Transitting PEK
 

In November my wife and I have this itinerary:

ORD-PEK(AA)-HKG(KA)-PEK(KA)-ORD(AA)

I understand that we will be in and out of Terminal 3. Returning home, the HKG-PEK flight is 12:00-15:20. The PEK-ORD flight departs at 16:55 giving us a 1:35 connection. I haven't looked into PEK's transiting process with our itinerary, but our alternative is a 09:00-12:20 HKG-PEK flight. Would this be more advisable?

Are you sure about the times? The AA PEK-ORD flight leaves early in the morning. ( it was 8 am last week, when I was on it)

Jerry

Int'l to Int'l direct transit is fairly straight forward, you deplane, walk to the counter and walk to your next gate, it'd help if your PEK-HKG flight is actually operated by CA (check if your CX flight number begins with CX61**, then it is almost guaranteed that a CA agent would be present at the counter, otherwise you might have to wait/call for it, but 1.5hr is plenty enough, unless you need duty free/lounge time, none of which u can't get at HKG. So no, I won't change it if I were you, in fact too much time at PEK would leave u quite bored.

The AA schedule is changing sometime in the near future to better PEK times.
The PEK-HKG-PEK flights are both true KA flights. I am actually purchasing the held itinerary tomorrow morning. To get the fare bucket I needed, the only choices left are the KA flight or CX's codeshare of it. (I did see some of the CX codeshare CA operated flights at other times...also not available).
I am glad to hear the transit is relatively smooth there. I had assumed that KA would actually have representatives there...

According to my observations, all airlines' ground handling at PEK is outsourced to CA.

Not quite - not even for KA. KA's check-in is handled by CA. KA's lounge is outsourced to BGS. There are normally 1-2 KA managers in the airport.

I thought there is a CX/KA lounge, BGS lounge, plus CA lounges that CA operates and other airlines contract with?

I've been to all three, personally I think CA J lounge was the best, CX/KA lounge was nicely managed, and BGS lounge looks and feels obviously like, well, a common airport lounge.

The PEK CX/KA lounge is operated by CX/KA but outsourced to BGS.