heckler

I'm on a NW flight going from Hong Kong to Tokyo. I understand that at Kowloon station in Hong Kong, you can check baggage (on the day of travel) throught to the airport.

Does anyone know exactly how this works? Do they then courier the bags from downtown and make sure they are checked in, tagged, and security checked?

Most importantly, it looked to me like it was only certain airlines which allowed "in town" check in, and for some reason NW didn't look like one of them... am i wrong??

Thanks!

miles4all

The in town check-in is for people taking the airport express train!
So if you take the train, you can just check-in at the station, at a check-in counter just like at the airport.
The just put your bag in the same train. Really no need to courier then to the airport with the train going there already.

number_6

This is a CX service. I believe it is only if you are flying CX to NRT, doubt you can use it if flying NW. Just take the bags with you on the train to the airport.

Pickles

??? The in-town check-in is inside the Airport Express train station, thus to get there, you have to have bought and used a ticket for the train. However, you don't have to take it, but you have to pay for it.

I don't know if NW participates (i.e. has a counter at the station), but many other airlines do. The only restriction is that if you are flying to the US non-stop, you have to check in at the airport. Thus, if you are going HKG-YVR-JFK in CX, you can still check in at the Airport Express station.

francophile

http://www.mtr.com.hk/eng/train/ae_intro.htm

Free In-town Check-in Service
To ensure that your journey gets off to a good start, a free In-town Check-in service is available for all major airlines at Hong Kong and Kowloon stations except:

Air Philippines
Angel Air
Continental Airlines
Continental Micronesia
Orient Thai
Pacific Airlines
Pakistan International
President Airlines
Turkish Airlines

With effective from 29 April 2003, passengers can check-in and collect their boarding passes from one day in advance to 100 minutes before take-off. (If you use the Octopus Card to ride on the Airport Express, fares are deducted when you check-in. But no more will be deducted when you board the train.)

The following airlines allow check-in one day prior to departure:

Aeroflot
Cathay Pacific Airways
China Airlines
Dragonair
Mandarin Airlines
Singapore Airlines*
South African Airlines
Swiss International Air Line
Thai Airways International PCL
United Airlines**
Vietnam Airlines

Service hours: 5:30am -11:00pm (The exact close-out time for individual airlines is subject to the flight schedule.)

* Due to the Security Policy, the In-town Check-in service of Singapore Airlines for flights flying to United States will be suspended temporarily.

** United Airlines only provides same day In-town Check-in service. The service hours are from 5:30am to 6:30pm.

More details, please contact respective airlines.

number_6

Sorry for my mistake, I really thought it was a CX only service. All the signs and staff uniforms that I saw were for CX, and I didn't research it (just happened to see it on my way to the airport, and checked my carry-on on a whim, fully confident that CX will unload it within 5 minutes of landing (something that they have managed every time, at every airport, so far -- quite impressive, however they do this).

Yukonprince

Thanks everyone!!!!!

LongingForORD

Sorry to disagree, but I have checked in and gotten boarding passes on both UA and SQ for HKG-SFO flights. Gotten off the train and gone straight to security.

rkkwan

Check the date of this thread. That information was correct 5 years ago.

LongingForORD

Sure did not see that

The response was yesterday and that is what I saw, guess I did not look too carefully.

Also, I am only talking about the Airport Express station.

gleff

Since the information in this thread is a bit out of date, I'll go ahead and close it.

Gary
aka gleff
Senior moderator