psychoidiot

I'm planning on flying from ORD on Hainan in November, and while they offer flights to Xi'an, I would have to layover for 13 hours overnight. Or I can buy a ticket on china eastern (about $1000 rmb) that leaves at 20:00 that night. However, my flight from ORD gets into Beijing at 18:20, and that might be cutting it close.

Or is there a way to restructure my itinerary so I can take advantage of stopover rules?

ORD-XIY-HKG? (I know I have to buy a flight from XIY to HKG as Hainan does not go there)

moondog

What stopover rules are you referring to? If HU doesn't have flights to XIY that connect with ORD-PEK, it seems that you've already identified your two most logical options, but you should be able to score that MU flight for much less than Y1000.

Where does HKG fit into the picture, just out of curiosity?

JPDM

Hard to follow what you're trying to say but landing at 18h30 to catch a domestic flights at 20h00 is not a good idea. You need one more hour to be safe.

moondog

Well, HU uses T1 and MU uses T2, which is a lot easier than T3 connections. Furthermore, TPACs tend to arrive on-time or early, while MU flights late in the day don't have an especially stellar track record to put the situation mildly.

That having been said, this these would be second tickets, the MU ticket would stand a good chance of going "poof" in the event of a misconnect.

JPDM

That's my point. Having to depend on your inbound flight to be early and the departing flight to be late does not sound like a good plan to me.
Unless ou are lucky, it can easily take an hour to clear immigration and pick-up your luggage. You need to check-in your next flight 45 minutes ahead. Even not considering moving between terminals, it doesn't work.

moondog

I'm pretty sure that 30 minutes is still the cutoff at PEK-T2, and an hour for border control at T2 at 6p seems extremely conservative for me (30 minutes is the longest I've ever had to wait personally). In short, I'd give my self 90%+ odds of making that connection. However, I still wouldn't roll those dice. The shear thought of the "prize" being 2 hours on an MU plane after having endured a 13 hour flight on HU sends shivers up my spine. Peacing out in Beijing for an evening is a no-brainer. In fact, if it were me, I wouldn't continue onto XIY until noon the following day.

jiejie

I also am not clear on what the OP is trying to accomplish. Please return and clarify: are you trying to get to Xi'an or are you trying to get to Hong Kong? Questions about flight connections are one thing, but you are now adding Immigration issues (visa vs TWOV) into the mix. Be very very careful and make sure you are extremely clear of all regulations before jumping and booking flights. Any scenario that has you touching two airports in China knocks you down to 24 hours without a visa...which isn't enough to accomplish much business or sightseeing. And there is a little potential whammy if you hold a US or Canadian passport about transits and Xi'an, in some situations. If you intend to travel on a Chinese visa, then no worries except for connection times/pricing. I am also wondering about the magic Hainan airlines holds for you.

moondog

Xi'an is part of the 72 hour deal now. (I guess we should update the wikipost in the main thread.)

ETA: I just noticed that Americans and Canadians still can't use XIY for multi-stop TWOV.

JPDM

Check-in deadline is airline related, not terminal related. Walk around and you'll see the counters of some airlines showing 45 minutes while some show 30 minutes. Don't know about Xi'An but in Beijing, Hainan Airlines has a deadline of 45 minutes.

Irrelevant as he can't qualify with 2 stops in China in any case.

moondog

MU (the airline he wants to book for the same day connection) has a 30 minute cutoff. I'll take your word on HU having a 45-minute cutoff in Beijing, but 30 minutes has been the national standard for many years, and at airports with common check-in (i.e. most), it certainly isn't airline specific. PEK T3 caused a bit of a stir in the news when it first opened because it went with a 45 minute cutoff for domestic flights.

I was responding to jiejie's post about Xi'an potentially being a "whammy".

BTW, since the OP hasn't returned to this thread, we still have no idea of whether or not he has a PRC visa.

psychoidiot

Thanks everyone for confirming that buying the second ticket is not a good idea. (Visa is not a problem, I'm going to apply for one as I'll be in China for more than a week). I have to hit HKG for a wedding and going back to CAN to visit family but wanted to fit in Xian since I was flying ish in that direction (Hainan connects in Beijing, which I thought was closer than HKG or CAN).

Hainan doesn't have any special appeal for me other than it's cheaper (845 vs 1100 for the same dates in November, plus leaving from CAN for my return trip).

I guess booking a hotel in Beijing it is for the night close by since there's nothing to see at night..

moondog

Many of us would beg to differ on this point. Do you like street food?

psychoidiot

I do - but I've been to Beijing once when I was 15 and got sick / did not seem to like Northern food too much (I hate black bean sauce and I can't really have spicy foods).

This would require a trip into the city center right though?

moondog

Yes, but we're only talking about 30-40 minutes each way, and the airport area is completely dead.

There is all sorts of street food that isn't spicy. I also dislike black bean sauce.