kalkadan

Hi - we arrive:
02MAY08 at 2145 SINGAPORE CHANGI
TERMINAL 1 on BA0016 from Sydney
We depart:
03MAY08 SINGAPORE CHANGI
TERMINAL 1 at 0830 on Cathay
We want to stay in the Transit Hotel but are concerned about getting our checked-in luggage from the BA flight on to the Cathay flight next morning.

We noticed the advice on the Changi website:

"Please do not clear Immigration and Customs as Ambassador Transit Hotels are situated on level 3 within the Departure Transit Lounge.
Note: Luggage claim is after Immigration."

Seemed to be a bit of a Catch 22, so sent an email to the Transit Hotel. Having a bit of difficulty understanding the reply and would appreciate any comments/advice:
"Please be in informed that you do not clear immigration / customs after
arrival of aircraft or in between stay
We suggest you to use a hand-carry luggage for clothings to change and
leave your unclaimed/checked in luggage kept with the Airlines at the Nite
Stop counter located down Arrival Hall.
After stay, you can however, check in your luggage, collect onwards
boarding pass at the nearest transfer counter desk in Terminal One at about
2 hours before flight depart"

So we should leave our baggage "unclaimed"? or do we make some arrangement with the "Nite Stop counter"?

many thanks for any suggestions - we really don't want to have to go into town for the night if we can avoid it.

LarryU

Other travelers have reported good results retrieving luggage from the "lost and found" area of baggage claim after spending the night at the transit hotel. I'll be putting this to the test when I fly from KUL to SIN on Air Asia on 4/15 and then depart on a UA flight to HKG on 4/16. I'll let you know how well things go.

kalkadan

Larry - you are a pal ! We would really appreciate hearing about your experience of the system after you head off to HKG on 4/16.
I can hang off until then making any decisions about hotels for our stopover in SIN from about 2200 to 0630 the next day.
One thing: I spoke to the Qantas Frequent Flyer office today and they told me that they did not know what would happen if I tried this - said that Qantas and some other airlines held onto luggage for only 8 hours. What happened to it after that she could not explain - suppose it goes to some great lost baggage carousel in the sky.
Anyway, many thanks for your offer to experiment and advise.
Dan
Brisbane, Australia

Kismaibat

Hi Larry,
Air Asia is a point to point carrier and if my memory serves me correctly, since they are a budget carrier with no interline-ticketing and baggage agreement with the major airlines- they will not interline thru or facilitate any transfer of baggage.
In other words, you fly to SIN on Air Asia.The bag is tagged to SIN,you will need to collect your bags and check it in physically at the counters.
If you try to check in your bags with the major airline at the counters and show them your Air Asia tags, you may not be able to get it transferred since they have no interline agreement with a budget carrier like Air Asia.
Air Asia by the way is at Terminal 1 and UA now flies out Terminal 3. So my strong advice is to clarify again with the relevant sources, ie.Air Asia, UA and the lost and found counters when you arrive.
Don't mean to make you worried but at least it gives you some time to consider some options before you find out at the last minute and go thru the hassle later on.

Cheers!

Kismaibat

Hi Dan,
I know this from personal experience and this is a fact-
Do not worry about your bags going missing if you do not claim them from the arrival carousel, if you choose not to clear immigration and customs.
The bags will be held by the Lost and Found department of the respective carriers' handling agent.
There are 3 at Changi Airport- SATS,CIAS and Swissport.
Good news ( it doesn't matter actually) the airlines that you are using are both handled by SATS so transferring them will be a breeze later on.
Here is what I recommend you to do-
Bring along somethings to tide you over till the next morning-
fresh change of clothes, toiletries( think I spelt that wrong)
etc.. whatever you need for an overnight stay.
Both BA and CX depart from the same terminal ( Terminal 1 ) by the way.
When you check in at the trasnfer desks about 2 1/2 to 2 hours before departure, show them your luggage tags and they will send a message to the luggage boys to transfer accordingly.
Before you depart on BA, please check with the check-in staff if they are able to tag the bag thru to your next flight on CX.
If they are unable to, then no worries, the bag can still be tagged to SIN, and they will simply retag it when you arrive.

The only worry I should foresee here is that you if you plan to start on BA from LHR then I worry a little bit about your luggage since T5 is still having some problems.
Other that as they say Down Under... no worries mate!

Cheers!

kalkadan

Kismaibat - I will kiss your bat anytime you like! Thanks for the advice. Really appreciated.
Don't expect we will have trouble with T5 at Heathrow - this is our itinerary after leaving Hong Kong - not sure I've been to terminal 3 - flew in last year with Malayasian and cleared customs and immigration in the blink of an eye - never been to Nice however:

CATHAY PACIFIC CX0257 BUSINESS CLASS (U) CONFIRMED
DEPART 05MAY08 HONG KONG 0945
ARRIVE 05MAY08 LONDON LHR 1600
DEPARTS FROM:TERMINAL 1
ARRIVES AT: TERMINAL 3
-----------------------------------------------------------------
BRITISH AIRWAYS BA0344 BUSINESS CLASS (U) CONFIRMED
DEPART 08MAY08 LONDON LHR 1140
ARRIVE 08MAY08 NICE 1440
DEPARTS FROM:TERMINAL 1
ARRIVES AT: TERMINAL 1

Kismaibat

Wow... really envy you...
Have a great trip...
cheers

opushomes

Please be aware I'm of one of LarryU's many people who told him. Maybe the only one. Yes, you retrieve your bag in the baggage area. Do not exit the controlled area, instead stand with your back to the exit and you will see where the "lost bags" are kept. Just go in the office and ask for your bag. "Lost and Found" terminology will get you in trouble as you will be directed out of the secure area. Someone will probably let you back in, they did when I used that terminology.

LarryU

In my case, interlining baggage is not an issue because I typically do not check bags at all, unless I am compelled to do so with no other options. So, my intention would be to retrieve the bags from lost and found and then carry them on to my subsequent UA flights. This past winter, my unwillingness to check bags has saved two separate SIN trips that were beginning to unravel due to UA's myriad flight cancelations.

LarryU

Although I have every confidence that I would have been able to successfully retrieve my checked baggage from lost and found on the morning after my arrival into SIN, I was not able to actually put this to a test.

On my Air Asia flight from KUL to SIN the prior evening, I was able to successfully finagle my way onto the flight with two carryons, including one that was significantly heavier than the officially mandated maximum weight of seven kilos. The bottom line was that I arrived in SIN with both of my bags in my possession so there was no need for me to clear customs and immigration and retrieve my bags from lost and found at all.^

christep

Am I missing something here? Why aren't you just checking your luggage through to HKG - BA and CX interline and there should be no problem doing that with any connection less than 24 hours.

kalkadan

LarryU - thanks for reporting back. Wish I had your talent for finangling two bags onto the plane!

Kissmaibat - we are taking your advice (and the suggestions of others); attempting to book into the Transit Hotel in SIN. Will report.

Just booked a good deal on Wotif for the Harbour View International House in HK - "Premier Harbour View"!! ha! - $HK2046.00 for two nights incl. breakfast

LHR & NICE here we come, ready or not.

wilp888

Need some help from the experts here. I'm doing a quick turnaround at SIN next week, arriving 11:30pm and leaving 6:40am next morning on United. I tried booking the Transit Hotel but they said it was full and to call after my flight landed to see if there were any vacancies. What are my chances of getting a room? Do they hold back some rooms for walk-in or are there a high cancellation rate? If I can't get a room there, is the Rain Forest Lounge a good alternative? Thanks in advance for any info.

kalkadan

wilp888 - sorry i have no info on your request. however they can overbook. i sent an email via hotmail to make a booking. there was no response after a couple of days. so i sent another via my work email address.

the next day the response came in to the work email - yep, a room was available and confirmed. day after that another email came into my hotmail address - yep, room available and booking confirmed. each of my emails had given our flight details. each of the responses was from a different person. so i assume a double booking.

then a couple of days later another email came into my hotmail - to say that they were sorry they were booked out - this purported to be in response to my earlier request for a room. it was not saying my bookings referred to above were cancelled. i ignored it.

our luggage was checked in at Brisbane with tags to Sydney (via QAN), Singapore (via BA) then to Hong Kong (via CX). We arrived a little late at Changi and got to the transit hotel about 10.00pm There was no problem. Our room was available. We then visited the Transfer Desk just down the escalator. Wanted to make sure the bags would get through. They said they could not issue boarding passes for us until 2hrs before the flight left next morning at 8.30am - but they reassured us the luggage would be ok - so we chilled out. In the morning the girl on the Transfer Desk issued our boarding passes for HK on CX - she told us that our bags would have been held overnight awaiting our checking in that morning, she then sends to that area confirmation that we have checked in and the bags are sent to the CX flight.

It worked. Arrived in Hong Kong the next day. And there were our bags, safe and sound. We had not seen them since Brisbane.

In London now and off to Nice. Should be nice.

wilp888

Kalkadan - Thanks for the reply. I also received duplicate emails from the Transit Hotel but both emails said they were full. I guess I will call when I get into SIN.