TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published.
I love the option of checking in in downtown Hong Kong because the lines are often non-existant and, if you have baggage to check-in, it means you don’t have to schlep it all the way to the airport on the train – you check in at the station and the next time you see your bags is at your destination. It’s great.
Sadly, however, travelers heading to the US will no longer be allowed to use this option with immediate effect.
Here’s the announcement from Cathay Pacific to explain why:
To meet the enhanced US Security Measures effective 26 October 2017, Cathay Pacific will suspend In Town Check-in and Self-Bag Drop services for passengers booked on flights to the United States, with the exception of those travelling on Flight CX888 to New York/JFK via Vancouver.
While passengers may still check in online, they are asked to check in their baggage at the dedicated counters on Aisle B at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), where they will be subject to a short security interview. Passengers without check-in baggage should proceed to the boarding gate directly as early as possible, where they will be also be subject to a short security interview.
We therefore advise all passengers travelling to the U.S. to arrive at the airport three hours prior to departure to ensure they can proceed through all airport checkpoints in good time.
So….
It would seem that the reason for all this is because passengers now have to have a “short security interview” before being allowed to travel to the Land of the Free and this “interview” can only be done at Hong Kong International airport and not at the downtown check-in locations.
It’s pathetic.
This whole security charade is completely out of hand. If anyone seriously believes that the people doing these “interviews” have any chance of keeping us all safe then they’re living in a dream.
This ridiculous idea of interviews has been around for a while and we had to put up with it when traveling back to the US from the UK for a number of years….and it was laughable.
I was once asked where my US visa was while the intellectually-challenged neanderthal conducting the “interview” stared down at my US passport. I gave him a few seconds to rethink the question but he didn’t understand my hesitation and simply repeated himself.
I’ve also been asked questions about my salary and my personal life (none of which I answered as they’re no one’s business but mine) so, as a pasty-white caucasian male, I have genuine sympathy for anyone with even a hint of a tint to their skin tone.
Let’s not forget that this new requirement is brought to you by the same geniuses who insisted thousands of people check their laptops and other electronic devices into the aircraft hold….while now we’re told that they want to ban those very devices from the hold due to serious safety risks!
You can’t make this stuff up!
Bottom Line
Not being able to check-in at one of the downtown locations in Hong Kong may only be a small inconvenience but it’s what it represents that’s the issue.
Travelers are constantly being subjected to a variety of inconveniences that are all foisted upon us in the name of “security”…..but it’s all theatre.
As the incompetent TSA prove to us on a near-daily basis, if someone wants to get airside with a weapon or with malicious intent they can do so almost at will so all the hassle passengers are regularly put through is mostly for nothing….and this new policy in Hong Kong is no different.
Our administration here at home is already considered a joke in most civilised countries and, sadly, the more of these pointless “security measures” we insist other countries introduce the more laughable the rest of our country becomes too.
