2 Hour Transfer Protocol
 

Arriving via Air Canada into Terminal 1. Not sure what gate area. Departing via Asiana to BKK I believe from Terminal 1 approximately Gate 10. All on one ticket. There is a 2 hour transfer time between flights. How far is it between the arriving gate, wherever Air Canada arrives, to the departing gate? Do I have enough time considering that I have a disability and require either a mobility unit or wheelchair as I cannot walk long distances anymore. Is the transfer process fairly easy? I have gone through ICN a few years ago but don't imagine things are now the same.

Thanks for any assistance. - Dave :)

You do not go gate to gate.
You will be taken from arrival gate through transit security, and then upstairs to the departure concourse.
Even if your arrival and departure gates were next to each other, you would still have to navigate the 1 km or so
to and from transit security.
That being said, on 1 ticket I would not worry at all, just ask for a wheelchair to take you all the way and it
will be the airline's responsibility.

I have already arranged for Air Canada disability transportation flight to flight so I will not have to walk between arrivals and departures. Just wanted to make sure that there was enough time at ICN and what the process was.

:tu: Thanks Again.

No matter what, ICN is very good about disability services and has priority lanes and special help for that stuff everywhere (not like say America where it's just dismal). Contact both Asiana and Air Canada about requesting extra mobility services - as AC might say "oh we don't do that, talk to Asiana" or vice versa.

https://www.airport.kr/ap_lp/en/svc/...tra/servtra.do

And also Asiana boards just 30 mins before departure, so you'll be fine. And can use business lane as low mobility passenger for assistance etc.

First thing is that Air Canada did an excellent job of mnaging my disibility situation every step of the way Orlando to Bangkok. Due to A 5 hour delay with our Toronto to Seoul flight, we missed our ongoing Asiana flight to Bangkok with no other flights available until next morning. An Air Canada rep, who managed our situation perfectly, got us through the convuluted and frustrating Korean immigration and customs expeditiously and settled us in at the Hyatt ICN hotel. The airport hotel was under renovation and was not open. Made sure we got to our morning Thai Airways flight to Bangkok on time. I could not believe the mob trying to navigate through their similar situations in order to get to a hotel due to delayed or cancelled flights. Most, I imagine, had to remain at the airport overnight under really miserable conditions.

I'm curious what was "so convoluted and frustrating" about Korean immigration? They don't ask for any test and you just literally line up show your passport and done. And they certainly never ask many questions to most people.

Everyone has to apply for a 24 hour visa upon flight arrivival, including Americans, where approval takes anywhere from 1 hour to 72 hours. If you are approved then, in immigration, you get finerprinted, photoed, questioned, and go through customs/security. If you are not approved within a 1 hour time frame you then will not be approved and thus stay the night at the airport in what I call packed homeless shelters. Luckily my wife and I had an Air Canada rep, who was Korean, and had the process down pat. Still he had difficulty with the "covoluted" process and we were both approved with only a minute left on our 1 hour timeframe. I saw mobs of passengers who didn't have a clue and probably spent the night in that airport.

So much misinfiormation here I don't know where to start.
Visas are not required if you are American or Canadian.
I am guessing that you were supposed to be doing an International to International transfer in Seoul, and
therefore did not apply for the K-eTA which is required for entry to Korea. When you missed your connection
and then needed to enter Korea to stay overnight, you now required the K-eTA. This is similar to the ESTA that
the U.S. requires from visa-exempt foreigners, or the ETA that Canada requires from visa-exempt foreigners.

I don't know where that 1 hour time frame came from - probably your AC handler had to handle the outgoing flight
and could not stay with you beyond that time.

I entered Korea twice in February - the only confusion/lineups came when they were checking for Q-Codes -
the Korean Covid documentation process. Once past that, immigration and customs were customary.
There is usually a very long line at immigration for non-Koreans, which I can bypass with the APEC card.

If there was an airport I had to stay overnight, it would be ICN. Definitely not 'really miserable conditions', on the contrary quite pleasant.

Fingerprinting and photo and visiting the immigration desk are standard immigration experiences worldwide. The K-ETA is a normal thing that is required in many countries around the world as part of "electronic travel authorization," not just a Korea thing. It's required when you go to the US (ESTA) for instance.

I really don't want to start a country to country argument with you. I simply gave the benefit of my observance as I have traveled worldwide to many destinations and never experienced what I did. Yes, my connnecting flight was cancelled which required a wait until the next morning's flight. At that time of night after a 15 hour flight I never expected to have to scramble for a way to get through immigration, with mobs of people trying to figure out what to do, and get to a hotel that is all.