Missing a Cathay redemption flight
 

Hi All,

I've recently become a DM. I would like visit the Pier First lounge and base myself from there for the day to celebrate (I have not been yet).

I am looking to book a one way redemption ticket (using BA avios miles) for a cathay flight from HKG > TPE (evening flight) and then go to the airport in the morning and stay at the first pier lounge all day there. However I do not want to board the flight.

Will this be a problem?

I will add I will not do this regularly and secondly, i am booking the flight with BA avios points (not sure if that helps/makes a difference).

My final point is - please do not judge me, i know this is a sad thing to do/I have too much time on my hands...! However the airport is not far for me to visit and I have many BA points to use up.

Thanks

Welcome to FT & congrats on being a DM!

Definitely it is a problem & could also be a criminal offence

If anyone could find / post the previous discussion thread about this topic that'd be helpful for the OP

Going through immigration and security without the intention of boarding the flight is generally frowned upon, with criminal liability in some countries (e.g. Singapore).

You may also face questioning from both the airline and immigration in order to exit back out to landside.

Why not wait until you need to actually fly somewhere?

If you have too much time, why not do that AND pay Taipei a visit? You can always come back the next day after a whirlwind tour of Taipei.
Even better if you can get yourself to Haneda and do the JAL First Lounge as well.

seems like he just wanted to use the minium expense , and not even willing to pay the extra miles for the return ticket.

Welcome to FT.
Strange idea this. Here's the thread where, repeatedly, it is explained that at best this is selfish and at worse could cause you considerable problems with the airline and potentially immigration authorities.
HKG: Exiting the airport after going to the lounge - FlyerTalk Forums

This question regularly pops up in this forum.
Whilst you may be able to get away with it, I do not recommend doing so. You'll be better off going to TPE for a turnaround or overnight.

Realistically what are you going to tell the Airport police? Grandma broke the pinkie at home and you have to leave the airport?

THis has been answered in other threads.And I talk from personal experience having to cancel a departure with a very good reason.

Once you get in the departure area, there is no easy way to get back into the arrival level or Hong Kong.
You need to be escorted by an airline agent to a special immigration office where they will question you. Wait might be long and unpleasant.

Welcome to your new status - yes it is indeed a strange request, obviously you have had to travel a lot to achieve your DM status, why not just wait until your next flight and get to the airport earlier ? As BRUNOS mentioned, when you return thru immigration, they will ask questions for the reason why you are not taking the flight and may even ask to see if you have an onward flight from TPE, this will all be recorded for future reference as highlighted by other responses and may create problems later if you cancel flights after passing thru HK immigration. I have had legitimate reasons to cancel flights in the past and it took me about 45 minutes to be permitted to come back thru HK immigration.

Lastly, not sure what type of passport you are traveling on, maybe CX will require to see your return or onward ticket from TPE at checkin.... Just a thought.

This is actually a great point: Taiwan's NIA generally demands airlines ask people without an ARC or a Taiwan passport going to Taiwan on a one-way show proof of return travel.

Sure these days you can avoid that via checking in online, but CX agents are trained to customarily ask on itineraries ending in TPE.

The last time I checked in online for a HKG-TPE flight (this was the last sector of a ticket), I had to acknowledge that I did have an onward ticket before the OLCI could be completed. Of course, I actually did have an onward ticket (on EVA Air, so CX would not have had access to this booking, and I was not asked to enter any details).

This happened to me on an EVA Air flight from Paris to Taipei around 2017/18. Ground staff came to find me at the gate and, as I did not have evidence of such a ticket, asked me to sign a paper disclosure form acknowledging that if I was denied entrance to Taiwan I'd be liable for costs to the airline etc. The date next to the signature was printed with "19___" as the section to input the year, so perhaps those forms are fairly rarely used!

Yeah for OLCI they would just ask you to confirm and wouldn't ask for further details. However, if via counter desks a lot of the time you'll have to fish the actual ticket for them to see, which would be an added complication for the OP if his aim is just to spend time at TPF/The Deck and go back into HK later on.
It seems that within CX they can't seem to see it so a lot of the time when my (separate) tickets end in TPE and start in TPE for cost reasons, I'll have to bring out the CX itin for them to type something in.

This happened to me as well and I thought it was odd. I had a HKG-TPE one-way ticket and a separate TPE-HKG-XXX on the same day. At the HKG check-in counter, I asked to get all the boarding passes. The girl asked me for my other ticket and I said surely you can see all my tickets? She insisted no she can't, and I have to dig up the ticket and gave her the booking reference to load the second ticket. Seems like at HKG check-in, they can only see same day itineraries originating from HKG?