I also wonder how CX will charge other OW airlines for the use of the arrivals lounge. It is CX's choice to grant OW EM access to the lounge, what if QF/BA/AA don't want to pay for it? Unless they have already come to some agreement over it.

is there any mention of this arrivals lounge on the CX website ?

as far as I understand these benefits are paid for by the operating airlines which the members are flying, and not by the airlines of the FFP which the members are elite with. e.g. for an AA elite flying CX, if it's start from an outport where CX doesn't operate a lounge, it's CX who's paying for the lounge and not AA.

so when arriving HKG-LHR on CX, CX pays for its GO/DM members to get access to AA Arrivals lounge. if you're arriving say JFK-LHR on AA in Y, then you don't get access to the lounge as AA the operating airline doesn't pay for other OW elites to use the AA Arrivals lounge - similar as non-CX-Sapphire/Emerald won't get access on HKG-LHR with CX on Y.

This arrival lounge is probably available for passengers arriving on CX/KA (or perhaps some limited flights) only. If so, CX does not need to charge their partners for their OW EMs accessing the lounge.

I suspect that before deciding on who to allow into the Arrivals Lounge Cathay did research and determined that except for the people on Flyertalk, most other travelers do not bother with Arrivals Lounges. My professionals who travel generally do not get off a 15-hour flight and go directly to a meeting without first going to their hotel and taking a shower, etc. Thus, I assume the research Cathay did indicated that 29 seats and 8 showers were enough to keep up wioth the demand throughout the day.

As for the AA and BA Arrivals Lounges in LHR, they are most times almost empty, especially American's lounge.

As an OW Emerald (AA) and frequent F flyer on CX, I am not in tempted to waste my time going to the lounge.

The few times I've used the BA Arrivals Lounge, there definitely has been demand. The lounge where the breakfast was served was near capacity, and there was a queue for the showers.

T4 - and now T5 - absolutely. T1 was normally fairly quiet though.

The AA lounge at T3 was quiet on the couple of occasions I've used it. However the lack of a hot breakfast decreased it's appeal significantly.

Now if only you or the 21 subsequent Posters mentioned the airport I would be out of my misery.

HKIA, of course.:D:D:D

I think you are comparing apples to oranges, the LHR Lounges, if active, are active with mostly NY, BOS and DC and maybe MIA and ORD arriving passengers - as it is common for people to get off of a NY-LHR 6 hr flight and go to work. I don't think you will see much demand from pople getting off of a JFK-HKG flight going right to work, and the short hauls people will want to get out of the airport.

I think you'd be surprised, since many flights from Australia and US are now overnight flights arriving early morning, there are lots of people going straight to work. Including me.

And to be realistic, there are going to be people using it simply because they can, not because they particularly need to. The guy who gets to the airport 3 hours early to 'enjoy' the lounge, who snaps photos of every piece of food he is served on a plane, the seat, the bathroom, etc.. is probably going use the Arrivals lounge, even if he lives in HK.

I use arrivals lounges far more as a leisure traveller than I ever did as a business traveller - as noted, business people will often pay for (or have the status to get) early morning hotel check-ins. When it's my own money and I'm a bit more relaxed timewise then I'll use the arrivals lounge where available. It irritates me immensely that BA's arrivals lounges shut at 2pm since I often seem to have flights arriving around noon or 1pm. When I was in the T4 arrivals lounge a couple of weeks ago there were at least a dozen people still there as they cleared all the food away at about 1:30 and more coming in all the way up to 2pm. The closing time appears to mean "staff stop working time" so in practice, except as somewhere to sit and use the internet connectivity the lounge closes 30 minutes before the advertised time.

This is bullshlt, plain and simple, not allowing J passengers into the lounge. Maybe they should have built it big enough. :td:

Passengers who pay for F probably won't need to use the arrivals lounge in HKG anyways. Once they are off the plane, they would most likely be wisked off to their luxury hotel where they have already booked a room with the reservation starting from the previous night in a hotel limo (Rolls Royce if staying at Peninsula) while sipping on bottled water and enjoying their cold towel.

It is probably those few FTer type of people flying on F award tickets (or with OW Emerald status), and who take the Airport Express to their chain hotels (the kind that give "status" for frequent stay) that will actually be using the arrivals lounge.

There are those who actually live in HKG, and can go home straight away after their flight.