Comnect in Chengdu or Xian?
 

Going from Lhasa to Guilin. There are no direct flights, so I have to connect, which I understand is not ideal in China. I can connect in Chengdu on CA with an hour and twenty minute layover. Or in Xian on MU with three and a half hours. The MU flights are longer and with the layover arrive much later, but it looks like I can probably arrange FC much cheaper on MU. Both connections are published by the respective airlines' schedule apps - the MCT in Chengdu is 60 minutes and in Xian is 90 minutes. That said, all other things equal, I'd prefer the shorter flights and layover, but a misconnect would suck. Any advice from experienced China fliers?

CA to CA transfer at CTU is one of the few confirmed transfers in China that can be done airside, even with checked luggage. Not sure about XIY. The total flight time would be shorter through CTU anyways.

CTU, for sure. XIY is a lousy airport, even by Chinese standards.

Chengdu, absolutely.

Thanks for the advice.

+1

Very true. Especially T1 is a total dump T2 not being much better.

The good news is that the new terminal should be opened already in March 2012.

I have transfer in CTU also. But it's BKK - CTU (TG), then CTU - PEK (CA).

Do you need to change terminal since it's from international to domestic?
If so, how easy is it?
My connect time is about 1:35.

Thanks,

I don't think there is an international terminal. Just the main terminal for most flights and the separate older "regional/domestic" one for Sichuan Airline's intra-Sichuan flights. You still need to go through immigration and customs and reclear security. No idea if they will check your bags through or not. Assume they won't.

Thanks,