[christ]

Yes I did check and I’m afraid you may be being misleading. At least you have finally admitted the BA service is freight and which it has been for most of covid (I saw rumours it may resume as passenger service via bangkok but it never materialised).

I tried taking an attaching a screenshot of United and American website but it says the file is too big and I don’t know how to shrink.

I suspect you are getting slightly confused with codeshares as there are some aa ones operated by cathay. If you coukd tell me a date there is a direct United flight in September, that would be great as I have been searching. I am happy to be proved wrong as some of my friends have been looking also.

I don’t find Qantas website very helpful but I have searched lots of dates for Sydney and cannot find until the end of October – I have not searched every day but their weekly timetable says no flights. At least cathay does have a very clear table of its flights for most of the year which is extremely helpful. If I go, I’ll probably go cathay to Singapore and then BA(as much as I’m tempted with Singapore airlines). Or maybe cathay direct.

Qatar prices I agree are crazy compared with what they used to be (they are slightly better ex Thailand or Singapore but still higher than they used to be). I wasn’t even that impressed with them but I didn’t have Q suite as had the old business.

Not that I have ever been but the best option from HK for europe seems to be Finnair as they will be running weekly on Fridays (soon I think). There seem to be some retun fares for about hkd 20k in business and some connect to the a330 with fiat bed from Helsinki to London.

Complaining re prices, I was shocked when I saw a ba club return from lhr to Glasgow at 700 pounds- think I would use the train!

[MartynSinclair]

Whatever the number of airlines flying to HKG and however many runways the airport has, is all largely irrelevant as the county still has 7 days strict quarantine. Very few business people will pay + 7 day for a short business trip.

I just wish some of your optimism cwoodward turned into reality.

[quote quote=1223724]Qatar prices I agree are crazy[/quote]

..and they will only get worse in the lead up to the FIFA world cup…

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Frederic, christ

[AlanOrton1]

Absolutely spot on Martyn.
IMHO it is simply cloud cuckoo land to suggest HK is opening up to business travellers. I suspect you, I and many others on here will schedule business trips again once the quarantine restrictions are lifted. Until then, sadly no.
The OP comments on another thread about travel chaos in the UK and Europe. Well, at least you can travel freely to these countries quarantine free to conduct business, albeit with the current airline / airport impediments.

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ASK1945, stevescoots, christ, MartynSinclair

[CathayLoyalist2]

…and with the cost of living crisis together with the cost of getting to Qatar, will we see a downturn in attendance? I think not

[christ]

I really hope HK does open up but it is hard to be optimistic and when you look at Macau which has about 50 cases and is in lockdown.

It is not just the quarantine, it is also getting a quarantine hotel – though there is often availability for the expensive hotels. At least they have stopped flight bans for now which gives a bit more certainty (well to the extent carriers do not cancel due to lack of planes / crews etc).

Even if they introduce 3 days hotel quarantine and 4 days home quarantine, I am not sure i fancy a tag on me for home quarantine and then there are still all of the tests and i am sure 3 days quarantine will not be 3/7 of the current hotel price. However even if the new policy is introduced, I am not sure how it would work for business people as they would not have a home for self – quarantine. Therefore maybe it would benefit locals more.

I just hope normality resumes soon in HK for flying and that also the European position improves. Nonetheless, I suspect (or would hope) that European airports will get better after the school holidays.

Whilst I am not Cathay’s number one fan (except LHR T3 lounge), it must be awful for them with all these restrictions (I assume Chinese airlines must be similar) with this having gone on for so long. Based on the daily passenger numbers for all flights (a few thousand each way) it is hard to imagine flights are that busy with Korean flying an A380, Singapore a few A350s a day, Cathay multiple A350s and A330s, Emirates a daily 777, Qatar a daily A350 and Eva a long haul plane (and I am sure there are others like Scoot etc) as the seats must outweigh demand.

Maybe next year will be better for travel 🙂

[cwoodward]

Christ, Hong Kong is opening up.

The number of cases has not not any sort of indicator in most countries for some months now.
Things have moved on as will HK as an instance 8% of the UK population has Covid yet borders still open.

HK now has almost all of the travelling public vaccinated with up to 4 shots and quarantine will be reduced or scraped all together in the near future as there is now a will and an an absolute need to do this. Importantly this need is recognised by the China president and tastily agreed already to a different path to opening up than that of the mainland.
Now that CL and her wishy washy ill informed hangers on have thankfully been replaced by a much stronger team HK is finally moving forward and opening up
Just take a look at HK share price increases in the past month. At my last glance Cathay was up 10% in under 4 weeks.

This is an indicator of informed confidence and now many expect Cathay to place an order for a further 30 new aircraft possibly at Farnborough later this month although Cathay are not known to place orders at air shows.

[christ]

I should not react to c woodward fantasy. Read SCMP or any news, there are not many airlines flying and yes we may be able to do 7 days home quarantine from November for bankers conference and people will not be allowed to go to high risk places (i.e. bars). Also the rugby 7s are expected to be cancelled.

Also only home quarantine only allowed for people who meet certain conditions and in HK tight space is few.

Until HK gets like the ROW, not much chance of people visiting (business or leisure) as people will not tolerate. And there are more hotels adding to quarantine (cwoodward prob not aware) such as renaissance harbour view with over 800 rooms and so no end in sight.

I saw CW went quiet with his mistatements re passenger flights for BA, United, American and Qantas – there are none.

[Tom Otley]

Deleted post.

Ladies and gentlemen, as I made clear on another thread, we all like to debate, but insulting one another isn’t acceptable.

I will close this and all other threads where an interesting and informative thread degenerates into this sort of name calling.

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Jacob, esselle, Woodpecker, cwoodward, Montysaurus

[Woodpecker]

This is an informative & educative thread, it is not just the third runway but also the accompanying infra structure of the terminal building renovation, the additional mid field concourse, as well as further developments. There is so much to know, learn & digest till these become fully operational in 2024.

I would kindly request Tom to keep the thread open, closing it down just because two contributors are at loggerheads may not be the optimal solution. They could just take their spat to another thread, and then another.

Would it be better to give them both a private nudge, as well as a request to stay on the topic?

[cwoodward]

Hi Woodpecker I applaud and endorse your suggestion to keep the thread open and I hope Tom agrees.
I do regret letting a provocative post getting under my skin and clearly I should not have responded even in the heat of the moment.

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GivingupBA

[TominScotland]

This might be of interest in the context of this thread

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/virgin-atlantic-suspends-hong-kong-flights-until-march-2023

[cwoodward]

More a causality of the UK airport chaos than any expected lack of demand I suspect

[Author]

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