You are. Didn't you say you were from California? That is in the US, right?

Oh is that some attempt at humor? :confused:

There are real 3rd world countries who might not be amused.

I think the people that would not be amused are those who live in a 3rd world country but think it is the 1st world.

As for your luggage, don't worry, it will make the plane safe and sound, and all in one piece, they'll even tag it priority if you are eligible. I'd be more worried about the short ride from the plane to the customs area upon arrival in the US. Then, all bets are off on how long it will take to arrive. It might even get lost in that short interval. Hope you don't have a tight connection after your first port of entry into the US.

Owned by someone who agonises for hours about whether to save US$6 by taking the MTR cross-harbour vs a taxi?

Thousands of people checkin every day at the Airport Express stations - it works fine.

So much drama here. Over the last few days, this forum has been even better than that Korean soap opera about the cook in the palace! But nothing is going to replace that theme song. :(

Minimum recharge is HK50 and then in HK50 increments (Or well, that is what I was told last time!)

No credit cards can be used for recharging the card (or buying an Octopus card) that I am aware of.

Well I made it back from HK.

Got 56.9 HKD back at the airport for my card.

BTW, I bought it on Monday morning/afternoon and used the MTR all the way through Thursday. Didn't deduct anything for any of the MTR rides.

The only things it deducted for was the 15 line bus ride down from the peak and a couple of ferry rides. I didn't want to use up the 20 HKD credit right away so I paid cash for the peak tram up.

I agree that you definitely ought to get out more, and find out how well things are done outside the US. ;)

Well I did check my bag at Kowloon station and it did show up at SFO but I had my doubts. NWA didn't give me a lot of confidence because of the way they messed up the outbound flight.

Took a long time for the bag to come out at SFO. They must have trucked it to HKG separately.

What happens when there's a lot of traffic on the roads?

I don't understand your logic... the luggage that is checked in in-town goes to the airport on the train (look for the windowless carriage at the end.

It was a very quick stop so I didn't think they had time to load luggage.

Then again, it was so early there probably wasn't that much luggage to load.

You need to recharge using cash or a HK debit card (rare). Credit cards are not accepted. 7/11 also does recharges, but again, they do it in HK50 increments - in cash.

ride from/to airport
 

I find the AE is overprice and very inefficient. One time I have to go to Excelsor Hotel and took me also 2 hours because of the bus transfer at the Central Station. It I took the regular airport bus A22, it will cost HK$40 and only took 50 minutes.
The best way still the A or E airport buses, it is more convenient to hotels and much cheaper. Go to CitiBus or Kowloon bus site for detail charges... it runs every 15 or 20 minutes. the Night bus runs at night midnight to 6 am and is a little more expensive.

As for taxi, the lowest price I pay is HK$180 ($200 with tips) including luggage and toll charges from TST. PM me if you need cabbie telephone numbers.

There is no guarantee that your luggage will be on your train that you catch. As long as it gets to the airport on onto your plane then they have done their job.

Also, it doesn't take very long to load luggage on and off trains. I regularly saw this on the Heathrow Express when it was still possible to check-in baggage at Paddington: The train would stop at the first station, for Terminals 1, 2 and 3, and within 60 seconds all the baggage bound for those terminals would be off the train. After another minute or so, the train would then move off for the next station at Terminal 4.