wandering_fred

Be aware it may also depend on the location.
I have been in PEK where CX could only issue 2 BP out of 3 on a single CX ticket. Nor the 3rd BP onto a connecting ticket for Mrs WF.

Happy wandering

Fred

shorthauldad

Are check-in agents able to issue BPs for flights for which OLCI is not yet open?

seawolf

Thanks to OP for posting but I get the feeling getting this honored will be a totally different matter especially the reference material is a post in a forum. The through check part doesn't make sense to me. If the airline was willing to protect, through check shouldn't matter.

Kiwi Flyer

depends on if the flight is open for remote check in or not

shorthauldad

What determines this?

Kiwi Flyer

the operating airline

typically flights are open for remote check in 24 hours before departure

shorthauldad

Right, but 24h is also typically the OLCI window (or close to it) on the OW airlines I've flown on.

So: say I'm flying with hand baggage only, and I have two OW tickets, the first ticket covers aaa-bbb-ccc, the second ticket covers ccc-ddd. They're all long flights, so the departure from ccc is at least a day and a half after the first flight departs from aaa.

I pitch up at aaa and attempt to "through check" to get myself protected, but neither I nor the agent at aaa will be able to check me in for the ccc-ddd sector as it's not open yet.

So, the only way to get anything remotely resembling a "through check" to get the itinerary protected would be to provide an empty cardboard box and insist on it being checked through aaa-bbb-ccc-ddd? I then have a bag tag to wave at the agents at ccc should I misconnect there?

What a massive waste of everyone's time and effort.

Kiwi Flyer

Even that may not be possible. Note some airlines do in fact open up remote check in earlier than 24 hours, but to go much longer than this typically requires the check in agent being the operating airline.

Yes it is a pain. Every journey between Europe and NZ takes more than 24 hours so any intra-Europe flights coming from NZ or Australia/NZ flights coming from Europe can cause issues with boarding passes.

shorthauldad

Not having all your BPs when setting off on a multi-day journey is one thing (I've had to collect BPs during transit in LHR and SIN, for instance) - checking bags through is usually possible even if BPs can't be issued as the baggage checking/tagging systems don't care if not all flights are open for check-in.

Where does this leave us with "connection protection on separate tickets" though? Having to check in an empty box?

OccasionalUser

I recently had the following problem with two award tickets on the same routing. I had an AA award ticket LAX-MIA-LHR and a QR award ticket LHR- DOH, with 4 hours connection time in LHR. Luggage was checked through from LAX to DOH, had a bp issued by QR in addition to the AA bp. Alas, the AA MIA-LHR fight was delayed for 4 hours due to a technical problem that involved swapping planes. Since I would not make the QR flight, I talked to an AA agent while on the ground in MIA and she said that she had booked me on a later QR flight. I arrived T3 in LHR, transferred to T4, then talked to a QR representative at the transfer desk to verify my reservation on the later QR flight. I was told I was not booked on that flight, but was booked on an earlier flight -- but the boarding for that flight was already closed. Then I was told that QR would not book me a later flight and was told to go back to AA in T3 to talk to them. I did, and had an extremely helpful AA agent who was surprised that QR would not accept the AA request to book me on a later QR flight. She talked to the QR folks, reminded them that under Oneworld, all Oneworld carriers were supposed to honor even back-to-back tickets as if they had been made on a single ticket. QR said that because I had an Award ticket, I could not change my flight to a later time according to their rules. The AA agent pointed out that this was in violation of the spirit, if not the letter of the Oneworld alliance. The long and short was that QR refused to book me on a later flight and so the AA agent then booked me on a BA flight leaving the following morning to DOH and provided vouchers for the overnight stay. As it happens the AA agent was also the AA representative to Oneworld and said she would take up this problem at the next Oneworld meeting since it was in violation of Oneworld procedures. It was clear from the AA agent that all Oneworld airlines are supposed to recognize back-to-back tickets, when both tickets are on Oneworld flights, as if they had been booked on a single ticket, whether paid tickets or award tickets. This appears to be an agreement among the Oneworld airlines, not a specific rule, which (I was told) was why QR insisted on following it's own rules rather than the aged-upon policy among the Oneworld airlines. As the AA agent said, QR is new to the Oneworld alliance and hasn't fully understood the procedures that are to be followed. Hopefully this will be sorted out at the next meeting of the Oneworld airline representatives -- in the meatime, I thank the AA agent for her help in sorting out the problem with QR by arranging for me to fly out on BA on their next flight to DOH, the following morning.

angatol

.....

seawolf

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I'm not sure if this suggests alliance wide policy here. If anything, it only reinforces AA's policy on separate ticket and illustrates AA failing to rebook you properly.

AA caused the misconnect. AA was responsible to rebook instead of getting QR. Seems like QR agent was correct in sending you back to AA.

Was the award ticket for LHR-DOH redeemed with AA or QR miles?

beardoc

Someone needs to tell US about this.

I did a recent DONE5 trip through the USA which had a number of US Airways sectors and bought a series of connecting flights on US Airways on separate tickets, so that the trip I was planning on particular day was a DONE5 segment meeting an additional separate ticket, and did this at both PHX and CLT (as the connecting points).

I showed the US Airways staff a number of times when trying to do this, and requested that I and my bags be through-checked to my final destination. In all occasions, US Airways staff refused to check the bags through, initially telling me that I had to exit the secure area to collect my bags in PHX or CLT and then check them through again. I did this once (it was a disaster - a three hour transit ended up with me almost missing the plane because of massive lines and US Airways' lack of priority access for OWEs), and then managed to convince check in agents that they actually could through check - with a little bit of persistence, I found they did.

However, US' policy is no through-check for passengers holding separate tickets for connecting flights. It's a nightmare.

It's was a massive contrast to the rest of the alliance, where by and large I've found they were pretty good at throughchecking, etc.

I hope US Airways goes more the way of AA, rather than AA goes the way of US Airways.

OccasionalUser

OccasionalUser

Being sent back to AA was not a problem. The problem was that when I went back to AA, QR refused the rebooking by AA. The LHS-DOH was with QR miles.