So i am planning a trip to china this fall and looking at purchasing some flights to the western half of the country. The problem is one of the routes that i needed to purchase: Shangrila - Beijing is saying it is sold out on China Eastern Airlines (China eastern had the flight times I need to take), This flight has 1 connection through Kunming. After playing around on their website, i saw i could still purchase a flight from Shangrila - Kunming and also could purchase a flight from Kunming to Beijing but it won't let me purchase it as one complete reservation. My question is if i buy 2 separate flights am i going to have to leave the gate area and Kunming and go back to the check in desk. The connection time is only an hour so i wouldn't have enough time to clear security again i would't thinkg. I know china eastern has online check-in, but does it work the same as in the US that all i need is my printed out boarding pass to go to the next flight or is the better option to call China Eastern's customer service and try to explain to them what is happening and see if they could just merge the reservations.
Appreciate the help.