Chasing the Sun, Part 1.6: Maybe I *am* the only one ...

December 29, 2007 - Reading time: 5 minutes

Note: I wrote this while I was still on the trip, but didn't get around to posting it until now.

I'm taking a few minutes to write about the comical experience I had making a transfer in the Shanghai airport.

If you want to go to China, you have to get a visa in advance.  Everyone tells you this, but I didn't really pay much attention because I was only going to be in Shanghai for about 3 hours while I was transferring from one flight to the next.

When I checked in at Incheon, the person looked at my ticket, then at my passport, and said "hey, you don't have a visa for China."  I told her that I knew, and was just transferring, and asked if she would make sure that my luggage got checked through to Rome.  She was OK with the rest, but said she couldn't check my bags through China - I would have to pick them up and re-check them.  "Sorry, but that's China."  *shrug*

On the flight to Shanghai, when they passed out customs and immigration forms, I took copies but the flight attendant said I wouldn't need them if I was just transferring, which is what I would have expected.  It's also why I was surprised when I got off the plane, and the only way to get to my bags was through immigration.  So I hastily filled out the form and went to the "all passports" lane.  The lady at the desk flipped through my passport and said "you don't have a visa!"  I explained that I was just transferring, which confused her a bit so she picked up a phone.  A conversation in Chinese ensued, and then she hung up, took my passport, and said "wait here a minute."  Another woman ran up, took my passport, and told me to follow her, so we ran to another desk, where another conversation in Chinese ensued with the man at that desk, and after some rummaging about the desk (a few other uniformed people gathered around, including some police officers) he produced a stamp, stamped my passport, and gave it to me.  The crowd disbursed, and I moved on to the next line, which was customs.

Once again I hastily filled out the form, gave the form and passport to the person at this desk, and after a quick perusal of my passport, he said "hey, you don't have a visa."  So I flipped through the passport and showed him the stamp, and explained that I was just transferring to another flight.  He picked up the phone, another conversation in Chinese ensued, and then he gave everything back and said "OK, you can go on."

On to the airline check-in desks.  After some wandering around, I found the Aeroflot desk, waited in line, and when I got to the front I handed the ticket agent my ticket and passport.  She flipped through the passport and said "hey, you don't have a visa."  *sigh*  I showed her the stamp, and she said "huh."  She tried to ask the ticket agent sitting to her left about it, but was waved off for a moment, so she set the passport aside and started looking up my ticket.  I also gave her my Skymiles (Gold Medallion) card, to make sure that I got miles for the trip.  She took it, tried to ask the ticket agent sitting to her right about it, and was once again waved off so she set it aside and kept working.

She eventually printed out a boarding card, but the gate agent to her left, who had wandered over at this point, took it and ripped it up.  Huh?  There was some conversation in Chinese, then she said "She says you don't have a visa."  So ... I showed her the stamp, and she picked up the phone ... another conversation in Chinese; at this point a manager of some sort has shown up, and a large conversation ensues.  Finally they agree that the easiest thing to do is to just let me leave, so they print out the boarding pass, but then the ticket agent to the right jumped in and ripped it up, much to the surprise of the half-dozen other people now milling around.

Huh?  More Chinese, and attention turns to my Gold Medallion card.  A book comes out, and more conversation, and more typing, and then a new boarding card comes out - First Class.  Hah!  I definitely didn't deserve an upgrade, but wasn't going to complain.

So that's how I'm flying First Class in Aeroflot.  It's actually not so bad; I'm in a 767, not a Tupelov (actually I had hoped to get in an Ilyushin Il-96, but no such luck), and the service has been pretty good.  Nice food, too.  The seats don't have built in video, but they do stretch out flat, and after takeoff the flight attendants brought out little hard-drive based movie players which had the same selection of movies and TV that I would have expected from Video on Demand on any other airline.

So ... Next stop: Rome.