V-Flyer

Hi There,

I am due to go to Taipei in December and the return trip is currently from Taipei into PVG at 10.50 with China Air (T1) and then on the VS251 at 11.50 (T2). I know the distances are not long, however will this be sufficient or will any immigration etc delay the transit?

As a bonus info, I will have carry on only and travel UC.

Thanks in advance,

Br

Jensenma

Hi, I've never transmitted at PVG but I do know the airport well.

PVG has 2 runways either side of the terminal complexes. If you land on the wrong side the taxi will take around 10 mins.

I've not gone through immigration at T1 for a while but in T2 the wait isn't usually more than 10mins.

The two terminals are about 10mins walk apart.

Since you're travelling in UC you can use VIP security but there is no equivalent for passports which is where the queue normally is. That said it's never taken me more than 15mins to get through both.

VS have a habit of closing the doors early on VS251. I travelled last month when departure time was 11.40. Boarding started at 10.45 with Closing displayed at 11.05. I boarded at 11.08 and there were only 2 passengers behind me who were being paged (one of which was a Mr George Clooney). Ground crew departed and doors were closed at 11.20. If you have a look at the Schedules page you'll see that more often than not VS251 leaves way before scheduled departure (mine was Oct 9th). This is because of air traffic congestion which makes it difficult to get a slot out.

All in all I would guess that you haven't left enough time but that is just my observation. Really though, if your flight in arrives quite early, which often happens due to block scheduling then you'll probably just make it.

I've done it a few times now - and an hour is not a safe amount of time.

You MAY get lucky, but for checking in to a VS flight an hour after even *landing* into T1 from Taiwan? I'd go towards the "not possible" side of the scale.

Hopefully the inbound is early and the VS flight is delayed (T2 immigration outbound is normally around 10 minutes max, so that won't be a massive factor). But there's a LOT to come together to make that all work - personally, for stress factor alone, I'd see if you can get an earlier from TSA/TPE...

In my opinion you won't make it, and as Preiffer states the stress levels will be very high --- Pudong is a stylish modern airport the staff are efficient and the whole thing runs like clockwork, but there are too many variables outside of your control ---- an earlier flight eleminates all the risk, a missed connection on a daily flight is not good!

Thanks all.

Now going via HKG...

Good move Jensenma, gives you peace of mind, great lounge at HK, enjoy the flight.

I transferred from Air New Zealand to Virgin once, and managed to completely bypass their passport control. Was happily minding my own business in a bookshop, when a hoard of passport officers ran in and escorted me back to a tiny little room so they could stamp my passport. I really did think I was going to spend the rest of my days in a chinese jail.