Pier closed due to Sars
 

Temporary closure of The Pier and new opening hour of The Wing

[This message has been edited by Chiangi (edited 04-15-2003).]

This is the most depressing news so far in the history of the new HKIA. My most favorite place to relax has been taken away! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Sigh, just another sign of the times...

Do they still have the cabanas open? All that humidity and a virus can't be good.

The cabanas, at the Wing, are open. No cabanas at the Pier.

I was at the Wing's F section, all for myself. Very deserted. CX could even close this section and put all the customers to the business section.

As I understand it, viruses like cold& dry, and bacteria/fungi like hot & wet.

Maybe they should take different approach by allowing all customers to the F-section. It would be one small encouragement to fly on CX Biz at this difficult time.

As a paying F PAX, I would love that - lets crowd everyone in and make those few of us flying really mad.

Ummm - "crowd everyone" and "those few of us"? Is this like the restaurant that's so popular, nobody goes there anymore? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Right now, it sounds like they could put all of their F, J and Y pax in the Wing and you'd still have trouble finding a foursome for bridge.

This is indeed the case at the HKIA lounges now. Last week a colleague of mine was at the Pier and he had the lounge to himself.

While I do not have strong objections to CX closing down the Pier due to lack of passengers, the consolidation should prompt an improvement in service at the Wing.

On the brighter side, there certainly will not be an overcrowding at the Wing during the late night departure hours.

Seems like closing a lounge is among the easiest cost cuts for CX to make -- little effect on pax (inconvenient for someone making a connection both to and from a far-out gate, but otherwise not a problem), and some reduction in costs. Problem is, I would think, that the amount of money saved in this way is very very small compared to the overall hemmoraging at issue.

Putting all the pax in the First side of the Wing does sounds like an opportunity for further cost-saving if pax loads are truly as low everyone says... You know what they say about desperate times and desperate measures...

Crowd in the Pier? Last time I was there 4 weeks ago - only 4 pax's in the entire open seating area.

I did not see a big difference between the Pier and the Wing sections of the lounge.
Somehow you were suppose to feel better that you were in the First Class lounge. I was just as happy in the Wing.

Better the Wing, then nothing at all. It still beats 99.9% of the other lounges.

R&R

You have misunderstood. The Wing and The Pier are completely separate pairs of lounges at opposite ends of the airport. Each of them has two sections - one "first" and one "business".

And if you didn't see a big difference between the two parts of The WIng then you should have looked harder! (The First section has a full service restuarant and the Cabanas, and the Library.

Putting all the pax in the F section of the Wing may well have overcrowded the place. I went through the business class section on my way to the flight from Gate 2. There were some pax in the business class. The Wing's F section is not that large.

I think the point of having the Pier is its location -- close to all those gates far from the Wing esp. in the 40s-60s.

But since flights have been reduced significantly, CX may not be using those far from the Wing gates as often as they did.

I just took BKK-HKG in Y and HKG-JFK in J. I didn't see any changes in Y on that short haul.

For HKG-JFK in J, I did notice no hot towels (instead you get wet paper towels in plastic bags). Entree choices are not coming on a wagon. Either they take your order beforehand and bring it to you personally in a square dish that you see in most other carriers (not those large flat square dish CX uses). Accompaniments, condiments are not offered, though they were on the menu. They don't fit into those small plate apparently.

At YVR, for a stopover, coffee and tea was offered in the waiting lounge but nothing else. (I thought they used to have juice and pasteries.)

What's driving me nuts is that there are no pillows now. I've been flying coach for the last few weeks, because the planes are so empty that it's more comfortable (and cheaper) back there than in J (no F in most of the flights I've taken over the last month or so, except one from ICN to HKG that had the new biz class). But no pillow makes it hard to get a snooze in the 4-5 seats to myself.