I would have gotten visa's.
Let me make this clearer. I've done TWOV about 10 times going LAX/SFO-PEK-KUL or LAX/SFO-PEK-SIN. Some airlines will interpret the rules differently, in my cases PEK was always a transit point that I choose to stay for 48 hours or so for meetings and avoided a Chinese Visa. I've also attempted LAX-HKG-PEK-SFO and CX denied the TWOV waiver - had CX then accept if I re-issue the UA PEK-SFO segment to SAME day connect they would allow me to continue. Did that, they confirmed, and I flew to PEK. Had my OLD itin ready for Chinese immigration and they let me in TWOV. Switched my UA flight back to 48 hours later. Again I was prepared to NOT be let in and just transit back home.
Generally on TWOV with most Airlines I've seen the burden to be you are continuing onwards and spending MORE than 48 hours in the other country. There is a grey area though on the CX/UA routing I did. Chinese immigration may be more lax in reality but the Air carriers are more cautious. In the case of my CX HKG stop it was just that a stopover - OK I left the airport for 7 hours for meetings but it was a stopover - out of LAX they didn't catch it and I just mentioned TWOV. In HKG I was questioned on it before boarding and did the switch quick on the UA flight as they were about to move me to HKG-SFO on CX (Ticket was issued by CX). Basically had the same as the OP but it was the OUTBOUND I did the other country connect.
Last edited by NickP 1K; Apr 17, 2017 at 11:17 pm