and everything in this thread is reasonably accurate. You're EXP - so the First Class like is open to you - you will more than likely get faster help. A supervisor was near by when we checked in (they had a hard time understanding that the two children under 3 years old I was traveling with both had tickets and seats in F).

One quirk I found in PVG (and my guess as it was explained to me happens in any transit city in China coming in from outside of China) - is even if your bags are sent through to lax (my luggage tags from Singapore read hkg-pvg-lax) all had to be claimed at pvg - go through immigration and customs and rechecked. (I know this is a bit off topic).

Expert Flyer Alerts have saved me in many a far locations - good luck!