International-Domestic transfers at 北京 T3 - how far between customs & baggage re－check?

[banjo67xxx]

Hi all,

 

My wife is travelling back to 济南 without me, but with lots of suitcases and our 4yr old boy, and she's concerned about the distance she has to move the baggage in 北京 T3-C?

 

I can help her check the baggage at Heathrow and pay the excess baggage fees, and her brother can help her at 济南 as its only 10m between the baggage carousel and the arrivals checkpoint.

 

It says at http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/capital-airport-transfer.htm that 北京's  International-Domestic transfer hall is located just after customs, but my wife in convinced that she has to take all the suitcases up to floor 3F to re-check them.

 

Can someone who's recently been through 北京 on a connecting flight, please settle the argument for us?

 

Thanks,

Banjo.

[PBolchover]

The flyertalk website is probably the best place to ask questions like this.

 

               Paul

[imron]

She will need to recheck them.  The main reason being that you need to go through customs in Beijing not Jinan, so even if it says on your luggage that the bags are going through to a domestic location, you still need to pick them up in Beijing, take them through customs and then recheck them for the domestic flight.

 

No personal experience with this, but I have friends who recently found out about it the hard way - they checked their baggage through to Changchun (from Australia), and when they got to Changchun found out their luggage was still in Beijing.

[imron]

Also, the domestic transfer might be an even bigger hassle than just going up a few floors.  Many domestic flights leave from Terminal 2.  Be sure to check your ticket, as it may actually involve having to catch the shuttle bus to the other terminal - with all the luggage.  To make matters worse, you need to exit Terminal 3 completely to catch the shuttle bus, and depending on the time of day it might also be quite crowded.

[banjo67xxx]

Thanks Paul - I found a post on there which mentioned the map.

 

http://en.bcia.com.cn/guide/transfer_i_d.shtml

 

It doesn't say which floor the transfers is located on, however if you look very closely and decphier the key, you can see that their is a baggage claim symbol, customs symbol, and "connecting flights" symbol all on floor 2F of T3-C.

 

So I was right :-) Its all on the same floor, so she can push half a dozen bags a few metres.

[banjo67xxx]

No problems with changing terminals as 济南 nearly always goes from gate C17/C18 at T3-C, but thanks for the warning.

[banjo67xxx]

FYI - the customs regulations changed around Oct/Nov this year, so my wife didn't have to carry her bags through customs and re-check them at Beijing airport anyway.

 

Apparently, you don't need to recheck your bags from now on, so long as you have nothing to declare.