I prefer NH. The TG380s are getting really beat up. NH service is also more consistent (though service on TG can be exceptionally good).

One thing to keep in mind though is that NH often uses a remote stand for the BKK departures, and that's a pretty unpleasant experience. TG will depart from a gate. The TG arrival at BKK can be at a remote stand.

I’m in Bangkok right now and this and the previous trip is PDX-SFO-HKG (booked P+} and then a separately ticketed TG flight to BKK (J award ticket). Around $2300 for the UA ticket, and all TPAC legs on both trips have been upgraded to Polaris with GPU.

This current trip is using the new night flights, so I haven’t booked overnights at HKG. For the return (Sunday) I’m being very conservative and have the 8am TG flight to HKG and a 10 hour layover. I have carry on only so can stay air side if need be. If I do have the full 10 hours I may go land side, use left luggage and visit some very local (to the airport) places, or burn Marriott points for rest at Sky City.

I think it's pretty easy to take a bus to Tung Chung, where there's a nice trail along the water. Tung Chung to Tai O

This is one route where I'll book a relatively tight connection even on separate tix. My last one was just under three hours connecting TG-UA. I've missed twice over the years, once on separate tix (lengthy UA delay from SFO) and once on a single CX ticket.

Fingers crossed for you that they keep flying.

Flying through NRT right now, very easy connection. quite sad no more direct IAD-NRT, so have to find an alternative, or add an extra connection in the future.

I flew through NRT to BKK yesterday and experienced the no re-clearing security transit for ex-US flights. Got off plane, exited to sterile gate area, and arrived at lounge after less than 5min of walking.

Is that new (no reclear security at NRT off an ex-US flight)? If so that’s great, though NRT’s transit security is so good anyway the saving isn’t enormous (it was usually only 10 minutes from deplane (from the J cabin) until on the concourse.

And (not wanting to drift off topic) but if Japan recognizes US security checks does that also apply at HND? It would require the airport being able to segregate US arriving pax from others.

There was a trial done earlier this year for 1 week at NRT to better compete as a connecting hub given the shift of flights to HND. However, not sure what came about from it and not sure which US flights get selected for that. I think it's a NRT specific program so not sure if HND will replicate but I don't see why they can't.

In any case, the setup is similar than the setup at FRA/MUC/VIE, where US/Canada-inbound passengers are offloaded to the sterile non-Schengen departure area. For NRT, it's just back to sterile international area through the boarding gates if you're connecting, or go up the escalators and onward to immigration if you're arriving or have a domestic connection.

Just booked, early Feb.

TPA-DEN-NRT-BKK
BKK-NRT-IAD-TPA

The NRT-BKK legs on ANA on 787's... (10 & 9, respectively). All in less than $5K in business all the way (P fare). Not bad!

Checking flights for this spring. Doesn't look like they adjusted the BKK flight timings out of HND to allow for reasonable connections. Seeing 9 hour layovers at HND with arrival at BKK at 4AM.

They just keep making this harder.

:mad:

New options coming... Bamboo launching from US to Vietnam. Looks like a nice interior. Plenty of connecting options to BKK.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/bamboo-airways-787/

SeeNRT Sexurity-free transit is enabled for all flights arriving from USA apparently


https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31905346-post19.html
UA charges extra $70 YQ for going on their new usa-hnd flights

I guess it's expected - NRT remains a connection for Asia, HND is for premium easy access to Central tokyo

NH hasnt put their codeshares on UA new HND flights yet. Maybe waiting for approval. UA did put it in NH's new flights

I gave up a while ago. I mostly just buy CX J ex-BKK. It's so much better.

Travel from BKK to US through HKG ? (in the Coronavirus era)
 

Yes this is yet another coronavirus post. It's super hard to find information about this and the airlines are not very helpful. The best they can say is "you can cancel your trip" - which is not an option for me.

I am currently in Bangkok, with flights booked to the US. Flying BKK-HKG on a separate ticket with TG, staying overnight in HKG and then flying to the US. All that happening in about two weeks. The opposite direction about a month after that.

All good. Except HKG-SFO / EWR-HKG are both cancelled until late April. So I'm talking with a UA person and they offered to fly through NRT. They said I can do HKG-NRT-EWR instead of HKG-SFO-EWR as I was scheduled. I have two concerns (neither of which are catching the virus :)):

- How likely do you think it is that UA7988 HKG-NRT is cancelled in the next couple weeks (it's a UA codeshare flying NQ)?
- Coming from HKG, being a French citizen, will I have trouble getting in to the US? Is there a chance the US will start quarantine for people coming from HKG?

I don't think anyone can predict what will happen the next 2 weeks.

I do think that the US is not going to quarantine non-citizens coming from infected areas. If it is that bad, the US might just bar them from boarding to start with.

There are just so many uncertainties right now and the fact you have 2 tickets and will be transitting complicate things even more. Also think about how the people you will be within the US might feel if they know you transitted through HKG. On top of that, the situation in Japan (not the Diamond Princess) is also kind of concerning.

Bonne chance!