cmiller11101

I landed in HKG this morning at 6:30am from LAX to discover that all CX lounges are closed. Digging through my email turned up the message attached to this post which I had missed about the flight to which I was connecting. CX sent this out last minute before departure even though the lounge has been closed for several days.



It's getting harder and harder to be loyal to CX. Thinking about jumping ship as the ship seems to be sinking.

On top of that: I went to the Plaza Premium First lounge near gate 5, but it was closed... the sign said to go to gate 35... I walked over to gate 35 and it said it was closed, to go instead to gate 5. All restaurants closed otherwise, at least at 7am when I was looking for something to eat.

However, I do hope the lounge staff stay safe and that whom got sick recovers quickly.

-Chris

carrotjuice

I suppose their lounge staff being tested COVID positive, and resultantly The Wing F closure to comply with the deep cleaning directive, was not something planned by CX.

So was there nowhere that you can purchase HK$300 worth of edibles and claim back from CX? I can think of lots of HK confectionery from the various airport shops that will make my family's day!

cmiller11101

Yeah, of course it can't be planned by them... but if they close a facility to clean it, why not open one of the other lounges? There are many. Lol. And I mean, how many days does it take to clean a lounge? It's been closed for several days. Anyway, just a total bummer no other arrangements were made by CX for the admittedly minuscule though very important number of transit passengers.

-Chris

garykung

You are welcome to do whatever you want. But the bottom line is there is not much difference elsewhere.

patrickw

It's longer than a day or two because they need green light from the government to reopen to my understanding. But exactly because it won't take so many days, by the time they can prepare to open another lounge after that was closed for a year, the Wing is probably ready again.

Not to mention many of the lounge staff are sent to quarantine as a close contact to the case anyway.

I agree they should do something instead of just asking transit passengers to submit a claim afterwards though, at least distributing the voucher on arrival or something.

mpoflyer

Just saw it on Cathay's website

Both The Wing F and The Wing J are now open, with the former welcoming passengers departing directly from HK while the latter welcoming passengers transiting through HK. Probably a new measure after the lounge staff got infected by transiting passengers earlier last week.

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...rm=CLUB-NOTICE

sbs2716g

still wont solve the issue? The staff can still be infected by transit paxes?

sxc

And I assume there's still no separation of passengers in the rest of the airport?

PacificSunrise

At least CX makes an effort to help with a difficult situation. COVID is not an easy environment for airlines to operate in, especially in a zero-COVID targeted market like HK. Opening another lounge for a few days has many other implications from operations perspective.

Even if it were cost cutting, if you like/love CX like many of us do on this forum, you would want to see it survive and not jump ship because of something like this. Been seeing worse things from other so called "five-star airlines" recently.

Sorry for your inconveniences.

brunos

That transit pax do not require a PCR test before boarding (unless required by their final destination) has been a loophole forever.
How the government can allow them to mix with HK-departing pax and staff (or other tested pax) in the lounge and elsewhere is a mystery.
Sure, a test before departure is not full-proof. But allowing such an obvious loophole for a covid-obsessed government is weird.

bpe

That's always going to be a risk unless they somehow make the entire airside unstaffed.

It's about minimizing risk in reasonable ways, not eliminating it completely.

sxc

Yes I agree - but as you say since there are no other measures taken, this lounge separation measure seems more like smoke and mirrors rather than improving things. Transit passengers are still going to be mixing with staff who go home every night.

At least CX has now said that if you are a contractor or employee in a public facing role then you must get vaccinated by 1 December. I thought the HK Airport Authority had already required this.

SilverChris

Realistically, the vast majority of transit pax would have negative tests anyway. I can’t think of any destinations from HKG which don’t require it. I don’t believe this “loophole” is as big a deal as it’s made out to be.

The unfortunate fact is a pre-departure negative test doesn’t mean someone won’t become infections in the hours/days that follow, especially since there’s a 72 hour window before departure.

The only way to eliminate the risk would be to ban transit pax entirely. Even that doesn’t stop HKG-bound pax from coming into contact with ground staff.

jja34-1

Are the showers in the lounge currently open to transit pax ? Have a long layover on the way to Australia soon.

allset2travel

The question remains, "Why not open one other lounge in the meantime?"