david_oz

Hi all

My girlfriend and I are both Canadian citizens, we are travelling to China in transit to Australia on these flights:

Arrival into PVG: AC25 14:10 Sat Apr 15 (booked through AC)
Departure from PVG: CA175 19:35 Tues Apr 18 (booked through UA on a mileageplus award)

In doing my research on the 72 hour transit visa, it seems we are eligible for this visa despite the fact that we are staying just over 72 hours. The 'visa clock' begins at midnight on the night of our arrival. My research also says we need to inform AC at check in. I'm thinking there are a couple of reasons why we might anticipate problems:

1. We are exceeding the "strict" 72 hour requirement even though we are eligible for the visa
2. Our second flight is not booked through AC, so they won't be able to confirm it from their system.

Are these legitimate concerns, or am I being paranoid? Should we apply for chinese visas to be on the safe side? Should we inform Air Canada before check in?

Thanks

Dave

24left

The 72 hours TWOV is now 144 hours at certain airports. Details here and also an excellent thread

"China 24, 72, and 144 hour Transit Without Visa ("TWOV") rules master thread ..."

China 24, 72, and 144 hour Transit Without Visa ("TWOV") rules master thread


That said, and others here may agree, if you have the time to get a Chinese Visa, then that solves the issue of whether you qualify under TWOV and avoids having issues with various airlines.

YYT82

I have landed in PVG and went on my way to KIX on a separate ticket before (and transited in PVG again on the way back). AC agents in YVR are better informed about the visa-free transit rules than agents in YYZ. If they fret about the strict 72 hours, just show them the print out of the clock starting at midnight the night of arrival verbiage. The only airport in China that applies the strict 72-hour rule is PEK.

All this applies to transits. If a Chinese 72-hour visa-free transit airport is your point of turnaround, you might be denied boarding. (I had been denied boarding this way, fortunately it was a refundable ticket.) Although I didn't investigate whether the agent was right in denying me boarding (I assume he was).

eigenvector

Assuming you mean you doing something like Canada-China-intermediate point-Canada, that agent was making it up as he went along. As long as you depart China to a 3rd country, whether it's your "destination" or not is neither here nor there. The Chinese government does not care about airline routing rules. Canada-China-US-Canada is perfectly valid, for instance.

YYT82

But it has to be a 3rd country though correct? And I was just trying to avoid having to obtain a visa by staying in PVG for less than 72 hours before coming back on the same routing.

eigenvector

Oh ok yeah, that's not allowed.

expert7700

even when I am right and give agent the timatic (system they use) screen shots, it is a pain. took 3 trips and was initially denied checkin

getting our china visas as soon as we get new passports since ours are full.

david_oz

Hi all. We are at YYC this morning. We had quite a bit of trouble but finally made it onto the plane to YVR on the way to shanghai.

They insisted three times that we needed a visa, and each time I insisted they were incorrect. Luckily I had a printout of both our timatic printout and onward reservation handy. I'm not sure what they were looking at on their screen, but it was clearly incorrect. Eventually a phone call to some department cleared up the issue, but it took about 30 minutes total time.

sram

The gate agent in YYC is incorrect assuming you have an onward ticket from PVG to somewhere other than Canada or PRC. I've travelled to both PEK and PVG without visa (I'm in the process of getting one now) and onward to HKG without ever having an issue. The YYZ staff in the priority checkin area often question me, but I just tell them "I'm in transit". In fact you can't even transit within the PVG airport without getting a 24 or 72 hr visa.