Just got back from HK this morning....sorry this is a bit long, but thought our airports experience on our trip might be of interest.....
Outbound from BHX was fine, no issues at all. Check-in was swift, security there was a small queue, but it moved quickly, boarding was great, quick and all on-time.
Arrived Zurich a bit earlier than scheduled with a transit time of just over an hour. We have used Swissair through Zurich 4 times in the last year ( 1 * LAX, 1 * Singapore, 2 * HK ),
and each long haul departure has been from the midfield terminal, or E gates.
Transfer is great, a short walk to the underground train which runs every few minutes. A journey (accompanied
by a yodelling, cow bell and singing tape) of 2 - 3 minutes to the midfield terminal, a very quick pass through security again, and a walk to the departure gate. Five minutes after we arrived the flight started boarding.
Flight left on time, great service on board, and just over 11 hours later and a short hold at HK, we landed 30 minutes ahead of schedule.
This was the first time we had cleared immigration in HK, so we were not sure what to expect. There was quite a queue when we got to immigration, probably around 200 people, so thought
we would be in for a bit of a wait, but they had loads of desks open, the queue moved really quickly and we were through in about 15 minutes. When we got through, our luggage was already
going around the belt, well impressed. So, picked that up and took the short walk to the hotel we were booked into. Could not have been more impressed.
The return flight leaves HK at 00.15. So from hotel check out at 2pm we had a long wait. From 2 - 6.30 we had planned to go to the SkyDeck, however when we got there it was closed for maintenance, so over to Starbucks in Terminal 1 for a while. We had found out the day before that Swiss do an early check in starting at 18.30, so we took advantage of that, checked in and went through security.
The airport was really busy, but there was no queue for security and we went through the egates for passport control, so easy.
The flight boarded on time and the captain advised of the 12 hour flight time. The captain then said that departure would be delayed because we could not land at Zurich before 6.05am ( scheduled time is 6.10am ). So held on the ground for about 45 mins before departure. The flight routed up over China and then Russia and there was quite a lot of turbulence over China, probably one of the worst flights I have had for turbulence. In flight service was spot on again.
Landed just after 6.10am and parked on the main terminal rather than the midfield terminal. Transit time is 1 hour. The BHX flight normally departs from the main terminal but when we checked the boards it was
leving from E27, so we had to transfer to the midfield terminal. Once we had got over there and through security the flight was boarding, so straight on. The flight had been down as an A320 for quite a while
so was expecting a decent load. I was really surprised that there was only 19 on the flight. I can only assume that there was a decent load for the return.
Pushed back on time, temp was -6 when we landed, so we stopped at the de-ice station just by the midfield terminal for a spray. First time I had a close up view of this kit and it looked really good. The cab must have
been heated as the guy only had a jumper on !
Smooth flight to BHX landing just before 8.15. Got to immigration, and a bit of a queue, looked like the Montego Bay flight landed just before us. Expecting a bit of a wait, but glad to say that for the first
time i actually witnessed some really good organisation of the egates. They were all active and there were two girls directing people to an egate as soon as it was free. This worked really well, and although
there must have been 60 - 70 people in front of us when we joined the queue, we were through in a matter of minutes. I hope they continue with this arrangement because it was really efficient and made the best use of the egates. The egate process seemed to be a lot quicker as well, so they might have carried out some server or network bandwidth upgrade behind the scenes.
Even more impressed was when we got through immigration, our luggage was waiting.
So, from landing just before 8.15, i was home by 9.30, and that was getting the bus to the offsite parking in Coleshill ( through the B'ham business park rush hour ), picked up the car and drove to just south of
Swadlincote where we live. Well impressed and great work from everyone at BHX.
I have never had a problem at BHX, and that is whether travelling either peak or off peak. Maybe I have just been lucky !
Hopefully once the BHX Masterplan is published we will be seeing new terminal facilities planned and built and I hope whoever is responsible for the design visits the likes of Zurich and HK airports. In my view they are among the best around and the facilities are superb. HK in particular, the terminal is first class, and the organisation and speed of everything is superb. The hotel room we had overlooked the north side of terminal 1 and it was fascinating watching the ground crew turn planes around. It was so quick, wide bodies, including 747's in about an hour.
One of our sightseeing trips took us to see the Big Buddha, which is not far from the airport. One of the ways to get there is to take a cable car, and this gives panoramic/stunning views of the airfield. I have tried to upload a few pictures from the cable car, but they were too large unfortunately, or it could be just me not understanding how to embed a jpeg image.
For spotting, HK is just superb. The variety of aircraft, airlines and freighters is amazing, and should be even better in years to come when the new terminal and third runway are completed.
