Short gap between connecting flights?

I bought a round ticket via Expedia to and fro Europe a few days ago. It starts in Songshan with China Airlines going to Haneda and from there to Germany with Lufthansa.
There’s a gap of 1hr 10 mins between landing in Haneda and take off with Lufthansa. Should I be worried? What are my options if I don’t make it?

Any small delay and you will miss connection . If you book the complete journey , they would be obliged to get you a seat on the next available flight . If you book each leg separately you will not . My advice is to fly direct to Frankfurt with China , or Amsterdam .

The ticket is already bought. All the legs are on this one itinerary.
I don’t mind a delay and taking the next flight or some such but don’t want to end up stranded or having to buy another ticket.

Who’d be obliged to sort it out? Expedia? Unfortunately it’s not the same airline on both legs…

It doesn’t matter if they’re not the same airline - if they appear on the same itinerary with the same booking number, and you don’t need to manually transfer your baggage, they’re “code sharing”. If you miss your flight because of a long delay, it’ll be up to China Airlines to sort it out.

Realistically, you’ll probably be OK - in my experience flights out of Taiwan are 98% on time, and even if there is a delay, just have a word with the flight attendants and they’ll ensure that you’re first off the plane. If it’s really tight, they’ll call ahead to let Lufthansa know, and you’ll probably have ground staff waiting for you (with a card with your name on it) to take you to the gate.

Even if the flight is on time, you will need to make damn sure you know which gate you’re heading for at Haneda, and don’t dawdle around. They will shut the door 20-30 minutes before takeoff.

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That’s very reassuring, thanks. I think I read on the Lufthansa page that it needs to be the same operator, but they probably meant a case of separate bookings.
I tried to check it out before posting here, but the annoying thing is that the only means of contact with Expedia/Lufthansa is a 1-800 number No email or live chat? :confused:
I also have good experienc with punctuality here, so hoping it will keep. I will definitely research the Haneda speedrun I need to make though.

Explain the situation to the flight attendant at the beginning of your first leg. They sometimes allow passengers with tight connections to get off the plane before others, at least in the same seating class. That can make a difference if you sitting near the back of the plane, or if the plane is full.

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You would have a problem if your flight to Germany were to leave from Narita. Didn’t know that Haneda has flights to Europe. Long time ago it was domestic flights and flights to Taiwan only.

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The way this works is that the airport itself defines the minimum connection times. A small airport might allow very short connection times (30 mins), while a larger one might be longer (90 mins). Other factors are the terminal layout, average wait times if there are intra-terminal screening, etc. It’s up to the airport.

If you somehow end up with a ‘misconnect’ in your itinerary (e.g. two flight segments which don’t conform to the airport’s defined minimum connection time), then your itinerary won’t be able to be ticketed. If you have a booked & confirmed ticket with a 1hr 10mins connection time, then you’re good to go. Haneda is pretty small so they might even allow shorter connections than that.

The airline has your name on a list, they know where you’re coming from and they know they’re going to have to rebook you if you don’t make it (at their expense). For this reason, it’s unusual to miss a connection.

But it can definitely be stressful :smiley:

Of course, none of this applies if you have two separate tickets. Then it’s totally up to you. The way you can check this is look at your itinerary, it should just have one ticket number (numeric, 11-digit) and one PNR (alphanumeric, 6-character).

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The only thing I’d worry about is security. Japanese security can be extremely anal. Best not to have anything even slightly iffy in your luggage.

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There is also the chance that you will make it, but your luggage won’t. In this case it will come on the next flight and be forwarded to your hotel/place of residence.

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Or indeed concealed internally, I suppose.

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Make sure to buy insurance when using Expedia or travelocity

Most likely: you’ll be fine. I’ve done the haneda connection about once a month for the past few years. The highest number of people I’ve seen in the security queue at international transfer is three. The average was one. 20mins is what you need gate-to-gate for a normal smooth transfer.

However, that assumes you pick up a boarding pass for the second flight in Taipei. If they give you just one, worth pressing a little to see if you can get the Euro leg in Taipei. If not, the airline desks in Haneda are just the other side of transit security - you’ll see them when you get there.

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Thanks for all the tips. My initial worries have been downgraded to the second tier though: https://www.cwb.gov.tw/V7e/prevent/typhoon/ty.htm?

As we can see on a handy graphic there Ms Maria center will be exactly in the flight path. I highly doubt I will go anywhere this Wednesday.

Any advice on what happens in this case of flight cancelation? I hope they can just move the date to the next available one. Problem here however is that my visa expires on the 18th… :frowning:

This is the problem with travel services purchased through Expedia or another flight aggregator.

And your first leg is with China Airlines, too. Still, I would contact them and see what they can do for you. Are they willing to move the flight up to today or Monday or Tuesday early?

If not, then are they willing to go to bat with Immigration services on your behalf, since you will overstay your visa? (EVA Airlines could pull this off, I think)

I would contact Immigration, too, and get their advice. They’ll probably just point out that you’ll have to pay an overstay fine before you leave on Thursday or Friday, but it’s worth a shot.

I can’t make it before the flight date, besides the typhoon is coming fast and flying in this corridor looks worrying.
Flight is on 11th so I have 2-7 days after that before visa expires on the 18th (depending on how long the typhoon lingers as well I guess). Hopefully they can squeeze me on to some flight in that gap.

If not, I will indeed start contacting immigration, or maybe just do a quick 1 day visa run before going to Europe. It’s all getting a bit ridiculous though. How much is the overstay fine?

The funny thing is that I’ve just “complained” to someone that I’ve never lived through a typhoon in here yet. Careful what you wish for :smiley:

I have no idea, unfortunately. Sounds like you have some time, anyway. Best of luck!

No kidding. I hate typhoons. I always feel like a cat trying to survive a fireworks show. Gale-force winds that last for hours drive me nuts. No way to relax. There’s a reason that alcohol sales spike during hurricanes…

eta: Which reminds me. No way even copious alcohol consumption would ease my anxiousness if I had to worry about losing my visa rights, too. Take BHL4life’s advice below, and do a one-day run. Think of it as insurance. That way you may end up enjoying the typhoon anyway, some people do.

do the visa run… its not worth getting an overstay. the fine isn’t a lot but your visa free rights are gone for a year, which would be a huge hassle.

typhoons messing with flights are legit. i had to spend like a whole day (in wet shoes, in that super AC they use there) in taoyuan airport once. luckily my flight wasn’t cancelled just heavily delayed. i arrived at my hotel a few hours before i had to check out, the staff were pretty confused.

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I’ve gone through Haneda a couple times and didn’t experience anything out of the ordinary, well other than smiling faces.

Good to hear. Every time I transit through Narita, they go through my luggage with a fine-toothed comb. They even tried to confiscate my medicine when they couldn’t read the Chinese prescription. I had to hold my ground for about 15 minutes before they finally relented.

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