30 Minute connection at BKK - is it possible?
 

I scheduled a flight with a 3 hour layover in BKK transferring from Air Asia to Cathay Pacific. Just got an email mid vacation telling me the Cathay flight got moved up 3 hours and I now have a 30-35 minute connection (assuming all flight are on time). I will be coming from phuket - so no immigration to clear, but this is still too close for me to assume I can make it.


Is this possible or do I need to start trying to make plan B?

I'd make a plan B. Even if you only had hand luggage to carry, it's a bit too tight.

Air Asia is an LCC and CX is in OneWorld so there's probably no way to get your CX Boarding Pass in HKT.

If you arrive in BKK 30 mins before your CX flight is due to take off, CX may not want to issue you a BP. Even without luggage and checking into CX online so you already have the BP at hand it would be way too dramatic to try and get to the gate in 5 minutes.

FYI, "the rules" recommend 75 minutes for a domestic to international transfer in BKK.

[KVS Availability Tool 6.7.0/Diamond - Reference: Minimum Connection Time [MCT]: BKK/AK-CX]

Plan B, definitely.

Plan B. Impossible in BKK to have this connection.

There's no way you're making the CX flight.

More generally, does FD even stamp a domestic BP as international to allow pax to get through immigration in HKT? You'd need a int connection to do this and I doubt FD would/can process it.

If someone can shed light on this...... but until then I'm of the belief that you'll never be able to get through immigration in HKT in this scenario, even with a 'legal' connection.

You could try appealing to CX's reps to see if they can switch you to HKT-HKG direct as their change is screwing things up.

This is an excellent plan B.

Well said- the connection is not legal in any event- HKT is not going to let the OP through immigration.

I'll boldly presume that the two sectors you have are on separate booking, and so this reinforces that you carry all the risk of a mis-connect between flights, and that neither FD or CX have any interest or knowledge of the other flight.

As others have noted, Plan B is required. Cathay may make an accommodation to move you to the direct flights ex-HKT, BUT if you do have separate tickets they are under no obligation to do so. So, remain flexible on getting to BKK in time for your CX flight.

I don't think it's bold when one of the segments is on FD. I'll back up to my question from a few posts ago, is it ever possible to go through immigration when connecting FD-XX? Will FD even be able to stamp a dom BP as 'International'? Certainly it can't be done when checking a bag so long as FD won't interline.

My near nightmare of Air Asia
 

Air Asia won't even talk to you about this and almost for sure you can't make this connection. And do you have bags??? Maybe you said - I don't recall.

The real nightmare of Air Asia is that they send you an email the day before and tell you that the flight is leaving 6 hours late with a nasty reminder that their conditions of carriage don't require them to do anything for you as they are a "point to point" carrier - their terminology for abrogation of any responsibility for anything - including the plane falling out of the sky no doubt. I love em, but I always have a buffer of 24 hours in BKK with Air Asia.

So as the other folks say, you gotta plead to Cathay - after all they caused this problem. And rule number two here is that they may have an Air Asia attitude (I have no experience with Cathy so I may be maligning them) like it seems nearly all non-US carriers do. Foreigners don't get nasty when the airlines do nasty things to them so, big surprise, they get more abuse like kids with abusive parents. Yanks on the other hand throw a tantrum and call their Senator and he calls the head of United or Delta and some poor schmuck in reservations gets fired for not helping you. Hence if US based airlines change your schedule they will do pretty much anything to shut you up is my experience. I had a lovely experience like this the other day and went from a horrible redeye to a wonderful (and really expensive) day flight as a result of a schedule change. Bon Chance!:)

That sir, is a very bold statement. You clearly haven't seen upset mainland Chinese passengers physically attacking the gate agent...

But your points about potential schedule issues with Air Asia, and pleading to Cathay, are valid.

More generally, IMO it is a bad idea to schedule an Air Asia flight then a same-day connection on a another carrier, unless you have Plan B and Plan C for recovery of your schedule, or are on a flexible fare second carrier ticket. Much better to follow up any Air Asia flight with an overnight and then make the connection on the next day.