Clark55

We are travelling from Europe to Cancun with a flight change in Philadephia, will we have to pay for our luggage on the Philidelphia to Cancun leg of the flight? Our luggage will be checked through from Zurich, I've checked out the US airline website and it says baggage is free from Europe but there's a 55US$ per bag from USA to Mexico, it doesn't say anything about flights that only have a flight change in the US.

qwovadis

Check with your US to Mexico carrier for precise info but

Generally flying codeshare there is no additional charge

for a checked bag from a different carrier on ongoing flight.

If your carriers are not linked you may have to pay

if they are charging everyone else.

Clark55

All the flights are with US airlines but I booked with Orbitz and on the confirmation they said that
"At least one airline on this trip charges an additional fee for baggage. this fee is not included in your total trip cost."
there is a link to US airlines on baggage details but it doesn't say anything about flights with a plane change.

We have flown countles of times and I've never ever had to pay for through checked in baggage but I've never flown US airlines before.

kayd

Here's my guess: If you are on a single airline for both segments, they may collect the fee in Europe.
But if you have two different airlines, usually the rules of the first one apply. I doesn't seem likely that one airline would collect the baggage fee for another. If it tags the luggage for transfer at PHL there's no practical way for the second airline to collect it from you. Even if you have to claim the bag and recheck after customs, the staff at the luggage transfer spot aren't equipped to handle cash or credit cards, they just glance at tags and heave the bags onto a belt.

That's my opinion, based on zero experience with this particular question. Hope you have an uneventful trip.

Cranachin

I'm guessing, given the plane change at PHL, that Clark55 is flying on US AIRWAYS. They do fly ZRH-PHL and PHL-CUN.

Clark55

Yes it's all on US airlines.

kayd

Clark, do you mean the whole trip is on US Airways? "US airlines" could include a dozen others.

Clark55

Yes, sorry, it's all on US Airways.

rkkwan

To/from Europe gets 1st piece free. Won't matter where you go to at the end. Still get that allowance. Don't worry.

tenthumbs

I flew USAir RT from Reno to Puerto Vallarta, with plane changes in Phoenix in February. I was charged $25/bag from Reno to PV; I was NOT charged from PV to Reno, even though there was a plane change in the US. I'm guessing your situation will be the same, but call to double check.

rkkwan

tenthumbs - Your case is totally different from the OP, and USAirways should have charged you $25 for your first bag on the way back as well, since the $25 fees apply to flights to/from "Latin America".

[Anyways, US may be kind of "easy" when it comes to collecting fees; I didn't have to pay $50 for changing to an earlier flight just this week, even though my original flight was not delayed.]

Clark55

I did e-mail American Airways and the sent me phone numbers in Europe and said to call them, I phoned the Swiss, Italian, French, and German offices but none were sure, then I finally got the answer from the London office who confirmed rkkwan's answer that the ist baggage is free and sent me an e-mail to confirm it.
When I phoned the other offices they all checked up on the website and also confirmed that it's not clear as there's no mention of flights with a transit stop. Anyway thanks for everyone's help.

rkkwan

If one's flying multiple legs on the same itinerary on the same airline, and the different legs have different baggage allowance, the highest allowance prevails.

tenthumbs

rkkwan~I'm glad they missed that There was a group of 11 of us, none of us got charged for checked bags on the return trip!

Orbitz

Hi,

My name is Shalon with the Orbitz Customer Relations Team in Chicago. I saw your post and would like to assist. Can you please email to me your Orbitz Record Locator, and I will review and respond to you. Our email address is [email protected]. Please include the name of the blog in which you posted on, and put attention to me in the subject line of the email.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Shalon
Orbitz Customer Relations
Chicago, IL