KChar

Generally very flexible, but train (HFD-EWR) and hotel reservations have already been made.

PTahCha

Bingo! The issue isn't necessarily the additional logistics or the lackluster lounge options, but rather the constant delays, up to multiple hours at the time.

spin88

Yes. It is really important to understand the issue. Transiting a US airport is positively the worst. No airport in the US is really set up for international transfers, which is part of the reason why YVR does such a land office business, and why so much of the traffic to central/south america avoids the US. There is nothing like NRT/ICN/HKG where you an go though a clearance desk/security screening and then have access to the air side airport as you wait for your next flight. This is a major disadvantage for the US airlines, which otherwise would have access to much of the Asia/Europe to Central/South American traffic.

PEK/PVG both have modern transit desks, not really any different than other major airports such as NRT/ICN/HKG, the difference is that due to military air space restrictions they have chronic delays. Far worse than any US airport. Bottom line, I would not do a connection in PVG/PEK of less than 4 hours, unless you have a later back up flight... In contrast I have no problems doing a much shorter connection at NRT/ICN/HKG or other Asian airports like SIN or TPE.

The Hong Kong flights are taking it on the chin because their are a lot of other good options in Asia as places to transfer.

UA_Flyer

Fully aware of the delay issues have been raised, but that has been changed in the past 18 months due to additional allocation of air space for commercial aviation use.

Those chronic delays were frustrating and keeping passengers away. Thank god the issue has been made aware to the authority and they have done something about it at PEK. I cannot say about PVG, because I have not transited there in the past 18 months.

Kacee

It's also going to increase connecting J traffic EWR-SFO, as if those flights weren't tight enough already. Hopefully we'll see more of the 77W and Polaris 772s on that route.
The irony is that as a transfer station, HKG is unaffected. Along with Changi, I think it's the best airport in the world for connecting (though HND and NRT are also awfully good).

eyuro

I was returning on the 14th of Jan direct to EWR. I just checked now to see if there was an upgrade back to a 77W or a newly renovated 772. Now I see they booked me on the HKG-SFO-EWR but at least they confirmed me with upgrade I had all the way through. Any chance of asking them to put me on the HKG-SFO with the 77W? They put me on the 12:20 which uses a 772.

hirohito888

Where do you see HKG-SFO with 77W? The schedule shows SFO-HKG 2x daily with 772 through eos.

eyuro

My bad. Just realized now that it was switched to the 772 on both flights. I guess getting the upgrade all the way through including the SFO-EWR is good enough and I shouldn’t rock the boat.

dkc192

As I recall, in the past several years (well before any of the latest incidents) SFO-HKG was a reasonably easy upgrade on the right days, especially midweek. Certainly wasn't a sure bet, but not as impossible as, say, SIN.

Kacee

It had the reputation for being harder than it was. I wouldn't quite call it an easy upgrade, but I cleared many times by choosing flights carefully.

helvetic

Still sad about the loss of GUM… I was on the second to last one last month.

Haha, try a T3 to T-2 connection and see if you still feel the same way.










Spoiler alert

You have to apply for a transit visa, go through immigration, exit the terminal, take a bus that goes on street levels around the airport in 30min if traffic isn't bad, get to the other terminal, go through various layers of security, and go through exit passport control, before finally being let in to a terminal so old and crappy it makes LaGuardia look like Changi. Easily a 3h+ ordeal.

IWontRegretThis

T2-t3 or VV is one of the worst transfers for shear distance vs time.. and I say that as someone with a 10yr china visa.

RJNYC

Any idea why they picked the three days that they picked? Not running a Friday departure from Newark to Hong Kong (arriving Saturday night) is particularly annoying for me as that was my flight of choice to begin a work week on Monday.

Oh well ... I guess I'll have to slum it on CX.

dkc192

I'd say most US-based business travelers prefer Saturday daytime departures, to arrive in Asia on Sunday night ahead of the work week.

jp12687

this.

for me running to Asia Saturday and returning from Asia Friday is ideal.

id hate to fly Friday and lose the entire day on Sunday to sitting around. If I can sit around I’d rather do it at home with wife and puppies.