Thunderroad

My wife and I just received notifications that our CX873 SFO-HKG flight tonight has been delayed from 22:55 to 23:50. When I called CX to check on this, the CSR confirmed the delay but could not absolutely confirm that the flight won't be moved back up to the original time. She said she couldn't tell whether the inbound flight from HKG was delayed.

When I check flight status myself on the CX site, I see a delay for CX872 (like 873, the only 777-300ER between the two cities), with this information:

Depart: Fri 6 Dec
02:42
Actual

Arrival: Thu 5 Dec
22:20
Estimated

The normal schedule is:

Depart: Fri 6 Dec
00:55
HKG

Arrive: Thu 5 Dec
21:15
SFO

Any advice on how to deal with this? The delayed departure looks pretty definite. And we'd prefer to not get to the airport any earlier, particularly since we already build big cushions into our airport arrival plans in case of unexpected traffic, etc. But of course we don't want to risk missing the flight if it's somehow moved back up to its original time due to a plane swap or some other development, as unlikely as that seems.

Thanks for any advice.

MSPeconomist

I'd be inclined to allow somewhat less of a cushion, but still arrive early enough so that you still (barely) make the check in and/or bag drop normal cutoff times and can run to the gate if the departure is moved back to 22:55. Of course a lot depends on whether you're an elite with CX/oneworld, are in a premium cabin, have lounge access and know SFO well (including whether it tends to be crowded at this time on Thursday nights in winter).

You can use third party (free) websites to get additional flight status information. I prefer flightaware.com but some people here have other favorites.

Thunderroad

Thanks very much for this quick and useful reply. We are in a premium cabin, have lounge access, have precheck and know SFO well (though not how crowded it's likely to be tonight). So all of that should help.

Thanks too for the flightaware link. I'll check it out.

Thunderroad

So now I look at Flightaware, which confirms the late departure of 872 and predicts an 8:26 pm SFO arrival time (and a total flight time of less than 10 hours). The CX site, in contrast, predicts a 22:20 arrival time. Flightaware would seem to be more accurate, but I've flown HKG-SFO a number of times and can't recall a flight time of anything nearly as short as 10 hours. So color me confused.

CXFlyerBoy

why would you believe a 3rd party site over the airline.
CX872 today has a late departure almost 2 hours late. No tail winds however strong can make up the 2 hours

lixiaojuventus

I think one important question is whether CX's SFO counters will stay open past its regular hours. I know that in many outstations, CX's counter will still close at the original check-in cutoff time despite that the flight is known to be delayed for 1-2 hours.

Thunderroad

Why would I believe it? Because a very reliable member of the FT community referred me to the site and has been very helpful to me and many others over the years. In this particular instance, the site fell short of expectations.

Also, when it comes to matters such as this, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

In any event, writing from SFO, where 873 was indeed delayed. Some sort of lesson learned, and not a big deal in any event.

Thanks again to all who weighed in here.

freed0m

It is only one hour. What's the worth of your whole travel plan?

Weigh the risk and benefit of the one hour saved.

It should be an easy choice.