Fellow FFs,

I will be flying CX LAX-HKG-TPE-HKG next month, obviously transiting in Taipei, does anyone on this board know if I have to clear custom and immigration in Taipei if I do not have boarding pass for the TPE-HKG segment?

My ticket is LAX-HKG-TPE and TPE-HKG (cheaper this way for business class), I wonder if the GA at LAX will go ahead and issue me the TPE-HKG boarding pass or make me get one when I arrive in Taipei.

Thanks.

Exactly the same question was discussed there


TAIPEI TURNAROUND

the pax originated in CGK

They can issue the boarding pass at LAX for TPE-HKG but cannot check a bag through as LAX-HKG-TPE-HKG as the baggage system checks for such loops and disallows them. Trust you aren't planning to check any bags on this trip; if you are, you will have to clear customs in TPE and re-checkin there.

I did this exact same itinerary to save big bucks on J class fare. You do not have to clear customs and immigration. Simply follow the signs to the transit desk. They will look at you funny since you will have just arrived from HKG, but they issued me my boarding pass and I went to the lounge for a quick drink before boarding the flight back to HKG.

Thanks for all you guys' help and the link..... (didn't know about it.....)

I did carry on only. Since I was actually headed to India, I stopped by the lounge on my transit in HK and left my bag. Went HKG - TPE - HKG - Picked up my bag - BKK - BOM.

You were lucky that they didn't notice you had left the airport. They are supposed to check for that as a security measure and confiscate your bag. Not sure how the checking is done, but flying out on a CX flight certainly gets your name into lots of computer systems. I would never trust to leave my bag at the lounge while flying to TPE. Would be sad to come back to little pieces of debris after they had taken and exploded the bag (btw not a pedantic point, this happens to dozens of bags a year in the US, confiscated as possible explosives and destroyed as part of the defusing -- the saddest one was to a chinese inventor of electrically heated shoes who came to the US last year with his invention, TSA was not amused when they found shoes with wires and batteries attached and blew his invention up at SFO on the tarmac).

huh????

since when has CX or HKG hired US TSA?
since when has HK become a Bush colony?

the OP was leaving the bag at HKG, not a US airport.

i trust the CX lounge agent (unlike those in US) would have warned you about that if that is what they are going to do.

hmm.... so does MCT rules apply when doing turnarounds in TPE? (obviously no luggage is involved!)

In theory yes, MCT applies when booking your flights. But with no bags involved, you could always leg it to the transfer desk (lounge or to the gate of the next departing CX flight) and ask whether they are willing to put you onto the next flight. Done it lots of times without any problems. Just mention "no checked-in bags" along with the big cheesy grin.

-CF-

I did a full transit turnaround in Taipei a few months ago because of a change in my meeting location. My ticket requires me to fly the HKG-TPE-HKG sectors before continuing on the next sector.

I got my BPs (and I think the lounge passes too) in HKG for both sectors. I did not clear immigration and customs in TPE. When I boarded the flight back, the gate agent asked me as I did not have the exit stamp on my BP. I answered her and she made a note and asked me if there was any checked luggage. I said no, then I boarded the plane.

On my next flight (after the TPE-HKG sector), I was again asked about whether I had any checked luggage in my previous sector when I checked in. I assume besides MCT, they are also concerned about potential luggage problems.

Don't worry about MCT - have a good meal in the TPE lounge. They have pretty good noodles.

I have checked bags with no issue.

As of two weeks ago, I found they no longer stamp boarding passes at immigration in TPE.