If the priority is a shower, HKG offers free versions on your route from landing to departures, 24 hours a day - They're not going to be as good as a Cabana, but they do exist and I suspect aren't used that much:

https://www.hongkongairport.com/en/p...wer-facilities

Yes I walked by those shower facilities on arrival last week.
They are still in existence but are not fancy like any airline lounge showers. However if you really want a shower, it will do the job. You can take a shower in the facilities, and then exit immigration and custom in Hong Kong. I don't think those showers are in high demands.

I also want to note that locals here and in various Asian cities tend to take shower in the evening and before going to bed too.
I am the only one in my family, who takes shower in the morning.

Now everyone has their pictures taken at these departure and transit checkpoints. It is really no longer permissible for you to exit Hong Kong after going through these checkpoints. My sister had an irregular operation last time and was rebooked from EVA Air to CX, and the staff had to escort her to the immigration counter, explains her situation, and then the officer has to manually do something to uncheck her. Then she has to go through check-in with CX and go through the departure checkpoint again. She is a local HK resident too.

Carfield

I suppose we can divide the Arrivals Lounge customers into those who live in HK and therefore have the option of going home to shower before heading to the office (or indeed, going straight home), and those who are visiting HK and would rely on their hotel for a shower & breakfast, which for morning arrivals would only be possible if they could arrange a very early check-in (not something you'd like to chance) or book their hotel room from the previous day (expensive, natch).

FWIW, more often than not I'd visit the CX Arrivals Lounge to shower, grab breakfast and clear emails etc and then head straight into my first meeting of the day, then check into my hotel in the afternoon.

There are showers in the arrival area before immigration

Also not something I'd like to chance. At a Travelodge in the U.K. last year and a Frankfurt airport hotel pre-plague, I was told my prepaid booking had been cancelled because I had not arrived before a certain cut-off point, even though I had still arrived before the stated check-out time and the whole point of the booking was to get at least a little sleep before noon on the day in question. Outrageous practice in my view, but good to be aware of in such situations as regrettably it may be necessary to advise the hotel if booking for a night but planning to check in early in the following morning.

I used to stay in the MO in HK, and those guys always let me freshen up in their health club after early morning arrivals, and usually had my room (not booked for the previous night) prepared for me by the time I was done.

I had a non-CX flights Chinese airline delayed by 2, then 4, then 6 hours due to bad weather at the destination airport where the incoming aircraft was.
The long ,and possible cancellation, made my business trip useless. SO I cancelled the ticket at the transfer desk. I had to wait for an airline agent to take me to immigration to a special office, wait a long time to be interviewed by an immigration officier (I am HK permanent resident) who asped all types of question, spend quite some manual time to fill the forms, then gave the green light, The overall process took two hours. But I was fully reimbursed my nonrefundable ticket within days, no fee charges.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...l#post36531116

(I'll ask for the threads to be merged)

Has some airport, customs, immigrations, or CX policy changed recently? If so, which? I've done the Pier F and escort out to HK routine so many times I could do it in my sleep. They get a bit annoyed because they have to find someone going off duty and tell me to wait, and the escort has to come all the way to The Pier F to find me... but I've never had to wait more than 20 minutes, and it's a very short walk and ride down to the staff floor.

It's highly discouraged and borderline rude during peak time, but I've done it many'a time.

-Chris

In most if not all mainland airports there is a dedicated exit path from airside, whereby they will scan your BP and match the picture taken when you were coming airside and mark you as exited in the system. Your BP on the app will actually even reflect this. Takes 5 seconds and no questions asked. It is a little bit more complicated for international routes ofcourse, but the pathway is there also.

I use echannel (so I don't have any physical stamps that need to be cancelled), but the few times I've needed to re-enter China after clearing exit formalities (because of cancelled or significantly delayed flights), the procedure took MUCH longer than five minutes, and people that were on visas had to jump through even more hoops. I simply can't imagine anyone wanting to endure that drill on purpose.

For domestic flights, it's no big deal, as you point out, but that's not relevant to this discussion because HKIA doesn't have any domestic flights.

Well, as I understood from this and previous threads (and I may be wrong), the main issue is to get the pax downstairs. Do they staff hand you over to the immigration officer, or do they just leave you once you are in the pre immigration arrivals hall? Who should the pax contact if they are connecting to some airline that operates a flight once a day and the pax is airside a long time before departure?

The stamps I was talking about are the security check stamps (whether on paper BP or digital). and it's more about the discussion that we had earlier about the airport needing to know whether one is in the restricted area or not.

Let's assume you are not in the lounge. Then you have to go to the transfer counter dealing with multiple airlines to ask for an escort from that airline. That can take time to as there might be a waiting line at the transfer counter and time for the escort to be available. Then the escort takes you to a dedicated area with immigration offices taking care of "exceptional" cases. If you are lucky you immediately talk to an officer; otherwise you have to wait your turn. The officers tend to be suspectful and have to fill forms on their computer (even for HK passportholders or Permanent residents). Then you are lead to the HK side.

The easy way that you describe at Chinese airports or other airports are for domestic flights. Some airports are easier than others for international re-entry but not most Chinese airports for foreigners.

My personal experience on SFO-LIS-RAK on TP. The only TP lounge in LIS is in the Schengen area. I asked the airline staff, and I was told I could go through immigration to the Schengen area, use the lounge, and before boarding, go through immigration again to get back to non-Schengen departure. I ended up not doing it as I only had about an hour and I did not know how much time the two immigration lines would take. Sat at the gate instead fighting jet lag, but that’s totally doable.

LIS is totally possible, from non-Schengen arrival to the lounge in the Schengen area and then back to non-Schengen departure.

Also did it in TPE 3 months ago. My SEA-TPE JX flight landed early at 4:15am, went to the JX lounge in international departure to eat and shower, and then went to the front desk which called someone to escort me to arrival immigration. Hung around in Ximending, ate more, spent too much money on souvenirs, and went back to TPE and the JX lounge for another shower before boarding. I have flights booked to do it once again in a few weeks.