tropikey

Hi,
I'll arrive to Shanghai in late October and will have 7 days until departure from PVG. I'll be traveling with friend of mine who has never been to Hong Kong and insists to go there for 2-3 days. Generally, I've nothing against it, particularly that it will allow us to take advantage of 144 hours free transit visa. However, there's one thing, I can't decide about. Should we divide our visit to Shanghai and go to HKG in the middle of visit to Shanghai (for example: 2 days in Shanghai+ 3 days in HKG + 2 days in PVG), or rather go to HKG on the day of our arrival to PVG, without leaving the airport (for example3 days in HKG + 4 days in PVG)?
At first glance, it might look as nothing important but if we choose the first way, it'll result in 2 additional airport/hotel transfers, which, as some travelers report, might be quite painful and time-consuming. If fly to HKG right after arrival to PVG, we'll avoid such transfers and costs of them. From the other side, as I see from other threads here, we need anyway at least 3 hours to secure time required for connection between flights on separate tickets. What would you suggest to do?

MSPeconomist

Have you already purchased plane tickets? If not, look at cost and schedules for flying directly to HKG and then PVG or vv rather than first flying into PVG and immediately going to HKG.

889

I'd do the same-day transfer, though I'd first check the on-time record of the first arriving flight. Getting to and from Chinese airports is no fun.

moondog

I strongly support this approach, but if it's not an option, I actually would split Shanghai into two parts, rather try to fly straight through in one direction because you need quite a bit of schedule cushioning in order to pull off connections. If the OP choose to fly straight through, he should do it on the way down to HK because there are ~30 flights/day (i.e. easy to switch if you misconnect).

tropikey

Thank you very much for advice :-)

Here're some additional details.

Our tickets to PVG are already purchased. I bought them during famous QR Travel Festival, so at the time of booking I didn't think too much about further details of our trip ;-)
I planned initially to stay all 7 days in Shanghai area (what would require from us to apply for tourist visa) but as mentioned before, my companion insists on going to HKG (and I generally like this idea as HKG is such a great city + we're eligible to get free transit visa and will visit Shanghai anyway too).
I haven't checked out QR's on-time performance to this destination yet but hope that it's not bad. According to schedule, we're supposed to be in PVG at 4.20 pm, so if we book CX or KA evening flight (let's say approx. 7.00 pm and later), it would be possible to connect, wouldn't it?

We will be in J, so I assume that our luggage will appear on belt in first group. Thanks to this time required for transfer will be shorter. Additionally, since QR and CX/KA are in one alliance, perhaps it's possible that it's directed at origin (WAW) straight to HKG?
How about priority line for J passanger arriving to PVG. Does such exist?

Does the above information change anything in your opinion?

jiejie

The QR flight DOH-PVG has a pretty good on-time record, so you can probably make the 19:15 PVG-HKG flight, but a later departure in the 20:00-21:00 range would give you an extra cushion in case of inbound delays. Since this would be on a separate ticket, in the event you misconnect on the second, you won't be protected for a later flight and would have to depend upon airline staff goodwill and seat availability to do so. Perhaps flying in J on the second ticket, would give you a bit of leverage. You're going to have to clear Immigration at PVG--even using the TWOV queue--and pick up your baggage and then recheck for the second flight. If it's a CX/KA flight, at least it will be in the same Terminal.

I would still fly out to HKG the same evening as arrival, and do that all first, backloading the Shanghai part completely. For one thing, the bigger chunk of time makes doing daytrips to places like Suzhou, Hangzhou, water town, etc. more viable.

mosburger

Having arrived at PVG several times around 4pm after a CX/KA connection at HKG, I wouldn't want to fly any further the same afternoon or evening.

I feel a bit strong about this compared to others, probably, but it's also not fun to see your onward flight to HKG being possibly delayed or even canceled when you're tired from the long haul.

So do yourselves a favor, book one of the airport or downtown hotels for the night and return for a 8-9 AM flight to HKG the next morning. Well rested and with energy to spend a wholesome visit to the fragrant harbor.

cxfan1960

+1, but connecting to long haul is equally bad. You may miss a long haul easily because of delays and cancellations for short haul flights to PVG.

tropikey

I'd like to reactivate this thread for a moment as I've started to think very seriously about other scenario, even having in mind last two posts here.

The point is that my return flight from PVG to DOH is almost at midnight. In this case, I think it would be quite good and risk free idea to return from HKG to PVG with CX/KA on the same day. There's a lot of flights operated by these two airlines each day, so if we book one in the early afternoon, I think that risk of missing our long haul flight would be almost nonexistent. Don't you agree? If the date is important, it'll be the 6th of November.
Thanks to such booking, we could spend couple of days (within 144 free transit visa) in Shanghai, then we would go to HKG for another 3-4 days and then return to PVG but only in order to transit for another flight. Does it make sense, or do you see any considerable mistake in my thinking?

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

I'd say the risk is minimal, but far from non-existent. I've been plenty of times at PVG where several flights have been cancelled... while KA/CX will roll everyone forward there comes a time when flights are simply full and pax miss out (that, the waitlist and standby are closed). Most recent case was middle of 2016 for me... whole bunch of pax told there were no more flights for the day (I was on the 3.30pm departure which ended up taking off at 730pm).

You need to allow plenty of time to arrive, enter China, collect bags, re-check. Add two-three hour buffer for delays... it doesn't make an easy of stress free connection. And if your flights are on time you're sitting for hours at the airport waiting.

tropikey

thank you very much for warning. I'll have to think carefully about it.
I would like to avoid leaving the airport and going to the city again on our way back from HKG (mainly because of time required for such purpose). Perhaps, it might be good idea to return from HKG on the latest flight, sleep in hotel somewhere close to the airport, stay there as long as possible and then return to the airport? I made a quick search on internet and found Ramada Pudong, which seems to be quite good for such purpose. Another one is Novotel Clover, which is located further from the airport but offers shuttle bus (this one would be better, as I'm Accor Le Club member).
What do you think about such alternative. Will I save much time if I do it this way, instead of going back to the city center?