Shouldn’t be an issue, as long as there’s no need for BA checkin staff to sight your passport or anything else… last time I flew out from HKG was on QF128 with a 7.30pm departure, and I used the smartphone boarding pass to enter the airport around noon.

https://www.mtr.com.hk/archive/corpo...R-24-008-E.pdf

Starting from February 1, in-town check-in service in Hong Kong station will be extended to 11pm and some kiosks and self bag-drop counters are added. But the service remains exclusive to Cathay Pacific passengers and the service in Kowloon station is still suspended.

Not sure if this has been discussed already but in-town check in is transitioning to becoming fully self service, at least for economy class for now. Not the easiest to use, especially for older passengers! Perhaps this is a way to discourage people from using in-town check in except for frequent fliers.

Many airlines in the world have already fully automated check-in. It is quite easy and they have staff around to assist. They keep manned counters for special cases, but lines can be long.
This the trend of the future.

Wonder how docs checks for a non-homogenous passenger population figure in this, esp if physical visas, different doc names and different departure/arrival docs are involved.

On the contrary,
Starting on 1 February, we will be launching full self-service check-in and bag drop at Hong Kong Station to provide a more efficient and seamless in-town bag drop experience. The self-service facilities are available daily with extended service hours from 6am to 11pm. Note: the facilities at Kowloon station will remain suspended until further notice.

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...departure.html

Many years ago when I was a solo traveller, I would print my own boarding passes at home for HKG. Obviously my docs haven't been checked at that point. They would check the passport/visa at the boarding gate.

That would mean disabling Flight Token. AK does what you described now, but, they have way fewer flights than CX leaving HKG.

You'll obviously have to keep quite a few desks, especially with HKG's catchment area.

The 'fully self-service' check-in machines are in use already. Last week my friend and I used it at Hong Kong Station. There are (of course...) staff there to help but with a technologically-able generation, staff are being utilised in better ways. There were still desks there so that more advanced queries could be addressed. If anything, there were plenty of extra staff on hand to help.

I'm yet to test out visa checks on the self-service machines. However, a few months ago I was travelling with some people who had an e-Visa to SGN. The passengers were checked in after having inputted their visa info at online check in.

If the issuing country facilitates airlines to do online verifications, they could work.

I can think of the following exceptions:
i) not all destination countries allow online verification of visas/entry documents by airlines
ii) name discrepancies (eg Jane Doe HKID Jane Doe Smith ticket/passport)
iii) separate ticket connection cases
iv) no return ticket on PNR (where destination countries requires possession of return ticket)

The machines have to work, of course. The missus keeps telling me of a colleague who can’t check in at ICN with OZ where the machine check in failed and there was no staff to to check the colleague in.

Basically, you can automate so much as you’re a citizen of origin with a with relatively relaxed destination visa requirements (or good online visa verification like AU) and travelling on return ticket, or destination citizen going home. Anything more and you’re likely to end up at desk.

P.S. v) Everyone with a US-style middle name - to the desk please!

Also the machines have stated exceptions now:
vi) children
vii) BNO holders
viii) non-chip passport holders https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/s/Cjvt9WqIPT (I can’t find my photo of the CX HKG sign I took over Christmas, sorry)

My bad!

I just read ‘full’, didn’t get to the ‘self’, and thought ..ok, going back to the old days…

though ‘full service’ and ‘self’ are perhaps…contradictory :D
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My experience this morning at HK station is that there is NO conventional counter opened, only self check-in and bag drop counter are available.
There is one staff sitting in one counter at the far end but it is not an open counter, guess it is for case need special handling.
Basically, there is no choice to choose between conventional counter and self check-in, the queueing system only guide you to the self check-in machine and there is no First/ Business priority check-in arrangement too. All people go in one line for the self check-in machine then bag drop.

That is a massive downgrade! However, it looks similar to the new setup at TPE in-town check-in, where all airlines have opted for automatic bag drop. Not a single airline personnel was seen when I went there in November 2023.

I've just done the same this morn. Two AUS passports, one HKSAR passport, three e-Visas. Keyed in the visa (less the "/EV" in the end, the OLCI will not accept that input) in online check-in.
Asked to go to desk for BP (...) - did your pax get online BP?