Travel time to PEK for Saturday a.m. flight
 

There must be a tread for this, but searching is eluding me this morning.

We have a 9:50 departure out of PEK on NH to NRT, so departing T3. We will be checked in, and we will be able to use the premier bag drop line, and if there is a priority line for screening NH will issue us a pass. Will security and immigration be crazy that time of day?

I don't mind being a little early since we'll have lounge access, but also want to depart our hotel at a reasonable hour.

We're traveling from the Four Seasons, so we're on the right side of town and am hoping that traffic will be light that time of day. I was planning on just taking a taxi as the doormen here will be sure we get taking to the right terminal. The hotel does also have a car service, but that's rather pricey.

What time should we plan to depart the hotel?

Personally, I would leave at 7:00 AM.

Thanks. 7am we can do - I was worried it would be much earlier. The official travel time is 25 minutes, but traffic is so variable here!

745 should be fine

OP needs to finish check-in by 8:50am. 7:45am should be okay but getting close.

There is no particular priority screening available. I would feel OK leaving 7a or perhaps 645a, as I tend to be cautious.

I am not sure about the morning hours, but if you get stuck in a giant queue at the exit immigration, there may be staff using little microphones to solicit passengers who have departure before X hour to shortcut the line. Of course if you don't speak Chinese, you may not know what that hour is. :o

IIRC, the official cutoff for international flights out of PEK T3 is t-75 minutes, so that would mean 8:35a in the OP's case. But, traffic is light on Saturday mornings, so I think getting on the road at 745a would be perfectly fine.

I always thought the cut-off time is T-60 min... My concern is that the airport highway is sometimes closed for 20 min when officials are traveling to the airport, although this does not seem to be a problem recently. The check-in needs to be completed by the cut-off time, but hopefully there is not a queue by that time.

Thanks all - we booked a cab for 7:00 to give plenty of time. I'll send a report tomorrow. The hotel's main worry was lines for immigration, which will be post bag drop (we're actually checked in online, but do need to check bags).

I am so confident in 745 that I would offer insurance products to support it for a mere y10.

​​​​​​45 extra sleep minutes at the 4 Seasons beats the pants off 45 minutes in the CA lounge.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...1711e8e64a.jpg
CA PEKT3 lounges aren't exactly a 4 Seasons' experience

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c7297788e8.jpg

Traffic out to the airport sucked today, hope you made it okay.

You would be in the wrong business :D :D :D

if 100,000 people purchased my product, and I had to cough up y5k for 10 of them, I'd still make a killing.