Can You Through Check Bags On Separate Airline Tickets?

I'm always amused at seeing some of the more obscure interline agreements out there... like, exactly how many pax will be connecting from American to, say, South African? (Of course, DL is conspicuously absent from the list...)

Ben,
I think its completely unfair for you to say "American basically tells passengers to pound sand" There are other airlines out there with similar policies such as Alaska and Cathay. Do they also tell passengers to pound sand?

Here's an idea: Don't check bags. Period. Like, just do carry-on. Makes life easier.

Like, if you're going away for a week, you can manage with carry-on; two weeks? Do laundry at your destination. All it takes is an airline losing or damaging your checked bag, then you'll get it. No, insurance isn't enough.

Are they for-profit companies? Then, yes, they all say 'pound sound' one way or another. Perhaps, Cathay prefers simplified Chinese: 磅沙 Bàng shā

I tried this last year, first segment was UA, next two were AA, all domestic US. Ticket was F on UA and I have status with AA so wouldn’t have been any bag fees. The agent looked at me like I had three heads. It ended up being for the best as AA had a tummyache that day and I had to get rebooked, but it should have technically been possible. As you say in the article, your mileage will vary. A lot.

"Here's an idea: Don't check bags. Period. Like, just do carry-on. Makes life easier."

Great advice, and it does a nice job applying to everyone in all circumstances, all budgets, all timeframes, all routings, and for all possible multiple purposed trips. So simple. Why did nobody else ever think of making such a simple, broad statement that applies so effortlessly to everyone?

Weird one I had happen about ten years ago on a mixed Air Canada/Cathay Pacific itinerary (YYC-YVR-HKG-BKK, airline switch made in YVR): at bag check at YYC, they tagged it through all the way to BKK - and I didn't see my bag until my itinerary was done - but I still had to go to the Cathay counter at YVR to pick up my boarding passes for the YVR-HKG-BKK portion of the trip.

I never check a bag. Setting aside potential bag fees and lost bags, during irregular operations it becomes one big hassle. I can simply change flights, get a new Boarding Pass and I'm good to go. No worry about where my bag is. And with AA if your flight is cancelled and you need to overnight good luck getting your bag back. Unless someone can intervene like an Admirals Club.

Do you really want to me looking for a place at 10PM at night that sells underwear?

I find it really frustrating that BA/AA don’t enable you to check bags through unless on the same booking. As you say, they bang on about their so called JV. Also frustrating that if you book a BA segment on a AA booking you can’t book your BA seat on AA.cm but have to go to BA.com. It’s such a joke. Although I’m a BA club FF I mostly make my bookings for the US on AA.com as I can rarely find the itineraries I want on BA.com. It’s the Bly way to get bags checked through.,

By experience it may also depend on the cabin/status. I flew SEZ-NBO-LHR with KQ (economy) followed by LHR-NCE with BA (club). The lady in SEZ was keen to check our bags to NCE as long as 1/ we could prove we were allowed to enter France and 2/ we were in club (I guess that reassured her meaning that our BA ticket had a baggage allowance). I should also note that we were at the SkyTeam elite plus counter which probably helped

Word. A bit ridiculous.

Cathay will check through your lugagge on separate tickets, at least to other onewolrd carriers, but I believe to all other interline partners.

"Airlines just don’t want to accept the liability of getting your bag to your final destination, in the event that things go wrong, given the potential liability and compensation they may have to pay."
Actually, it is the last airline that is liable for compensation, hence most airlines should be happy to through check and offload the liability to other airlines.

I'm an AS agent at SEA and we used to through check bags to anyone we interlined with, but we stopped doing it last year because there was a VERY high likelihood your bags would not make it to your final destination. In theory, it should all work, but in practice, it falls apart quite easily due to other airlines not being able to read the barcode on the bag or it being routed to the wrong flight.

I know it's a more customer friendly policy to do this, but would you rather take the chance of having your bag missing at your final destination or just carry it on or check it between flights and have more of a guarantee you'll have your bags when you arrive?

Iberia simply refuse to do this. My wife and I are both OW emerald and don’t even ask now if flying Iberia
BA will sometimes do it

My experience in Asia has been fantastic vs. here in the US. Last year, ANA checked our bags and issued us boarding passes all the way from India to the US, even though we were switching airlines in Tokyo to Japan Airlines and had separate tickets: same thing, earlier this year. Singapore Airlines checked us in all the way to the US from Indonesia. We were on Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Tokyo, switching airlines. ANA from Tokyo to the US on different tickets. It never works here in the US.

I'm taking a BA award flight from the USA to LHR next week. Then connecting to a BA cash flight from LHR to Germany. I wanted to have them send the bags to the destination in Germany. I called so see if that would be possible and they told me to pound sand. So, I rebooked the second flight to be a 7hr layover instead of a 2.5hr layover so there's time to go through immigration, customs, check-in, security and get back to the gate. Even if the they agree at to do it when I check in next week, I'll still have the 7hr layover. At least I'll get some steps. Ugh.

Now you know how the rest of us feel when we visit the USA.

Here are couple data points: two years ago, I had CX business class award ticket for my dad to fly HKG-LAX and a separate paid ticket on UA economy LAX-IAH. At the check-in at HKG, CX was trying to tag the bags all the way to IAH but somehow the system wasn't allowing her to do so. Fastforward to just last week, again CX business on HKG-DFW (award ticket) and a separate paid ticket on AA (this time on domestic First) DFW-HOU. CX was able to check the bags all the way to Houston this time.

Hey Ben, I think you’re missing the real reason airlines won’t do this. They want to make it as hard as possible for people to circumvent purchasing more costly itineraries in lieu of tickets which are disproportionately cheaper from an intermediate connecting point.

In Europe especially, there are many examples with intercontinental tickets where starting a journey in either Scandinavia, Spain or Ireland can net savings up to €1,000.

The airlines are aware of this and therefore making any possible feeder as unattractive as possible. This to protect their home advantage and pricing power. Here’s looking at you BA and LH, although not limited to these two.

Qatar did this for us last year when we had 2 separate tickets booked to get us home to JFK from Phuket. We stopped in Doha before our 2nd flight (which was a separate itinerary) and they were happy to check the bags all the way through to JFK.

wrong

You are correct One World does NOT through check bags even on code share flights. Before the US government agrees to Code sharing this should be part of the agreement with these alliances.
United and Star Alliance do indeed check bags on two tickets to final destination.

Even with interline, I don't think UA can see or waive AA status allowance. So rather than trying to collect for AA, they just don't do it.

They are all One World airlines and it is their policy across the one World alliance

Royal Air Maroc routinely does it out of Paris and Casablanca. From Casablanca it works AS LONG AS the connecting point is not LHR, in which case don'tn even try it, it's a recipe for lost bag with 100% accuracy.

In Montreal and in JFK, they absolutely refuse to do it "Based on Company Policy", which is complete BS as it is done elsewhere. But Royal Air Maroc appears to be full of those little fiefdoms where the Station Manager or the local Director of Sales is a king not to be contradicted.

Typically I have been pretty lucky when asking politely and checking-in early enough to have bags thru-checked to final destination on separate tickets/airlines. A couple of exceptions - Alaska at SFO couldn't or wouldn't thru-check bags to the final destination on a separate Qatar ticket. We had a 3 hour layover at Seattle, which gave us time to retrieve bags and check in at the Qatar counter. Another time United surprisingly wouldn't thru-check bags on a star alliance partner Turkish flight connecting in Chicago.

@George Romey
I do check bags, but I always carry a pair of socks and underwear in my carry-on.

OW are particularly bad at this to connections within alliance, or even within airline, as a deliberate decision.
What is weird is that I had UA to BA work fine/

I have something like that coming up. OZ from ICN to SFO. And UA from SFO to DEN. But the layiver is 30 hours in SFO. Wonder if they could check the bags all the way to DEN from ICN.

I was surprised to see AA won't interline bags with DL.

Simply check each bag with each airline . Make it easy .

If you go Qatar or Turkey . then that will be the result .

So , who trusts Air Maroc with their money ? Air France would be a better choice .

Try asking in Spanish .

i’m amazed at how many readers think checking a bag on an interline line connection should be just “automatic”. As a retired airline operations manager, whose worked throughout the United States and Europe, interline baggage transfer is actually one of the most difficult tasks in some stations. it basically boils down to two issues, responsibility, and cost. Which airline is responsible for physically taking the bag from one airline to another airline and how much will it cost? In some places, there are issues regarding security, such as the United Kingdom and other stations there’s issues surrounding collective bargaining agreements of the ground employees, but again it’s really about who’s gonna pay for it and going to do it. If a carrier is not expected to have multiple interline bags on a daily basis, it's not always cost-effective because ground handlers will charge you to have somebody there to move that bag whether there’s a bag to move or not!!!

That’s all well and good, but, I must say: I do enjoy the occasional cocktail…

Some of us like to get RAM’d

Do you pronounce it fooket of fuhkit?

Well, American don’t fly to Africa, so… and South African don’t fly to the USA or Europe, so it’d likely be like MIA-GRU on AA, then GRU-JNB on SAA, at best.

No they cannot even if it was on one ticket.

CX & JL will do it (I have done this several times, as recently as October). I'm curious, last month my friend flew MIA-JFK // then JFK-HND-HKG on separate tickets. AA didn't load the luggage on his 1st flight, so when he filed a baggage claim, he put his address as the hotel in HKG. AA still had to get the luggage to his final destination.

Whenever I’ve booked separate tickets, I usually gave myself an overnight layover just in case any issues arose.

However, I’m planning a trip to Southern Africa next summer and I want to minimize layovers as much as possible since it’s such a long way from HNL. I’ll probably buy a cheap cash ticket to Tokyo or West coast US and then an award flight from there. If going through Tokyo (either HND or NRT), what’s the minimum time you’d give yourself to get through immigration, gather luggage, and check back in?

I was surprised to see Qantas won’t interline with Icelandair, but, I’m a fool, so don’t worry about it.

I believe (VERY strongly) in the CRITICALITY of maintaining CARE AND CONTROL of PERSONAL BELONGING at ALL TIMES. Checking in bags on SEPERATE tickets is not only a VIOLATION of this, but a BLIGHT on INTELLECTUAL EXCELLENCE - why would anybody want to give up their BAGS for potential MISHANDLING?

AF wouldn't let me check through one redemption (through Garuda) and one cash ticket (through AF). Both flights were operated by AF. Still baffled today.

So it sounds like Delta is willing to through check baggage to Virgin Atlantic… With separate tickets booked in different classes, is the baggage allowance of the flight in the higher class honored for both tickets?

Outbound:
Delta main cabin (cash) LAX-LAS, connecting to Virgin upper class (award) LAS-LHR

Return:
Virgin upper class (award) LHR-SFO, connecting to Delta main cabin (cash) SFO-LAX

Also, does anyone know if through checking baggage will work in the other direction? Will Virgin through check baggage to a Delta flight on a separate ticket? On the return, I know we will need to pick up our luggage in SFO after clearing immigration. I’m hoping Virgin will bag tag all the way to LAX, so when we recheck them, we don't have to pay additional baggage fees, as we will be taking full advantage of our upper class luggage allowance on Virgin. Two people, checking two, 70 lb bags each. In the event Virgin won’t through check in LHR, any chance Delta will waive bags fees at SFO recheck counter if we show our inbound upper class tickets?

Better if Alaska fixed the problems and allowed through checking.

There was BA who refused to check my bag on another BA flight because it was on a different (non revenue) ticket. Luckily I had a long layover at LHR so I could recheck my bag for my onwards journey. So an agent seems to have a lot of discretion!

Doesn't seem to be a problem for Delta and partners in SkyTeam.

This past Friday flew KL from BER to AMS on one Skymiles ticket, connecting DL from AMS to MCO on a separate Skymiles ticket. The counter agent didn't know how to do it but asked the colleague next to her and and then issued both boarding passes and checked our luggage all the way through.

Earlier this year, CI from BNE to TPE on one Skymiles ticket, connecting to DL from TPE to MCO via SEA on another Skymiles ticket. The counter agent didn't know how to do it but called someone over from their Help Desk who was able to get everything issued. Interestingly, these were all Menzies employees, not CI.

Because Willyhead there are items that cannot go in carryon.
Like hiking poles, avalanche packs and just sheer mass when you need 50lb/22kg of tech oriented gear for a trip.
So I use interline a lot with rare issues. Have had to verbally bludgeon UA when both PNRs were with them. UA to AA, simply forget it!
Even with separate PNRs SQ chased my lost bag when Air Dolomiti agents failed to load it in MXP for an onwards SQ FRA/SIN/MEL award ticket.
But mostly it works. SQ to SAS, no issue. Indeed next week, QF to AC and I expect it will work as it's an AC PNR.

Well no, that involves first retrieving the bag so it can be checked-in again. That involves going through Security again. If it's an international connection, that involves going through Immigration at the connecting airport and then Security and Immigration before the second flight. All that is eliminated if the bag is through-checked.

Don't think this is universally true with OW. Last year, I flew TPE-HKG on CX, then HKG-DOH-AUH on QR. The CX agent at TPE checked my bag all the way through to AUH without issue. Now, if you're talking AA, sure, that cAAn't do airline will tell you to go fly a kite...

AA can go to hell for this policy. What does it matter if they were booked on seperate reservations? I'm still flying the same damn airline. The check in counter experience leaves a lot to be desired because the agents don't even want to try to be helpful, nope not their problem. I missed a domestic connection coming back internationally simply because by the time I made it to the check in counter, the window for checking in bags was closed so I had to get rebooked the following day. All I needed was a stupid final destination luggage tag and I could have definitely made my domestic connection.

Apropos of nothing. A’s Flagship livery is kinda’ cool: https://www.instagram.com/p/DRoLfkaFkk2/?igsh=OWwwYjhhYzczc2dw&img_index=1

“Because Willyhead there are items that cannot go in carryon.”

Your ire is misdirected, little sugarplumb fairy.

When I asked to check in to the final destination China Airlines at LAX asked me why i had two tickets, I explained that there was no award ticket available for the entire trip so I had to get two awards. After that she said ok and allowed me to check in all the way to the final destination.

I think that if there is an interline agreement they should allow check in all the way. As you mentioned, it really depends on the agent, each time I have a different experience, and that's not how it should be.

I flew several times Delta JFK - CDG and then El Al CDG-TLV each time on two separate tickets . Delta always checked my bags at JFK all the way to TLV . One time the bags did not arrive to TLV . I needed to file the missing bag claims with Delta as they checked in the bags .

I had two cases all started in the US. One was with United and it took the agent an felt eternity to get my luggage to Berlin on a seperate Lufthansa ticket. It did not go well, he misplaced a bag tag of my colleague with mine, so my luggage ended up in Hamburg and I got his luggage in Berlin. Last occassion was with Delta a few weeks ago. We were traveling on the Delta One and used their impressing seperate check in area in JFK. We were on a group booking and some of us had seperate onward tickets but all on Air France. It took two supervisors and 30 min for them to figure out how to process our luggage. I was a bit shocked, since it’s their alliance partners and not competitors we were flying on. My guess after two issuances in the US: if you are requesting anything out of the norm, good luck with the agents.

If you have separate tickets and they are not in the same booking record ( usually booked via an agent ) it’s not straightforward for airlines to do so, especially if the carriers use different systems. The passengers must ensure they don’t book short transfer time’s especially with baggage, and ensure they have the correct documentation.

Many travel agents knock up itineraries eg New York Frankfurt Lufthansa Cairo Egyptair nairobi Kenya airways and the passenger thinks they have one ticket New York to nairobi.

Either they won’t get their bags checked through or they lack a visa for Egypt as Egyptair considers Cairo the final destination. It’s also a problem if the incoming flight is delayed.

If they through check bags and they don’t arrive the arrival carrier then has to sort out the baggage issue created by the 1st one who decided to tag the bags, even if it wasn’t necessarily the second carriers fault.

It’s because delta and Air France use different booking and check in systems. If you booked one via delta and the second via AF they have no access to each others bookings.

To add, each ticket may have a different baggage allowance. So if you’re on split bookings say American allowed 2 pieces and onwards on BA with 1 pc, it’s also a problem.

I was surprised in October when I had to do so from Aegean to Lufthansa. I initially was not checking any luggage but changed halfway thru trip. Plus I had an itinerary change. I had a tight 90 connection at ATH so at check-in at JMK I asked assuming it was a no but the agent quickly & politely did so thru ATH onward to FRA. No issues at all.

So that you can entertain us with your pontification.

Depending on your fare bucket Rico BA have a reasonable same-day flight change policy- if you're through quickly you can ask if you can get the earlier flight, as long as you don't check in for the later one

I’d fly via Sydney to Johannesburg from HNL, not across Asia or USA.

I don't understand the bit about American AA. In the table that is shown, there are all those interline agreements, but the paragraph afterwards says they don't want to check bags even to their own flights on 2 different tickets. Does interline agreement not equal the airline policy? What's the difference?

I've managed to do this once. Was an SAS domestic flight first, and then Finnair to Asia (as one of the very few connecting passengers in the small but lovely "Lego" airport BLL).

Serious travellers have avoided American Airlines for decades.
Correction; really serious travellers have avoided all U.S. airlines for decades …. a fact that even the organ grinders monkey should be aware of if honest, yes?

I work for a company handling many different airlines at a major airport. BA doesn't allow checking baggage through on separate tickets even BA to BA regardless of class of service. The option to do so is readily available in the system, but the policy is not to.

As a passenger, United went out of their way to through check my bags on a UA-UA separate ticket connection, without me even asking them to do it (figured I'd be picking my bags up at immigration anyway so wouldn't bother asking), but it did take them a long time to process it.

AC would not let me check my bag through to a separate UA connection, despite both being in Star Alliance.

Second this. If you’re lucky, Hawaiian has pretty cheap business class award tickets to Sydney. You could make a trip out of it and stop in Australia for a day or two.

We just booked Tix from mla-fra-sin-auk-sin-fra-mla for March. One ticket. All Star Alliance. LH, NZ, SQ. Since we haven't flown NZ, I called them about it. She said we are happy to do it because we are gaining more biz because can do it all on e ticket because of Star Alliance.

Makes a lot of sense if you have professionals running your airline. A teaching moment for AA.

All hat, no steak.

A very impromptu, stupid statement. Some of us must travel with some items that cannot be on carry-ons. But, I guess you thought this through.

Literally not the same. this is specifically for booking on separate tickets/bookings. If it's the one booking/ticket then of course all the information will be interconnected with all the contracted carriers on that ticket and your bags will be sent through. If you were to book each leg or portions of that trip on different bookings with the same flight sequences/days then whether or not you'd be able to check through would be what you would look at.

Maybe they don’t allow per se it but I’ve done this successfully before on BA on CDG-LHR and then LHR to US on separate BA tickets. In fairness I was either in first class or business, perhaps that made a difference to the agent. Changing planes at LHR is hell so that courtesy truly helped.

Yes, in my experience. I have checked in with Virgin Atlantic and given them my Delta confirmation number on a separate ticket and they’ve checked the bag thru and issued the Delta boarding pass. This was at LHR and I was in Upper Class. It made a world of difference when arriving at LAX.

I would say, less and less so. This is due to liberalization of the baggage rules, which made the allowance totally intransparent. In the good old IATA regulated days, it was clear the each ticket included "piece-concept" in North America or 20/30/40kg for Y/C/F elsewhere.

Hahahahaha....correct!!

It all depends a lot on the check-in staff, either knowledge-related or customer friendliness. I had a bad experience with DNATA at Dubai airport, who handle all flights of SQ. I had one ticket on SQ and the other on Scoot, their own partner airline. First of all, the check-in staff insisted that Scoot was not a partner and then told me she was unable to do it. A colleague stepped in and explained to her how to do it, but she still did not do it.
Ultimately, I ended up claiming my bag in Changi and rechecking it with Scoot. Luckily, I do not require a visa for Singapore, or else they would have even denied me boarding the flight.

A lot of the newer agents may not know. All they do is add segments for the bag. Usually 10 minutes or so.

Air Canada has pathetic agents who are so poorly trained they have no idea how to check luggage through.
You need to "encourage" them to call their help desk, and even then most of those agents are poorly trained.

I do love (not) that DL and AA still don't interline.

Unfortunately, United refused to check our bag through on a flight from Newark to Lihue (Kauai) going through Honolulu. Purchasing the flight as one ticket would have cost us several hundred $ more than buying a ticket from Honolulu to Lihue directly from Hawaiian. At Newark Airport, even in the “Premier” bag drop / check-in section, there’s apparently no counter anymore to handle such a special request. Both airlines are part of Star Alliance, but refuse to provide this service, it appears. So much for United being more customer-friendly than American. We’ll find out about Hawaiian’s policy on the trip back but don’t have much hope. We flew from Newark on 1/12/26, so this the current policy at this major airport.