Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
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.
I think the problem here is that from what I can glean from what you wrote, you didn't have a stopover in NRT - if that is right then I fear that the DL staff may have been technically correct....
I did a TWOV at PVG last year, and I did it on separate PNRs, so I had to research the rules
very thoroughly as I knew I may have had a fight on my hands:
Both the embassy and the TIMATIC wording make it very clear that you
must be travelling to a third country in order to take advantage of the TWOV rules. So, something like JFK-PVG-DTW is not allowed (it's an open jaw, but you are still travelling to/from the same country). The point about needing to travel to a country that you need a visa for is just wrong, and a red herring, you could legitimately do JFK-PVG-LHR and TWOV in PVG, even though if you are a US passport holder, you don't need a visa for the UK.
But, I fear that, as far as Delta is concerned, DTW-x-NRT-PVG-DTW, is equivalent to DTW-PVG-DTW, and is not allowed as a TWOV (after all, you can do an international connection at NRT and never enter Japan, so you would never have actually involved a third country).
Useless advice now, but it looks to me like your best bet would have been to get them to check you to NRT only, exited to landside at NRT, and then re-checked in for the PVG flight at NRT, which would then have been completely OK, and TIMATIC would have agreed with you (and anyway, the DL staff at NRT have got to be better than the US ones...) - if your ticket allowed it, that would have been the path of least resistance.
I disagree with the assertion that you should just get a Chinese visa - if you are allowed to use TWOV, then you should be able to use it, and DL should allow it! Unfortunately, assuming an on-line connection at NRT, I think you've been caught in one of the "edge cases" of the TWOV rules.
Of course, if the DL staff had a clue about either visa rules or customer service, they should have suggested the above to you at the time - shouldn't they?
Ken.
Willard the Bear - Thankfully, Bears are exempt from all Visa restrictions. (Though some nice immigration officers have been willing to stamp my passport anyway!)