HEL-PVG-MEL
 

Hi everyone! :)

I have few questions regarding on my flight from Helsinki to Shanghai and from there all the way to Melbourne. My trip starts from Helsinki in January 1st 2013 with Air China (operated by Finnair) and then I have an 11 hour layover in Shanghai. From Shanghai I fly with Air China to Melbourne in January 2nd 2013.

I was wondering that are my bags going to go all the way to Melbourne or do I have to do the check-in again in Shanghai? If I don't have to do the check-in again and I would stay in the transit area (terminal 2) is there a lot of restaurants and shops around there?

Also, I was checking several different websites about the Air China baggage allowance and I'm a bit confused because some websites say that it is 20kg and other ones say it is 23 kg. I wonder which is the correct baggage allowance.

Thanks in advance and merry X-mas to everyone ! X

I'd say there's a 60% chance that your bags get tagged all the way to MEL.

11 hours is waaaay too long to spend at PVG; go into town.

My mom is flying Air China next week and the allowance is 23kg.

I'm under the impression that he doesn't have a visa to go into PRC.

so what? you can exit PVG for 48 hours without one if you have one of the following passports:

Australian, New Zealand, American, Canadian, South Korean, German, French, Dutch, Luxemburg, Belgian, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Austrian, Greek, Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish passports bearers do not need a Transit Visa (G Visa) if they transit via SHANGHAI and staying for less than 48 hours (going out of the airport is allowed).

Hi everyone and thanks for the replies!

Oh yes, I forgot to mention in my first post that I'm Finnish citizen. ^^

Does anyone know about the luggage if it's going to get tagged all the way to MEL or do I have to do the check-in again in PVG since the first flight it with Finnair and the next flight is with Air China?

I was under impression that everyone had to pick up luggage at PVG no matter the connection, I doubt thats changed.

There is luggage storage at the airport.

For same alliance connections, you usually don't need to recheck these days (but, there are lots of other variables at play). This is why I pinned the odds at 60% in post #2.

I had totally forgotten about that—my apologies.

HEL-PVG-MEL
 

Surely airline will provide hotel accommodation along with meal vouchers as long stop over
8 hours
Check on arrival with air china

Surely you jest.

I rather doubt this is the case.

I rather doubt this was serious.

Why? Most old-school international airlines, and Air China qualifies, do provide STPC. However, a casual search of the website only pulls up this page about free transit hotels in Beijing, so you might need to call them up and ask about Shanghai:

http://www.airchina.co.uk/en/STPC.html

Even for PEK though, the conditions do say that the stop must be "overnight", so an 11-hour layover may be pushing it.

Yeah, they provide overnight accommodations for true overnight layovers, but these aren't so common on the new schedules. Furthermore, I wouldn't trust them to lodge me anywhere remotely acceptable (e.g. Shanghai Airlines Hotel is not cool); this is one of those cases when $50 out of pocket (to crash somewhere decent) is a worth while insurance policy.