The 48 hours rule is only for PVG, not any other airport in the country. It is 24 hours for PEK. Further, while you may leave the airport in Shanghai, you cannot do so in Beijing.

This option allows you to remain in the airport for 24 hours, not leave it.

Thanks for modding that (and some other details)! I'm friends with both rkoerner and the person in question.

I think comments above advocating objectivity are sage--and believe that it's fair to also judge whether one person's sense of "fair" is a sentiment generally accepted by reasonable and prudent people.

Lest we stir up the pot of controversy without fully understanding the context, I'm going to encourage my friend to comment here directly.

Thanks to everyone for your consideration of this matter - I sincerely appreciate it.

Good to know.

And as a four year FT veteran you didn't suggest to either of them that they check into the visa requirements? ;)

As for compensation, I suggest the traveler ask the airline whether it was fined for transporting him to China without the required documentation and, if so, offer to split the fine with the airline, since both parties share responsibility for the fine - the pax for attempting to travel/enter China without a visa and the airline staff for not checking. A quick search on Google finds that the fine to the airline could be anywhere from 500CNY to 12000CNY (approx. $80-$1900).

I hope he at least enjoyed Tokyo. Great city ^

Maybe sometimes we just take it for granted and assume our friends know about the frequent flyer world as much as we do. :p

(emphases mine)

I don't think OP nor the boyfriend is looking to cough out more cash to the airline for this incident at this point. If this happened to me, I would just cross my finger and pray the airline to play nice to not hunt me down to cover the fine, if any.

If talking to the airline, I would play the sympathy card and hope the airline would somehow show me some nice gestures, which I am not entitled to. YMMV.

It's actually quite surprising that this incident happened in the first place. Airlines are generally quite strict about making sure passengers have the appropriate visa before letting the passengers board the plane. This is because it is the airline, not the passenger, that is fined if the passenger is found to not be able to enter the destination.

PRC doesn't allow visa on arrival for americans what so ever. to the end it is always the passenger's responsibility to have all travel documents in place. as PEK doesn't offer TWOV facility, he could not continue on with his journay anyways. DL did the right thing to deport him to NRT. If he wants to keep going, he has to purchase a ticket from NRT to HKG out of pocket.

Actually, they do but just for Shanghai and just for 48 hours. I know because I availed of it last year. Here's a related FT thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...e-transit.html

Will take 24 hours for an American, cannot get same day. Better hope he arrives in HKG today and picks up the visa tomorrow morning and meanwhile has a flight to PEK booked for tomorrow.

Those people are licensed professionals who are legal agents of the client and have a fiduciary duty to the client. Airline customer service reps are not... to say the least. Always go straight to the horse's mouth (a competent PRC authority) on such matters.

Yeah. I've had United try to deny me boarding because they saw an expired visa in my passport. I had to go show them there was also an unexpired one. They always look for the visa and they're doing that in a purely domestic terminal.

Apart from Guangzhou, you can leave the airport everywhere in China without a visa. Please report otherwise, if you have facts at your disposal.

old the airline responsible for verifying that pax have correct documentation, etc. b
 

Edit: Sorry about the title. Weird mistake on my part.

For some/many countries the airline must do exactly that. Some countries (e.g. the US, AFAIK) hold the airline responsible for verifying that pax have correct documentation, etc. before boarding. AFAIK this is the reason the airlines check passports, etc. for international flights departing the US and other countries.

This is not to say that I disagree with the following:

However, someone who is not a seasoned traveler could easily assume that an airline's checking for valid documentation to enter a country actually includes checks for valid documentation to said country.

Thanks for all the posts. For the most part,...i will take my friend's advise and let by boyfriend post the actual details once he recovers from jet lag.(i was not traveling with him and only have the short emails he sent between flights)..however, i do want to throw this thought out there...

i understand that legally the airline may have no responsibility to him as the traveler. However, in most businesses, if one of their employees...in a position where the are clearly representing the company...tells a customer something related to the product or service they provide that then causes the customer harm...the company usually will do something to try to make up for it...whether that is financial, an apology...or help sorting it out (and i don't know as of this point how much help was provided)

The international award booking agent is clearly in a position to understand the requirements for visas better then a casual traveler (although i completely understand that memorizing this for every county would be impossible)...and i would not be surprised by a "please check our site for the latest visa requirements response". However, i am still shocked by a blatantly incorrect answer that did not come with a caveat to double check the info provided.

Sorry but no.

This information is *easily* available.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p...y_requirements

http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/ywz...ap/t900567.htm

http://pss.united.com/web/en-US/apps...DA3F418FB4EFD8

<30 seconds on Google and I've never even been to China. This information isn't hard to find. While the Alaska agent shouldn't have said what they said and Delta shouldn't have allowed him on the flight, it's still the responsibility of the *passenger* to make sure they can enter their destination country.

Sure. Of course there's also the possibility your bf simply misheard too! :D

But wanting a caveat to double check? Cmon now, he's goi g half way across the world and he didn'teven bother googling "visiting china" to see what to expect in general (culture, etiquette, things tat will f*ck you up, etc)? If he had, btw, 1st google suggestion is "visiting china visa" and second result is all about visas...