Maybe I dug my own grave on this one, but......
Arrived at 0450h GMT+8 at PEK this morning from the LX flight ex-ZRH. I needed to obtain a BP for my ongoing flight on NZ to AKL, which is sched departure 1150h GMT+8.
Got into the terminal - the transfer desks were all closed. I was told it's "too early - come back 0630h".
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Was offered to go back into the landside on a temporary 24 hour transit permission (requires no prior visa and costs nothing). Didn't take it at first to chance the transfer desk.
Transfer desk opens at about 0600h. When I got there, I was told (by the CA agent), "Cannot check in for NZ until 3 hours before departure."
"You mean I have to wait another 3 hours before I can get my next boarding pass?"
"Of course."
Inside, I am livid. Is it not unreasonable that the agent "should" have been able to give me my ongoing BP? Or is it really that she would have been completely unable to access the relevant system to give me my ongoing BP?
Can't go through international transfers security without a BP. Eventually I give up and decide to go landside. Perhaps the sales desk or customer service desk for NZ is open and I can do something there.
0710h. Get to landside. Go to NZ's check-in section. No counters open. No sales desk open. No customer service offered by the counter manned by a CA agent.
I wait until 0835h when the CA agents finally decide to open up check-in for my NZ flight. Get my BP after the Business Premier line agent takes her time getting her system up and running.
0850h back to T3-E awaiting immigration. No priority lines here.
I'm asked by the immigration officer to produce an ID. Any ID. Besides the passport. Seems odd, but my Australian Drivers' Licence seems to suffice.
Another photo ID check at the next desk. Then a security screening point that could be fit into a shoebox.
My bag is put aside. What's wrong? "Have you got coins in your bag?" What the? That's all? Not the liquids or the amenity kits or my camera which I didn't take out and separate from my belongings?
The only win of the morning...I manage to convince the receptionist at the CA F Lounge to let me in on account of my last flight being in F and I'm a transit passenger. "Just this time".
I'm eating steamed yum cha varieties and trying to calm down, with free internet provided by the Airport VIP wifi and "Grandfather PRC's Great Firewall". Can't access Facebook - no big loss.
Phew!
