surbiton_flyer

Has anybody got experience of making this transit with checked baggage. We are flying BA LGW-ALG then QR ALG-DOH-PEK and need to take baggage with us.

cstorrie

Hey was anyone ever able to offer insight into transiting in Algiers with checked baggage?

i tried to get some answers from the Algerian consulate in London but they were useless. Planning to fly out of Algiers for a flight at 12:30pm. Got a number of possible options for entry, easiest flying from Marseille arriving 09:00am but can’t figure out if I need a transit visa or not

My big concern is trying to get on a flight from France and having issues at check in due to lack of visa and minimal French

cstorrie

Further update to this thread, i changed my mind and decided attempting to do this with checked baggage was too complicated. I finally got a useful response out of the London Algerian Consulate they told me you can transit without a visa if it's only in transit for a couple of hours.....then he went to check something and came back and said EXCEPT you can't do that at the moment as there is building work ongoing at the airport which prevents staying airside.

So i'm really none the wiser, sounds like i should be able to do it without a visa, unless his statement about the airport building works is accurate

frebay

Hi All,
Need some suggestions. I'm currently in Africa and supposed to fly ALG-LAX back. 1 month ago I mailed my visa application into the NY Algeria embassy, and even calling them every 3 days and getting assurances it would be ready on time it wasn't. A day before my trip, I sent a messenger to the embassy, and they started yelling at him and threw back our passports. We received the passports overnighted back without our visas. No big deal as I figured I would transit. My departure flight out of Alg is at 12:40pm. After reading this thread and some other places I'm confused on what I should do.

Option 1: Fly back to BCN take 6am flight and arrive at 7am on Vueling and transit. Positives are it gives me 5 hours to clear transit. The risk is that Vueling might not board me in BCN.

Option 2: Fly to MAD and take IB MAD-ALG flight that arrives at 11:40. This is the same plane of my return leg. Positives are IB can see my return ticket and let me board, or even just let me stay on the plane. The risk is it's only a 1 hr turn, and if I don't clear in time, the plane won't wait for me. I'll miss my flight and be stuck in purgatory of the ALG airport.

Which option do you suggest?

GetSetJetSet

I am trying to do this as well. BA in from LGW connecting to the ex-ALG OW cheap J fare. Does anyone know what's going on over there?

1. Is this connection possible?

2. Can you transit without a visa or do I need to get a visa and overnight in Algiers?

linz36

Yes, with luck. It took me 45min to transit, and if you know what to do and have your onward boarding pass already it should be possible. BUT the LGW-ALG flight rarely run on time, so if you land 30min late you are in trouble.

Yes, I have done it, but getting on the plane on LGW without the visa seems to be tricky. I got a visa just so be able to board the flight to ALG without an issue.

GetSetJetSet

I am going to buckle and get the visa as well and spend a night in Algiers on the way back. Not worth the risk.

surbiton_flyer

yuomi

Any further info on this?

I'm looking at arriving into ALG on the IB from MAD at 12.40 and leaving again on the return back to MAD at 13.40.

If anyone with experience of this or similar can say whether this transfer is possible or not I'd be very grateful. Thx.

GetSetJetSet

Went through ALG twice recently. You would be coming in and going out on the same plane. When I came in on that IB flight there was little to no wait to get through passport control. Assuming you are TWOV and you wouldn't have to go landside, get a new BP and wait to go through immigration and security again it should be very easy to make the return to MAD. I would email swissport and verify that there will be an agent there to help you TWOV. If they are just walking you from passport control back upstairs to your gate it should be a cinch.

qasr

@GetSetJetSet Who did you email? Looks like a lot of options here: Swissport International Ltd. - Network

I'm thinking of doing MS into ALG at 12:25pm (inshallah) and out on IB at 1:40pm... I think if they are on time I'll be fine. Thoughts?

GetSetJetSet

I emailed several people at Swissport. However (don't hold me to this), I think it's reasonable to make that flight even if you have to enter the country and exit again if you already have your BP. As people noted, when you land if you tell them transit, tight connection even without prior contact with Swissport, you should be able to get someone to walk you back to the gates. Let us know how it goes. Doing another one of these turns in May.

qasr

jmail1

Hopefully by March the new Terminal West is open. I can't imagine they'd build a new terminal without a proper transit facility?

I am planning a quick (2.5 hour) turn trip in March and am hopeful, although my experience there was very pleasant with a 4 hour turn last year. They allowed us to sit in the terminal and wait while they handled our docs. Took them a full three hours but that likely had to do with the fact they had plenty of time to handle it and had to wait on the Iberia reps to show up.

NickB

I am not so sure that,as a general rule, one should necessarily make such an assumption. I would have thought what little transfer there is on Air Algerie is Int-Dom or Dom-Int rather than int-int. If there is only a small amount of transit traffic, it does not make a huge amount of sense to develop transit facilities that are little used. Even if you build the infrastructure for future proofing, it does not follow that processes and facilities would be in place on opening. That said, in that particular case, it would appear that opening up the possibility of accessing the transit market was one of the considerations behind the extension of the airport so it is possible that there will indeed be proper transit facilities when the airport is extended.