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How bad is Beijing Airport

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  1. #11

    Transiting through China is something I have never considerd due to the usual delays that can stretch for hours. My last flight to Xiamen from HK was delayed for 3 hours. I see so many cheap flights to the US via Shanghai and Beijing with a few hours connection time and I have always wondered how they manage to pull it off.


  2. #12

    Join Date
    Feb 2005
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    Quote Originally Posted by jonastainine:
    My last flight to Xiamen from HK was delayed for 3 hours.
    my one and only time to Quanzhou from HK, I was in the airport for 12 friggin hours for the stupid 1 hr flight, even had 1 guy try the your face is lucky while I waited by the boarding gate, I told him to get fucked, wrong time pal LOL

  3. #13

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    BTW, Ing. next month one runway will be under repair, saw some article in SCMpP


  4. #14

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    Aug 2008
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    Chatting to a COO of a small regional carrier and he suggested bribery is rife at the major airports. If the various people don't get their cut then you miss your landing slot, bags get delayed loading, service checks not completed on time etc. It may be different for the big players.

    Beijing Airport is overly large and grandiose. 2 hours transit time is plenty but suggest you check the probably of your flight being on time using Ctrip...

    Natfixit likes this.

  5. #15

    Join Date
    Nov 2016
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    To be honest it's not really about the quality of the airport, since flights into Beijing from HK usually have a delay of a couple of hours due to other circumstances.So I think with you it's really 50/50 as to if you will catch your connecting flight. I was in the same situation as you a few years ago and I managed to miss my connecting flight to Barcelona. Didn't take any hotel compensation, as I just wanted to stay at the airport to confirm I could get a seat on the next avaialble flight (they need you to physically check in to get a seat on the next flight).


  6. #16

    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    Quote Originally Posted by bdw:
    It's absolutely horrible and you are doomed. You do not need a transit visa if your arrival and departure flight are in the same terminal, but you do need to go through a couple of checkpoints that are very long and very slow. I missed my flight and then had to back out of the airport departure area back to the arrival area and then massive line for this stupid 72 hour visa so I could go outside to change my ticket to next flight which happened to be next day because I missed the last flight of the day. Then next day I nearly missed again even arriving 2 hours early because of massive and slow lines at immigration and security checkpoints. People pushing, the security checkpoint backed up all the way to the immigration checkpoint and just endless queues and frustrations.

    The best part was there was a busload of people stuck overnight in same situation as me and I made a couple of friends and we went out for dinner and drink together sharing stories of how we missed our flights. One guy from Canada to HK, a few from Japan to HK, another guy from Puerto Rico to HK.
    One more thing I forgot to add, upon arrival in Hong Kong a day late my luggage was MIA. Found out it was held by Chinese authorities in Beijing for a week because I had a can of fucking Japanese raid bug spray in my suitcase. I was able to check in fine in Tokyo but during transit in Beijing the Chinese suspected it to be "LPG", they held my luggage without telling me, numerous inquiries to Air China after arriving in Hong Kong and I had to write them a letter authorising them to take out the bug spray from the suitcase, had to email them the combination to my luggage (it has a TSA lock I assume they can open it themselves) and finally they forwarded me my luggage.

    Never ever again transit in China. Cheap fares but not worth the hassle.

  7. #17

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    The same can happen in HK


  8. #18

    Join Date
    Mar 2017
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    It also depends on who you are flying with. If it's Air China I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you are scr#$ed