moondog

90% of my posts are insult free, but I'm not afraid of calling out errors. I happen to know a lot about this topic, and Chinese law in general.

samwise6222

Is AA generally OK with you flying AA to China - and then transferring to a LCC on a separate ticket?

dsp6178

I'm interested in this too. I've read through most of what is the 52 pages of this topic but I don't see this touched upon.

I am flying MIA-DFW-LAX-PVG. I will then spend 2 days in PVG before flying PVG-ICN on Korean Air, after 3 days in ICN I'll continue to KIX for a week before returning home NRT-DFW-MIA on AA. I meet all the transit requirements, I'll have booked/confirmed tickets for my onward travel, etc. However, I'm a bit concerned because it seems that AA agents (especially LAX ones) seem to not honor this. Anyone fly a similar routing recently? Thanks!

samwise6222

I just ended up getting 10 year visa as I just couldn't risk it

JJeffrey

Whether you are connecting on a separate ticket or the same ticket doesn't matter, just like it doesn't matter if the onward flight is on a LCC or a full service carrier. The above itinerary is 100% compliant with China TWOV rules and should be no problem. But as with everything related to AA and China TWOV, it all comes down to the individual agents at check-in. If you get a bad one that doesn't know the policy (and isn't willing to look any further) then you can get screwed even with a 100% compliant itinerary.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

As JJeffrey says, this itenierary is 100% compliant.

Worth noting that this itinerary doesn't fall within the 'known' category for AA problems - which is where there's a round trip USA-China-USA but with just a short transit in a third country either inbound or outbound. For example LAX-NRT(2 hours)-China-USA. In these cases some agents have refused to accept NRT (japan) as a third country.

In your case there is no such issue. The ticket for TWOV purposes is simply LAX-PVG-ICN and you have proper stopovers in PVG and ICN.

OskiBear

I did the exact same thing last November. I flew LAX-PEK, had a few days and then flew PEK-SIN on SQ and then SIN-HND-LAX on JL/AA codeshare.
I had a great agent at LAX when checking in, but it still took a bit of time. She knew it was compliant, but had to fiddle with her system to enter a bunch of info to get it to work. I had print outs of everything - all my e-ticket numbers, the TIMATIC info, etc.
I arrived about 3+ hours early to make sure I had enough time and also make sure I didn't get stressed out if there were any issues. I was hoping with daily flights to PEK/PVG from LAX, the agents would be informed...

dsp6178

Thanks! FWIW I just called and asked regarding my situation (AA MIA-PVG with a confirmed flight to Korea 2 days later) and inquired if AA was accepting of the 144-transit without a visa policy and she confirmed that YES, that it an acceptable routing and I'll be able to board without issues.

Steve M

Compliance with the China TWOV rules isn't really the issue. The issue is what the individual check-in agent will do. And, if that agent happens to have an issue with your itinerary, telling them that someone at AA told you over the phone that it will be okay will likely have no effect. Considering that people report issues at check-in at LAX, I'd be even more concerned at MIA, which is where your primary document check will occur, assuming you have a connection and not a stopover to your PVG flight.

I don't mean to create undo worry. What I would do is get to the MIA check-in counter at least 3 hours before departure so that you have time to work out any issues.

JDiver

I might carry a printout of the TIMATIC results for your travel, as OskiBear did. One page you can do this is the UA TIMATIC page: https://www.united.com/web/en-US/app...aspx?i=TIMATIC.

MSPeconomist

RogerD408

Yes, you can talk to everyone at AA and have all the paperwork possible, but it all comes down to the GA's ability/willingness to read far enough down to see that you're allowed to travel without a visa. I was in the same position and they even called the AA Travel Czar in Dallas and he was not familiar with the rules. However, he did call back and offered to approve boarding IF I accepted any charge/fines should I be rejected by the local authorities. Talk about a long, pensive flight! No apparent issue upon arrival but didn't understand any conversations behind the counter.

Given that AA only flies to a few airports it just makes sense they distill down the rules that apply to their operation and provide a simple decision tree that walks their agents through the rules. This would be an easy task for a summer intern and not impact the AA Brain Trust.

dsp6178

Hi folks, me again... next week is my trip and I am risking it without a visa and will try to go for the 144-hour transit visa. I have ongoing flights Shanghai to Seoul about 48 hours later with confirmations ready to go to prove it.

My routing is MIA-DFW-LAX-PVG (Milesaver biz before anyone asks why that routing) and my first segment is at 5:45am MIA-DFW on Wednesday. I work very close to the airport, would I have any luck if I tried to go and check-in with an agent the evening before to mitigate any potential issues that might arise? Thoughts?

redrock

I did similar routing MIA-DFW-PVG 2 years ago. No issues.. Just make sure you know the rules, and that your onward travel is compliant. Recommend you arrive with some extra time just in case there are any issues and have printouts of your other tickets, the rules, TIMATIC, etc. in case you need additional details.

JJeffrey

If you live close, you can certainly go over and try to check-in the evening before, they should be able to take care of it as long as you're within 24 hrs. Not a bad idea.