Air China -Really a Part of the Star Alliance?
 

I flew ORD-PVG-SZX and return last week. The connection between Shanghai and Shezhen was on Air China. As is sometimes the case with connections outside UA, seats to the connection are not assigned until check in, which is always a source of anxiety. But the situation regarding check in and baggage on a connection from/to UA is rally bad with Air China. On the outbound, after clearing immigration in PVG, I actually had to hand carry my luggage over to the Air China check in counter, even though it had been checked through to SZX at ORD. Then, on the return Air China would not interline the checked luggage, so I had to first check it to PVG, then claim it and recheck it to ORD at UA. If Air China is really part of the Star Alliance, it seems to operate fairly independently with little cooperation with UA.

At least your reservation wasn't cancelled with your seats sold on the black market.

See

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ed-hacked.html

I've done this exact flight in the past, and I think you just got a bad agent. CA is outsourced to AirServ (or some equivalent...) at both of those airports. Also, if you're elite, it's easier to go to the "little red house" at SZX where all of the business class/elite check-in is done for Air China and Shenzhen Air.

From ORD-PVG-SZX you have to claim and re-check your bags because of Chinese Customs. Same thing when you get back into the USA and have to claim/recheck your bags when switching from an Int'l to domestic flight. PVG doesn't have any kind of recheck area for ANY airline - you just have to take your bags upstairs to the check-in area and recheck.

However, going back SZX-PVG-ORD, they should have been able to check your bags through to ORD. I've never had an issue in that direction. So, my suspicion: bad agent. Sorry. :(

So your beef is really with China and/or intl dom transit procedures, no?

Air China is a far better airline than UA.

This is nothing. Next time, fly to HKG and take a train. UA flyers should experience CA, seats, ontime performance, delays, MX, etc. and be thankful and praise SMI/J. :D Last Oct, I had to fly CA in C back home with a non-functional seat and no compensation. They made me sign a waiver or miss my flight and be delayed because it was the national day holiday.

To be fair (at least in my experience) MOST of the CA delays I've had weren't really CA's fault. This is a plague that affects virtually all flights originating/departing from mainland China airports. Chinese ATC is horribly capricious, and the military arbitrarily declares flight routes, no-fly-zones and other holds and delays, basically, at-will. Anytime you see a Chinese flight with "unspecified delay" or "traffic control delay", that's pretty much the reason. Chinese ATC has been the subject of more IATA complaints and pilot frustration than pretty much anything else in that region, for at least a decade.

What really sucks is that CA (and other Chinese airlines) will frequently cite mechanical, weather, act-of-god or pretty much ANY other reason to delay or cancel flights, to avoid saying "the military has closed our route today".

So, I agree it sucks royally... but I have a hard time blaming CA directly. For the stuff within their control, they're a pretty good airline.

Red market, Shirley.

Is this your first trip to a "secondary" airport/city in China? This is SOP when making ID/DI connections in China. Travel a little more within China and you will realize how painless all of this actually is.

Welcome to FT, OP!

The issue lies within UA and the airport. The bags are transferred through if you were flying through PEK.

Really? I guess you never had an IRROP with CA, where they refused to transport me to my final destination in a misconnection, and their baggage office lied to their own employees about my bag's status. It took 6 hours to convince them to put me on a flight back to the US. Absolutely ridiculous.

Few weeks ago received an opup at the gate on a CA CAN-PVG flight base on my UA*G.

The last time I bumped into an IRROP issue with CA (weather at SHA and PEK caused mass cancellations; we were going SHA-PEK-IAD and with our reassigned flight we would've gotten to PEK after our PEK-IAD flight left) it took a good many of our extended family complaining to the customer service counter at SHA at the same time before they'd rebook us PVG-NRT-IAD the next day (their idea of a solution was for us to fly to PEK and deal with it there, despite PEK-IAD being sold out for the next two days), and the agent kept reiterating that she couldn't guarantee our seats for NRT-IAD because it was UA-operated.

Unless we are talking about a difference in semantics, bags are not automatically transferred in PEK on an ID connection. There is a separate area in baggage claim for domestic connecting pax to clear customs. There is no such thing as a bag "drop off" for you to directly proceed through security. Instead, you have to push it through the domestic-style x-ray machine and then check in again with CA. Even if your bag was already tagged to the final Chinese destination, iirc CA will retag it with their own tag.

Had IRROPS with them, it was clumsy, but handled like any other airline would, and certainly better or at least the same that UA handles IRROPS for non-status people.

In the air, there is no comparison, they blow UA out of the water, especially in F and J. Even Y was pleasant enough.

Duh.. you are correct. I was thinking of Intl-Intl transfer.

It is UA's issue tho I'm not 100% sure. If your onward flight is another Asian premium airline, say ANA, your bags will be checked through. Even with CX you can check through.