Originally Posted by
mvoight
The real issue is the AA Agents receiving proper instructions on how to correctly use TIMATIC - If the next stop after China is a different country (or even HKG), and the stay in mainland China is within the time limits, the TWOV should work. AA Agents are the ones which seem to have trouble understanding this, not the Chinese immigration people at the airport. That said, I have a cruise on Carnival, and even though my wife doesn't need a visa to visit Cuba , we are prepared to get it from the cruise line when we check in this week.
Ultimately, TIMATIC is an IATA publication / database. If the problem is that agents are confusing connections at NRT with IATA's ticketing definitions, e.g. <24 hours and China's view that anywhere is good, IATA as an industry trade organization would do well to insert clear explannatory language.
Passengers who do not require a visa ought not to have to worry that they might nonetheless be better off obtaining a costly and sometimes time-consuming document (unlike the Cuba example which is neither costly nor time-consuming to obtain).