Dallas airport / security check / baggage claim
 

My son will from London to San Francisco as follows:
- with Delta from London to Dallas
- with American Airlines from Dallas to San Francisco

Can you advice how has he to proceed:
1. will the luggage go directly from London to San Francisco, or he must take them in Dallas , go through custom and make check in again?
2. or, have he to follow "Transit / Connection" sign and just go to the gate in Dallas?
3. or make security check only (no baggage and then go to the gate?

He MUST collect his luggage when he arrives at Dallas - it doesn't matter if he's flyiing AA or Delta all the way. One HAS TO COLLECT one's luggage at the first port of arrival in the US.

What he'll encounter is:
1) Deplane
2) Go through immigration line (checking his passport)
3) Pick up checked luggage
4) Go through customs
5) Exit customs hall to arrivals hall
6) Go to Delta terminal to check in for his next flight

Delta and AA are not partners, so he'll need to go to the Delta check-in counter to get his DFW-SFO boarding pass and check his luggage. How much time does he have between arrival to DFW and departure from DFW???

Thank you, YK , for the detailed answer. He has 4 hours between flights, so I think that he will be OK.

yk my friend, you are an international travel goddess and it causes me great trepidation to dispute your travel knowledge. =-O But based on my own experience I knew the above isn't entirely accurate, unless I'm not reading it right. In order to cover my tail I just called Delta and this is what they told me:

Delta and American are not alliance partners but they do have a bag check agreement, so when he checks in for the flight from London they WILL check the bag all the way thru to SFO. As you said he must collect the bag at DFW to go thru customs. But there is no need to go to AA's check in counter to re-check the bag. Once he clears customs in Dallas he simply gives the bag to the handlers and goes on to his next flight. He will have to get his boarding pass from AA but surely he can do that from the desk near the baggage claim or perhaps he can print it out on line the day before.

Hi P_M- I've never taken Delta, so I didn't realize DL and AA have bag check agreement. Thanks for pointing that out.

For the OP, when your son checks in for his flight in London, tell him to ask the agent to check the bag to his destination (SFO). If they can (make sure your son checks the tag to be sure it's tagged to SFO), your son will still need to claim his luggage in Dallas to get through customs, then hand the bag to the handlers after he exits the customs hall.

No problem yk. Now it's confession time--I used to think if 2 airlines are not in the same alliance they would not check each other's bags. I was in a similar situation as the OP and I was worried about not having enough time to re-check my bag. It was BeachBoi who told me that most major airlines, partners or not, will have a bag check agreement. Sure enough I was able to check my bag thru to my final destination and it was a huge relief.

It's good to be a Fodorite. ;-)

Yes P_M, you are so right, it is so good to be a Fodorite!So many good advices, ideas and info !

YK and P_M, thank you very much.