Stuck in Hong Kong!

[okiedokie]

Oneworld alliance RTW booking.

JFK to Darwin.

Cathay to Hong Kong.
Malaysia to KL and then Darwin.

Cathay could only check me in to HKG apparently (**** of of luck if have bags!)

Transfer desk isn't open for Malaysia. My flight is in 8 hours!!!

I'm stuck in transit with a standard uncomfy chair and a water cooler instead of be business lounge where I should be. It was all one itinerary.

Any ideas? I tried Finnair & Qantas given they're also oneworld but they said wait, can't do anything. Wtf.

I could try online checkin but can't print of course.

 

[TomVexille]

Go have lunch in the city?

 

[Happy Trails]

Maybe exit the airport and try checking in land-side.
Or even take the train into town and do it there?

 

[okiedokie]

7 hours now been waiting an hour.
I can't fathom how on 1 booking and this is connecting (JFK through to Darwin) I am in this situation. This flight would be like what, 8 grand? Insane.
Alternative would be clear immigration and try and find someone out the front, maybe they have a staff member there.

 

[okiedokie]

MH079 should be departing in 90 mins. So I would have thought there'd be a transfer desk for that? Maybe no one is transferring so they aren't staffing it

 

[andmiz]

You should certainly get out and do something, there's no point sitting around an airport for another 7 hours.
The weather is quite decent in Hong Kong today (hot and humid, but the visibility is quite nice and there's signs of blue sky). After 40 minutes on the airport train you could be eating great dim sum or browsing the shops, getting yourself lost down alleyways in Sheung Wan or jumping on a last minute food tour (hellohongkong.com.hk)

Alternatively, if you flew CX in, check out the CX Arrivals Lounge, or consider Plaza Premium, both are landside between T1 and T2.

 

[okiedokie]

That's what I've ended up doing (arrival lounge) given transfer desk never came. I've been to HK before so the basic sights are done, been flying for around 20 hours plus timezones so catching up on some work given I missed the entire Tuesday!

Weird process, certainly not in a rush to book anything else.

 

[andmiz]

Weird process, certainly not in a rush to book anything else.

At least you've got a few hours to figure out why your PNR's weren't linked on booking or whatever else went on.

 

[JohnK]

MH079 should be departing in 90 mins. So I would have thought there'd be a transfer desk for that? Maybe no one is transferring so they aren't staffing it

Too late now but you could have gone to check-in counters after immigration?

Sad that you could find yourself in this situation.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

This is actually a common issue - used to be (still is?) the same for flights from China on CX/KA connecting to QF in HKG... had to wait until three hours before departure for the QF transfer desk to be staffed to get a boarding pass. Even if all on the same ticket. So not unusual.

Guaranteed boarding pass if the desks in the departures hall couldn't help... take a trip on the airport express - same day return is HKD100 - and use in town check-in. That's open all day.

 

[ermen]

Weird thing is OP's luggage should have been interlined all the way to Darwin. Ridiculous only checked in all the way only to HKG.

I would have thought that the JFK people have stuffed up - given its all 1 ticket, and one PNR (and even if its not, it is CX's policy to interline on OW partners).

Fall back as other's mentioned would be the train to Kowloon and return. Prob would get things done and return within 90mins tops @ HK$90.

Should've at least eaten something landside though


(edit: wait the OP was travelling HLO? If so, then OP should have online checked in using the MH mobile website - and try to use the mobile boarding pass to checkin and enter the lounge. if they need physical, print it off at Arrivals, or ask the lounge angels to let you use a computer to print it off)

(edit2: this whole thing about not being able to print onward boarding passes happens for some weird reason. i had that in MEL-xSYD-SIN on BA. QF in MEL couldn't print onward BP and it was such a waste of time. And my horrible experience at NRT with a later MH BP! But if this sorta issue arises, HKG is the best place for this sorta thing to happen)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

yeah apologies - HKD90 to Kowloon and HKD100 was for Central for same day return. Kowloon has check-in too.

 

[Himeno]

Issues like this of not being able to issue connecting board passes on the same PNR usually relate to connecting airlines not using the same GDS. CX and MH both use Amadeus, with MH having just changed recently.

Could this be caused by a problem on MHs side with their Amadeus roll out, or the Amadeus has had today/last night?

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Oneworld alliance RTW booking. JFK to Darwin. Cathay to Hong Kong. Malaysia to KL and then Darwin.

Cathay could only check me in to HKG apparently (**** of of luck if have bags!)

Transfer desk isn't open for Malaysia. My flight is in 8 hours!!!

I'm stuck in transit with a standard uncomfy chair and a water cooler instead of be business lounge where I should be. It was all one itinerary.

Any ideas? I tried Finnair & Qantas given they're also oneworld but they said wait, can't do anything. Wtf.

I could try online checkin but can't print of course.

If the CX & MH flights were on the same ticket then the only other reason the bags may not have been tagged on to MH is the transit time in HKG may have been too long. This is different for each airport and is not the same as the 24 hour transit rule for the T&C's of the ticket. CX no longer have a restriction on adding in oncarriage flights for other OW airlines on separate tickets.

Even if the bags were through checked to DRW you still need a boarding pass in order to get through transit security on the arrivals level at HKG up one level to departures so you can't just proceed to a lounge and get a boarding pass there. If you do OLCI you must have a printed copy of the boarding pass - they won't accept you showing them a boarding pass on a tablet. If you do a mobile checkin they will accept the QR on the phone.

The only people who can check you in for the MH flight are either MH themselves or a ground handling agent who has access/signin code to the MH system. The only time QF or AY would be able to issue a boarding pass is if the MH flights were preceded by a QF or AY flight respective which would be IATCI or inter airline through checkin.

Did the CX ground handler in JFK give you a reason as to why they couldn't through check the bags?

Issues like this of not being able to issue connecting board passes on the same PNR usually relate to connecting airlines not using the same GDS. CX and MH both use Amadeus, with MH having just changed recently.

Could this be caused by a problem on MHs side with their Amadeus roll out, or the Amadeus has had today/last night?

A hiccup with boarding passes shouldn't make any difference as to whether bags are checked through to the final destination. Don't know whether the contract CSA in JFK thought if they only got a boarding pass JFK/HKG then that's where the bags had to be tagged to so short tagged the bag to HKG.

Even if all the flights were in the same pnr if the maximum transit time for the through check of baggage was exceeded then the onward MH flight wouldn't be visible in the checkin system.

 

[drron]

Though we have had our bags through checked at HKG when we had a ~ 24 hour transit at HKG so transit time shouldn't have been an issue.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Though we have had our bags through checked at HKG when we had a ~ 24 hour transit at HKG so transit time shouldn't have been an issue.

If that's the case then I'm leaning towards thinking that the CSA in JFK thought incorrectly that if they only got a CX boardng pass as far as HKG then that's where the bags had to go which is incorrect. The CSA must have elected to short tag the bags to HKG because if they let the system print tags out then the default option would've been to tag them the whole way to DRW.

Bags can always be tagged to the final destination as long as a baggage agreement exists even if you don't get all the boarding passes.