csong825

Hello,

Long time lurker looking for a little help with transiting in TPE. I'm flying on a UA award in J on BR from YYZ-TPE 01:45 - 04:55 then connecting on TG (also in J) to ICN at 12:50.
It looks like I'll be flying into terminal 2 and out of terminal 1. I would like to stop by a lounge on arrival to take a shower and then head out to Taipei to do a few hours of sightseeing. However, it looks like my lounge options in terminal 1 are quite limited and without showers and I have read that the TG lounge is not great. This leaves me with the BR lounges (Star/Infinity) and SQ lounges in terminal 2.

Upon arrival, I believe I have to go to the transit counter to get a boarding pass. Afterwards, would I be able to remain in terminal 2 and go straight to the lounge even though my connecting flight leaves from terminal 1? Or would I have to go to terminal 1 and then come back to terminal 2 either by walking or Skytrain? If the latter is the case, would I have to go through security again to get from terminal 1 to 2?

Also, once leave the airport and come back for my flight, is it pretty easy to go back and forth between terminal 1 and 2 in case I wanted to use the terminal 2 lounges before leaving TPE?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Kacee

T1 and T2 are connected airside. You can walk between them or take the train. The only security check will occur when you leave the arrivals level. Once you've done that, I'm not sure how you would exit to clear immigration. Regardless, you do not in my opinion have enough time to go into Taipei. Also, you will likely have a fairly substantial wait for a shower in the BR lounges. TPE is a complete zoo at that hour, there are literally thousands of arriving passengers.

sinoflyer

If you intend to visit Taipei for a few hours, I don't believe you can do that after reentering airside through the transit channel. It might be possible to ask for an exception, but I wouldn't even know where to look or ask. Thus, I venture to say that you should plan on visiting the lounge and shower after your quick tour of Taipei.

The new Taoyuan MRT can get you into central Taipei in 40 minutes on the express train. The first departure is 6:10 am, so ostensibly you can start your sightseeing by 7 am. Taipei is a night owl city and will be quite sleepy until 11 am, so getting around town should not be too difficult before you head back to the airport around 10 am.

Kacee

I've only transited, but I've heard some horror stories about immigration lines at TPE. I do know that the terminal was absolutely packed with arriving and connecting pax on my last early morning BR arrival. It was sufficiently unpleasant that I'm booking my next TPAC via HKG on CX.

csong825

Thank you both. This is very helpful. It looks like it would be best to head straight out to Taipei after arriving, spend a little time in the city, then come back to TPE, check in through Terminal 1 and then go over to the lounges in Terminal 2, once airside. Any ideas what to do with luggage? I do not plan on checking any luggage and I think I read somewhere that you can store luggage at the airport.

sinoflyer

I'm the opposite; I've never transited TPE . I would hypothesize the early morning horror stories as the unfortunate happenstance of immigration staffing before 5 am. If two flights arrived extra early, for example, there might be 500+ pax in front of just a handful of officials before the full shift comes on-line. In my impression, immigration at TPE at 6 am is busy, but not dissimilar to HKG even without e-channel.

I know that there is a staffed left luggage counter in T2. On the arrivals level and on the left side of the terminal after exiting customs. There are hourly lockers as well, but I don't know where those are. There are also coin lockers in Taipei Main railway station. I always found them fully occupied, but that was in the afternoon when the station is very busy. By contrast, the station is a virtual ghost town before 9 am (except weekends).

added: The Asia forum should be able to provide better details on those than here.

Kacee

I think BR alone has something like eight 77Ws arriving from North America at TPE between 5 and 6:30 a.m. CI has like half that. So that's as many as 4,000 passengers right there. Not counting intra-Asia arrivals.

I think you're right though, that the worst crowding happens very early, before the staffing has ramped up.

bocastephen

I am in or through TPE fairly frequently, so let me offer some suggestions:

1. you really don't have any time to be going into the city if you want to stick to the BR lounge and be walking back and forth between terminals - I would drop that from your list. Without an APEC card or Egate access, the foreigner passport line at that hour is a no-go for your schedule. That being said, you can take a "free look" by following the line to the passport control room and you might get lucky and find a short line - if you don't, just turn around and go back into the terminal and walk to the transfer area

2. My longest wait for a shower in the BR lounge is about 45 minutes - however the SQ lounge has showers that are very underutilized and a comparable buffet with a "Singaporean/Malaysian" cuisine style vs the Taiwanese style food in the BR lounge. While the SQ lounge has a much shorter shower wait, I found those shower rooms to be less clean and with lower quality amenities - but since time is tight, this might be your only option if you still insist on going into the city

So based on your needs, here is my estimated timeline for you to do your plan:

1. assuming on time arrival - 30-45 minutes to clear immigration, possibly 1 hour
2. bag storage booth - estimated 10-15 minutes depending on line up
3. Express train to the city (make sure you take Express and not local) - estimated 1:20 hour including time to buy a ticket, wait for the next train, walking from platform to MRT red/blue line, etc
4. Express train to the airport - estimated 1:20 hour including time to buy ticket, walking to platform, wait for the next train, etc
5. bag storage booth - estimated 10-15 minutes depending on line up
6. outbound security - estimated 15-20 minutes at that hour
7. outbound immigration - estimated 10 minutes

So given you should be at the TG gate at least 45 minutes before departure at 12:50, and you land at 5am, you have about 7 hours to work with, and a solid 4 hours of transfer activities as shown in items 1-7, leaving you 3 hours or less to have your shower and breakfast in the lounge and do your city tour. So, honestly, you are really looking at doing one or the other unless there is a specific place in Taipei you need to go for a specific reason which is not too far away from the city MRT - and you use the SQ lounge for a shower and breakfast.

Kacee

On the subject of showers, I will add that the showers in the Infinity lounge are considerably nicer than those in the Star lounge. Which are just tiny little closets, with no toilet. Unfortunately, there are more of them in the Star lounge, so if you're aiming for "fast" you're more likely to get one of those.

Both lounges are very crowded in the morning. I am not a fan.

username

I too think it is too tight to have a leisurely trip into Downtown Taipei and be back for the 12:50 TG flight. The airport, while it is not big and nothing compared to other airports in the region, has enough stuff to explore - even on the air side, especially if you walk the connecting concourses.

If OP is travelling around Chinese New Year time, then the airport would be very busy and lines very long.

hirohito888

It took me almost 30min to clear TPE immigration after landing on UA871, only flights before me were 2 Mainland China flights and NRT-TPE. By the time the entire UA flight deplaned, I estimate that the line would have been 45min wait. One can extrapolate that with multiple early morning BR 77W flights coming in.

Even if OP gets out with no wait, first train doesn't even leave TPE until 5.57AM. Then it's still 36min train to Taipei main station, and then another 10-15min to get to Taipei 101, CKS Memorial or other sights. OP probably has 3h or so to sightsee in the morning. I think it's really a decision between waiting for shower vs. sightseeing.

csong825

Thank you all for your insight. I think I will probably head straight out to Taipei. I've never been to Taipei so getting a 2-3 hour glimpse seems more worthwhile than taking a shower in the lounge. It doesn't sound like the lounges in TPE are all that spectacular anyways. Happy holidays!

Zorak

"Complete zoo" seems accurate this morning, esp as the Infinity side is currently full so they told us to go to the Star side and check back later. Also I'm 4th in line for a shower but it seems like all the Star shower/toilet facilities are closed, with signs directing people back to Infinity (sigh) dunno if PP would've been any better but my last few trips through TPE have been on ST so I wanted to check things out and I was lured in by pictures of Infinity

EDIT: made it! Pager went off after ~30 min wait.

Kacee

Glad it worked out!

I'll be through next month and will definitely try PP or SQ.

WineCountryUA

This is an archive thread, the active thread is
Consolidated TPE logistics / connections / lounges

WineCountryUA
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