Was I wrongfully denied a 72 hour transit visa in Chonging

Robert, I'm sorry to hear that, but you are not eligible for the 72-hour visa-free policy because you stop in two mainland Chinese cities and this is not allowed by the free transit rule. If you could fly from Bangkok to Shanghai or Beijing and then to the US, there should have been no problems.

Thank you Dan and sadly, you are correct. I did not learn this until after this post and about 6 hours of additional research. What infuriated me the most was the fact that I had done my due diligence and none of the language was clear enough to indicate a problem i.e. "one may not visit a second Chinese city." I took that literally to mean that one could not travel to a second Chinese city for the purpose of travel i.e. visiting. Moreover, the fact that Chongqing had verbally authorized the visa via phone from Air Asia prior to departure was simply wrong. They admitted they had done this but blew it off to a mistake on the part of their on duty immigration officer. I politely advised them that one should eat his mistakes and that they shared equal liability since I had made every attempt to verify my ability to obtain the visa.

Interestingly enough, the denying officer in Chongqing openly admitted that they had only approved "maybe 2 transit visas since 2013." I now understand why and would caution other travelers as well. Chongqing and I suspect the vast majority of the Chinese cities offering the 72 hour visa have NO direct flights to any country in North America. In short, these cities have a great tourism marketing tool, but in fact the 72 hour transit visa is non-existent as a matter of practicality.

While I do agree that the terms and conditions are not extremely clear nor consistent, nor consistently applied, I disagree in this case....the language is clear. If it was ambiguous then you should have assumed the worst case.
That immigration initially "approved" it was unfortunate. Sadly officials, I have found, in any country, are not always well trained nor well informed.

A sage traveler researches in depth, and confirms and re-confirms things which are critical.

Dear Mr. K Mossman:

Apparently, you did not carefully read my post. I did assume the possibility of a misinterpretation before I booked the ticket and before I boarded the aircraft. This is why a call was made to Chongqing to confirm the granting of the entry permit not to mention an earlier email to Chongqing also confirming that there was not problem (I did not mention this before.) I was told in the reply email that because my flight to Beijing and onward had less than a 2 hour layover at the airport, I qualified for the 72 hour transit because I was not visiting.

Although no malice was intended I am sure, I was simply given wrong information by folks who, as you point out, were ill trained.