When embarking on a global journey, there are a variety of issues which must be organised, together with passports, baggage, airline tickets, lodge bookings and arranging for somebody to feed the cat. Not the least of these things is the visa. If travelling to a rustic the place a visa is required then it is advisable be completely certain that you’ve been given the right info to get the right visa. Let a current expertise of mine be a cautionary story.
In August my spouse and I had been fortunately planning a visit to South Korea, the place our daughter resides, and we determined to go to Beijing first for about 9 days after which fly to Korea. We had been to Beijing earlier than, and favored it very a lot, and thought it was a superb alternative to go to it once more. I appeared online for the perfect airline offers for return flights between Melbourne, Australia, and Beijing. By sheer coincidence, the most cost effective such flight occurred to be with Korean Air, so I booked the tickets, which required us to travel from Melbourne to Beijing, with a quick stopover in Seoul, on the fifth. September, after which to fly from Beijing to Melbourne, through Seoul (one other temporary stopover) on the twenty eighth. September. Ideally, if we had been capable of prolong both of those stopovers in Korea to a interval of a few weeks, then we might have re-arranged the flights in order that we would not should e book any extra flights between Beijing and Seoul, however we weren’t permitted to try this beneath the situations of the ticketing association with out it costing much more cash, so we needed to make a reserving with China Southern Airline to get us from Beijing to Seoul on the 14th. Of September after which again to Beijing on the twenty eighth. September in time to catch our flight with Korean Air again to Seoul and Melbourne 한국 비자.
If you’re following this up to now you’re doing nicely. In abstract, what we needed to do on the twenty eighth. September to get home was fly from Seoul to Beijing with China Southern Airways in order that we might catch our flight with Korean Air from Beijing straight again to Seoul from the place we had been to select up our connecting flight to Melbourne. It was not an possibility to easily not get on the flight from Seoul again to Beijing and as a substitute simply catch the Korean Air flight straight again to Melbourne, as a result of if we didn’t board our Korean Air flight in Beijing, our complete flight home can be cancelled.
So there you have got it. I used to be happy with myself, having booked all of the tickets online, and having managed to give you the most cost effective possibility. Subsequent factor to do was contact the Chinese language Consulate in Australia to ensure I utilized for the suitable visas within the circumstances. Did we require single visas or double-entry visas due to the truth that we had been flying into Beijing Airport a second time to hyperlink up with our Korean Air flight? I dutifully rang the Chinese language Consulate in Melbourne and put our forthcoming itinerary to a gentleman, explaining that we might not be leaving the airport and can be catching our flight again to Melbourne through Seoul a little bit over 4 hours after arrival at Beijing Airport. He assured me that if we weren’t leaving the airport and if we had been solely staying for that period of time, then we might not require double-entry visas. My mistake was that I took his phrase for it. I assumed it was cheap to imagine that I used to be being given the right visa info by the very individuals who situation the visas.
We proceeded on our journey and once more loved all that the nice metropolis of Beijing has to supply, and we went to Korea and had a stunning couple of weeks catching up with our daughter and son-in-law, till it got here time to go away. On the twenty eighth. we offered ourselves to the check-in for our flight to Beijing. I handed over our passports and after a lot dialogue in numerous languages, we had been knowledgeable that we couldn’t even fly to Beijing. The attendants had been as useful as they might be, and even rang immigration in Beijing, who did not have excellent news for us. If we had been flying into Beijing we would have liked our visas to be present. It did not matter that we weren’t leaving the airport, and that we had been solely going to be there for 4 hours and 20 minutes. It did not matter that we had been instructed by the Chinese language Consulate in Melbourne that we did not want visas for this. All that mattered was that we did not have visas, and that was that.
We had been instructed that we had two choices: both apply for visas or rearrange our ticketing on the Korean Air flight again to Australia. Making use of for visas hardly appeared an possibility in any respect on the time. We’d have needed to have waited for approval and would have needed to rebook our flight again to Melbourne, and organize additional accommodation in Seoul. It was all an excessive amount of. We simply needed to go home and I used to be having visions of being stranded at Incheon Airport in Korea for the remainder of my life! The second possibility was to alter our ticketing preparations in order that they had been not Beijing to Melbourne tickets, however merely Seoul to Melbourne tickets. So we took the second possibility. Now these items do not come cheaply. It price us a whopping $780 EACH for the privilege of re-purchasing the exact same seats on the exact same flight that we had already paid for. That’s a further $1560!
I’ve been promising myself since I acquired home that I’m going to complain to the Chinese language Consulate in Melbourne, however I’m not keen on brick partitions and have not acquired round to it but. However I’ll. Within the meantime, I believe it has served as a beneficial expertise. I’ll by no means take such recommendation on face worth once more. I can be checking and double checking, and if needed, triple checking.