Hi, I am trying to give some instructions for a friend who will be doing and international-to-domestic connection at IAH. Landing on Emirates (Term. D), departing on Continental Expressjet (Term. B, I think). So, he lands in D, walks to E for immigration, then it gets fuzzy so please correct me if I'm wrong in the next steps:

- after immigration, collect bags from baggage claim (is this Term. E? Or Term. C?)
- go through customs
- recheck bags: several questions here, can he re-check bags after customs even if he doesn't have his domestic boarding passes? Can he get his boarding passes from the re-check desk?
- go through security (or does he does this after taking train to Term. B?)
- take airside train to terminal

He won't have his domestic boarding passes, so I don't know if this changes the steps at all. I guess it hinges on whether they can print them for him at the bag re-check after customs or not. If anyone can advise, that would be great!

Thanks,

mp413

He should make sure that the bags are tagged all the way to the final destination at the time of check-in with Emirates in Dubai, or wherever his origin. He can do this without having a CO boarding pass. Just be sure to give the Emirates check-in agent the CO flight information.

Then baggage check after customs will consist of nothing more than dropping off the bag.

He should also inform CO of the baggage tag number so that he is sure it's in their system.

Any reason he would not be able to get his CO boarding pass ahead of time by checking in online?

International baggage is at E, after getting through US Immigration. Then customs. All at E.

Like J62 said, make sure the bags are tagged to final destination. Even if he cannot get the domestic boarding pass before-hand, yes, he can still get it at the customer service counter at the baggage drop off, right outside customs exit.

From there, he'll take the escalators back up to security, then take the airside TerminaLink train over to B.

Do we know for sure that he's booked to the final destination on the same ticket as the international flight? If not, he'll have to check in and check the bag with Continental in the departure terminal, not the bag drop=off after customs.

Hi all, this is so helpful! He can't get his Continental boarding passes online before he depart/s b/c he'll be on the Emirates flight already 30 hours before his domestic departure.

rkkwan, thanks a lot for letting me know he can get the boarding passes from the baggage re-check desk after customs. This will make things much easier. However, he is not on one ticket - he is on Emirates to IAH, then on a separate Continental ticket to Denver via Lubbock. Does this change anything? Or can he still check bags the whole way and get the boarding pass at the re-check desk?

joannay,
Being on a single ticket is NOT a requirement for through checking baggage. As long as the two airlines have an interline baggage agreement it is doable, and both Emirates and CO both have wide ranging baggage agreements with most other airlines.

Give the Emirates agent the CO flight information, including the final destination and they can tag it correctly.

This may now always work 100% depending on the originating airport or specifics of his ticket or itinerary. Regardless of how they are tagged he'll have to retrieve the bags at IAH anyway, and if he needs to get CO boarding pass at the counter after customs.

"Being on a single ticket is NOT a requirement for through checking baggage". J62

Does this mean that every airline that has a baggage agreement with another has access to all the other's itinerary information? They would have to, I'd think, to be able to print a correct baggage routing tag. It's understandable if the PNR includes both airlines' flights. If not, how do they access the necessary information?

No, they may not have access to the itinerary info - that's why you need to provide it at check-in.

And also why you need to give the baggage tag info to CO so they can electronically retrieve it.

There may be more widespread access to PNR / itineraries than I'm aware.

This may all be a moot point if the traveler needs to get boarding passes anyway. I'm not quite sure what problem the OP is trying to solve, other than perhaps having to schlep the bags to CO checkin. If they are on a tight connection then it may be better to hand carry the luggage to CO counter anyway to ensure it's directly in CO's hands.

Another option to get boarding passes is to have someone else login to at the 24hr window and email a boarding pass link to the travelers smart phone.