I have a through ticket from Oz to Harbin via Guangzhou on China Southern. I change planes in Guangzhou from international to domestic flight.
There is only a 2 hour layover in Guangzhou between flights.
So where will I pass through Customs and Immigration? I dont think it can be done in Guangzhou in only 2 hours..... But if its Harbin I will have been on a domestic flight.
I cleared customs and immigration pretty quickly, the one time I flew into Guangzhou. There were a lot of people on my flight with missed connections, and airport staff there were trying to sort them out. Good luck!
With China Southern, you will apparently not need to go through customs. They do it for you and the luggage is transferred to your next flight.
But you will pass immigration in Guangzhou.
At OZ check-in, see how your bags are tagged. China Southern does have some routes where they can send the baggage on to the final domestic destination--I'm not sure whether your route to Harbin is one of those. If they do tag to Harbin, normally once you arrive they will separate the domestic originating passengers from CAN from those that started internationally, and send the latter under escort to the international baggage claim area for you to get your stuff and pass through Customs. If they only tag to CAN, you'll pick up and go through Customs there.
You will go through Immigration at Guangzhou. Two hours should be enough time to do what you need to do, but if there is any issue (most likely a late incoming flight) and you misconnect, CZ will get you on another flight to Harbin and if the delay until next flight is long enough, will put you up in a hotel (nothing swish though).
As far as I know, it applies to all destinations. But the poster will only know for sure when he checks in.
" If they do tag to Harbin, normally once you arrive they will separate the domestic originating passengers from CAN from those that started internationally, and send the latter under escort to the international baggage claim area for you to get your stuff and pass through Customs. " - Not exactly. You just clear immigration in Guangzhou with everyone else. You do not have to worry about luggage until you final destination. The luggage will have been pre-cleared. You pick them up in Haerbin and go.
#5, I'm not sure if you misunderstood me or if you are describing a situation where Customs is being avoided entirely both at CAN and HRB. By "precleared" I presume you mean cleared by Customs for release, not "autorouted" which is a baggage handling procedure to send the luggage onward without passenger involvement. I have never been on an international-to-domestic connection on CZ where one could avoid Customs. To clarify my previous post about a situation IF the bags are tagged to HRB:
1) Land at CAN. Go through Immigration with others. Go to domestic departures for flight CAN-HRB.
2) Land at HRB. Separation of passengers who originated internationally from passengers who originated at CAN. If bus gated, different buses will be use and international passengers get taken to international side of Bag Claim Hall for bag pickup and Customs exit, others taken to regular domestic side which has no Customs of course. If a jetway arrival, airline staff gathers up the international passengers and takes them to Intl Bag Claim.
If CZ only tags bags to CAN, then the pickup and going through Customs is done there and at HRB, bags are picked up on domestic belts. Either situation, I do not see how Chinese Customs can be circumvented.
My personal experience (with Air China) was as follows. I checked into my flight in Montreal going to Nanjing via Beijing. My luggage was tagged to Nanjing. In Beijing I passed immigration and then security directly to my domestic gate. I never even entered the main hall. In Nanjing I picked up my luggage like all other passengers.
When I checked in in Montreal, they made me sign the back of the luggage tag. It said something like I was mandating air China to clear customs on my behalf and I had nothing to declare.
I found this rather confusing advice on the China Southern Website. In practice I'm just going to wait and see.
http://www.csair.com/au/en/tourguide/airport_service/transit_flow/transfers/index.shtml
The China Southern website doesnt work too well.
When I go in on Chrome my booking doesnt exist after logging to their Sky Pearl Club and I just dont exist.
When I log in using Internet Explorer, I still cannot find my booking under 'My Bookings' or 'My Orders'. But when I go into seat selection I can see my booking with the allocated seats. I can also see my booking when I go into the Meal Selection menu.
I rang them up about this and they said 'dont worry, we can see your booking so its OK'.
