I have a Cathay flight to Hong Kong arriving 0700 on the 9th Feb, but because I originally had to spend some time in HK I have an onward flight booked on the 13th. Now I no longer need to stay in HK, and can try to make my niece's christening on the 10th, but, because its Chinese New Year, all the usual Cathay flights HK/MNL are fully booked! I find a Dragonair flight, KA375, leaving HK at 8.05 arriving Clark 10.10 which would be perfect if I could be confident of making the connection (!!!) or there is an Air Asia flight - but I will have 20kg of bags - anyone here tried Air Asia? Any advice welcome!
That's gonna be a damned tight one bud. Collecting your luggage then checking into another airline within an hour ?? Doesn't Philair do more frequent flights down there ? I got one at 7.30 pm to Cebu,...but I noticed the Manila ones earlier on in the day.
Stay in Hong Kong, awesome place! Seriously though, one hour is not enough for a connection between two separate bookings, especially as you need to collect your baggage and check in for your new flight. I recall that in HK you have to take an internal airport train between the arrival terminal and baggage collection terminal, and then back again which would add delay, many airlines close the check in well before departure, 45 minutes plus. I have flown Air Asia many times, not on the HKG/CRK route as that is a new route for them. I would hope that Air Asia Philippines maintains the decent standards of the company's Malaysian and Thailand operations. I rate AirAsia highly for an economy airline, but I always book more baggage than I need, just so there is no scope for problems. You select that in the add-ons section. Air Asia HKG - CRK is at 21:10 cost 1,978 HKD, (about 162 GBP) You could spend half a day in Hong Kong, head down to the Old China Hand for a few pints and a lunch. There is apparently a short term baggage storage facility at Hong Kong airport: http://www.hongkongairport.com/eng/passenger/arrival/t1/baggage/left-baggage.html As most airlines seem to have no available flights on that day, you need to decide quickly, I would go for the four nights in Hong Kong...
Thanks Dave; on the strength of your recommendation I have booked a seat on Air Asia Philippines flight PQ 7299 dep HK 21.10 arr Clark 23.05 on the 9th. With the bells and whistles it turned out to be £184.62p but that is less than I would have spent in an hotel in HK and I shall have the benefit of Kay's company in Bulacan and will get brownie points for getting to my neice's christening on the 10th... I share your enthusiasm for Hong Kong, having lived there in the 1980s, but I felt that staying there over Chinese New Year, with all my friends out of town for the holiday and no chance to get any work done, would be pointless, so I'm going to change my return flight and take Kay with me for a couple of days in HK on my way back to Blighty. I'll dump my bag in the terminal, (thanks for that tip!) spend the day in HK on the 9th (which is New Year's Eve and should be fun) and get to Clark that evening. Many thanks!
Very informative and helpful post Dave thanks for that I found I agree with everything you said. I've also found AirAsia to be very good and offer great service. Personally I prefer Clark to NAIA. Have to say though, I've never found the transfer between HK terminals to be too time consuming. For us it's always been a pretty slick operation. Although last time we did that the walk to our boarding gate made us sweat and we just made it. Not that fond of exiting HK immigration then re-entering arrivals, which we did a number of times with the now defunct Oasis and onward flight with Cebu Pacific (bah) Anyway good post
HK airport transfers are brilliant if you are changing between Cathay and/or Dragonair flights. If you are changing between Philippine Air Lines and Virgin the experience can be dire. Telling a tale against myself - I rang She Who Must Be Obeyed and she pointed out that I had got myself 24 hours out so I had to rebook onto a flight leaving at 9.45am on the 10th, arriving at Clark at 11.40, which is even better as it avoids any wait in HK. I was then unwise enough to say that if she didn't meet me I would check into an hotel and look around for a pretty girl to spend some time with - I could feel the ice forming on the Skype headset...
I really think you should know how to play the game by this time Even after more than 15 years I still sometimes have to explain how it's just an English Joke (even to the minutest detail )
