When I initially discovered that the return leg of my flight from Phuket to Johannesburg on Air China involved a 14 -hour layover at Beijing airport, my first thought was about what we would do for such a long time at the airport. There's nothing worse when travelling than long uncomfortable flights and long layovers at airports (unless of course, your plane gets hijacked or crashes or you get sick) #firstworldproblems .
Google told me that Beijing airport and a few other Chinese airports allowed 72-hour visa free entry for citizens of 51 countries. I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to do a city tour. Although I had already seen Beijing’s key attractions, my kids were quite keen on seeing the Great Wall of China. Then I found out that South Africa was not one of the eligible countries so that plan was blown out of the water. I wasn’t about to spend a fortune on visas for 4 people for 14 hours either.
Then another travel blogger alerted me to the fact that you could get 4 hours free at the airport hotel if your transit time was between 4 and 24 hours long. After umpteen enquiries on how to do this from Air China, most of them hitting blank walls, this is what I found out.
Most of the information is listed here under the section on Transit Hotel.
However, one cannot pre-book the airport hotel although one can pre-book the transit lounge.
The procedure is as follows:
The Capital Airport Hotel is located across from Boarding Gate E10, Level 2, T3E (International Departures). There is a sign indicating “Hourly Hotel” there. An elevator will take you to the upper level where there is a small transit lounge.
I presented our passports and boarding passes to the man at the counter and asked him if there was a complimentary room available. Since it was Christmas Day, the lounge was quiet. He said that we could get one for 4 hours then sit in the transit lounge for the rest of the day where we could avail ourselves of the free food and drinks.
The room was small and basic. It had two single beds, a washbasin and a TV. There were no windows and no en-suite bathroom. The bathroom was in the corridor and was shared with other people. My kids decided that the room was too cramped for all 4 of us so they decided to sit in the transit lounge instead while my husband and I slept in the room.
When the 4 hours were up, we decided that even the basic beds were better than no beds since we were tired (and ill) and we decided to pay for the rest of the day there (180 yuan an hour).
Later, I spoke to some other South Africans. They had gone to the Visa Free Transit desk and asked if they could go out of the airport to a nearby hotel to sleep. They were allowed to do so and their hotel room cost a fraction of what ours did.
The main reason we had booked our flights with Air China was because their flights were the cheapest for our dates and destination. However it is not an airline I would choose to fly with otherwise, for the following reasons:
I’d much rather fly with Emirates or Qatar Airways unless there is a huge difference in prices.
Click here to read about my previous experiences in China.
Click here for accommodation in Beijing.
See my review of Qatar Airways.
Have you had bad experiences with any airlines?
What do you do on long layovers when you can't go out of the airport?
Sara Essop is a travel blogger and writer based in South Africa. She writes about family travel and experiences around the world. Although she has been to 50 countries thus far, she especially loves showcasing her beautiful country and is a certified South Africa Specialist.
This looks really uncomfortable! The only thing to tempt me there would be seeing Beijing btu as someone who has a moderate fear of flying I think I would give Air China a miss. Some airports are really great at making layovers fun and offer a free city tour like China Airlines (Taipei) and Turkish Airlines (Istanbul).
I like how you explain stuff. Very helpful!
Hello, thank you so much for the useful information!
We are also planning to travel by Air China and will have a 10 hour layover. Me and my daughter are British but my husband is not so won't be eligible for the free visa. Can I ask if the hotel provided is actually inside the airport (no need to go through immigration?).
Thanks
Amy
Hi Amy , Yes it is inside the airport and there is no need to go outside immigration. We used it because we didn't qualify for the free visa either. Enjoy your trip.
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Sorry you had a bad time. But one thing that came to mind (after spending a year and a half in Taiwan with Chinese people) is that they have very little sense of personal space which is probably why you were so cramped. They thought it was fine to make me share a bed with a friend for months! As soon as we could get out of that situation we did.
Oh wow, Heather. That must have been quite uncomfortable. I'm glad my situation wasn't so bad, haha.
I'm flying with air china to Beijing with a 9 hour stop over then flying to Sydney in less than a week and I've just seen your post.. nervous but will try the hotel trick! Thanks for the advice !
Good luck Will. I hope you have a better trip than I did 🙂
I have heard bad things about Air China so I avoided them. China Eastern was fine (although I did not do a long haul flight). Glad you managed to make the best of the long layover given all the constraints that you faced. I wish they would let you at least confirm the hotel in advance.
It would really help if they let us confirm the hotel in advance especially since I hate uncertainty. I'd never considered using airport hotels before this though but I will bear it in mind the next time I have a long layover and can't go out.
Not an airline I would fly with. And definitely a no-no having read your post. I am getting pickier and pickier with airlines and will stop over but include it as as few day stop-over if I can. I am not a great flier so need to be 100% happy before I book. Planning some travel around south East Asia in a few months and doing as much research as I can about the airlines. If I had the time I would go everywhere by train!
I love travelling by train too, Tracy but yes, it does take up more time. Air China's not too hot but I've heard that Cathay Pacific is great though.
Wow, I totally did not have the same experience as you with Air China. I wasn't too happy with their service either but I've never heard of power banks being confiscated! I know they don't let you leave them in your check-in luggage and you have to take them out at security to be checked but I carry around two and haven't had a problem with confiscation. I wonder why that happened.
I think it has something to do with the technical specifications of the powerbanks. If I knew beforehand, I would have left them in my checked-in luggage. It would be great if they could do something about the service though.
I flew air china while I was already in China and it was fine (it wasn't an international flight). There is such a big difference! Service is definitely not western for sure and we didn't have meals or entertainment. I am glad you have laid out what it is like on an international flight. Also airports in China are soooo different. The Beijing air port is huge too! I went to many in my month and a half of travel there. ?
Beijing airport is huge but it was very quiet when I was there. I was at the Shanghai airport a few years ago and that was quite different too. Our flight was cancelled and we had a hard time explaining to the officials where we had to get to because they didn't speak English 🙂
We really didn't like our experience with Air China. We found the Beijing airport to be really weird and badly organised. We paid more this time for a better company to take us to Japan. We didn't like the tea served either, and we found the flight attendants to be really rude. No more Air China for us either haha