Air New Zealand Air Points - Checking a bag through, Air NZ-UA, 2 PRN's

I am flying AKL-LAX-JFK as follows (2 seperate tickets PRN's):

AKL-LAX NZ2 25/12/07 DEP 21:30pm, ARR 14:40pm 25/12/07
LAX-JFK UA32 25/12/07 DEP 23:25pm, ARR 07:48am 26/12/07

So I have roughly a 8-9 hour layover. I have to take a bag with me, can I check this through from AKL-JFK, I don't need my bag in LA and without it will have enough time to leave the airport and do somthing.

Can I do as per above, where I check all the way through and then only need to collect it to carry through customs, or will I have to take it to the domestic terminal myself, if so how far before the flight can I check in? I have read 4 hours somwhere, which would basicly mean a long wait (all day) at the airport :-(

Any ideas/advice?

Thanks,

tht

You can through check. At AKL show your onward ticket so they can tag bags through to JFK. On arrival at LAX you need to collect your bags, take them through customs. Then drop in the bag drop immediately after customs (on the right hand side) for rescreening.

You will not however, be able to get the UA boarding pass until in LAX. Most likely not until a few hours before the flight. As long as you are at terminal an hour or more before departure (more if no status, 1 hour plenty if have status) you can get your BP then.

You can through check. At AKL show your onward ticket so they can tag bags through to JFK. On arrival at LAX you need to collect your bags, take them through customs. Then drop in the bag drop immediately after customs (on the right hand side) for rescreening.

You will not however, be able to get the UA boarding pass until in LAX. Most likely not until a few hours before the flight. As long as you are at terminal an hour or more before departure (more if no status, 1 hour plenty if have status) you can get your BP then.

Thanks Kiwi Flyer,

Thats great, not worried about the boarding pass, I have a seat reserved anyway so checkin is no problem, just did not want the hastle of dealing with a bag in LA, LAX has no onsite left luggage anymore.

tht

You can through check. At AKL show your onward ticket so they can tag bags through to JFK. On arrival at LAX you need to collect your bags, take them through customs. Then drop in the bag drop immediately after customs (on the right hand side) for rescreening.

You will not however, be able to get the UA boarding pass until in LAX. Most likely not until a few hours before the flight. As long as you are at terminal an hour or more before departure (more if no status, 1 hour plenty if have status) you can get your BP then.

You sure about the boarding passes ??

Flew MEL-LAX on Air NZ (booked myself on the internet)
Then from LAX-DEN-ASE (booked with travel agent totally seperate)

When checking in at MEL, the checkin agent who had a Qantas uniform/badge on, gave us the business class baggage allowance when travelling in PE ;)

More importantly, she also gave us the boarding passes for the LAX-DEN flight along with the DEN-ASE flight. The LAX-DEN flight had the seat numbers already allocated in F :) But the DEN-ASE boarding pass did not have seats allocated as it was pending an upgrade, which we did not get even though F was totally empty!

It took US customs/TSA/security/FA's and staff at the gate in LAX/DEN by surprise with the boarding passes. They had a good look at them and took a moment to work out who they were. Being printed on Air NZ paper it's not what they were used to seeing

Is getting boarding passes like I did not correct ?

You sure about the boarding passes ??

Flew MEL-LAX on Air NZ (booked myself on the internet)
Then from LAX-DEN-ASE (booked with travel agent totally seperate)

When checking in at MEL, the checkin agent who had a Qantas uniform/badge on, gave us the business class baggage allowance when travelling in PE ;)

More importantly, she also gave us the boarding passes for the LAX-DEN flight along with the DEN-ASE flight. The LAX-DEN flight had the seat numbers already allocated in F :) But the DEN-ASE boarding pass did not have seats allocated as it was pending an upgrade, which we did not get even though F was totally empty!

It took US customs/TSA/security/FA's and staff at the gate in LAX/DEN by surprise with the boarding passes. They had a good look at them and took a moment to work out who they were. Being printed on Air NZ paper it's not what they were used to seeing

Is getting boarding passes like I did not correct ?

That is not proper process, for a couple of reasons, so you were lucky. BPs are not supposed to be issued from a remote airport if on separate itinerary. Sometimes check in agents will do this when 2nd ticket is on the same airline. Doing it for a different airline is not supposed to happen.

As for LAX not used to seeing Air NZ issued BPs, baloney. Many NZ pax flying from AKL (or south pacific islands) connect through to UA (and other airlines) at LAX and already have onward BPs. What does throw them though, is when the BP is one of the domestic mini BPs with barcode instead of the larger (and more standard) international BPs.

That's not a boarding pass. :rolleyes:

Thanks, but not baloney :)

The United staff at the gate, were unsure of our boarding pass. They even called someone else across to "look at the pass"

Only saying what happened

Sorry - I didn't mean to offend. Rather UA staff should be well used to seeing NZ issued BPs.

That is not proper process, for a couple of reasons, so you were lucky. BPs are not supposed to be issued from a remote airport if on separate itinerary. Sometimes check in agents will do this when 2nd ticket is on the same airline. Doing it for a different airline is not supposed to happen. Whether it's "supposed" to happen or not, it does indeed happen with some regularity. And it really doesn't seem to be that big of a deal considering in many cases the pax could check themselves in and print out a boarding pass for the second itn using an internet connection anyway.

As for UA agents seeing NZ issued boarding cards, I agree -- they see quite a few of them and usually aren't bothered at all.