I'm leaving for Tanzania in 10 days and reviewing my travel. I leave home (Fla) on Continental to Newark. In Newark, I change airlines (and terminals) to fly the rest of the way via KLM. To date, no one has asked for my passport number or a copy of my passport. The entire trip was booked thru the NWA/KLM web site.

My questions are: 1) Which airline (CO or KM) is responsible for verifying my travel documents? 2) Will I be issued all etickets 24 hours in advance without having presented any travel documents - or am I going to have to stand in line at the NWA ticket counter in Newark?

After 15 minutes on hold at NWA, I thought I would get a better and faster answer from this group. Thanks.

I am not sure I fully understand your question but you don't have to provide a copy of your passport to anyone when you are booking your flight. You will be asked to show it when you check in at the airport and get your boarding passes. Iam not sure if CO and KLM are code share or partner airlines. If they are, then you will be issued boarding passes for both your CO and KLM flight when you check-in at your home airport and the ticket agent there will be responsible for checking your passport. If CO and KLM are not partners you will only get your boarding pass for the CO flight when you check-in at your home airport. Since that is only a domestic flight the ticket agent will ask for I.D. (your passport will do) but will not be the responsible party for checking your passport. You will then have to check-in at KLM when you get to Newark. In this case the KLM agent will be the one to check your passport.

As far as issuing tickets they don't actually issue E-tickets but they do send you (usually by e-mail) and E-ticket confirmation with your Record Locator Number. You do not really need that receipt to check-in. All you need at checkin is your I.D. and the Record Locator Number (actually the Locator Number is not really necessary) as the ticket agent will just type your name into the computer and VIOLA! your itinerary will appear on the computer screen. You will then be issued your boarding passes.

Others on this forum may be able to clarify the procedure.

Well, 2 NWA phone reps have given me two different answers. While CO and NWA are allianced, it's not clear who will issue the tickets - and no one will do it online.

Additionally, my plane arrives in Newark at one terminal and the departure is another terminal. This seems to require re-entry thru security - which seems to require a ticket in-hand.

It can't be that complex, but NWA isn't helping.

I'm not sure what you mean by "who will issue the tickets". Your tickets would have been issued when you purchased them. If they were etickets, you should have received a confirmation receipt (with your ticket number) which was probably emailed to you some time shortly after you purchased your ticket. Though you don't need to carry this with you, I prefer to have a copy. If you chose paper tickets, they would've been mailed to you shortly after your purchase.

I think what you might be trying to ask is who will issue the boarding passes. I believe Continental will issue your boarding passes for your Florida-Newark, Newark-Amsterdam segments. They will also check your passport then. All you need to do at Newark is change terminals. Continental may or may not be able to issue your Amsterdam-Kilimanjaro (or Dar) boarding passes in which case you'll pick them up at a KLM transfer desk at Amsterdam. If you're flying business class, you can get your boarding pass issued at one of the KLM Crown Lounges and you don't need to go to the transfer desk.

That's how it works when I fly Delta/KLM to East Africa. Delta issues my domestic and transatlantic boarding passes and I pick up my onward boarding pass from KLM in Amsterdam. Being all Skyteam, I assume it's going to be the same procedure with Continental.

Did you post your itinerary on the Africa board? Have a great trip!

When you are in Newark you can take the "Tram" between terminals . It's easy and quick. They run every 3 or 4 minutes and it takes less than 7 minutes to go from Terminal A to Terminal C (there are only 3 terminals at EWR). You will, however, have to leave the secure area at your arrival terminal and re-clear the security checkpoint for your KLM flight.

I'm not sure I fully understand what you mean by "issuing tickets" since you said are E-ticketed. The booking airline will normally mail or e-mail you an E-Ticket receipt but as I said earlier you can't use that for travel and you don't really need it to get your boarding passes, All you need do is ask the airline for your Record Locater Number (it's the number assigned by the airline booking your ticket). Since you confirmed that CO and KLM are partner airlines you will receive your boarding passes for both legs of your trip when you check in at the airport in Florida. You should also be able to check all your luggage through to your final destination so you don't have to claim and re-check it in EWR (be sure the ticket agent puts the proper "final" destination on the luggage tag). The Boarding pass is the document you will need to show to the TSA agent at the security checkpoint (along with your I.D.).

A-traveller,

Thanks for your help. If CO issues the ticket, problem is solved. I will work on that assumption.

You bought your ticket on nwa.com. The ticket is issued by NWA/KLM.

Now, NW/KLM allows online check-in for their international flight. So, first you should make sure you can pull up your itinerary on nwa.com. You will also be able to check-in and print your baording passes for EWR-AMS-xxx there. I believe you will punch in your passport number there; otherwise, you just need to show it to the gate agent at KLM's agent at EWR. No need to wait in line at the outside check-in counter.

Now, I'm not sure if you can check-in for the CO portion of your itinerary on nwa.com. But you can definitely do it on continental.com. Go there and see if you can pull up your itinerary using the NW PNR and your last name. If not, then call NWA and ask them what's the CO PNR for your itinerary. With that you can check-in for your Florida-EWR flight on continental.com if you cannot do it on nwa.com.

You need to exit security, take the monorail to B, and then re-clear security. All you need is your KLM boarding pass, which you should have printed from home before your trip.