PVDtoDEL

That sounds like something to be happy about to me... ADD airport isn't exactly my favorite place to spend more time than necessary.

danielribo

B747-437B

No, you'll be rerouted via Johannesburg if you misconnect the Cape Town flight.

danielribo

So best option would be then to leave ADD at about 3pm to arrive in JNB at about 8pm and hopefully make the last flight to CPT at about 9.

B747-437B

That's probably what they would do IF you missed the flight, but I wouldn't worry too much. They are a well oiled machine with regards to connections to/from the Cape Town flight.

sds1493

Remember MCT for ET-ET in ADD is only 15 minutes. With any luck they'll take you straight to the CPT plane. But like B747-437B points out ET, are used to this. They don't want you stuck in ADD any more than you do.

danielribo

Thanks guys. I'm sure it'll all work out ok anyway. We are in business so should hopefully get off and on pretty quickly.

zig2

So, I am checking flights with ET714 transferring to SK907 which is ADD-ARN-OSL transferring to OSL-EWR. I don't have a schengen visa. I guess it should be fine because I don't even need to deboard the plane at ARN, right?

Fredrik74

It will be fine at ARN. I'm not familiar enough with non-Schengen at OSL to say it's fine there.

Tokyoite

Are the two sectors (ADD to OSL and OSL to EWR) on one ticket or two tickets?
If one ticket, then its just an international connection and you will be OK.
If two tickets, then Ethiopian will refuse you to board your flight to Oslo, since they don't care about your plans beyond Oslo (They only take you to Oslo, and so they will need to see your visa/visa free eligibility to enter Norway before letting you board the flight in Addis/wherever you are connecting from)

Stewie Mac

I respectfully disagree with that - if you have proof of onward travel, and can therefore demonstrate to ET that OSL is only a transit rather than a destination, they will let you on. Make sure that you have some way of proving that onward flight (a hardcopy printout of the ticket is always useful, and if you have a spare that you can leave with them even more so).

That does assume that you are able to transit in OSL without a visa, which may depend on nationality/citizenship/travel docs. It shouldn't make a difference, but ime it will also be easier if you are ie a US citizen rather than an 'axis-of-evil' passport holder so ET will be fairly confident that you intend to take and will be allowed to board your OSL-EWR flight.

Tokyoite

OK, as you say.
Airlines only look at TIMATIC (Visa and entry requirement database) for your travel document, and decide to allow/deny boarding based on this. When I used to hold an African passport, ET would not let me board to transit to another airline in Beijing or Bangkok on my way to my destination in Korea, even after showing them my connection in Beijing & Bangkok. Both times, I had to rebook to the direct ET flight to Singapore and Hong Kong (could enter both visa free) and then sort out my connecting flights separately. Painful experiences, but my ignorance of the rules was inexcusable.
Furthermore, ET will not let anyone transit Toronto if you cannot enter Canada, even if on transit to the US. I cancelled my ticket upon learning of this information. So, I have experience with ET as sticklers to TIMATIC.
Common sense for the airline, since your destination as far as ET is concerned is OSLO, and the airline will get penalized if their passenger is illegally in the destination (if the OP cannot or does not make the onward connection to the USA).
OP can take the risk if they want, but be prepared to be denied boarding, which would be within ET simply following the TIMATIC rules based on the OP's passport. Just advice!

zig2

Well, my ticket is one a single ticket issued by UA. So this shouldn't be an issue. As I understand there are two issues I want to make sure.
1. I don't need to enter schengen on the ARN-OSL part as it is a fifth freedom route.
2. The check in agent is competent enough to check the bag all the way to US.

Tokyoite

Glad to hear. Of course, if on one ticket, then the discussion about transit visa and through baggage check is moot. thanks for updating us with information.

dvs7310

Often even countries with TWOV policies have exceptions and some countries passports are not eligible regardless of the same ticket or separate. In your case, China does not allow their normal 24 hour TWOV to passport holders of quite a few countries and Nigeria was on that list until this year or sometime last year, so if that's the country of your former passport, it's why you were denied boarding when trying to transit China. (there may have been other African countries excluded at another point in time, that was just form a list I found from 2018 and Nigeria was the only African country listed at the time). I have transited China many many times on separate tickets due to incredibly different pricing long haul ex-China, but I hold a passport which is eligible for any of their TWOV policies.

In the OP's case, it depends on what their passport is when transiting Norway. It doesn't matter if it is on the same or separate ticket.

For Exmaple from TIMATIC for a South African passport holder:
And the same for a passport holder of Somalia:
The person with the Somali passport would not be allowed without a Schengen visa, while the person with the South African passport would, assuming during the allowed hours, which I'd presume all their international flights fit into that timeframe, though if the ET flight comes in late at night and the outbound flight was actually in the morning, then they wouldn't be allowed without a Schengen visa. (Yes, Norway is in the Schengen zone even though it is not in the EU, same like Switzerland)