Originally Posted by
lex04
All,
I have to travel PSP-SIN later this month. The problem is, I can't leave PSP an earlier than the morning of 3/18 and I have to be in SIN no later than the evening of 3/19, which means there are very few options. Travel office currently has me booked PSP-SFO-PEK-SIN, with PSP-SFO-PEK on UA (SFO-PEK = UA 888, a 747), and PEK-SIN on SQ. The connection time in PEK is only 1hr 10 mins.
Anyone with experience transiting in PEK know if this is doable or not? My understanding is that PEK can be tough and obviously UA's 747s can be prone to delays.
Any thoughts on alternate routings? UA 1 doesn't work because it doesn't arrive until the morning of 3/20.
Thanks in advance.
Speaking from a bunch of experience, transferring at PEK is painful. Even with both flights at T3E (which yours should be), it still involves a line for a passport / boarding pass check to ensure you're eligible to transfer without clearing immigration, going downstairs to another line for a document check by Chinese security services, and one last line for actual security. If everything was empty, it would be 15 minutes. But it won't be, and it taking 45+ minutes isn't unusual.
And if you have to change terminals then everything is off, as you need to see immigration for a TWOV entry, complete the transfer and then still go through the two security checks.