Married flights and MCT

[Matt_01]

Do married flights override MCT? I am playing around with some booking options for 2022 and am looking to get back LHR-ADL. I was planning on using CX however the HKG-ADL schedule is patchy and runs 4 times per week and as Murphy’s Law would have it there is no connection with CX to ADL on the day of travel.

When looking this option it seemed like it could work:

• LHR-HKG, CX 250 dep 17:50 arr 13:55, connecting to
• HKG-KUL, MH73 dep 14:50 arr 18:55 then KUL-ADL, MH139 dep 22:20 arr 08:00

This option cannot be booked as the connection time is 55 minutes and according to the QF site MCT in HKG is 120 minutes. I was using the multi city booking engine if that makes any difference.

I then started looking at options LHR-SIN and noticed this flight could be booked:

• LHR – HKG, CX252 dep 11:15 arr 07:00, connecting to
• HKG – SIN, CX691 dep 07:50 arr 11:55.

I am assuming this option are married flights, and with a connection time of 50 minutes this seems to override the MCT requirements.

It is not a big deal as there are other options available asking more out of curiosity. Worse case I will remain in HKG for a few extra hours and get a QF flight and transit through MEL/SYD to ADL.

 

[drron]

Pre covid we would fly NRT-HKG-BKK at least twice a year.The connection time between the flights was 50 minutes.Never missed a connection though close on 1 occasion as flight into HKG was 13 minutes late.We had to run but they kept the door open until we arrived and the BKK plane still left on time.Was on CX.

 

[Matt_01]

@drron thanks for the information, in the past I have had 50 minute connections at HKG so I am not to worried about that however with my luck I can foresee an arrival at gates 1-4 and a departure from the other end of the airport . From what I have noticed and may not have been clear enough is that if transiting HKG CX-CX the system seems to allow a 50+ minute connections. If trying to book CX to another OW carrier the booking engine seems to work on the MCT. In my way of thinking transfering CX-CX or CX-MH or any other OW carrier should in theory be no different and in both options an aircraft swap is involved.

I like others at the moment have far to much time thinking about flights rather than flying them. I will be posting another useless question about AA and like this question is of no consequence I am just noticing things that in the past I have not noticed or thought about.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

@drron thanks for the information, in the past I have had 50 minute connections at HKG so I am not to worried about that however with my luck I can foresee an arrival at gates 1-4 and a departure from the other end of the airport . From what I have noticed and may not have been clear enough is that if transiting HKG CX-CX the system seems to allow a 50+ minute connections. If trying to book CX to another OW carrier the booking engine seems to work on the MCT. In my way of thinking transfering CX-CX or CX-MH or any other OW carrier should in theory be no different and in both options an aircraft swap is involved.

I like others at the moment have far to much time thinking about flights rather than flying them. I will be posting another useless question about AA and like this question is of no consequence I am just noticing things that in the past I have not noticed or thought about.

IIRC, CX-CX is 50 minutes, connecting between any other airlines MCT is 60 minutes. So yeah, the 5 minutes out will not allow you to ticket