I am looking at transiting PEK with a 90 connection. The flights Air China first connection to Air Macau business. The ticket with be two separate one way tickets, Air China using miles, Air Macau purchased. I am hoping that the records can be merged and bags checked to Macau. Am I cutting this too close? If I used one of the escort companies would it make a difference?

Thanks

These are the legal connection times:
Results from ExpertFlyer.com

On separate tickets, 1.5 hours is a too close for comfort IMO. Have you looked into adding an hk segment to your ca award?

It's definitely cutting it close, but arguably doable if everything goes right. I actually left the CBD at 7AM this morning for a 8:55AM international flight and ended up with 20 minutes left over to sit in the crappy Air China lounge (please note I am not at all recommending following my example on this...).

Just be aware that you'll be on your own if this is separate tickets and something goes wrong.

I give you a less than 5% chance that they will merge the PNR's and check your bags through to Macau. Even with a merger, it's cutting things too fine. If you can't add an award segment on to the CA ticket, then change your flight to Macau. Either take the next flight or if that's extremely inconvenient, look into cancelling and taking another airline/flight on the more frequent PEK-HKG route, then ferrying over to Macau using Skypier.

Thanks for all the replies. I am redeeming CA first via a lifemiles award (not purchased yet), which does not allow mixing of classes. The other issue is the ferry, which I am not a big fan of. So that is why I thought the best way to get to Macau would be this connection. The other choices are via NRT or ICN, but they force an overnight. My idea is to get the CA ticket and then call and see if they can merge a Air Macau ticket. If they can then I would purchase the air Macau ticket and let them work their Air China magic. Thoughts?

In my experience, the only "magic" Air China seems to ever work on me is Black Magic. So even if you get a positive response from them before you buy the NX ticket, there's no guarantee that it will actually be executable. I think it's a gamble but if you want to commit to the CA award ticket anyway and have a Plan B for the balance of the journey, go ahead and try.

It was pretty bad today though this may normal of late.

Both immigration lines snaked out right back to the entry area and curled back along the back glass wall. Took about 65 minutes to get through immigration, ten for luggage, transfer desk bag drop took thirty (longest ever) and then another twenty to go back through security. Made it to my connection for the second round of buses taking passengers from the gate to the tarmac. There was nothing really wrong but it was certainly pretty frustrating and as slow as I've experienced at PEK.

Was honestly tempted to just buy a refundable ticket anywhere so I could just go through the 72hr visa line.

It looks like the no's have it!! I have decided to pass on the Air China option and start my trip in BKK then fly from there to Macau, From Macau I have to man up and take the ferry to HKG to get home.

Thanks for all the replies.

Interesting - what you describe about the immigration queue was also the case yesterday (23rd at 3.30 p.m)....an absolute circus. I am ashamed to admit that I jumped the queue by going through to the middle area where the queues started to enter the barrier area and then just slipping in! Even then, I took 25 minutes, but heaven know how long it took for the people at the back of the lines. Luckily, the immigration officers seemed to be working very fast, but there were only four counters for foreign passport holders, which is nowhere near enough.

I had a similar experience this past Friday (27th) around 12pm. Took just under an hour to get through immigration. Even snapped a picture as it was the worst I'd ever seen:



Hopefully this isn't the new normal...

Sadly I can confirm PEK immigration queues were one hour on Monday 23rd March at about 16:00.

Problem definitely wasn't speed. Officers were processing people pretty quickly. Issue is not enough counters, whole area is too small, and the general disorganization of the lines once they start snaking away from the partitioned areas.

Agree 100% with you......the officers were working very very fast, but how can they get away with only four counters? I can't believe that with all the resources they have at BJS, that they can't get more counters up and running.

Same thing as regards the queue...once you are into the barrier area (see Scifience's photo above) everything is fine and you move resonably quickly, but before you get there it is horrible. To make it worse, the (few staff) that are lurking outside the partitioned area don't really speak English, which adds to the mess. The other day I ended up translating for a small group of US tourists who were just trying to find out where to queue!

It reminded me of the chaos at the old Capital Airport pre-1999, and I definitely don't want to have to go through that again in 2015 !!!

You were not far behind me that day (I arrived on KA908 from Hong Kong), if I had known you were there I would have shared my mints with you