kunas

Hello,

Today we experienced the worst ever flight experience. We know very well about China TVOW 72 hours rules. We had our flight:

1) Stockholm (Arlanda) - Beijing on January 11th leaving at 18:20. Arrival time was January 12th 9:40 in the morning
2) Beijing - Bangkok flight was supposed to be on January 15th at 13:20

Yes, we know it more then 72 hours, but also we KNOW that in Beijing airport:
- at Beijing (PEK), Chengdu (CTU), Chongqing (CKG), Dalian
(DLC), Guangzhou (CAN), Hangzhou (HGH), Shanghai Hongqiao
(SHA), Shanghai Pudong (PVG), Tianjin (TSN), Wuhan (WUH),
Xi'an (XIY) or Xiamen (XMN) for a max. transit time of 72
hours, starting from 00:01 on the day following the day of
entry.

So they had to let us take the flight but they didnt. We had printed Timatic, but they didnt care, even shouted on us and said that they are supervisors. We are Lithuanian citizens. We tried to show them this on the internet but they didnt care neither and said, that colleagues from China said they count the time from the moment of arrival till the moment of departure...

We are stuck in Stockholm and dont know what to do... Before this trip we read a lot on forum even asked here and you guys said we dont need to worry, also Air China will know the rules.. but they dont... They dont have office in Arlanda airport, they dont pick up the phone when we call them... What to do in situation like this? How to act?

We read that sometimes you have to show them Timatic, explain or ask for supervisor, as they dont know the rules, but today they refused our boarding... and here we are. Asking for your help.

freezefactor

Air China is right -- your time is greater than 72hrs.

See if you can move up your departing flight from Beijing (I assume it is not going back to ARN).

kunas

based on Timatic they count time starting 00:00 following the day of entry! So they are wrong

kunas

Where is it possible to find official timatic? In chinese would be amazing... we need to prove that they had to let us into the plane as the time should start from the 23:59 following the day if entry..

txflyer77

What was your entire itinerary, not just the ARN-PEK segment?

kunas

Just changed my text so its less emotions and you can all understand better:

Hello,

Today we experienced the worst ever flight experience. We know very well about China TVOW 72 hours rules. We had our flight:

1) Stockholm (Arlanda) - Beijing on January 11th leaving at 18:20. Arrival time was January 12th 9:40 in the morning
2) Beijing - Bangkok flight was supposed to be on January 15th at 13:20

Yes, we know it more then 72 hours, but also we KNOW that in Beijing airport:
- at Beijing (PEK), Chengdu (CTU), Chongqing (CKG), Dalian
(DLC), Guangzhou (CAN), Hangzhou (HGH), Shanghai Hongqiao
(SHA), Shanghai Pudong (PVG), Tianjin (TSN), Wuhan (WUH),
Xi'an (XIY) or Xiamen (XMN) for a max. transit time of 72
hours, starting from 00:01 on the day following the day of
entry.

So they had to let us take the flight but they didnt. We had printed Timatic, but they didnt care, even shouted on us and said that they are supervisors. We are Lithuanian citizens. We tried to show them this on the internet but they didnt care neither and said, that colleagues from China said they count the time from the moment of arrival till the moment of departure...

We are stuck in Stockholm and dont know what to do... Before this trip we read a lot on forum even asked here and you guys said we dont need to worry, also Air China will know the rules.. but they dont... They dont have office in Arlanda airport, they dont pick up the phone when we call them... What to do in situation like this? How to act?

We read that sometimes you have to show them Timatic, explain or ask for supervisor, as they dont know the rules, but today they refused our boarding... and here we are. Asking for your help.

kunas

Stockholm (Arlanda) - Beijing - Bangkok.

txflyer77

deleted

kunas

Called to their call center and there they said the same - I am not allowed to use 72 hour TVOW because I arrive in Beijing January 12 th 9:20 in the morning and leave January 15th 13:40 and thats more then 72 hours... They never heard about time starting later then the moment of the arrival.... Cannot believe this is happening

qpr

00861056095400

That's the phone number of Beijing Immigration.
Call them, they must know it (I hope).

jiejie

I'm speechless and baffled by the problem you are encountering, especially with their refusal to use TIMATIC. @qpr has the right number and approach, which is to call Beijing Immigration and get the straight story directly. However, it sounds like the bunch you are dealing with at ARN might refuse to call them or talk to them, even if you hand them the phone. I do hope this can resolve the problem, also you can indicate your willingness to sign a waiver that makes yourself instead of the airline, responsible for all costs and fines that might result from you being refused entry/transit at PEK. That's ultimately what the airline is trying to avoid. In some cases around the world, this has worked to allow boarding.

Keep detailed notes of all contacts (dates, times, people you speak with, any financial impact or costs you incur because of this). You may need to make a compensation claim against Air China for involuntary and wrongly denied boarding, according to whatever EU rules are on this---I am not knowledgeable on details but I believe something applies. Certainly you can tell Air China you will be filing a formal complaint against them under EU regulations.

Please come back to the thread and report what ultimately happened. I do hope your next contact will be from Beijing or Bangkok.

IceTrojan

After this whole thing (and if OP is proven right, which it sounds like they well), would this fall under the purview of EC 261/2004?

kunas

I would appreciate a lot if anybody could help me with providing a link to this 72 hour tvow explanation in any official chinese website, embassy or airport website...Also where I can write official complain about all this mess? Thanks for your help...

I will keep updated about whats going on.

qpr

Did you call the Beijing Immigration?

What did they say?

kunas

It was almost impossible to communicate with them due to very nad english.