Sometimes you've got to feel for Qantas....

[MEL_Traveller]

Big difference in time between the availability of the 72 hour visa and the 144 hour variant. Mistakes were more likely to happen when the program was new.

 

[VPS]

I read that letter last Friday on the 'Traveller' site and immediately thought the same. Even those who are not aviation nerds must know to look up visa/transit requirements. One isn't just travelling in one's own nation.

Mind you I've been with some Americans in Austria who wanted to pay in US$ and they said yes you can but then the American's coughed and moaned because they didn't get their change in US$ - some people shouldn't be allowed to have a passport

 

[Mattg]

Mind you I've been with some Americans in Austria who wanted to pay in US$ and they said yes you can but then the American's coughed and moaned because they didn't get their change in US$ - some people shouldn't be allowed to have a passport

I once worked at a McDonald's store in Germany where an American lady tried to pay in USD. She had just got off a plane from her home country and had no idea that they use Euros in Germany. I had to give her a lesson on exchange rates & currency and directed her to a foreign exchange office.

 

[ChrisMars]

I can see how someone unfamiliar with international travel can get confused, and blame it on the airline.

Mistakes happen, both from staff and from passengers. More than once was I told by the checking staff that my baggage would go all the way to Canberra automatically, where clearly they should know I will need to get them in Sydney to go through customs first, on international flights. Myself, I have done so many silly mistakes, not sure I want to write them here

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I didn't appreciate the traveler was flying MU metal (booked through QF). Anyway, I did a bit of research... the PRG-PVG flight has a 'technical' stop in Xian on the way back. This is something Chinese carriers will list on their website, but it might not be something Qantas showed during the booking process.

Similar to landing in the USA, you will be processed (landed) at your first point of entry into China, which would be Xian, and the flight to PVG would have been domestic.

'Technical stops' (which are actually anything but) in China generate a huge amount of confusion for those unfamiliar with TWOV, or how TWOV works. In some cases the technical stop can invalidate a longer stopover in China as your time will now be limited to 24 hours instead of 6 days.

 

[SydneySwan]

Mind you I've been with some Americans in Austria who wanted to pay in US$ and they said yes you can but then the American's coughed and moaned because they didn't get their change in US$ - some people shouldn't be allowed to have a passport

Not only Americans. In 1975 I was the courier for a day trip from London to Amsterdam. One elderly British man turned up without a passport although his wife had hers. Firstly he said he thought the coach had a passport that covered everyone and then he said he didn’t realise Amsterdam was in the Netherlands! Surprisingly both UK and Dutch border authorities allowed him through using his paper UK driving licence which in those days did not have photos on them. The Dutch border officer gave him a very stern talking to though.

 

[p--and--t]

I once worked at a McDonald's store in Germany where an American lady tried to pay in USD. She had just got off a plane from her home country and had no idea that they use Euros in Germany. I had to give her a lesson on exchange rates & currency and directed her to a foreign exchange office.

Several years ago now. The night before our cruise ship arrived in Shanghai there was an announcement throughout the ship for all those going ashore the next day to get local currency before going ashore as no taxi driver or smaller business will accept anything but local currency. It was in the daily on-ship newspaper and advised again the following morning at breakfast. Several Americans on board were heard to say "rubbish, everyone accepts USD". Sure enough departure that evening was delayed as a large group of US citizens walked back from the city to the dock because nobody would transport them without local cash.

 

[Mattg]

I didn't appreciate the traveler was flying MU metal (booked through QF). Anyway, I did a bit of research... the PRG-PVG flight has a 'technical' stop in Xian on the way back. This is something Chinese carriers will list on their website, but it might not be something Qantas showed during the booking process.

Assuming the gentleman booked on the Qantas website, the information is at least there if you look for it.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks. Can't say I'd noticed that before! Even so, it is not clear that immigration is completed in Shanghai on the above flight, and this counts as your entry for TWOV purposes.

 

[pauleg]

Take Barry here as an example on a letter that certainly made my day reading - even if he ends up being a made up story for the clicks....

Books a flight with China Eastern, includes a domestic flight in China from Xi'An to Shanghai as part of the itinerary, does not have Chinese Visa to transit and yet
1. Complains that he was "interrogated" while not having a visa
2. Gets to transit on a day visa that took him just under an hour
3. Complains that he had to collect luggage - as if you do not have to do the same thing in Australia, US or pretty much every other country
4. Thinks that Qantas was not good enough.

Traveller Letters: 'Frightening' transit through Shanghai on Qantas codeshare flight

Expecting to transit, these travellers found themselves on the wrong side of the terminal and without the visa they needed...

www.traveller.com.au

View attachment 220768

Were they unaware that its a whole different country??? :-/

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Were they unaware that its a whole different country??? :-/

Most people would safely assume that you could do an international to international transit without needing a visa or travel authority. That would have been the case, except for the 'technical' stop in Xian, which then required an entry permit, collecting luggage, and checking in again.

 

[justin23]

I had a bit of a China problem in 2012. I should have written into the newspaper for some sympathy

My outbound trip was CBR-SYD-CAN-URC-ASB and I stayed in Guangzhou for a few days as I'd never been there. I spent 31 days in Central asia on a trip them my return trip was FRU-URC-PEK-SYD-CBR. My plan was for i think 5 or 6 days in Beijing on the return as again I'd never been there.

I had a double entry visa. The issue was the embassy issued me a double entry transit visa for two stops of up to 7 days. So no worries there. The issue was the visa had a validity of only 30 days between entries. I was over that. I arrived in Urumqi oblivious to this. Next thing you know they are asking afor a visa. I showed them the visa and thats when i knew something was wrong. I ended up in immigration detention for maybe 8 hours, with two armed guards in the room with me! It was a hotel style room, but the guards had the TV remote

Most of the issue was i think around the fact I said I wanted to go to Beijing for 5 days and that was not possible. Eventually i was escorted back to the airport, given a 24 hour transit stamp, had to buy a ticket out of China (they refused to let me go to HK as it was still China) and from URC there were no direct flights to places i could get a visa on arrival. My cards got blocked at the ATM, because i had to withdraw multiple amounts of Yuan out to pay for the new ticket. The flight went via PEK and PVG. I had a night in Beijing, where I stayed at an awful business hotel that probably had another business on the side at night. I'd run out of money by this stage. Thankfully it was in the days of anyseat aawards, so managed to book a leg from MEL to CBR on points. I had no internet access, everyone just assumed i was in Beijing!

Now if Barry was scared he'd have had a heart attack in my situation. But i was more worried than scared and i was treated fairly well all the time. The mistake was the embassies, but I learnt a valuable lesson to not trust anyone regarding visas or travel arrangements, regardless of how professional they should be. Check it all yourself and never take someones word as being correct. The only way I'd have known is if I took the visa type letter and googled it.

Seriously though, people need to take responsibility for their own actions and mistakes. If Barry booked his flight through a TA, i'd accept he could blame them because the reason you use an agent is they are meant to know these things, but still, I'd never myself accept everything a TA says is 100%. I'd always check the important stuff out.

 

[Bindibuys]

Back in 2006 took the family to the USA via Shanghai on China Eastern (family knew nothing about this holiday - so ALL left up to me to arrange)
Obtained visas for our 3 night stay on the way over, but was only a transit on the way home.
Check-in at LAX “you no travel - no visa” over & over this guy kept repeating.
Would not accept we were only transit passengers.
Finally a supervisor came over because I would not take my paperwork back, 1 look and she says “oh your flying to Sydney - no probem, here is your boarding pass”
Of course, the same guy gets moved to the boarding gate, would not look at me.
Transit thru Shanghai was a whole new experience.....
No one on transit desk, finally flagged someone down & was taken thru all these back corridors & offices to come back out at departure gates with 2 minutes to spare to next flight.

 

[relaxalot]

Back in 2006 took the family to the USA via Shanghai on China Eastern (family knew nothing about this holiday - so ALL left up to me to arrange)
Obtained visas for our 3 night stay on the way over, but was only a transit on the way home.
Check-in at LAX “you no travel - no visa” over & over this guy kept repeating.
Would not accept we were only transit passengers.
Finally a supervisor came over because I would not take my paperwork back, 1 look and she says “oh your flying to Sydney - no probem, here is your boarding pass”
Of course, the same guy gets moved to the boarding gate, would not look at me.
Transit thru Shanghai was a whole new experience.....
No one on transit desk, finally flagged someone down & was taken thru all these back corridors & offices to come back out at departure gates with 2 minutes to spare to next flight.

Earlier, in around 1997 you did need a visa even to transit.
I got caught out when I had to find a flight back from Helsinki near Christmas. I'd stayed over an extra few days in Finland and even the large corporate travel office there was struggling to find me a way home. Eventually they found a ticket - Helsinki to Beijing on Finnair, a coughpy 8 hour layover but then a nice hop down to Sydney on an Ansett 747 all in J.
I wasn't planning to leave the international area, just find the lounge and hunker down but as I wandered round looking for transit signage and not following the flow towards immigration, two of those guys with the intimidating guns decided to "help" me. Anyway after much gesticulating and ultimately finding someone who could translate they took me to immigration who told me i was supposed to have a visa, couldn't wait in international and had to enter the country for which I needed a visa. Impasse. This was before transit visas existed in China.
Eventually they allowed me to enter on the proviso I not leave the airport and they would hold my passport which I could collect when I went back out though immigration.
It was a rather uncomfortable few hours waiting in the airport and hoping they would give me back my passport without further ado. Fortunately that worked and I was happy when the wheels came up.