A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,413
Delta STILL does not understand the TWOV rules
I was ticketed on one DL ticket for USA-NRT-PVG-USA, using (all DL marketed and DL operated) nonstop flights NRT-PVG, approximately 68 hours in Shanghai, and PVG-DTW nonstop.
Nevertheless the GA and redcoat insisted that this could not be 72 hour TWOV because Shanghai cannot be a transit point, although my routing would have qualified for 24 hour TWOV. They said that to do 72 hour TWOV I would need to go to some other country like Thailand that requires a visa.
They asked me whether I had called the US Embassy in China (NOT a Chinese consulate or embassy in the USA) and then the redcoat talked with a CBP guy who asserted that you cannot go to China without a visa.
I tried to show various printouts, including a printout from the SkyTeam link to TIMATIC done yesterday. I also had other printouts from Chinese consulates, etc. but the redcoat insisted that she was using "DL's own version of TIMATIC" properly.
The fact that I had done 72 hour TWOV earlier on exactly the same routing, and could show the TWOV stamps in my passport, made no difference since she claimed that the rules on this had changed this year.
WOW! So much for the suggestion that TWOV is easier now because the airlines have become accustomed to it.