Can VS give you an MU ticket number or booking reference?

Usually in situations like this I call MU's LAX ticket office (+1-626-583-1500). Does MU's UK office number (+44 333 9000 777) no longer work? My Mandarin is no longer what it was around 10-15 years ago, so I call the U.S. (or Spain if I'm in Spain since my recent MU flights have all been ex-MAD) if I need to get a hold of an English speaker.

Once you get a hold of your ticket number, you can select seats on their U.S. website. It usually works for economy, so I imagine it will work for business class.

You don't need to find an overseas phone number to have a conversation in English with China Eastern.

You can call their main customer service number in Shanghai 24/7 on +86 21 206 95530 and about a minute into the prerecorded intro all in Chinese it will abruptly say "Press 3 for English"

The agents are pretty good although sometimes stuff can get lost in translation. The phonetic alphabet can help, or if it's really not working out ask for your ticket to not be changed, hang up and call later.

+1. Always use their 5-digit China number with whatever prepends are the most cooperative. You'll get through to a human in short order, his/her English will be pretty good, and they'll probably be able to assist in a meaningful manner.
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One thing I still have not managed to do is an online check in, having bought from a OTA. Has anyone managed this and if so, how?

Generally OLCI on mainland airlines is only for domestic flights.

3 Asia to LHR, and 2 LHR to Asia journeys all on different PNR's and have been unable to check in online

Chinese airlines usually document check most travellers on international itineraries, mainly to avoid the embarrassment for the airline and various employees of someone making it as far as the Chinese border or transfer location with documents that don't appear to comply with the rules. Hence the comment from mlin32 above that frictionless OLCI is usually reserved for domestic flights.

I'm amazed that we have so many threads on this now that ultimately make that point (along with not to waste time trying to conquer their websites), yet that won't stop more from popping up.

^Welcome to Flyertalk........lol

Next week there will be yet another thread about how the website works poorly.

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I book practically all my MU flights with OTAs and I've been able to successfully check in, at least on intra-Asia legs. Sure, I've never been able to get my boarding pass for PVG-MAD or PVG-LAX (I suppose for identity verification reasons as mentioned earlier), but I have been able to get digital boarding passes for legs like MNL-PVG or NRT-PVG with no issue.

Perhaps, those countries don't place quite as much importance on physical documents (chopped by various entities) as China? At the risk of stating the obvious, the same humans that manage that process are typically also empowered with the ability to assign seats.

I would disagree. When I flew NRT-PVG-MAD earlier this month I had an expired residence permit and a travel document which allowed me to reenter Spain. Agents at NRT asked me to sign a document relieving MU of any responsibility if I for any reason was denied entry into Spain (which wouldn't happen as I had the right documentation, and in fact I was scheduled to leave Spain again a week later for the U.S., but they wanted to be sure), so I don't think it's because neither Japan nor the Philippines give less importance to physical documentation. I may have had the digital boarding pass but I still had to go to the counter anyway, so any benefit for me was moot. But if I had no bags? Totally different story.

That said, I don't dispute that people do have issues with checking in and selecting seats on MU's website, but I've had the good fortune of being able to do both with no issues. Yes, MU's website is barebones and sucky, especially the international-facing site that I use for doing both seat selection and OLCI, but it (mostly) gets me what I want with no problems at all, and if not I can count on the agents at the airport to help me out. At least at MNL and MAD they sometimes give me Y+ seats for free when I ask, rather than pay when selecting them online.

I am pretty sure this has been covered somewhere but the amount of contradictory information outside of flyertalk is dizzying.
I will shortly be flying MU J AMS to SYD via PVG with a 6h transit.
Will I be able to get my second boarding pass (to SYD) in AMS upon checking-in for the first leg?
Will I have to clear immigration and customs even though I won't be leaving the airport / transit area? i.e. is there a specific path for travellers on international to international connections?
Thank you.

Yes, you will be able to get your boarding pass for PVG-SYD in AMS (I presume both flights are on the same ticket), and no you will not need to go through immigration and customs as PVG has sterile transit. Follow the signs for international transfers and you'll be brought back up to security. That said, should you go through immigration and customs six hours is doable if you want to do a quick visit to downtown Shanghai, get a quick meal and go back.

As above, but also if you choose to stay in the airport, the lounge is pretty good. Large with quiet areas, food is OK, not excellent but certainly fine for a few hours. Good wifi (with the usual Great Firewall), plenty of space and also showers.