Transfer in PEK Need to Collect Luggage?
 

I am flying Air China SIN-PEK and transferring to UA to IAD. I was told by Air China that I must claim my luggage, go tough Customs, check in again with luggage and go through Security and Immigration. Is this the experience in PEK for people? Air China will not transfer to other Star Alliance airlines? I have not experienced this anywhere else in the world.

Yes, this happened to us.
 

My wife and I flew through Shanghai and didn't find this out until we checked in at SIN--we were advised that we would need to collect our baggage in China, go through immigration, and check in again...a lot of hassle...I wouldn't have booked the trip through China if I had been made aware. It wasn't too difficult, but was confusing for us as there was no one that spoke English was available to assist us.

We were flying on Thai--all segments were on Star Alliance partners. We also started our trip in SIN and chose to connect several times as we were on a First class award...had a lot of fun otherwise.

very helpful. glad you asked.
i have a flight on Air China in the next couple of days from LAX to PEK , transferring to Thai airways from Pek to BKK.

Guess I will have to collect my bags in Peking.

Does anyone know if Air China will issue the boarding pass for Thai airways onward trip?

Does anyone know if this is the same for UA to TG? We are going in a few weeks SFO-PEK (UA)-BKK (TG)-SGN (LH) but spending the night in PEK enroute?

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Yes, you will need to collect your bags in Beijing.

My understanding is that at both PEK and PVG, you need to collect luggage, go through immigration/custom and re-checkin.

I am not 100% sure, since I have not checked luggage on any of my Brazil-US-Europe flights, but I think you need to go through the same hassle too even if you only transit through US.

I know this is a silly question to ask (but I will anyhow), Why? Can they not transfer luggage? If you are going Air China to Air China they said I would not need to collect the luggage. So it good be more an Air China thing then the countries rule.

I've transited PEK on many occasions, usually in connection with a domestic Chinese flight, but sometimes internationally.

I think this has to be a problem with the particular combination of airlines involved, rather than a general rule for China.

Depends on the airlines and airports involved. In some cases (e.g. IAH on UA) your bags can remain "in transit" even as you clear immigration and move through to the departure concourse again.

A few months ago I flew BOS-IAD-PEK(UA)-BKK(TG) and did NOT have to reclaim/recheck luggage. I just went through the transit security and immigration check. The luggage made it BKK fine.

Why would you go through "customs" on a domestic itinerary. Both the departure and arrival city are in China.

Last month I flew AKL-SIN-PEK-EWR on SQ-CA-UA in Business and I was able to have the bags checked all the way from AKL to EWR.
Now, I will say this required about 20 minutes at the check-in counter in AKL as they figured out how to make this happen. Then another 25 minutes at the transfer desk in SIN as we attempted to get our boarding passes for the CA and UA flights, likely from some creative work done to the record by the SQ staff in AKL.
In the end, our bags did not make the connection in PEK anyway, as the CA flight pulled into the gate at 4:30p for the 5:00p PEK-EWR, but we would not have had to reclaim.

Last year, I flew ICN-PEK on CA and connected to UA for PEK-ORD; bag checked through without any problems; different story on the BP, though.

Likewise, three transfers this year. Did not need to collect luggage.
Just went thru immigration check (on the side) and transit security

FRA-PEK-CTS (CA-CA)
HND-PEK-ULN (NH-CA)
FNJ-PEK-BKK (JS-CA)

I thought only IAH and MIA had the Intl to Intl baggage feature - It used to be a read tag when I frequently did in MIA connecting from the Bahamas.

What does "immigration check (on the side)" mean exactly? Is that not the same as regular immigration desk? Thanks!