What do you mean by sterile transit?

Transit where you don't have to go through immigration. China has, in recent years, increasingly rolled out sterile transit at major connecting hubs. PEK and PVG are just two examples of airports with sterile transit, particularly when you're flying on the same airline (e.g. CA-CA for PEK or MU/FM-MU/FM for PVG).

At PEK? Really? I didn't transit in PVG this year so I can't comment, but I had to transit at PEK this year. So this was part of one ticket where I flew AC YVR-PEK and then CA PEK-NKG. At PEK, I had to go through immigration. I filled out that yellow paper, went through immigration, grabbed my suitcase to check-in for the flight to NKG. If that's what you meant by sterile, then that's what not what I experienced earlier this year.

Btw, security at PEK is definitely more strict than PVG. I have never been to an airport in the world where I have to take out my DSLR and battery pack for scanning. At PEK, this is in addition to the usual laptop and tablet removal policy.

People are talking about I to I transit. PEK-NKG is a domestic flight.

Oh...I'm sorry. Thx for letting me know. What if I did YVR-PEK and then PEK to HKG with CA, will I have to go through security and immigration?

The general point is that mainland China airports are a mess and you shouldn't transit through them unless it's the only option.

A rebook through ICN is the perfectly reasonable and you shouldn't get any resistance. Just be willing to stand up for yourself if you get a bad agent.

Yes, a passport check (handled by an airline ground agent) and then security.

Flights to/from HKG. MFM, TPE and KHH are international flights.

They're a mess, yes, but an organized mess. While I won't compare PVG or PEK to, let's say, ICN or NRT, it's certainly better than many other airports, and I know what I'm getting when I pay $400 for, let's say, LAX-PVG-MNL rather than pay $200 more to transit through NRT, ICN, TPE or HKG.

I remember a time when China had absolutely no sterile transit while at the same time having TWOV. The situation now is much better than it was nine years ago.

No, the HND switch doesn't happen till the end of March, when the 2020 IATA summer season begins.

Sorry, I know it's a dumb question, but under which scenario will there will be sterile transit? My example obviously didn't fit.

Indeed sad to see the end of NRT, I travel through there quite often and will often try to fly out of there instead of HND due to the Skyclub access. I can only hope that killing the TIAT lounge access for non-D1 in HND was the first step of a long-term strategy for lounge access at the airport. I think that there is no more space for new lounges in HND, but hopefully we'll be able to get a permanent partner lounge.

Well, I suppose for most people who want to have a destination in Tokyo, HND is the better option, although these days with all of the rapid-train options from NRT I think the actual time to get to the central districts is pretty similar.

Glad I shifted my TPAC travel to CX once I moved to the Philippines 7 years ago, DL was OK for getting back to the US, but having to go through NRT to connect to anywhere else in SE Asia was an issue, and made it harder to keep my DM status.

Very sad about this news.

I live in Oregon. Many of my friends live in Portland or drive hours to PDX and fly from there to NRT and connect to Asia. As for me, I have done xxx-SEA-NRT-Asia. Both the PDX/SEA-NRT legs are quite short compared to others and makes flying, whether on Y or D1 much more manageable. I thoroughly enjoyed flying the short 8 hour run from NRT-SEA.

A year ago, I changed from CX/AA/AS to DL, because DL was offering the best flights to Asia, but I guess I will have to go back to flying AS domestically as they partner with JL and NH on the TYO flights. I even opened a SkyMiles credit card last February and I'm on track to reach gold by September. What a waste.

(I do wonder, with PDX losing is one-stop Asia connection, will other Asian carriers come to PDX?)