this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2025
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I admit that a large portion of my international travel knowledge comes from the movie The Terminal, but why couldn’t they just not leave the airport? Like why wasn’t the worst case that the pilot had to wait at the gate for and fly back on the next United flight out of the same airport?
China is different to most countries, you need to go through immigration even if you just want to transit to another international flight, and if the transit is longer than a certain limit you need a transit visa as well.
I've experienced this in two countries.
The first time was in China. The security dudes cruising around in electric carts with what appeared to be automatic rifles were an interesting touch as well. I ran into issues because I apparently didn't have some paperwork for being in China, even though I was only transferring from an AC flight to another. They also confiscated a lighter and a USB battery (ironically one that came from AliExpress)
The second time was in SFO in the US. In order to move from one a Canada-US flight to my overseas leg I had to retrieve my bags, re-check them and then go through security again at another gate and do the backscatter thing etc (This was long before the current Canada-US conflicts)
China may have prevented his departure from China (no valid passport to travel on), and even pilots have to clear customs and border protection when returning to the US.