Hey so I’m traveling to Japan Nov. 1 and I have a layover in PEK, but it’s only an hour and a half. This is my first international flight so I had no idea that I had to go through immigration and customs since it’s not my destination county. I’m freaking out now because I’m afraid I’m going to miss my next flight and all the other forums I’ve been seeing says it’s not enough time. Does anyone have any tips or anything to speed up the process? I’m flying in from Dallas on American Airlines and than I transfer to Japan Airlines and fly into Tokyo Haneda Airport. The website says I’m landing in terminal 2 but I don’t know what terminal I leave out of. I bought the ticket all together if I miss the flight will the put me on the next flight for free? Does anyone have a map? I’m going to have one checked luggage, I can’t afford to get lost. Please help.

I'm no expert on the Beijing airport, only having changed planes there once. I would say, just stay calm and collected: you always might make it. If you don't, AA is absolutely responsible for getting you on the next flight to your destination, luggage to follow. If your flight in is late, go to the transfer desk.

Anytime you involve China it can be bad. Beijing and Shanghai, at one point, held the dubious distinction of being the worse in the world for on-time performance. You may find yourself sprinting around to catch your connection.

Japan Airlines operates out of Terminal 3 so there will be a terminal transfer to complete. You'll need to take the connection shuttle between terminals but it runs fairly often unless you arrive in the wee hours of the night/early early morning.

It has been some time since I made a connection there. My mother went through earlier this year and said signage is good. PEK has a transfer guide on their website that may help. There is a brief English video guide (after the Chinese commercials) available on their website. en [dot] bcia [dot] com [dot] cn/ guide/ transfer_i_i [dot] shtml

FT won't allow me to post websites as I don't come out of my lurking to post enough. Insert appropriate punctuation and delete the spaces.

Even though you bought the ticket together, if you went through an agency, make sure it is the same ticket number and they did not present it to you as 1 ticket and then they booked it as 2. Given it's AA to JL, I doubt it since they are both oneWorld. If it's the same ticket (on the same ticket number) then AA will rebook to the next flight to TYO if it is their fault for free. If you meandered into Duty Free/Food Court/Bathroom/fell asleep/got distracted and missed your flight, it's your fault. Keep in mind in the worse case scenario, the next available flight may be to Tokyo Narita rather than Tokyo Haneda but you can connect between the two airports easily.

Most importantly, don't be afraid to ask for directions!

You can't do a 1hr30min transfer in PEK with change of Terminal from T2 to T3. That's below MCT, and won't be sold on one ticket. I'd check on that again. It's either a much longer layover, or not a change of terminals. 1.5hrs within T2 or T3 is perfectly doable.

PEK, while not being a great airport to transfer, is much better than doing an int-int transfer in many other countries (like the US) where you might even have to pay money to do so (ESTA, for example) - in PEK you can even get out of the airport and into the city for up to three days (72hrs TWOV - you'll spot the advertisements while there) ^

Check with AA as I'm thinking you may have become a victim of their terminal move. They used to be in T3 which would have made the connection to JL easier but with their investment tie-up with CZ, they moved to T2 to facilitate connections to CZ.

Although the terminal change takes time, you MAY not need to go through immigration and customs since you are not entering China.

Still, 90 minutes is just way too short.

Enjoy Japan. I think it's the best of Asia!

You clearly haven't been to PEK before. Don't give OP wrong "advise".

You can't switch between T2 and T3 (and vice versa) airside. You've to get landside, using their 24/72hrs TWOV program.

Personally, I found pretty much every other Asian country more interesting than Japan, by the way.

90 mins is probably just about enough time to deal will the transfer. I also believe you must go through immigration as T2 is for domestic flights. From what I remember, the flow would be Airplane -> T3 -> immigration and visa check -> train from T3 to T2 -> Check in at T2.

Both T2 and T3 have domestic and international areas.

You cant transfer airside between T2 and T3.

And you dont tak train between T3 to T2.(you could. but its not what you should. and not possible T2 to T3)

You take the free shuttle bus.

You may be able to transit without going through immigration (FT thread), but if you do have to go through immigration look for a TWOV line separate from the normal queue. In T3, at least, there is one, and it is much shorter (order of no people using it).

No, this is wrong. OP has to change terminal. It has already been said above at least once that it cannot be done.

OK, the former is not applicable, but is the latter irrelevant?

I have never been to T2, if a TWOV line separate from the normal immigration one exists it would surely help.

T1 and T2 are close by, but T3 is far away. The train goes from T3 to T2 (one direction, and then to the city). 90 min is way too tight for the transfer. If OP needs to check-in at T3 for T3E departure, he/she must complete check in at least 60 min prior to departure. I don't know how long T2-T3 I-to-I MCT is, but I believe even T3-T3 I-to-I MCT is 120 minutes. So T2-T3 is possibly much longer.

I would avoid this transit.