need to do the paper.form first, passed the customs, go to the e-channel office (it's really just a cubicle), and hand them your passport and show them you qualify (either with MPC card or show them passport stamps that you are frequent traveler).

If there are no line in front of you it's fairly quick. But last time I did that there were 4 people in front of me, took awhile....

As Cathay Boy explained it's free if you are MPC Silver, Gold or Diamond, or if you travelled to HK 3 times in a year. However you need to sign up first which is done after going through immigrations in the Arrivals Hall, so to answer your other question, no you cannot use it for a one time entry.

For non status card holders, the requirement is three times in 12 months, not 3 months.

http://www.immd.gov.hk/eng/services/..._visitors.html

susiesan, what you're planning to do should be no problem. Arriving in F from the USA and then departing in J for Cambodia, I did this just a couple of months ago without any problem, though under slightly different circumstances. (Forgot to bring a photo with me for getting visa on arrival in Cambodia, so went through immigration and customs to get photos at a machine in the landside part of the airport.) The F lounge staff at the F entrance to the Wing seemed quite accustomed to helping out in this way. I left my bags in their office and got tags for them. I had to wait perhaps 10 minutes for a staff member to become available, but then he escorted me as far as immigration into HKG. So I was stamped out and then stamped back in just 20 minutes later, after getting the photos. So you'll be able to do the same after spending the day in HKG.

There was some question above about getting a cabana to shower in the Wing. I've done this several times with no wait or just a minimal wait (they give you one of those vibrating buzzer things to let you know, so you can wait wherever you want in the lounge) since the remodel of the Wing, though I guess waiting times can vary. But I believe there are also shower rooms in addition to the cabanas, so you can wash up even if the cabanas are full.

Can't comment on using the Wing versus the Arrivals Lounge, but doing this via the Wing is pretty easy and the Wing (especially in F) is a very nice lounge.

Hope it all works out!

Believe or not, HK immigration officer would not process it when my friend completed his third visit to HK in a year. He said, "Yes 3 times, so next time you can apply." Got up, and he headed out for washroom .....:confused:

Maybe they count "3 times" as 3 in-and-out times.... so technically your friend is 2.5 times (in, and not out) and not 3 times....

I'm not saying this is it, just trying to read his mind....

Umm, this makes sense. ^^^

Question with regards to the above. If I'm on CX 879 (SFO - HKG) in F which arrives at 7pm at night and then am departing the next day at 12pm on KA 900 in J (HKG - PEK) will I be able to access the F portion of The Wing since the transit will be less than 24 hours or because of the overnight will I be limited to the J lounges via KA J

I interpret that as though you'd be able to access the F part of The Wing. But I've never done it myself.

To be honest, I am not sure. I am a DM member so have access to the Wing F regardless. What I am certain about is that <24 hours is how CX denotes a "transit" (vs "stopover") for ticket purposes, and that CX does allow(certain? all?) transit passengers arriving on an F flight transfer to regional J access to the F side, regardless if the departing flight is another day.

Hopefully some other folks on here can chime in to make sure. I'm certain I've seen folks post about this identical issue before.

My first time registering for E-Channel, I didn't know you could get it with your FFP card, so I waited until the third (not the fourth) on that passport and was registered with no issues. With my new passports, I have been using my MPO card now.

Please stay on topic...

cxfan1960
CX CoMod