Originally Posted by
not2late
Xiamen Airlines has been thoroughly unhelpful, telling me official policy is to redirect questions regarding visas to your local consulate and the Chinese airports in question. I understand the aversion to liability but am frustrated that I can't get a straight answer to whether they'd board an American passport holder without a Chinese visa.
You've bought a rather unique fare yourself (I suppose without the help of a travel agency)
If you do that, it's entirely your responsibility to make sure you're eligable for admission to the country/region you're visiting.
The answer from Xiamen airlines is exactly what you'd get from any airline in the world. Ask Lufthansa about a transfer in Germany (or actually, just book something like PEK-FRA-MUC-JFK, and it will show up a warning that it's your responsibility to make sure you're allowed to take the domestic Schengen flight), it will be the same answer.
Airlines NEVER "guarantee" you to be able to take a flight.
Any country could change it's rules of admission at any time. Thus airlines would be crazy to guarantee something and then later be on the hook if you can't fly.
Let's make an actual example. With the current behaviour of Canada, it might be entirely reasonable to believe that Canadian citizens would be excluded from using TWOV at all from one point onwards without prior notice. Now, the Chinese gouvernment had been very reasonable with such things in the past, not escalating such things on travellers without reason, but you'd never know what happens, if the individual immigration officer would feel not to let you in. Something that happens in the US on a daily base to hundreds of travellers. If the immigration officer doesn't like your nose, they can refuse you admittance to the US, not reason given. Now Chinese officials aren't really known for such behavior on a wide scale, but in the case of TWOV, the "gut feeling" definitely does play a role. On a simple TWOV through an airport, especially with a shorter layover, thus sometimes entry wasn't allowed (but staying airside for the transport was) - at least in some cases probably due to feeling at their side the pax might not continue their travel as originally planed. Let's not forget that the major Chinese cities have hundreds if not thousands (in the case of CAN, probably tenthousands) of aliens staying (and working) there illegally already. This said, with a TWOV-compliant travel plan, you'll still very most likely be good to fly as far as the Chinese (PRC) authorities are concerned, BUT the checkin agent might not understand the rules correctly. Especially with departure in the US, there are some reports of badly educated agents that aren't able to properly understand TIMATIC.
Thus, I would conclude the behavior of Xiamen airlines to be entirely normal.