Consolidated PEK connections/logistics/lounges domestic/international
 

I am looking for one way award ticket from WUH to SFO at ua.com and I see there is CA1342 arriving at PEK 10:20am and UA888 leaving PEK at 12pm (on a lot of days).. however, this combo does not show up if I search from WUH to SFO directly, is the roughly 1:30hour not enough to be considered for international transfer? I thought as long as the schedule is booked under one ticket, the luggage can be checked at WUH directly to SFO (am I wrong?), so without the hassle of dealing with baggage, the 1:30hour gap should be enough?

Any chance that I can talk to UA agent to book such flight?

Thanks

DOM-INT MCT is 120 min for PEK T3.

http://www.airchina.com.my/en/my-transfer.html

1:30 is not a legal connection. Minimum is 2 hours.

However if it was a legal connection your bags would be checked to SFO and there would be no pickup in PEK.

PEK is the worst major aiport in the world for flight delays.


SunLover

LOL, nope, no way, wouldn't do it.

4 hours minimum at PEK/PVG for me.

I would look into connecting at NRT or maybe ICN.

Also, you could just get a ticket to PEK or PVG and take the train to Wuhan. There's high-speed service the whole way now.

Even if 90 minutes were legal I wouldn't try it, too many things that could go wrong.

I generally agree that PEK is not great place to cut it close. Its seriously capacity limited, and its domestic flights, like any other Chinese airports, do have (sometimes horrid) delays. Might be tricky to avoid PEK, as CA hub is PEK, and I don't think their is much choice for *A out of Wuhan. That said, within *A, their are lots of ways to get you to PEK from SFO. Their are however, lots more options out of NRT and PVG (or HKG).

Of course, it never hurts to limit any hand luggage that might need to be re-screened and/or gate checked. You might also want to have your China departure card filled out already, so you can go right to the passport exit control station without stopping to pick up a departure card. If you don't have one, please send me a PM, and I'll send you one (I am in PEK now, always have a few extras).

NH has service to a lot of tier-2 Chinese cities. I've used them a lot in the past.

+1 on this arrangement. It's not just capacity controls, it's CAAC air traffic control for domestic flights that means there's a high risk your WUH-PEK flight will be late. As it is, 90 mins is very tight (could be done, despite MCT of 120m), but with the risk of delays you probably don't want to do this. Typically international flights are sent on their way in a timely manner, thus connecting at other-Asia hubs reduces risk substantially.

Checking ITA I can see the problem if you're *A loyal. The best option would be to fly through Seoul, but that's Korean. It looks like there's a flight on UA from PVG that has a longer connection time with less risk of misconnect.

Another option is to fly to Beijing the night before. Or be willing to take the later Air China flight to SFO.

Agreed, this is probably the best approach.

Agree with the other posts--but also want to add that recently we were on a CTU-PEK Air China flight connecting to PEK-SFO on UA on one ticket. The Air China desk in CTU said she could not forward the bags onto the SFO flight in PEK but that we had to claim the bags and drop them off again (before you exit baggage claim in PEK) despite having the 2 flights on one ticket.. I think we had to clear security again too. We had 3.5 hours for the connection so there was no problem. We ended up having about 1.5 hrs to spare. There is a great CA lounge in PEK to spend your time. So definitely 90 minutes is too short.

Heck, depending on where your domestic flight docks, it can feel like it takes 90 minutes just to walk to the terminal... :)

If you really want to take WAH-PEK-SFO, you can arrive at Beijing the day before and spend a night in Beijing. Those award flights show up if you increase the search display list from 25 to 50.

Consolidated connections/logistics domestic/international at PEK
 

A few quick questions that I'm helping I can get some help with.

1. How easy is it to transit between UA and Air China at PEK?
2. Is 1 hour and 50 minutes too tight?
3. I'm connecting to HKG and staying there for a week. As a US citizen, I won't need a visa, correct?

You'll have a brief immigration check and they'll stamp your passport even though you are in transit, but staying in *A shouldn't be to big of a problem, and you will not need a visa.

1hr 50 should be fine, but it's China, so anything can happen and another hour wouldn't hurt. (I'd say the same thing about a 6 hour layover)