Photos taken yesterday at about 0615 at HKIA. Great thanks to @travilani for an awesome day!
Thanks for posting these, Peach! Glad to know I helped for some reason (although the upcoming info I got was too late considering the race is already over). Anyway, this how things went on that morning:
It was a few minutes after 6 AM. I found that counter on Aisle E, which was very strange. CX counters can only be found on Aisles A to C, and D on rarer occasions. My years for working at HKIA, and I have NEVER seen a CX counter on aisle E. They even put a "for people with disabilities only" at the start of the line.
Ok, so I was gonna sit by the nearby bench to observe, when suddenly /////// & /////// ran past by me! (I felt goosebumps haha) They checked-in all their backpacks, and. they took about 10 mins in the counter before they stepped aside to say something for the camera; you know, things like "We're very excited/we know we could win this/blah blah blah." After that, they went to immigration, and I wasn't able to follow them anymore.
In the picture I posted, there's a man in black, a woman in a black dress, and the CX lady. They wrapped up everything in that counter after that team checked in, so I assumed all the remaining teams are already waiting by the gate. The three walked together, until the black dress woman parted ways with the two. I approached her and this is how our conversation went (note that I was wearing very civilian clothes to avoid suspicion):
Me: Excuse me, do you speak English? (had to pretend I was not a Hongkie lmao)
Woman: Yes, why?
Me: That "team", do you know where they're going?
Woman: (long pause) ... What?
Me: That "team". Where are they flying to?
Woman: (long pause) ... Oh, they're flying to the US!
Me: Oh, I see, but which city?
Woman: (long pause) ... Oh I dunno, maybe JFK?I thanked her and quickly got out of there. Part of me felt like she was bluffing, but she talked to me very nervously. She said JFK instead of plainly saying New York (thinking that I have no idea about IATA codes), and that raised suspicion if she was actually telling the truth. I eventually found out that she was telling the truth, thanks an anonymous source in that flight; too bad I got the info very late.
.. and that's about it! I'm still in the process of finding out who the complete top teams are though. This season's gonna be exciting, nevertheless!
