72h China transit visa: Which airlines offer interlining in Beijing?

Question

I would like to take advantage of the 72h China transit visa at Beijing Capital airport and city.

My confusion concerns the term "interline ticket" in the regulations. To me, that sounds like I have to book the flight into and out of Beijing at one airline carrier on the same booking reference - which according to my attempts is not to easy, especially since China Eastern doesn't offer multi-city bookings (at least online).

Is my interpretation correct? If so, which carriers are the usual suspects to offer bookings for this (eg. HKG-PEK, PEK-ICN)?

Answer 1

You're probably having trouble booking a connection through Beijing on China Eastern because they're based in Shanghai!

Instead, try Air China's online booking site: if you select origin and destination to be any cities outside China, it will offer you connections via Beijing.

If you want more creative options, see this question about finding flight connections with stopovers (TL;DR: Use ITA Matrix) and this for going about booking them (print out fare construction and go to an agent). Trying HKG X:PEK ICN for a random date in June, I get options on Air China, China Southern, AC+Asiana, Cathay+Korean, etc. Obviously the single-airline options will have the best prices though.