I can live with that. In return, would people please stop talking abount DIA? I know it's commonly used, but ICAO is KDEN and IATA is DEN. I've never had a BP with DIA on it.

Dunno why this one winds me up, but there you go

While not a china story, I have to assume the same thing happens all over the world.

I was in at the consulate in New York to get a visa to go to Brazil for a trip a few years ago. It was a Monday afternoon. It was a weekend deal, great rates, half mileage run, half vacation.

2/3 of the people in line, dozens of them, were in line because they were sent back from flights at JFK on Sunday, didn't have a visa, and were denied boarding. Many were not from New York, but were connecting there for their flights to Rio.

I couldn't believe how many people just show up and don't have the visa. Every possible excuse, didn't know I needed one, the airline didn't say I needed one when I got my ticket, I'm gonna sue them, etc.

I have to assume it's the same thing for china, so many people feel their passport is all they need and don't bother getting the facts.

We know it because we have the absolute most incredible resources available, other flyertalkers. I have never had a question that wasn't able to be answered here. But many people don't have that to go to , don't have the intelligence to go to the websites, but do have that american passport, and what else do they need?

Stupid people.

I've transitted through PVG on UA from SQ. I had 3 expired Chinese Visa's in my passport, but no current ones. Before I booked the trip, I read one of the Chinese Embassy/Consulate web pages that you are allowed to transit through PVG without needing a visa. This is true if you have a 'paper' ticket at the time you pass through immigration. Unfortunately, I had an e-ticket and was taken aside for about an hour while the immigration officials checked with UA to make sure I was on the passenger manifest.

It happens to everyone.

On the inaugral flight of Virgin Atlantic to India, the flamboyant owner, Richard Branson, was on-board to wave the flag as he always does.

Apparrently, the visa in his passport had expired. Now you dont exactly ask the chairman of the airline for his plane ticket and passport at check-in do you?

VS ground staff had to secure him an "airline crew visa" so he could enter the country. I'm sure he helped served the champagne to invited guests on the special flight as is his style. And he does work for the airline after all.

I believe that only 10% of US citizens actually have a passport (FT'er aside) so knowledge about overseas visa requirements cannot be wide spread

I agree. It happened to me as well. I've been to Hong Kong, the USA, Japan, and of course most of Europe and never never needed a visa. I never suspected I would need one to go to Australia.

The dialog at check-in went approximately like this:

Agent: Where is your visa?
Me: Visa?
Agent: Yes, you need a visa to enter Australia.
Me: I don't have a visa.
Agent: But you need one. I cannot check you in without a visa. The cost of the visa was actually included in the ticket price. Your travel agent should have taken care of that!
Me: He didn't. Where can I get a visa? (That's 90 minutes prior to deparature...)
Agent: I can issue an electronic visa, but I have to charge (equivalent of 20 USD) and they might still turn you back in Australia.
Me: Do it! And why did you scare me?!

On the way to Australia I did a stop-over in Malaysia -- again, I didn't need a visa. The electronic visa didn't pose a problem, and on entering Australia I declared my chocolate bar and bottle of water to the quarantine officer, and even got to keep them!

HTB.

For Australia it is an electronic visa that requires very little preparation, so that isn't so important. In the old days Pan Am and then United would dump pax in Uruguay if they got as far as Brazil w/o a previous visa, I heard of it happening a lot. The difficulty with China is that there are actually circumstances that with the right Guanxi a visa can be arrived at arrival, very rare, but i know someone who had such an authorization, and it was not pretty at check-in, basically the guy had his lawyer fax through a promissory letter saying that he would reimbuse the airline any and all costs if there was a penalty or he was deported, etc. As the vice mayor of Shanghai greeted him on arrival, there was no problem.

My parents flew from Europe to ICN via PVG last autumn and were lucky to have a multiple entry Chinese visa because of dad's China experience. They had a tight connection but were forced landside and go through check-in and security again. They barely made it to the ICN flight after being led past the massive security line by airport staff but that was the last time anyone in my family uses PVG for transit.