I went through yesterday as well, at the airport. Let me add to what I said previously and what others have said:

- The instructions on the machine that are displayed on the video screen clearly state that the proper thing to do is to insert the opened passport with the data page face down. They show an example of a passport's data page, highlight the OCR character block at the bottom, and show the passport being inserted into the machine with that section face down in order to be scanned. There is no doubt or ambiguity about these instructions.

- In addition to the above, the machine will also accept a scan of the Hong Kong Immigration issued barcode, if the passport is inserted closed with the barcode face down.

I was unable to get my data page to scan, trying several times on two machines, even though there is no visible damage to my OCR section and it's worked before. The Immigration officer came over and showed me how to scan the barcode. I asked about the data page method that was shown on the machine itself, and he said that either method was valid.

So, that now fully answers the question as far as I'm concerned: either method is valid, and the barcode method is probably more convenient and more reliable.

The E-channel is great, not sure why anyone would complain about it. Enrollment is easy, but there might be a line depending on when you arrive and go through immigration. But easily worth it. As previously noted, it's right after immigration, before you step through the sliding doors to the baggage carousels.

My barcode sticker is attached to the back of my passport. No more forms to fill out. Forget the order exactly, but step up to the first gate, scan the barcode, gate opens up, scan fingerprints at next gate, and you're through. All within 30 seconds...unless there are slow people who don't know what they're doing.

I enrolled through CX Marco Polo.

thanks for the update but what's the point in trying to scan the pages? :)

maybe it is possible that some passports can be scanned with the pages vs the barcode... but barcode is so easy... don't even have to open the passport lah!!

I agree... the e-channel is a godsend. with my passport due to expire and having to use the regular channel it added a lot of time.

The point of trying to use the page scan method is that it is the primary and only method the machine itself tells you to use. But once you find out that the barcode works as well, that's definitely the way to go.

Interesting...the first time i ever used it the machine showed instructions to scan the back of the passport with the barcode. I remember the paper instruction they gave us when we enrolled also showed to scan the barcode sticker. Since then that's all I ever did.

Maybe they changed the video instruction somewhere?

If one renews a passport before expiration date, can you use the bar code on the old one to go through echannel and then to enrollment office to get barcode on new passport? (I.e., your passport wouldn't show as expired even though it's been cancelled and replaced).

Some more questions/answers in this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...e-channel.html

HK E-channel
 

The e channel at the China Ferry terminal required me to scan the data page of my passport. The e channels at Luo Hu, Luo Ma Zhou, the airport and HK-Macau ferry terminal on HK island all accepted the barcode. Unfortunately the Hong Kan station has no e channel accessible to foreigners so you must wait amongst your fellow travelers (mostly mainlanders) to get processed by an immigration officer. Hopefully they'll fix this soon.

Best to mention that Hong Kan is Hung Hom (train station) in Kowloon.

Foreign passport holders with an eChannel sticker have no issues entering and departing via Terminal One at HKG airport.

Note (end of November) that when checking in at Terminal two, the eChannel readers do NOT support the reading of foreign passports with bar codes and exit must be completed with an immigration agent.

Given that from terminal two you will be taken by bus to terminal one, the walk might be useful if you have the time.

Happy wandering.

Fred

Just wanted to provide a quick update. No paper form to fill out, signed up despite it being only my second visit to Hong Kong ever. Used my UA 1K status card. I intentionally attempted to use my AA EXP card first, having not seen anyone post here or elsewhere that they had tried (not to say that nobody has tried) due to AA starting to fly to HKG this year, but my agent looked at the book and said the AA card was not currently accepted.

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Thanks for the update- should be going thru HKG next March and hope to sign up. Have MP Green :o thanks to a thread informing premium travelers to ask for a form to sign up with ^

Headed to HKG next week. Have AA EXP and UA Silver, so will try AA first and fall back to UA and report here on my luck.

Good luck ^

I ended up just showing my UA Silver card and signed up just fine. Only took about 5 mins.