Emirates and Onepass...
 

With the recent announcement of AS being separated as a Onepass partner... and Onepass realigning to fit with Star Alliance and such. Will Emirates manage to stay as a partner? I was thinking about getting a ticket between HKG-BKK-HKG, for November on Emirates. They seem to be the only Onepass partners operating that route right now... :p

Oh, also does anyone know if you need a Chinese visa to enter/spend a few days in Hong Kong? or is there some form of waiver?

Any ticket issued will be honored, even if the operating carrier isn't a current partner at the time of travel.

That being said, I see no reason why the EK partnership is at risk. There is no *A program that is based in the Middle East that such a continued partnership would be at odds with, unlike the overlap between UA and AS.

If you are carrying a US passport you do not need to apply for a visa to visit Hong Kong or Macau; you are stamped in on arrival. Other countries' citizens may have different requirements.

No visa needed for Hong Kong in most cases (90 day visa free stay period for US passport holder)
http://www.immd.gov.hk/ehtml/hkvisas_4.htm

I would both imagine and hope so.

Looking at trying them out if I end up heading to LOS this winter. Keep hearing about their great service/modern fleet.

Ok, nice to know, that no visa is required for Hong Kong... just out of curiousity, how do they control someone without a visa entering mainland China? Not that I would ever do that, but just wondering. :)

Guns

LOL...nice...

There are borders. With walls and fences and guards and all sorts of other things in the way. Just like at controlled borders in the rest of the world.

lol thanks... I guess my question was kind of dumb... I just figured since it's technically a Chinese territory there wouldn't be any borders and such. Just like the US doesn't have any, say, for Puerto Rico or Guam for that matter... anyway I was just curious...

Hong Kong, Macau and China each has its own border control for arrival and departure. And you'll get a stamp on your passport each time you go through any of them. Going back and forth HK and Macau a few times (no visa needed for US citizens to visit Macau either) and you can make an appointment at the US Consulate in HK to add some pages to your passport... :p

Actually, when you leave Guam for the mainland you have to go through customs and immigration. I never understood why immigration, customs makes sense since as a territory with no voting congressman or senator, they have some tax exempt products.

There was another thread on this topic rather recently. If you're looking for a OnePass reward ticket on HKG-BKK on Emirates, this is not possible. Emirates is not a valid airline for the Intra-Asia award series. You can still redeem for award tickets on Northwest or Korean (not sure if NW flies this nonstop) through October 24th, 2009 for travel through October 24th, 2010. And hopefully at some point not too far beyond the 24th you'll be able to redeem for award travel on Thai Airways.