dede

I will be arriving at HKG from San Francisco on Singpore Air at 6:30am, enroute to Bangkok on Thai Airways. My choices for the connecting flight are an 8:00am departure (1 1/2 hour layover) or an 11:20am departure (nearly 5 hour layover). If it matters, it will likely be a Wednesday or Thursday morning in early May.

Can I make the 1 1/2 hour connection or would that be cutting it too close for comfort?

Thanks for the guidance.

Cicerone

I live in Hong Kong so don’t transit through the airport, but do transit through other airports in Asia and IMO 1.5 hours would be enough time. You will not have to go through immigration or customs here, and your bags will be transferred automatically (but see below). All you will be doing is changing planes.

Generally, in my experience over the last 20 years, long-haul international flights from the US are on time, and in fact often 15 minutes or more early on arrival, as they can get a tail wind. (The planes are also generally only used once a day for flights, and so you don’t have the problem of waiting for the aircraft to arrive from another flight; which means long-haul international flights generally always depart on time.)

You may have to get a boarding pass for your Thai Airways flight here, as it is unlikely that Singapore Air will ticket you in San Fran. That is easy to do, you just go to the correct Transfer Counter and get the boarding pass. (Singapore Air will however, check your bags all the way through to Bangkok; don’t confuse an inability to issue boarding passes with baggage-handling arrangements which virtually all airlines share.) For information on transit counters and being “in transit” at Hong Kong Airport generally, go to hongkongairport.com, and in particular, http://www.hongkongairport.com/eng/tbu/transit.htm. The transfer area for Thai Airlines is W1, so, once you get off the plane, look for signs for Transfer Area W1 and go to this area to get your boarding pass for your onward flight.

You may want to confirm that Singapore will transfer your bags all the way to Bangkok; because if for some very very strange reason there is no baggage transfer, then IMO 1.5 would be cutting it very close, as you would have to go all the way into the main arrivals hall, go through immigration, go to the baggage claim area, wait for your bags, and then go upstairs and re-check in everything for the flight. I cannot imagine that this would be the case, and I personally have never had to do it when switching from or to Singapore Airlines and other airlines, but someone on the Europe board told me that British Air does not transfer bags, so I wanted to mention it.

If you are talking about the week of April 30- May 5, that is a major holiday week in the PRC and Japan (but not Hong Kong); the airport is likely to be crowded, but that should not affect the arrival of your flight.

Hanuman

To add to Cicerone's reply - I've done this connection(from Lax via HKG to BKK) several times and 1 1/2 hour is plenty of time. I've flown CX from LAX and connect to TG at Hong Kong a few times so it's very simple and Cicerone has already described the procedure in detail.

WinterTravel

1 1/2 hours is plenty of time to connect in Hong Kong. You might get a boarding pass for your Thai flight when you check in at San Francisco (since both Singapore Air and Thai are Star Alliance carriers you should be able to check in and check your luggage all the way through).

rkkwan

You get <b>headwind</b> flying SFO-HKG, not tailwind. But in May, it's not particularly strong and the flights should be on-time. The SQ flight leaves SFO so late that airport congestion is not a problem.

[It's more iffy in the winter, when few times a year, even SFO-HKG flights have to refuel in Taipei or Seoul, adding 2-3 hours.]

Also, this aircraft arrives SFO from HKG at 7:25p, so have almost 6 hours of layover. No reason for it to be late for its 1:20am SFO departure.

Your bags will be transferred automatically. If you buy this itinerary as a single ticket, if you miss your 8:00am Thai flight, they'll simply rebook you on the 11:20am. Or maybe even put you on Cathay or other airlines. But your risk will be higher if these are separate tickets.

dede

Thanks so much, all -- you are the best!