lisajuly

trying to delete. not premium.

looks like swu are available. feb6-7. i have 2 swu to use. thinking with my status (platinum) i'd get double miles totaling over 33k miles...for $585. 2 hours in beijing. have the time. wondering if it's silly to spend all that time on planes or if i'm crazy not to. advise? also wanted to share for people wanting a jump on status.

$585
American Airlines Inc.
12:25 am
Feb 7
5:39 am
3h 14m
SFO to DFW
--
Overnight flight
10:35 am
Feb 7
2:55 pm
Feb 8
14h 20m
DFW to PEK
--
5:25 pm
Feb 8
5:00 pm
13h 35m
PEK to DFW
--
Overnight flight
6:45 pm
Feb 8
8:39 pm
3h 54m
DFW to SFO
--

snorLAX

2 hours inbetween seems dangerous.. Any delay or a long immigration line could potentially force an overnight.

aktchi

The fare is available till early April. I booked ORD-SFO-DFW-PEK rt for about the same price.

Beijing is an interesting enough city to spend a couple of days, plus that lets your body recover a little, why bother with immediate turn around?

lisajuly

EmailKid

Plus there's this little China Visa thing @:-)

Won't let you board a plane in US without that or an onward connection to outside of China (place of origin does not count).

And even with China Visa, 2 hours is asking for misconnect

PB86

Also works to PVG. Pretty open dates and comes out to 17,674 Miles.

SFO777

This.

djibouti

Does one have to go through immigration at PVG and/or PEK if never leaving the airport (there's no way to just go through transit security a la HKG?)

I don't mean for the visa issue--I know you won't be allowed to board in the US without one, but as far as the misconnect.

sukn

One has to go through immigration, no way to bypass on same day turn.

olouie

Reviews of the 787 in econ seem to be pretty brutal (great legroom in MCE, but very narrow seats). But great MR.

nonesuch flyer

There is more to it than just going through immigration...

When you get off the ORD-PEK flight you first have a fairly long walk to Passport Control. It took me nearly an hour to get process wen transited through PEK two years back. After passport control you have to catch a train to another building where luggage pickup and customs are located. You have to go this route even if you have not checked luggage.

At this point you have to find your way back to the train to go back to the terminal (so you will be on the departures level). I found this a difficult task. Little if any relevant signage is in English. I tried two different routes before I hit on the correct one. At several points I had to show my passport and boarding pass to an official at a checkpoint. If you do not have a boarding pass for your next leg I doubt you would get past these check points.

All this is made much more difficult because none of the security guards, immigration officers, etc appear to speak any English.

The next step is to get the train back to the terminal. Then up the escalators to another round of passport control and then through security checks. Depending on the tie of days this could take a significant amount of time.

After security you will have a long walk to the gate....

You can get a 48 hour Transit Visa at PEK so you do not have to have a Chinese Visa to board a PEK flight. You do have to have proof of an ongoing flight. This may be an issue for a ORD-PEK-ORD as you will not have a PEK-ORD boarding pass. Also with a Chinese visa you will probably get through passport control faster.

I have transited through PEK three times and I would not attempt to do it on anything less than a four hour turn around.

EmailKid

OK, that is just plain wrong.

As per Transit WithOut Visa thread in China forum, it's been 72 for quite a while, and as per thread title, it's transit WITHOUT VISA.

I realize you are trying to be helpful, but that will just confuse anyone trying to do this.

Mr._Hensley

+1. PEK & PVG are 72.

benzemalyonnais

The bolded part is also incorrect. There is no need to take that train back to the terminal.

arods3

Has anyone completed the 2.5 hr turn around time? I have a ticket on hold and wondering if its doable? I have a visa.