I am in the midst of SIN-PVG-SFO-IAD, and was surprised to find that one must collect baggage at PVG in this itinerary.

When I checked in at SIN (in the SQ first-class lounge, no less), the agents tagged my bag to SFO and told me that it would be checked all the way through to there. Luckily, I have a China visa, and luckily, I had a six-hour layover so I had decided to leave the airport and zoom into town. But imagine my surprise when I showed up at the UA ticket counter a few hours later to be told that I needed my suitcase.

I was skeptical that the course of action that the agent told me I had to undertake would actually work, but it did. There is a "staff entrance" downstairs, in which they let me in behind customs and, sure enough, my suitcase was sitting there at the (one common) baggage service office.

The agent also told me that, in the event that I didn't have a China visa, immigration on the way out would issue some sort of transit stamp that would allow me to leave the sterile area. I am glad that I didn't have to experiment with this. Even luckier that I didn't just stay in the airport for my layover, oblivious that my suitcase was not traveling with me, although they weren't able to issue my PVG-SFO boarding pass in SIN (maybe this is related), so I would have had to go to a transfer counter anyway where I imagine I would have gotten the same information.

I am very surprised that Star Alliance carriers can't check bags all the way through; I guess the new PVG terminal coming on-line didn't help things. I am also surprised that the agents in SIN didn't know this. I guess it's the same in the U.S. if one is connecting, e.g., FRA-IAD-GIG, although I thought that the U.S. would be the only country silly enough to require such steps. (I think that in the U.S., one needs an entry visa even if one is only transiting?)

By the way, the UA check-in counter for the 12:25 flight PVG-SFO (flight 858) only opens around 9:30, so had one in my situation retrieved one's luggage at 6:30, one would be stuck with it until then, although there is a left-luggage service right outside customs. (Of course one would have to pay in RNB, which one might not have if one were planning to only transit PVG.) Also, they don't take laptops.