Originally Posted by relangford

OP: I am very sorry this happened to you. UA seems to have made a number of mistakes. For most of us here on FT who travel a lot, we forgot that infrequent travellers can be quite lost on international journeys, especially if transiting an unfamiliar airport.But, that doesn't apply here since they were transiting. Actually, it should be "especially as a business trip" since Chinese visas for business are even more complicated (I lived in China for a number of years and go back once/twice a year now on business).
BTW, OP may be a female (OP says "and my boyfriend"). UA was totally wrong here. The only thing I would have done differently would have been to try to travel to SFO where the UA staff would, most likely, know the rules better. I don't know why UA would not have re-routed on their own flights once they admitted a mistake on their part. Also, BTW, I don't have a smart phone (my old flip phone is furnished by the government - your tax money at work ).