Travel China and the World! » Frequent Flyer

What to pay attention to in planning a trip across China-Hong Kong Border for the cases when your time is short

Administrator — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 17:49:50 +0000

Here is the follow up summary to the experience I had recently in crossing the Shenzhen to Hong Kong border crossing. If you are planning to take a flight from Hong Kong airport and you need to get there from Shenzhen, keep the following in mind:

* Saturdays at the border crossing are crazy — lots of people going to Hong Kong for the weekend — keep that in mind as the time needed to make it to Hong Kong increases exponentially
* The advice the hotel gives you is NOT necessarily correct. A two hour max trip can easily become a three hour one
* If you are caught at the border in one of the shuttle / minivans (e.g. the Sky Limo ones) and you are running late for your flight you can try to talk to the Hong Kong border control officers to let you (and minivan) through one of the special channels — once you cross the border you still have at least 35 minutes drive to the Lantau island / Hong Kong airport

Crossing from Shenzhen into Hong Kong for a Flight from Hong Kong Airport

Administrator — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 02:26:51 +0000

This week I had to take a flight from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, CA. This was after a several day stay in Shenzhen. On Friday night after all business was done, I checked with the hotel I was staying for the schedule for the shuttle — the Sky Limo — which I usually take for my trip to the Hong Kong airport. Once again the hotel staff informed me that I would not need any longer than a 2 hour slot to make it to the airport. My flight was at 1pm so a shuttle leaving at 9:35 am seemed like a plenty safe choice

Well, little that I know! When the shuttle did not show up at 9:35 at the Westin hotel (the Westin Nanshan) I was only slightly concerned. The concierge started apologizing and in a typical way of predicting time and schedule started telling every 5 minutes that the shuttle was 2-3 minutes away You get the picture right….

Finally around 10am the shuttle arrived. As usual it took me to the transfer depot where we had to change to a Hong Kong licensed minivan (nothing new here). I will talk about the issue with that in a separate “How To” posting later today or tomorrow.

Once we were in the Hong Kong minivan I thought “No worries — we have plenty of time…” — Again, I may be repeating myself, but here it comes — an ominous “Little that I know”

Once at the border we saw a big queue of cars and minivans. I thought — well, that has been the case on other crossings, so I should not be worried. My opinion changed once I timed the first car in the queue in our lane — it stayed waiting to enter the inspection area for about 15min. I quickly calculated — 8 cars in front of us — if each takes 10-15minutes we are in BIG TROUBLE. At 11am we were the forth van in the queue……I asked the driver for any reason that this crossing was so slow…as I had been here (on that border crossing) previously on at least 2 occasions both Saturday crossings.

Side note: Why is Saturday crossing different? Well, because tons of Shenzhen people go to Hong Kong for the weekend to do shopping, go to Disneyland, etc.

The driver shrugged and said — “well it is just slow”. But he had a good idea — once we cross the China side of the border, I should try to talk to any Hong Kong official and see if they can let us through a special channel and reduce the wait….

Well, at 11:45 am or so (for my 1pm flight) we crossed the Chinese border. At that point I rushed out of the minivan to the Hong Kong border booths carrying a laptop with my itinerary. One of the border guard guys rushed out of a booth as I was running across a concrete expanse that was all the lanes for cars crossing the border. He managed to yell at me to stop, which I did and explained to him in Chinese that I had a really short time till my flight and after some debates inside one of the booths, he stepped out and told me to bring the van into one of the empty channels…..By 11:50am we crossed finally the Hong Kong border and the driver sped for the airport on Lantau island.

Finally, I was able to get to the airport by 12:30pm — and believe it or not was able to make the flight leaving Hong Kong at 1:05pm !!!

Next, I will share some advice for you for those situations. Stay tuned…

Flight on China Eastern from Shanghai to Tokyo / A Review of (at least one flight on) China Eastern

Administrator — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 03:30:03 +0000

Several years have passed since I have flown on China Eastern on an international flight. Last time it was a business class flight from Shanghai to Los Angeles. At the time I was not impressed with the plane, the seats were too uncomfortable, the food was not good and overall the service was below any one airline I had flown.

Then over the years I have flown on multiple domestic flights operated by China Eastern, with the conclusion that it was no different than any other domestic airline…They were OK.

So this time, having to fly from Shanghai to Tokyo/Narita, I looked at various options. One of them was a JAL flight, which turned out to be operated by China Eastern. I hesitated for a moment and then I thought “how bad can it be…” Let’s go for it.

Well, it was bad…! The flight from Shanghai to Tokyo is a 3 hour one. In this day and age when airlines are competing with more and more amenities, China Eastern is way behind…and almost feels that they do not care a whole lot…

Where do I start:

* Seats – they are just bad. I get more room on an American airlines or United airlines domestic flight…you can tell the plane is packed seat wise when your standard 22inch roll-aboard suitcase has hard time going along the walkway on the plane…

* in-flight entertainment: what in-flight entertainment . No individual screens for economy. Really! On an international flight of 3 hours!!! Really?!?!
There were the proverbial central drop down screens. But the content that played on those was horrible for in-flight entertainment!

Let’s see – it consisted of
1. commercials/advertisements for cars – every passenger on board needs to buy a Nissan Teanna, or Huyndai,or…etc
* endless propaganda video about the Shanghai Expo! All these happy folks singing and dancing at the Expo. I have been to the Expo – and let me tell you – I did not see those dancing folks

2. then it was the high point of the entertainment – the Chinese version of American idol — with heavy promotion for www.yuepaiyuegao.com

At this point in time I was hoping I can fall asleep fast

* food – well, this was also sub-par. I have had better on pretty much any of my domestic China flights

So what is left then? Safe arival at your destination…? Let’s hope so (I am writing this while on-board of the described flight);

One lesson learned here – no more China Eastern Airline flights – especially international ones. Life is too short to spend hours being uncomfortable

Quick posting about a recent trip to Russia — Moscow and Saratov

Administrator — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 03:10:33 +0000

Time really goes by very fast…and things around us (the world around us) is changing fast as well. I just recently had the opportunity to go on a trip to Russia. I have been to Russia only once before — and that was long, really long time ago, so it almost does not count. The country has changed so radically / drastically since 1989….that, I must admit, this trip was essentially my first one!

I will go into more details and experiences in a subsequent posts, but just a quick heads up for you if you are flying into Demodedovo on your arrival, be ready for a long wait to get through passport control… The lines are long and the airport not well airconditioned. If you are traveling with a small child / children, you can look for a line which is asigned for parents with children — that will make the wait a bit shorter and help with your potentially tired kids.

Then once you are through immigration, the next time sink will be the trip to the city. Demodedovo appears to be located about 50-60km (based on where you are travelling to in the city) from Moscow!!! I do not get it. There is no convenient public transport, and the airport is SO far away…. Go figure. On top of that there is only one main highway that connects the airport with the main part of the city. So you can imagine that highway gets pretty bogged down in rush hour.
While on this trip I made 3 round trips between Moscow and Demodedovo, and one of them was in rush hour — it took us about one and a half hours to get from Demodedovo to Kievski Vokzal (Kiev train station near Europe Square in Moscow). So I got bored on the first drive and started taking pictures as we were traveling — here are a few….

Enjoy!

Entry into Moscow coming from Demodedovo Airport

Street in Moscow --- the old LADA is still on the street

Advice on dealing with luggage at S.Korea’s Incheon Airport

Administrator — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:43:50 +0000

Earlier last week I posted my account for the recent flight on Korean Air and how incredibly weird the handling of carry on luggage is with that airline. Now I wanted to continue with another idiosynchrosy of Incheon airport. As I was leaving for Narita on a JAL flight, I checked in at the JAL counter, verified that I have only carry on luggage and proceeded to security for screening. At the Incheon airport (similar to the process at Hong Kong airport), you first have to go through a couple of folks sitting outside a door leading to the security screening area. As far as I have been able to assertain, the sole role of those folks is to
(a) check you have a valid boarding pass and passport
(b) ensure that no large suitcases make it through…

So after checking in at the JAL counter and ensuring that I can proceed with my carry on luggage (my usual / trusted 22 inch roll on-board suitcase) I proceeded to the entry of the secure area. Needless to say I was stopped by this Korean lady who inspected my ticket and proceeded to tell me in broken English — “check in counter…” and pointed at my luggage. I told her “Yes, I was there And they approved of me bringing my luggage on board”
To which she replied “Check in counter” and pointed for me to go back.

I quickly got annoyed as after I explained to her in as slow as possible english that I was allowed to bring my luggage by JAL, she did not register any cognition of having understood me — so finally in exasperation I just stated “No, I am not going back…”

Surprising for me she capitulated — and let me go forward….! Surprise — being pushy actually paid off. So word of advice — as much as you think it is worth — when you encounter these situations DO NOT GIVE UP. If you believe you are in the right, and you probably are (otherwise the counter personnel would have stopped you before getting to security) — just insist on your position and do not take NO for an answer!

Happy travels! (I certainly was happy I did not have to deal with checked in luggage on two consequtive flights)

Advice on how to NOT check in your carry on luggage – How to save yourself the hassle of lost luggage

Administrator — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 15:52:19 +0000

Flying on some airlines around the world is an “interesting” experience. Why? Well, here are two recent experiences:

* just this week I needed to take a flight from Taipei to Seoul. The airline which was my carrier this time was Korean Airlines. I had not flown on Korean for a very long time – about 3 years (previous flight was Seoul to Beijing). So here I was at the airport check-in counter and once my boarding pass was ready, I was asked if I had luggage to check in. I always use my trusted 22inch roll-aboard suitcase as I prefer if at all possible NOT to check-in my luggage… (Believe me – it takes only once for your luggage not to make it with you and you start packing as efficiently as possible to avoid check-in luggage).
Well, this time my suitcase which has traveled over 1M miles by now, was deemed “must check-in” – so the big commotion started — a manager was called etc. as I did not want to relent… There was no way I was going to arrive in Seoul at 11pm and look for a lost suitcase. I made that point to the manager on duty and after about 5 min of air sucking and head scratching and once I made a comment to the effect of “Please give me your name card and you can check in my bag, but if it is lost I will be using you as a reference in a complaint to Korean Air”… That worked like a charm — the manager quickly decided that he can make an exception
What worked me up was the fact that I have flown on tons of different airlines and unless I am in a small regional jet my suitcase works perfectly in the overhead bins — any Boeing 737 or Airbus A310 and above jet is just fine….Yet the Korean Air manager kept telling me “This is a small plane — a Boeing 737 — no space to put your suitcase”
Once I got on board — there was absolutely no problem — I put my suitcase even with wheels first fashion — the most challenging way — into the overhead bin and it closed just fine….

So word of advice — as long as you have a suitcase that was built for roll-aboard (i.e. not to exceed 22 inch) do not give up. You can win the argument. Remember — always use the card of “Who will be responsible for my lost luggage” or something similar….
What I have observed is that I am yet to find the manager who is willing to be the person who gets pointed to in a passenger complaint…

In my next posting I will summarize my other observation about how to deal with overzealous airport employees who want to separate you from your carry on luggage… Stay tuned

More updates on Travel to/from Hong Kong Airport to Shezhen

Administrator — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:25:48 +0000

The questions about how to get from Hong Kong Airport to Shenzhen and back keep coming up in various forums. Even now that there are direct flights from Taiwan to China (rather than via Hong Kong) the topic is still active. The fact is there is still a border and a border check between China / Shenzhen and Hong Kong — so it takes time and effort to make the connections. I have done the trip via various modes
* Ferry: Hong Kong airport to Shekou (described here: http://site.chinafinds.com/travel/?s=Shekou)
* Plane: Shezhen to Hong Kong Airport or Macao Airport and on to next destination
* Van / car : you get picked up in Shenzhen and the driver helps you with the transfer
* Taxi to LoHu border crossing — cross on foot — taxi, MTR or van to other points in Hong Kong

All these modes are fine based on what your challenge is — time, money, effort…. Or if you go often to Shenzhen / Hong Kong, try them all

I have put the timetable for the CSK lines in the Resources section of this Blog

Interesting experience going through Beijing International Airport Terminal 3

Administrator — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:54:43 +0000

Recently a took a flight from Taipei to Beijing. Yes, the flights between the two cities are now becoming the norm. Earlier in the Summer (of this year) I flew from Shenzhen directly to Taipei, and now from Taipei directly to Beijing. For those of us who remember just a couple-three years ago this was a dream…. I recall 2004 — possibly the first time we saw charter flights (during the Chinese New Year) take Taiwanese expats on direct flights between Shanghai and Taipei… That was a big happening. In that same time — in 2004, 2005, 2006….all of us traveling on business or pleasure between China and Taiwan had to take the long route via Hong Kong, or Macao, or South Korea or via Japan to make it from the mainland to Taiwan. That usually meant that a trip to Taiwan had to factor in a day to get there (from Beijing) and a day to come back….

Today the situation is different. I was able to get on a 7:55am flight from Taipei International Airport to Beijing via China Air and arrive in Beijing at 11:20am. What an improvement

Once we arrived in Beijing I had to go through Terminal 3 of the new Beijing Capital airport. Each time I go through it I think how impressive the new structure is. Yes, an interesting and innovative building. All this is good until you hit the medical check point. While on the plane you are given a medical certification form — you describe your health condition etc. Fine. Then you get off the plane and start heading to immigration. Prior to immigration you go through the proverbial control point — infrared cameras take your temperature while you walk and then you face a government official who examines and stamps your medical certificate. Then you walk further and then “surprise…!” Another official collects the paper that was stamped just 2-3 minutes ago at another desk. Well, that is one way to fight unemployment and create jobs. Who needs a stimulus package

The next thing that surprises you about Terminal 3 is how huge it is. And how empty. I ended up walking for a while and went down three floors to find my way to the exit for the taxi stand…. So nice job in building the Terminal. I just wished it was easier to get in and out of it…. But then, who would mind a few miles of walking We all need the exercise. Wait, wait, I sense a business opportunity: we can create a walking exercise routine for airline passengers. “Walk to fitness”

Happy travels!

Flying in China, or anywhere in the world for that matter…

Administrator — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:32:44 +0000

Over the past 2 weeks I had the interesting experience of having a bunch of flights between Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing. The reason I call them interesting is that I heard again the strange explanation of why flights get delayed. Over the years of living and working in China I saw the country’s air travel network being stressed more and more. At the same time I also saw the masterful capability by the various airlines (Air China, Eastern, Southern….) not to answer your question when flights get messed up.

There are many ways to let the passengers know that they will not get on time to their destination, but the “best” one I hear all the time in China is “We regret to inform you that the flight is delayed due to aircraft delay”

Does this statement really provide any information? No, it just tells you “the flight is delayed” Why is it delayed? No plane… Duh…But why is the plane not on time? Well that is a whole different question isnt’t and no, we will not tell you why

So, that is about it. Don’t worry when you travel — you flight could be delayed, and you will not know why, but on the other hand, does it matter ? You just sit back and relax.

Oh, and by the way, my flight from Hangzhou to Beijing earlier today left about 10 minutes ahead of schedule. You better not be late for your flight

More on Air Travel in China – Also an observation about what services and products support need to be

Administrator — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:27:00 +0000

About a year ago I posted on some of my experiences with how Chinese airlines manage delays and overall information to passengers…Well, it seems that a boiling over point has been reached for travelers in China. Recent article posted by Reuters provides a view of the activism performed by those travelers — taking matter in their own hands, they decided to stay on-board the canceled flight…

I have been in some of those situations — not staying on the plane – but having a whole bunch of passengers surrounding the airline representatives and not letting them leave until they resolve the situation with the delayed or canceled flight.

For those of you who believe that in China, consumers are not demanding, think twice…. This is one of the most challenging markets, or rather China has become extremely challenging place for companies who fail to meet expectations of the Chinese consumer. This latest report is just one example of the extremes you may experience as a product or service provider in China.

Sure, there are airline delays and flight cancellations in many places around the world, but few are the cases where passengers have done the act of staying on-board the aircraft and demanding action by the airline, while at the same time being served by the flight attendants….Quite something.

All in all, this can be viewed also as a red flag to companies who are planning market entry into the Chinese market…