London to Hong Kong

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bagman

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Jul 3, 2006
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Hi there

In a few months I will be returning to Australia from London via HK
I have flown from HK to London but never the other way.
As the flights from HK to Ldn leave late at night, the decision has been easy, but I notice that from London some are early afternoon and some early evening.
Just wondering if you guys have any suggestions as to what the best departure time is when leaving London and suggestions as to airline.

As I am a Qantas FF member, that restricts me to BA, Cathay and Qantas.
I haven't flown Cathay in quite some years, how are they compared to the other OneWorld airlines ?
I will be travelling Business class.

cheers and thanks for your advice
 
There are several things to consider:
  • CX flighst will not give you the Status Bonus paid by QF to Platinum (100%), Gold (50%) and Silver (25%) members for flights on QF, BA and AA flight numbers.
  • CX in-flight service will be the best out of the 3 OneWorld options.
  • BA business class seat goes horozontal while CX and QF are flat but slightly sloped.
  • BA business class seat is narrower than CX and QF.
  • Are you just connecting in HKG on the way to Australia, or staying over in HKG for a while? If staying, do you want to make the most of the arrival day (hence go for an early morning arrival) or will you just want to blob out in a hotel (hence go for afternoon arrival).
All of the flights are over-night flights.

Personally I would take the QF 30 flight, but that is because I would be waitlisting for an upgrade to F. If that was not an option, then I would probably go for BA27 or BA31 since I find the BA seats good for sleeping.

In the other direction I would aim for a daytime CX flight or the QF29 flight (also daytime).
 
The problem I have with Oneworld to HKG is that it is 25% more expensive than Virgin ATlantic. I just wish there was another option there.
 
Thanks so much for replying

Your comments regarding the Status points is very vaild and something I had forgotten about, so thank you for pointing that out.

So it's down to Qantas or BA

I'm a little confused as I could see no BA flights # 21 or # 37 that fly London/HK.
I can see BA 21 and BA 37. did you mean those ?

As the flights are overnight, I find the BA beds more comfortable than Qantas, so the decision has been narrowed even further.

I will be spending the weekend in HK, flying to Australia on the following Tuesday. I'm wondering if getting in to HK early afternoon will assist in adjusting to the time difference between London aand HK and subsequently Sydney ??

cheers and thanks again
 
bagman said:
I'm a little confused as I could see no BA flights # 21 or # 37 that fly London/HK.
I can see BA 21 and BA 37. did you mean those ?
That's me being lisdexic again. BA27 and BA31 are the flight numbers, as well as BA25. I'll go back and edit my original post to try to confuse anyone else.
bagman said:
I'm wondering if getting in to HK early afternoon will assist in adjusting to the time difference between London aand HK and subsequently Sydney ??
I don't think it makes a lot of difference. If the departure time is suitable, I would take BA25 for its earlier arrival time, alllowing an easy hotel check-in, winder around Hong Kong for a while, dinner and then a good night's sleep.
 
NM said:
That's me being lisdexic again. BA27 and BA31 are the flight numbers, as well as BA25. I'll go back and edit my original post to try to confuse anyone else.

I don't think it makes a lot of difference. If the departure time is suitable, I would take BA25 for its earlier arrival time, alllowing an easy hotel check-in, winder around Hong Kong for a while, dinner and then a good night's sleep.

Thank you again for that advice. Greatly appreciated and has made my decisions much easier.
I will be following your suggestion of the BA25 flight. Arriving at around 1pm in the afternoon makes good sense as you point out.

cheers and thanks so much
 
I recommend the nice new Novotel CityGate Hotel near the airport. A 5 min shuttle ride every 30 min and right next to the MTR subway for a quick run into town without bags. They were offering rooms under HKD900 recently.
 
og said:
I recommend the nice new Novotel CityGate Hotel near the airport. A 5 min shuttle ride every 30 min and right next to the MTR subway for a quick run into town without bags. They were offering rooms under HKD900 recently.
Novotel Citygate is nice and handy of you are only staying overnight with late arrival and/or early departure. Note they will not accept Diners Club cards! This is the first major brand hotel I have stayed at that does not accept Diners Club (our Corporate Credit Card).

They have nice new modern rooms. And you will be escorted to the shuttle bus from the airport arrivals. I just asked the very nice tourist information people who are in the passage between customs and the main arrivals concourse and they pointed me to the right information desk. The helpful gentleman asked me to take a seat and he would show me to the bus in about 5 mins when it was ready to depart for the hotel.

But as the OP is staying 2 or 3 nights, it may be better to stay down town somewhere.
 
If you're staying in HK over the weekend, I'd recommend staying somewhere other than the Airport. Whilst it is handy to the MTR, it's a bit of a hike to anything other than Disneyland. Would advise trying to get a weekend rate in one of the hotels close to the In-town check-in (the Hong Kong island terminus of the railway link) - you'll be on the Island, with lots of shops, bars and restaurants to occupy yourself, and well-connected by public transport. Note that the Kowloon stop of the airport railway link doesn't connect to any MTR station.

Also remember that in HK, you can check in at any time on the day (or even the day before) at the In-town check in, as long as you have an MTR ticket for the airport railway link. You may wish to purchase an Octopus card (the smart card system that is used in HK) at the Airport. There's a three (or four? I can't recall) day tourist pass which is reasonable value, as it covers a trip each way from the airport, and can be used on the local public transport (MTR, buses, the Star Ferry and the street-trams).
 
On my last HK visit (July) I stayed at the relatively new Langham Place Hotel in Mong Kok. Having stayed at many HK hotels over the years (on HK Island or (mainly) in Kowloon) I was completely unprepared for the great value for money I got at this place. My wife and I had 3 days in an Executive Studio room somewhere above the 30th floor, which had a 90 degree curved floor to ceiling window wall with uninterrupted views of the whole length of HK Island, for A$229 per night. Got this fantastic deal on expedia.com.au Check out the hotel website Hong Kong Spa Hotels - Langham Place Hong Kong Hotel It was truly excellent in all aspects. I certainly would not stay anywhere else in HK if again available at the same price!

As far as I know, they don't give referral fees - this is a completley unpaid testimonial.
 
Be aware that whilst HKG is a JSA port, you don't get full miles when you use BA on discount economy fares.

If your going to MEL or SYD, QF 30 is quite good because you can go to bed shortly after landing when you get to Australia. The evening BA departures mean you have to connect to a QF flight once you hit HKG, so check your transit time before choosing this option (you did not state where you were wanting to go in Australia).
 
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