flyerCO

Have you read the thread? This has been brought up more then once. All that matters is that you were compliant upon landing. The fact that the flights later get changed don't mean they are now in trouble. You only need to qualify for entry at the point you enter. Just like if you have a visa for one time entry that expires on March 30. You can enter that country on March 30, and stay for however long entry under that visa is valid for. So if you can stay for sixty days, you can stay for sixty days. The fact that you no longer could enter the country using that visa doesn't mean you're now in the country illegally.

The issue would be if they changed the booking before entered China. Then the passenger wouldnt be able to enter without it being changed. However They'd be within their rights to say the routing is not acceptable and ask to be routed in a manner that makes them compliant for entry.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

Involuntary changes (delays, cancellations) are covered under TWOV rules and neither pax nor airline are not held accountable.

Microwave

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LOUDNOISES

How​​​​​​ was the OP bending the rules exactly? They are so ridicously black and white.

Lot of schadenfreude in this thread and I think people are being purposefully obtuse towards the OP because, well, it's 2017.

As for moral compasses, maybe people should think about how much misleading mis-information they are producing in this thread, which should have purely focussed on how AA be brought to account for messing up.

Dave Noble

If asking this at this stage in the thread, then I suggest reading the thread and understanding what others points of view may be.

If it was "ridiculously black and white" , I suspect that there would be no discussion on it ( as per just about any other country )

flyerCO

AFA China is concerned it is black and white. The fact that people outside China confuse the rules is different.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

Not at all. The agent could have rung their AA china offices or airport staff, they could have called Shanghai Immigration, they could have asked the passenger to sign an indemnity. If the agent was unsure they had multiple opportunities to clarify.

MSPeconomist

You need to have printouts of both itineraries (aka PNRs or reservations) and ticket receipts, including ticket numbers. Show them at check in and to the GA if questioned when boarding.

MSPeconomist

Of course China can and should impose sanctions if someone is booking fake (fully refundable and never intended to be used) tickets to satisfy China's TWOV rules and then staying in China in a way that violates TWOV rules (and not due to IROPs beyond the person's control).This is very different from booking a ticket into China just to show to an uninformed but stubborn GA who is wrong but determined to prevent the customer from using TWOV.

MSPeconomist

If your actual flight segments were HKG-PVG-HKG-TPE, this wasn't eligible for TWOV. However, the stop or connection in HKG between PVG and TPE should have been noticed earlier so that you weren't boarded for the HKG to PVG flight.

Myyra

Thanks, I know that it works and I've done this myself. The poster I was replying to claims that there's nothing the agent can do because all they see is LAX-PVG-LAX so PVG can't be transit. I was asking if it's too much for the agent to look at the other booking and consider PVG as the transit point.

MSPeconomist

First of all, there's no such thing as a "TWOV visa." TWOV = TRANSIT WITHOUT VISA. No visa is involved.

Secondly, people (including me on DL) have had problems with airlines not accepting itineraries with other stopovers in Asia that clearly satisfied the requirements for TWOV.

C17PSGR

I acknowledge that TWOV does not equal Visa ATM Machine ... etc.

And yes, other airlines in the US, Europe, and Asia -- and even China --- have had situations involving potential TWOV visitors that left someone unhappy.

Obviously, the solution is for the China IATA rep to clarify the problem.

moondog

It would make much more sense for AA to fix the problem on its end because China's TWOV policy --as presented in TIMATIC-- is not difficult for people with average intelligence to comprehend.

MSPeconomist

Exactly. Politically and to save face, China can offer TWOV (and benefit from the additional money from overseas being spent in China) despite not wanting to allow people from a list of countries to enter without visas due to reciprocity concerns.

Again, exactly. China wants us to use TWOV if we respect the actual rules for TWOV. It shouldn't be difficult to understand.

I think the airline agent's job should be on the line when they incorrectly deny boarding to a customer.

I think the agent's job should be on the line when they incorrectly deny boarding to a customer. If the agent cannot or will not learn how to do the job correctly and then do it correctly and ideally without fuss, then that agent needs to go elsewhere (although please not to another airline).

People have trouble with USA-NRT-PVG-USA as well as USA-PVG-NRT-USA. It doesn't seem to matter, in terms of dealing with AA or DL etc. whether you do the third country before or after China in terms of airline agents rejecting TWOV complient itineraries.

Remember that a China visa (one needed per person, including children) currently costs $160 plus fees for special passport sized photos and (for those who don't live in a city with a Chinese consulate) visa service agency fees and FedEx costs. For a family, this can easily exceed a thousand dollars. Most families would prefer not to waste this much money just because there are airline agents who can't/won't do their jobs correctly and think it's just fine to refuse boarding based on their misinformation.

However, we should emphasize that what you cannot do is enter with a TWOV compliant itinerary and then voluntarily change it to, for example, stay more than 72/144 hours as defined in the TWOV rules, fly to an additional city within China, or fly nonstop back to the country from which you entered China. Doing any of these things voluntarily will rightly get you into big trouble with the Chinese authorities.