Originally Posted by RobOnLI

Bummer to hear about the issues, OP.

Admittedly, one case does not mean "do not book Air China". You wound up on the unlucky flight of the day that got severely delayed into SZX and you misconnected. You could have also wound up on one of the other flights that ran on time and this post would have been for naught.

The "your bags are checked all the way through" is still a true statement by United because your bags were tagged to MEL. I doubt they know domestic China rules for collecting bags. However, every single flight I have taken to China (and I fly there a lot) has been greeted with a "Welcome to China. If you're connecting to a domestic city you must collect your bags here and go through customs. If you're transiting directly to an international flight you do not need to claim your bags." I've heard that countless times on United, Air China, Shenzhen, China Southern, China Eastern, etc. My point is they all say it so either you had a crew that completely forgot or you just didn't pay attention to it. Again, another bummer but good advice for everyone reading this thread that everyone must pick up their bags if connecting to a domestic city on the next hop.

Although it was entirely Air China's problem to solve, it's absolutely no surprise you didn't find someone willing to help. That's the Air China way. Having said that, I would have been on the phone to United the second my plane to SZX was delayed and asked to get on an earlier flight or a different routing out of PEK (which is likely to have many more options than SZX). The issue here is that you would likely have lost your bags and they'd be sitting in SZX as they were tagged on your severely delayed flight and would have missed the MEL flight. Meanwhile, your butt would have been on a plane.

-RM