We didn't have to pay a checked bag fee either way!
 

My husband and I took a flight from Seattle to L.A to San Jose, Costa Rica 2 weeks ago and we ended up being on 3 different airlines-Alaska, Us Air, and TACA. I knew that we didn't have to pay baggage fees on TACA, but the fees were $25 for a checked bag on both Alaska and US Air. We checked in on Alaska and they took our bag, but never asked us to pay a fee. Same thing happened when we checked the bags on US Air. When you are checking them at the desk is when you would be asked to pay the fee right? I was just kind of blown away that we didn't pay either way!

Usually u do pay on check in

but FFliers do not pay major carrier Taca.com

in this case perhaps policy applies probably.

Check with whoever you booked your flight with...

Probably because you where flying international. Review the airline website for checked baggage charges for an international flight.

That may be, but we had to go back through the process of checking in from L.A. to Costa Rica and vice versa. And those flights were on TACA where there was no fee. I would've thought that the Seattle to L.A. and L.A. to Seattle flights would have charged us.

If you had one reservation SEA-LAX-CostaRica and back, you were an international passenger, even if you needed to go through some formalities between domestic and international segments. If you purchased the segments separately, you probably were just lucky that they didn't catch you on the domestic segments.

The International Air Transport Association (now officially IATA) has carved the world up into 3 major "Traffic Conference" regions (IATCs) - Region 1 (the Americas) Region 2 (Europe/Middle East/Africa) and Region 3 (Asia and Southwest Pacific.) Each of these regions is further divided into sub-regions, e.g. Central America, etc.

Interline baggage rules promulgated by IATA state that when an itinerary crosses regional or sub-regional borders, the baggage rules applicable to the "Most Significant Carrier" - in general the one that physically flies you over the boundary between the regions and/or sub-regions - apply to the whole journey.

So not knowing your itinerary, but guessing, if TACA was that carrier and <i>doesn't</i> charge for checked bags, then it was their rule that governed the whole trip. Or, if it was USAir or any other carrier that doesn't charge on international or intercontinental segments (which is often the case, even if they do charge on domestic segments) then it's <u>that</u> rule that applies in a similar fashion. Like I say, just guessing here.

We'll be flying AA to Costa Rica in February, no fee on international flight.

Did you buy 2 separate tickets, or all 3 legs each way on one reservation?