Transit in TPE

[zainman]

I am looking to book two separate tickets:

1st ticket: MEL - TPE on CI

Transit approx 3 hours

2nd ticket: TPE - BKK (BR) BKK - KHI (TG)

Having never flown CI or into/out of TPE, do you think 3 hours is enough to clear immigration/customs and re-check in? I’m assuming CI won’t check bags through even though they interline. I’ll try anyway at MEL

Any tips or feedback welcome

Thanks

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It looks like you will have to change terminals - CI flights to select destinations, including Australia are Terminal 2, EVA is Terminal 1. 桃園國際機場

My last visit to TPE bag reclaim, immigration and customs was all pretty quick. Like 30 minutes or less from the time doors opened. Departure immigration took a bit more time - the hall was packed. But it wasn't TSA levels.

 

[JohnK]

I've done the T1 to T2 transfer in TPE a few times and it's not too bad although have not done the transfer recently.

There is a transfer desk in TPE but I'm not sure if they provide the same services as SIN or HKG.

You should be ok with 3 hour transit if there are no delays. Immigration is fairly efficient

 

[trentusjuventus]

Three hours should be enough, as mentioned above, immigration moves quite quickly and I usually find Terminal 2 to move quicker than Terminal 1 at peak times. There's quite a few flights arriving from the USA around the same time as you, however many of the non-Taiwanese are transiting on to other destinations, so the non-citizen immigration line shouldn't be too bad. In most cases your bags will be on the belt by the time you get through immigration and there's never a line for customs. Changing terminals isn't too much of a pain, there's a train going between the two and it takes less than 5 minutes. Of course if you can avoid this by having your bags interlined that would be best, but not the end of the world if not.

 

[auriga]

I have experienced an one hour wait to clear immigration once at TPE though

 

[zainman]

thanks all. Ended up booking a different route. Will post a new thread about it as it's a different query,