pilgrim

Another thread says you can't check bags unless they are partner airlines. I have two separate e tickets, my home to JFK on American, then JFK_LHR on Virgin. Can I check my bags through?

Thanks.

flanneruk

Partnership - like One World - has next to nothing to do with through checking.

Most airlines at almost all major international hubs have interline deals with each other, whatever partnership they're in. I've done - on good old paper tickets - just what you're trying to do. Virgin and AA aren't in One World together.

But increasingly, airlines are getting sniffy about non-partnership interlining on two different e-tickets.

There doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule about this. BA flatly refused a through checkin for me recently: but when I got to the connecting airport (Singapore), the nice people at Singapore Airlines just had the baggage rerouted to Saigon so I didn't need to claim it. United tried to refuse me at Las Vegas, but I just looked the clerk in the eye and politely got her to do it. Indonesian hummed for about a nanosecond at Bali, then did it my way. BMI at Heathrow just did it.

Conclusion: airlines dislike through checking on separate etickets but sometimes remember who's paying their wages. But DON'T organise your connections on the assumption they'll always behave sensibly.

"Hope for the best but plan for the worst" is always a good plan while flying.

AAFrequentFlyer

The reason why many airlines don't want to check your luggage all the way through is hat the first airline is responsible for it if it got lost. They will be the ones that mneed to investigate and follow up, so you could see why they are reluctant to do it.
If you guys think that's bad, how about the same airline not checking luggage all the way through. Recently I was flying from J'Burg to Hong Kong on a paper ticket on Cathay Pacific, where I was connecting to another Cathay Pacific flight to Singapore on an electronic ticket. Hong Kong is their hub. The First class check-in agent in J'Burg would not check-in my luggage all the way through to SIN. She explained it to me that J'Burg computers were not set-up yet for e-tickets. Anyway as soon as I got to HKG I walked up to the transfer desk for advice on what I should do, becaus I didn't want to go through immigration and customs to re-check my suitcase, and the nice agent there took all the info and told me not to worry it's all taken care of. Sure enough, my suitcase was one of the first ones that came off the belt in SIN.

suze

Just curious, but have you asked the airlines?

CarolA

As a general rule if you have TWO tickets you must claim your bags and recheck them. There is no way for the computer to keep track of your bags if you are on two tickets.

pilgrim

Yes, I got a response saying that American and Virgin have an agreement to transfer each other's luggage.

I got nervous seeing other's responses about other situations.

Thanks for the help.

OReilly

They don't have to be partner airlines, but there should be ONE ticket.

I have been successful in the past in getting BA/EI/AZ to check my bags through to AC when I have had separate tickets ..... up until last week

BA in Madrid informed me that they did not have to do it and they were not going to do it! I escalated the issue to the supervisor and was refused again.

Assume NOT, and make sure you have enough time to pick up your bags.

AAFrequentFlyer

I agree with O'Reilly,

Most major airlines do have an interline baggage agreement <b>IF,/b&gt; the flights are on the same ticket. Two separate tickets will probably not get your luggage checked all the way through, although I was wrong before. </b>

indiancloggie

Hi

I am flying by NW 42 (AMS-MUM), reaching Mumbai/Bombay at 22:40

Connecting flight from Mumbai to Bangalore by Air-India. The ticket is separate.

I was wondering whether KLM would allow me to through checkin in Amsterdam to Bangalore directly.

Anybody has experiences with KLM in this regard?

Many thanks in advance.