I am travelling to BKK from LHR with my other half on CX over Xmas, I am in business class and my other half is in economy. There seems lots of business class availability on the day we are travelling, but extremely restricted economy availability (In the appropriate fare class). We are thus looking at a 7 hour layover in HKG (the alternative being to wait for 3 days in HKG). The HKG-BKK flight gets us into BKK quite late on Xmas Eve and we would like to connect earlier if possible.

Do CX tend to allow PAX to standby for earlier connecting flights upon arrival in HKG? I know that BA tend not to allow this, and I assume that CX would have a similar policy but I thought it was worth checking. If it makes any difference I am a BA Gold (OW Emerald) with a fair amount of J travel history with CX (which I think they track even though I am not a Marco Polo club member).

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Yes I would have thought so - CX tends to be good about that sort of thing. I'd be surprised if they wouldn't let you on an earlier flight if they had a seat. You need to be sure what's going to happen to your bags though.

Does your other half's Xmas present from you include having your seat in J...?

Wow, that would be a nice present. Plus, given his Emerald status, OP has higher chances of being op-upped in case economy is overbooked.

Hmm I feel even more guilty now although to be fair I did try and upgrade her for the whole return journey but I was told I would need to buy a full fare single.

I hadn't really thought through the baggage issue, I guess that is a real consideration and I will need to take this into account.