Air Astana and China TWOV Question

[RoverAllover]

Hi All

I am planning an itinerary starting in Astana -

I am not decided yet whether to continue onwards through India or China -

I was thinking of taking an Air Astana flight to Beijing, using the Travel Without Visa TWOV scheme to visit Beijing for a few days
and then fly onwards to Hong Kong.

I have found several direct flight from Astana to Beijing, this would be my first time flying with Air Astana.

My question is, would the staff at Air Astana Check in undertand the TWOV and allow boarding without a Visa for China - Has anyone been successful or/unsuccesful?

I am also considering another option which would be India (Have made a separate thread about that) -

Finally it would be great to visit Ulaanbaatar but it seems quite expensive flying in and out of Ulaanbaatar, still an option though, Astana> Bishkek > Ulaanbaatar > Beijing > Hong-Kong.

With Thanks

[steven]

Check in desk checks with Timatic. If it is written there that you can travel without visa, then they will allow it. Print out the law or the Timatic section to feel sure.

[RoverAllover]

Thankyou Steven,

I will be sure to print out the Timatic details https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/passpo ... ements.htm

If anybody has flown Air Astana to China and used the TWOV feel free to comment.

Thankyou

[RoverAllover]

I am considering India now instead as I already have a visa for India.

There are a few direct flights to Beijing from Astana, several flights travel via Ürümqi.

I found several incidences where travellers were denied boarding as the airline staff did not know about the rules of TWOV even presented with the Timatic details about TWOV (Though this was other Airlines, I have not been able to find any information on Air Astana).

Several other incidences cited that unscheduled stops were made in Ürümqi or another port of entry making it impossible for people to aquire the TWOV after arriving in Beijing/Shaghai etc, they were subsequently deported.

I am keen to try Air Astana as the airline looks favourable but this looks like a risk; I was hoping that somebody on this forum had flown Air Astana
to China and availed the TWOV.

I havn't yet finalised the itinerary (Problems booking with Uzbekistan Airways also thwarting my other choice an itinerary from Kazakhstan to India!)

I would be very grateful if anybody who has flown from Kazakhstan to China (Onward to a third country Hong-Kong/Kuala Lumpur etc.)
with Air Astana could share their experiences.

Thankyou

[itfcfan]

Resurrecting this old thread... I travelled to China last week from Almaty on Air Astana. I intended to make use of TWOV and was concerned how good check-in staff knowledge/training would be on this (having had to work hard to assert Timatic rules elsewhere for other destinations / airlines).

I couldn't find any direct experiences online (flyertalk.com had experiences of several airlines that *had* caused problems, but Air Astana wasn't mentioned).

I had a copy of the Timatic rules for transiting China printed off and approached the check-in desk with trepidation. I could see the check-in agent pulled up Timatic rules for China as my final destination (rather than a transit location) so I passed my printed out rules and asserted that citizens of Europe/US/etc can obtain a TWOV on arrival in China, as long as they have a third country as onward destination after China. The check-in agent took a few moments to read the Timatic rules and accepted my assertion and printed out my boarding pass (online check-in was disabled for my flight). YMMV, but it was a positive experience for me.