What you need to know about late check-in in China domestic airports

What you need to know about check-in in most China domestic airports when you are late.

If you are late for your flight, most airlines will help you do check-in as quickly as possible. However, this is not the case for China airlines, in particular the notorious China Southern Airlines (they can trick you because you are in the land that they play the “China Characteristic” services under their sovereignty).

Supposed you are late for just a couple of minutes, says, 40 minutes before your flight departure (45 minutes is their norm). You go to the check-in counter asking for check-in even though you don’t have baggage with you and you would not cause any delay to the flight.  The check-in staff will not issue any boarding pass to you. They will write down your details on a piece of paper and tell you take the paper to a particular counter for assistance. This is the trick -  they pose an expectation to the passenger that someone would help her/him get on board so the passenger would not stay in the check-in counter demanding boarding pass issued. When the passenger gets to that counter, she/he needs to queue up for services. This would use up quite a bit of their time. When it gets to their turn, she/he would not be served for the boarding, but would be offered their expensive “airport price” ticket for the next available flight.  In such a way, they eliminate your chance to get on board because they further delay your boarding time and also invalidate your original ticket. 

Good luck to those travel on China airlines.