As my journey to Seattle encompassed 3 airlines with 2 transits in Beijing and Narita, the person-in-charge at T3 told me that I have to retrieve the luggage at Beijing International Airport and check in again the said luggage. Therefore, no boarding passes were issued for flights on Air China and United Airlines.
At the Beijing International Airport, they carried out stringent monitoring of passengers with a view to detecting H1N1 victims. I was a little bit worry because the Chinese National sitting next to me in the flight was coughing and sneezing with running nose. Now you had been entrapped in a closed environment where the same air was commonly shared by all passengers no matter what classes they were in. Suddenly I experienced running nose and non-expectant coughing save fever. "Oh my God, was it so easy to contract H1N1", I murmured to myself. Nevertheless, my symptom was sporadic and so I was cleared easily by the monitoring station.
I stopped by the "Connecting Flight" Counter where I was issued the Boarding Pass for flight to Narita. The two "sweet young things" categorically told me that there was no neccessity to retrieve my luggage as it would be forwarded to my final destination. The inflexed answer was ringing in my brain, how could I retrieve the luggage when the luggage claim area was located after the immigaration check-point. Surprisingly, the two SYT's paraphrased the same words used by the personal in T3 that I had to retrieve my luggage at Narita as the baggage examination was more stringent. Now , I was reinstated to my former state of confusion - because Confucius's dogma was to confuse people. The two SYT's entrenched further their advice as they had just come back from Japan. Do you want to believe them, I have no choice?
The flight by Air China from Beijing to Narita took 3 hours. As I came out from the jet bridge, a young girl from the land of sakura highlighted the departure gates for all the connecting flights. I took notice of my connecting flight and the departure gate was 36 in the same terminal.
To my surprise, the counter at Gate 36 was not manned by anybody. So, who would issue me the boarding pass to Seattle?
I decided to go the the premier lounge operated by United Airlines for assistance.
Just liked what you saw in movie, "OPEN SESAME", at the receptionist counter of UA ( supra ), I was warmly greeted and the invitation card to the 1st Class Lounge was already printed, waiting for my collection. Subsequently, my boarding pass was duly issued here.
Now, coming back to the advice and instructions given by the personals at T3 and the two SYT's in Beijing , they were totally contrary to my hands on experience.
Must I take a class action for the wrong advice?
The airlines owe me an explanation.
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