marvinc

Having never been to Oz before and going in next couple of weeks for a reccie. The transfer time between flight landing at HK and then taking off for Perth is just an hour, anyone have any experiance of this, seems a bit tight?

Also are flights normally pretty full, we're going early evening from Heathrow? Not sure if this is a 'how long is a piece of string' question but a friend that flies to Thailand frequently says he's learnt which flight are full/empty and wondered if same applied to Oz?

Many thanks

medwaymark

We went with them in August. Seemed like there were quite a few empty seats. The HK to Sydney leg was a smaller plane so seemed more full. We had a smaller plane for the whole trip back. Don't do it often enough to know if there is a pattern though.

Worth checking in online, you can choose your seats then. We were a bit worried because on the online check in we selected a bit where there was just 2 seats together, but there was actually 3 when we got on the plane. The seat wasn't occupied though, so we had a spare seat between us. Not sure if it would have been taken if the plane had been full though.

Just an hour to transfer does sound tight cos you have to go through the security searches again. I wouldn't hang about going to the loo and that though unless you really need to, the queues were quite long. Also on the return trip, we had to get on a train to go from one gate to another. It was quick, but still eats in to your time.

We were quite happy with the service though & the food was nice.

Pollyana

Flown to Brisbane with Cathay a couple of times, and they are a great airline; crew very polite and courteous. Both trips have been on flights two-thirds full, so you may be lucky My first one was this time of year, and the flghts were nowhere near full.
Re the Hong Kong transfer - best thing to do is to get yourself to the departure gate before you do anything else - mark's right that you may have to change terminals. If you need the loo etc, try and find the gate first, then go to the nearest one while you wait for the queue to go through Security.

marvinc

Many thanks for both replies

sammyg

We had a nightmare change flying into Dubai then on to Manchester with emirates on our way back from OZ.

Landed in Dubai and as soon as we were off the plane our names were called out Had to run to the connecting flight and just got there before they closed the doors...luggage didn't make it though

lee28

We flew CP as well before and all 4 flights from london to HK and onto perth were empty and we got spare seats each to lay down on, same when we fly with emirates.

renth

Are you sure? The flights that take off in the UK in the evening arrive in HK in the afternoon. The Perth flight isn't until nearly midnight, giving you plenty of time.

bcworld

I just had a trip to the UK (on Emirates), leaving on Sep 14 and coming back Oct 5 - not sure what the situ was with UK and Oz school holidays but every flight was 100% full - this seems to be more and more common these days as I think some of the airlines have cut Oz capacity - I know Singapore has cut some flights to Brisbane to redeploy to more profitable routes.

I wouldn't worry too much about your connection in HKG, minimum legal connection time Cathay to Cathay is 45mins - you'll probably find there will be at least a few others connecting onto the Perth flight and if its going to be tight they will assist you / hold the flight for a bit if numbers justify it.

bcworld

There is a flight to PER at 1505 with 60 minute connection from the evening (6pm) LHR flight......agree its a pretty tight connection given the kind of delays LHR can be susceptible to at that time in the evening.

renth

Really, interesting, a direct flight?

I would have taken this if I'd seen it on the Cathay site. I've had another look and it I still can't see it.

steve99

Flight 171 - seems to be every day of the week except Tuesday and Thursday and is Direct to Perth.

bcworld

Not direct exactly, CX250 connects to CX171.

steve99

The site I looked at showed CX171 leaving Hong Kong and going direct to Perth.

bcworld

Sorry, thought you meant LHR - PER.

renth

OK, so what's the consensus about the original poster's "The transfer time between flight landing at HK and then taking off for Perth is just an hour" ?

I still maintain the transfer time is hours and isn't a problem.