How Easy Is It To Connect to Qatar Airways In Pisa?

July 26, 2017

TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.

Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published.

All posts in this series:

Note: As part of this trip I took a British Airways Economy Class flight from London Gatwick to Pisa but, as I have already reviewed BA’s short haul Economy Class offering a few times, I’m not going to review that again here.

Qatar Airways is renowned for offering great Business Class fares to Asia from various European cities and travelers who are in a position to take advantage of these offers can often get themselves a fantastic deal.

The Qatar Airways deals vary from European city to European city but, over the past year, we’ve seen a lot of great deals specifically for departures from cities in Italy….but what if you don’t live in Italy?

Well, I don’t live in Italy so I thought it would be useful to write a quick report on how easy or hard I found it to connect to a Qatar Airways flight departing from Italy (in this case the city of Pisa) after having booked an entirely unconnected flight to Pisa from where I was based – the UK.

Connecting To Qatar Airways In Pisa

We arrived into Pisa a little later than scheduled due to a hold up at Gatwick and a slight delay getting clearance to land in Pisa thanks to some slow moving traffic on the ground.

We arrived at a remote stand and had a short walk to the airport terminal (I could see the Qatar Airways A320 that I’d be taking in a few hours time further along the airport apron).

As my flight had arrived from a non-Schengen country (the UK) we were ushered in to the terminal though a dedicated “non-Schengen” door.

At this point the fact that the line for immigration was trailing out of the immigration hall………

……. told me that either another flight had arrived just ahead of us or the Italian authorities weren’t ready for us.

It was the latter.

Fortunately the Italian immigration officials got their act together pretty quickly and we were shepherded into two lines to have our passports checked.

This is where I caught a break.

The immigration officer handling my line clearly had somewhere better to be as everyone in front of me flew through his “checks” and he barely glanced at my passport as I walked by. The other line wasn’t so lucky and I have no idea how long they took to clear immigration.

Immediately on the other side of immigration is a small baggage hall but, as I only had carry-on with me, I headed for the exit.

As soon as you exit the baggage hall at Pisa airport and face the sea of expectant faces in the arrivals hall you need to take a left to check-in for another flight.

Pisa airport check-in desks are no more than a minute’s walk from where you first enter the arrivals hall and you actually walk past the airport security lines on your way.

There was no line at the Qatar Airways Business Class check-in when I arrived and, after a brief hold up while the agent checked that I didn’t need a visa for South Korea (my final destination), I was soon walking back the way I came to join the security line.

There’s no premium security at Pisa airport so it really is the luck of the draw as to how long it will take to clear. In my case it didn’t take much longer than 10 minutes……although a couple of passengers did their best to hold us all up by trying to bring 4 – 5 bottles of wine with them and then arguing with staff when they were told they weren’t allowed to do that.

The lounge that Qatar Airways uses at Pisa is one level above the main airport level but it’s well signposted all the way from where you exit security……

This is the view as you exit security at Pisa and the “Sala VIP” lounge is signposted straight ahead of you

……and, with the help of an escalator, it’s no more than a 2 minute walk.

Just follow the signs and you can’t miss the lounge

So, all in all, my transfer process at Pisa was pretty smooth.

Here were the timings:

From landing to the doors opening – 7 minutes
Doors opening to entering the terminal – 7 minutes (I was in row 12)
From entering the terminal to clearing immigration – 10 minutes
Clearing immigration to Qatar Airways check-in desks – 3 minutes (I had no baggage to collect)
Time to check-in – 5 minutes
Check-in desks to clearing security – 11 minutes
From clearing security to entering the lounge – 2 minutes

Total time to connect – 43 minutes

Clearly these timings will vary depending on the immigration and security lines but at least this gives you a rough idea. Also, if you’re traveling with hold baggage then you’ll have to allow time to collect that and check that in too.

Warning: Make sure you fully understand the risks you’re taking when booking a positioning flight like I did – the post “Why you should be careful when booking positioning flights” should be one you read if you haven’t booked positioning flights before or if you’re unsure of the risks.