Any help & suggestions would greatly be appreciated
I am booked on the following flights:
DEC 14 AS 397 ONT-SEA Depart: 630am Arrive: 9:15am
DEC 14 AS 2084 SEA-YVR Depart: 1130am Arrive: 1220am
DEC 17 CX 839 YVR-HKG Depart: 250pm Arrive: 830pm
JAN 08 CX 838 HKG-YVR Depart: 455pm Arrive: 1210pm
JAN 08 AS 2185 YVR-SEA Depart: 300pm Arrive: 350pm
JAN 12 AS 378 SEA-ONT Depart: 610pm Arrive: 836pm

I am holding two separate tickets for this journey: 1) ONT-SEA-ONT 2) SEA-YVR-HKG-YVR-SEA.

My intended journey is to go to HKG and spend several days in YVR both ways. However the only way I can get decent fare for CX YVR-HKG-YVR is to originate & end from SEA. So I booked the SEA-YVR-HKG-YVR-HKG-SEA from a local Seattle TA which saved me tons. For this ticketing I am only allowed to stop in YVR only once and not both ways (Either onward or return but not both)

However since I want to stop in YVR both ways the TA notified that there is a way around this: She instructed me to use the stopover on my onward journey to HKG which I did (SEA-YVR on DEC14 & YVR-HKG on DEC17) and then for the return journey she instructed me to fly the HKG-YVR on JAN8 portion, retrive my luggage, walk out of the airport, and NO SHOW the YVR-SEA segment (I will take ground transportation to SEA on JAN12 for the flight back to ONT). So these are the MAIN questions I would like to ask:

When I flight back to YVR, how will I be able to retrieve my luggage without having to go to the "International-USA" transit area at YVR? I know that the CX agents at HKG will tag all my bags to SEA because my ticket states HKG-YVR-SEA with YVR as a transit point only. But since US Immigration/Customs is done at YVR, I'm going to have to retrive my luggage in YVR no matter what. However the big question is WHICH baggage claim belt area will my luggage come out of: The ones located behind the Canadian Immigration counter or the ones located at the "International-USA" transiting area? Because if it is the "International-USA" one then I'm assuming that I can't turn back and go down to the Canadian Immigration area. So I hope all of you who have taken CX flights back to the US via YVR can provide helpful insights on this.

For this procedure the YVR website shows that pax have two options: 1) Go directly to the "International-USA" transfer area, claim the bags at the belt in that area and proceed directly to the US Immigration line without having to go through Canadian Immigration/Customs. OR 2) Go through Canadian Immigration, retrive luggage behind those counters, submit the form to the customs, walk out to the greeting area, climb back up to the departure level, check-in at the respective counters for the US bound flight then you know the rest.......

Of course I want OPTION 2 where after exiting into the greeting area I would just exit the airport instead of going back up to the departure level for recheck-in. However, the YVR website did not specifiy which transiting scenario would fall under OPTION 1 and which ones would fall under OPTION 2. So I definately need help.

This sounds rather painful and complicated, but this is the only way that I can save $$$.