Cherski

We will be taking a domestic flight (either American or United) to Chicago-O'Hare to catch our Air France flight to Paris.

We've already booked the Air France portion but are wondering whether we should check our luggage through from Kansas City (and hope that they make the connection) or if we should collect our luggage at O'Hare and then re-check it with Air France.

Does anyone have any experience with luggage transfers between airlines, especially at O'Hare?

Just one more thing to worry about ... Thanks, in advance, for your help.

Cher

sandi

Check it straight thru. Don't knock yourself out with having to go to baggage, recheck-in with Air France and go thru security again. Your bag will get to France.

Bye the way, how much time do you have between arriving in ORD and flying out on Air France? If you have a short amount of time and worried the luggage won't make it, if you decide to collect and recheck, then you won't make it.

AA or UA will thru check the bag, just make sure you look at the luggage tag that it has your flight # to ORD and the flight # to CDG and everything will be fine.

Cherski

Haven't booked our flights to Chicago yet. If we check our bags through, how much time should we allow for the interline transfer?

AAFrequentFlyer

Just curious, but why in the world are you buying 2 separate tickets? AA is part of OneWorld and they and their partners fly to CDG, and UA is part of StarAlliance and they and their partners also fly to CDG.

Are these free tickets? Did you win some contest?

No big deal, but you could probably buy a ticket from MCO-CDG for about $20-50 more than you paid for the ORD-CDG ticket. When an airline has to feed you to their hub they usually do it for very little more.

If these are some kind of free tickets, then YES, you will not have a problem transferring luggage from either of the 2 airlines to AirFrance. I would allow at least 3 hours, if for no other reason, when flying internationally, the airlines require 2 hour check-in window. You will have check-in with AF since it's a separate ticket, meaning that you will have to leave security and go back through it again. Don't worry about baggage, worry more about yourself.

Cherski

Air France had the best fare for our open-jaw ticket (ORD-CDG and BCN-CDG-ORD)plus we want to fly over with a friend who lives in Chicago. Adding our MCI-ORD and ORD-MCI legs would have been an extra $220 and we are sure that we can get a better deal to Chicago(right now about $136).

Because we need to fly out of Barcelona, UA and AA could simply not compete neither price-wise nor number-of-connections-wise.

AAFrequentFlyer

Like I said, no big deal, and I'm not sure what price you have and when you're flying, but connection wise AA could do the exact same thing.
MCI-ORD-CDG
BCN-MAD-ORD-MCI

Anyway, just give yourself extra time, because when you travel on 2 separate tickets, neither airline is responsible for what you miss because of their action. Meaning that AA/UA will not be responsible if for some reason their flight is late and it misses the AF flight and AF doesn't have to accomodate you if you don't check-in on time.
That said, most folks at all three airlines will work with you, I just want you to know they don't have to in this type of situation so if something goes wrong, don't demand anything, but that's assuming the worst.
Just give yourself some extra time between and you'll be fine!
Have a great trip!

laurie_ann

Let me tell you of a similar story. In March, my husband booked a ticket for a business trip from Chicago to London and Paris. As it turned out, his Paris business was cancelled at the last minute. So rather than take the train like he planned, he bought a separate ticket on British Midlands airlines from London to Paris (only $85 when American wanted $1600 - I am not making this up - to change his return to be from London). (The London and Paris flights were American.) We had phoned ahead and confirmed that the two airlines would allow luggage to be checked through. Also, the gate agent in London said that he would not be allowed to board in Paris without his luggage anyway. (This is a pre 9-11 security measure for international flights where they will not let you go without your luggage and so vice versa since how could they then send your luggage on a later flight.) He had what should have been plenty of time, 2 hours, between flights. The London-Paris flight was delayed about 1/2 hour but still should not be a problem. He got on his Paris-Chicago flight without any issue. He got to Chicago and -- guess what -- no luggage! It had not made the connection. It was sent on the same American flight the next day. It was on the way home so nothing was really missed until it was delivered (which took nearly 48 hours, because if your luggage arrives on an international flight without you, it has to go through extra customs procedures.) To make a long story short, you have to assume the worst, and if your plans doesn't allow your luggage to be a couple of days late, then pack lighter, carry on and shop more if you have to.

Also, one thing about O'Hare, unless the Air France flight is a code share with a U.S. airline, it leaves from the international terminal, which is a bit of a ways from the domestic terminals, so allow more time than you might otherwise think.

RachelG

I agree with the allowing plenty of time between flights if you are travelling on 2 different tickets. Flying in to Chicago I would allow at least 4 hours--Chicago is notorious for delays.
We are travelling to Istanbul in a couple of weeks flying on American to LHR then on BA to Istanbul--it cost $400 per person less if I booked the 2 segments separately than if I booked together, so for 4 people, that is $1600. I have allowed 8 hours just to be on the safe side.