Wheels up Mon 21 Sep, 01:15. Leave for the airport Sunday ~22:00. Tick as you go — saves in this browser.
Return flight. Cathay can refuse boarding at Bangalore on a one-way with a visit visa. This is a boarding risk, not a border risk.
Stay. You land 22:40 Monday. Arriving with nowhere booked is a bad first night.
VJML Jain meal. Cut-off is 24h before departure — Sunday 01:15. Without it there is nothing you can eat for 34 hours.
Online check-in is open now. T-48h passed at 01:15 today. Best seats go first.
SFO–BLR. Sun 22 Nov was ₹62,704 (2 stops) / ₹91,428 (1 stop, 21h30m). Clear of Thanksgiving week.
Potrero Hill. Entire place, not a room. Confirm late self check-in — you arrive near midnight.
cathaypacific.com → Manage Booking → PNR F2E49B → Discover Meal Options. No meat, fish, egg, onion, garlic, root vegetables. Served before the trolley.
Open now. A350 (BLR–HKG) is 3-3-3, take A or K. 777-300ER (HKG–SFO) is 3-4-3, avoid the middle four. Pick a row with one seat taken.
immd.gov.hk. Free, minutes. Needed to leave the airport on your 15h20m layover. Print the slip — it must travel with the passport.
Free. ~9,500 miles on this trip. Retroactive claims are a hassle.
US hotels and car rentals place pre-auth holds that forex cards fail. Collect it and activate before you fly.
Back from Chennai. Check validity is at least 6 months past 21 September.
So the fraud engine does not freeze you in week three.
Fives, tens, twenties for tips. Restaurants 18–20%.
Windproof. SF is 23°C in September but the wind and fog are genuinely cold, and November drops to 10–17°C with rain. The one thing you cannot improvise.
Slippers will not carry ten weeks of customer meetings. Chinos and a good shirt is the SF ceiling — no suit needed.
Two t-shirts and two underwear means laundry every second day. Fine if deliberate — Uniqlo and Target are cheap there. Just decide now rather than discovering it in week one.
Checked. 23kg limit, 1 piece.
Cabin. 7kg limit.
Food is heavy. Excess baggage at the counter is priced punitively.
Power bank must be in cabin baggage, never checked.
Commercially packaged only. Loose from a sweet shop gets confiscated.
Allowed if sealed and labelled. These are what make the first fortnight survivable.
Fresh produce, any meat in any form, fresh dairy and seeds are prohibited even in checked baggage.
Non-declaration is fined even when the item was allowed. Tick the food box and let them look. Nothing on your list is a problem if declared.
Liquids over 100ml go in the checked bag.
Original labelled packaging plus a doctor’s letter. Refilling a foreign prescription in the US is slow and expensive.
Paracetamol, antacid, plasters. Even over-the-counter is priced painfully there.
PNR F2E49B. Download the boarding pass offline.
Must travel with the passport. One without the other does not work.
Shown at the Bangalore check-in desk, not just at US immigration.
Company letter stating business purpose, proof of funds, accommodation confirmation, meeting invitations.
With the 24-hour assistance number. Minimum $100,000 plus evacuation.
Airport wifi fails at exactly the wrong moment.
Airalo or Holafly for landing day. Mint ($45 for 3 months) once you have a US address.
Note you are on Pacific time so a 12.5-hour delay is not read as being ignored.
Do not carry the cabin bag round the city. September is 28–31°C and humid.
Dedicated Jain menu. Sangeetha has branches in East TST and Central. Branto and Smrat also do Jain.
Plaza Premium at HKG has showers. On a 34-hour journey that is worth more than the lounge itself.
Airport Express is 24 min. Check the HK Observatory first — September is typhoon season and a T8 signal shuts the city.
Business meetings, six to ten weeks, return booked and may move. A short ticket does not cap your stay — the I-94 does.
After landing, on the CBP site. It governs your stay, and it is not always what you assumed.
Copy Kamlesh Mehta, 408-839-8996 — national president and SF chapter chair. Chapter meets third Thursday 8:30 PM: 15 Oct and 19 Nov.