here is my story.. last summer I brought bf with me back to China meeting my parents.. we took air china to beijing and then to shanghai. the trip from the US to beijing was fine, but after we arrived at beijing international airport, things started to get nasty. first, I lost a piece of my luggage, so that took me almost an hour to contact the airport staff and filled out all kinds of forms. Then, we got through the custom and went to find the check-in place for national flights. IT was really a mess in beijing international airport. I went to a couple desks marked with air china sign, but nobody seems to be listening to me at all. my bf was american, and he was so disppointed and also frustrated. Actually I felt the same way. That was my first time to deal with beijing airport and it was a nightmare. Air China is just part of the air transportation system of China, so if the whole system has defections, of course the airlines under it can't aviod being lousy. (i think I might be complaining here more about the airport, but anyway, Air China didn't give me good impression and I am not gonna it ever again) anyway, then I got so angry, and I think my anger at least worked. So somebody just took me into one line (it was like VIP service), and checked the flight for me. well, we were then told that the gate changed because of the original flight was canceled and all passengers had to switch to a different plane. ...... we finall made it to shanghai, but it seemed that our problems with Air China didn't end. A week later, my bf had to go back to US first, because of the annoying experience with the airport, so I decided to go with him to beijing. our plan was I went with him to get luggages and then found out where the custom is and then I could leave him alone from there. however, when we got off the plane, an air china attentant held a sign saying that they will take passengers who would continue to go on the trip to US. So we had to part from there. But when I finally got to talk to my bf later on, he said it was bullshit what the air china staff did. They just transported those passengers on a different bus and then dumped them at the exact same place i went at the airport. so the poor guy had to figure everything out himself, which i am actually happy to hear ( bf is not used to internaltional travel.. jjmms don't laugh )..

So this is it.. and my conclusion is, first, try to take direct flight if it is possible, e.g., if u are going to shanghai, then don't even think about tranfering at beijing.. second, try not to take air china, because once the airport has problem, you don't even expect you would get any help from them..