wyseson

There are lot of people who book the HKG-GUM-HNL connection. I just did it in February on a mileage run.
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There are global entry kiosks. Here are the steps:
1. Global Entry Kiosk
2. Hand immigration agent global entry receipt with HNL flight boarding pass. Immigration agent will stamp HNL boarding pass.
3. Proceed to baggage claim and then Guam customs/agriculture where you hand in Guam customs form.
4. Proceed upstairs to TSA precheck.
5. At gate, line up for US immigration to check for admissibility to US. This step is required as there are different rules for entering Guam vs mainland US. This step is faster with the stamp from step 2.

All of this can be done pretty quickly. I was in economy plus and went through all this in about 20 minutes. The longest wait was for TSA.

mr8

GE/TSA PreCheck should help. Is it all on one PNR? You will need to fill out GUM's weird survey when going through immigration, go landside once, and then back trough TSA (PreCheck line is available). All of that shouldn't take much time, but remember that GUM has a weird pre-9/11 layout, so they will move these "security" walls around for arriving passengers to cross over to the arrivals side which could hold you up for a few minutes. Once at your gate, you'll need to go through another mini-immigration where they'll check your documentation again.
Is the GE new? I did it earlier this year, and I don't remember going through the kiosk - I thought it was just that survey thing.

Taipei

GE is not so new, but for me I use normal agent coming from Japan (most passengers are Japanese, so resident line is short) to HNL as I never have a line and they stamp my GUM-HNL boarding pass (at GE I forget), which at the gate meaning no need to have passport/ State ID just boarding pass.

garykung

TSA PreCheck? Yes. GE? No.

Based on my experience, this flight does not have many residents/citizens (about 20%). So your immigration processing time with GCQA will last about 3-5 minutes. So GE will not really speed things up.

On the other hand, there are 2 major departures at that time, GUM-HNL and GUM-NRT. So TSA PreCheck will speed thing up for you, providing that you are not SSSS or randomly selected.

But again - the flight will hold for all incoming passengers from HKG-GUM (But not vice versa).

CDR78

Considering UA's HKG > GUM > HNL route putting us into GUM at 6:40 AM and out to HNL only 35 minutes later. Based on the pages and pages of comments dating back to Carter Administration above, it seems that UA and GUM staff are quite used to tight connections.

The only reason I'm re-asking this old question is a few considerations:

1. The connection time of 35 minutes seems to be the shortest connection time I've seen referenced on this thread.
2. My wife and I are both US passport and GE holders, however we will be carrying 3 month old twins with us. We hope to get their GE sorted in time for this trip here in HK (fingers crossed the Consulate has an interview window after the birth), but in case we don't are we just asking for trouble with such a short transfer window between the lack of ability to dash for the gate if we need to, or in case CBP takes longer to review docs since we will have two newborns?

jsloan

I'm astonished that this is allowed. The flights must be coded as international to international; the international to domestic MCT is one hour.

Yes, they're used to tight connections -- mainly coming from HNL, not going to it -- but I wouldn't even consider this flight, especially with two newborns. I don't know if UA is using the 15- (domestic) or 30-minute (international) cutoff for declaring you a no-show at the gate. 5 minutes is unreasonable, and even 20 minutes would be relying on everything going right -- no problems at immigration and no line at security. And if you misconnect, your earliest opportunity to get to Honolulu is via Narita, which results in a 7:15 AM arrival (vs 6:25 PM the night before, if you make your flight).

I'd just plan to fly through Tokyo in the first place.

garykung

It should be a scheduling issue (I believe you are not trying to book anything close).

The connection time for HKG>GUM>HNL at GUM is always 55 minutes.

First - CBP Office in Hong Kong is not located at the Consulate, but the building across the street.

Second - AFAIK - CBP Office in Hong Kong is not an Enrollment Center. In other word, you will have to be processed regularly because of your baby.

Third, and the most important - regardless, unless you are a non-U.S. resident (for immigration purpose), your chance of missing the flight is slim to none, unless you try to miss your flight intentionally.

It should be a scheduling issue. It should be fixed eventually.

Nothing to see here.

jsloan

You may well be right. The revised flight times start in November. 55 minutes is much less stomach-churning, although I'd still want to be toward the front of the plane. UA definitely has a habit of futzing with its schedules.

CDR78

Thanks for the quick, relevant replies.

Yes, understood. Had kept the HK-specific details out for brevity, but it appears that in Jan 2018 the CBP GE team came to HK and hosted a 2-day GE enrollment event at the American Chamber of Commerce. Fingers crossed they make it an annual event, as the twins will arrive in Oct(ish) and HI trip is in Feb.

Also, great to know that the GUM layover time currently showing in the Feb itinerary I'm looking may very well change to 55 min the closer we get. Will ask UA when we book, as we'll need to book these tickets well before the births, which means we'll need to add the "infant-in-lap" info later.

HkCaGu

Not the first time Willis makes mistakes when changing schedules related to GUM. A family member of mine was a "victim" when there was a mismatch of HNL-GUM and GUM-HKG schedules for two weeks. The J itin was kicked over from LAX-HNL-GUM-HKG to LAX-RNO-SFO-HKG and eventually LAX-SFO-HKG. The fare was 2-4-2 lie flat but because of schedule change was moved to Polaris for free. After calling and changing, two weeks later, a connectable schedule was restored...

alohajoe

I am considering UA's HKG > GUM > HNL route, but I am hesitant due to the possibility of missing the connecting flight.

For example:
UA116 departed HKG 11:57PM Friday 08-Jun-2018 and arrived GUM 07:28AM Saturday 09-Jun-2018.
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/...623Z/VHHH/PGUM
UA200 departed GUM 06:58AM Saturday 09-Jun-2018 and arrived HNL 06:08PM Friday 08-Jun-2018.
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/...040Z/PGUM/PHNL

Thus, anyone connecting would have missed the flight.
Maybe there was no one connecting.

My question is:
If United knows there is a passenger connecting on the same ticket reservation, will they hold the connecting flight until the prior flight arrives?

garykung

UA 200 is designed to connect people back to stateside, especially HNL-IAH. So UA 200 will leave with the minimum delay, unless the entire HKG-GUM flight is transferring to HNL. In other word, whether UA decides to hold the flight depends on the number of transit pax.

Also - what you have cited is not normal operation. On June 8, Hong Kong is subject to some severe weather condition, which explains the 1-hour delay.

alohajoe

This now makes sense. Thanks for the reply.

HkCaGu

Another factor to consider is re-accommodation. When you miss GUM-HNL, they can put you on GUM-NRT-US with little obligatory compensation. For HNL you'll wait for hours at either GUM or NRT and arrive 12 hours late. For the Mainland and beyond, less delay.

This in contrast to HNL-GUM then onto destinations further west. Flights may not be daily, and will be definitely the next morning. So this direction they might hold your connection a little longer.

garykung

To supplement, because many transit pax are Chinese (Mainland) citizens, which GUM-NRT becomes impossible (Chinese (Mainland) citizens are not visa-free to Japan), UA 200 will likely to hold. Also - many of those Chinese (Mainland) citizens actually have HNL as their final destination. So UA will hold the flight whenever possible.