daniellam

Does anyone know if TG allows baggage to be short checked to a connecting point as opposed to the final destination?

I will be flying the following routing:

BKK-CDG TG F
(7 hour layover)
CDG-FRA LH C
FRA-XXX LH C
XXX-YYY AC Y

Can I ask for my bag to be check up to CDG in BKK?

If TG refuses and I simply not board my CDG-FRA LH C flight, can I then go to the lost baggage counter at CDG and file a claim to get my bag back (as it would probably get offloaded from the CDG-FRA flight)?

Note: Instead of flying CDG-FRA LH C, FRA-XXX LH C, XXX-YYY AC Y (I will be abandoning these segments as I have given up hope on finding any LH F award availability for FRA-XXX and I don't want to fly AC Y on my last sector), I will be staying in CDG for a few days and then flying CDG-FRA LH C, FRA-YYY LH F on a separate paid ticket.

BKKROP

I don't see any problem whatsoever, I get TG and other airlines to change tickets all the time, sometimes there is a fee, most times if C or F there is not. The only problem could be if the ticket is a new 30day release, with no stop overs, but I am thinking yours might be an award ticket. If it is TG stock there is no problem, if it is another carrier, you might be wise ti check them too.

daniellam

I don't think you are answering my question.

All I want to know is if TG in BKK would check my bag up to CDG (7 hour layover) instead of my final destination.

BKKROP

If you want to TG to send your bags to Paris and you don't want your ticket changed, how else are you going to do it. If you do not change your ticket, your bags are going through to FRA or further.

The answer for you is YES
If you choose YES, you will need to change your ticket.

hgp

[removed quote of and response to now-deleted material]

The OP asked can he check luggage part way through given his ticket. It's a fair question. You responded with a comment about changing tickets. We all know you are a TG expert and speak with great authority, but on this exceptionally rare occasion your answer lacked the clarity and precision of many of your posts. I think what you were saying was it can be done if the ticket is changed, but this wasn't clear from your response. Let's keep this a friendly forum!

daniellam, I have never done what you are trying to do with TG, but I have done it with other airlines. On check-in at BKK, say you intend to check into an airport hotel for the long lay-over and want your luggage. Have them check it as far as CDG.

Now, they may not want to issue onward boarding passes beyond CDG, and if that's the case just ask them to check you as far as CDG and re-check-in later.

Happy travels.

travelislife

I don't know what BKKROP is on about with regard to changing the ticket. I have first hand experience of short checking a bag when checking in for DEN-LAX-BKK-MEL (UA domestic, TG-international) on the one ticket. I asked the agent and they checked the baggage only to BKK, I picked it up and then checked it back in about 10 hours later.

So yes it can be done, I had no issues and nothing to do with the ticket. I guess it is one of those things though where the particular agent has to know what they are doing.

jib71

Never done this with TG, but it's quite common on many airlines. Pay close attention to the tags that the check-in agent puts on your bags.

I had one check-in agent at SYD who fully understood that I wanted to check my bags as far as SIN, but still absent mindedly printed a tag to LHR and would have sent my bags there if I hadn't noticed.

pjensid

I frequently fly MEL-BKK-PVG with a few hours at BKK. Sometimes I get my baggage checked only to BKK and go to town for a couple of hours & other times I have the baggage checked through to PVG. Either case i get the boarding passes for both flights at first checkin.

Jaimito Cartero

I had a SYD TG/Menzies agent refuse to through check a bag beyond the connection in BKK if I was going to leave the airport. I had a 14 hour connection. On most 10+ hour layovers, I'll get a room, and don't want to haul more luggage than I need. Especially with the small trunk space most taxis have in BKK.

Perhaps those are the rules, but I've done it 30-40 times at different airports around the world.

brunos

When you have a cheap ticket (on a single airline) that does not allow stopover, that airline can refuse to short-check your luggage. For example, if you buy a cheap ticket GVA-CDG-JFK-CDG-GVA on AF and wish to get your bags only checked to CDG on the return leg, AF would usually not allow it to enforce their pricing segmentation. GVA-JFK-GVA may be 50% cheaper than CDG-JFK-CDG and some cheats are tempted to board at GVA but throw away their last segment. That is forbidden by the T&Cs but difficult to enforce, except if you have checked luggage. This is not a theoretical example, as European and American airlines are increasingly trying to avoid such practices (even SQ did at some point of time).
But daniellam's ticket involve several airlines and it is hard to see why TG would refuse.
I would avoid doing the "unload my bag" thing. You might have to spend the whole days at CDG trying to locate your bag and answering questions.

Aussie_flyer

indeed. if there was a 7 hour layover i don't think there will be any issues with having the bag checked to CDG. I have done this before on various airlines.

hgp

Let me be perfectly clear. At no point did I advocate checking in for the entire journey (BKK-CDG-FRA-XXX-YYY) and then failing to board for the FRA-CDG-XXX-YYY portion to force offloading of bags. Such a strategy is completely inappropriate given the cost, inconvenience and delays it would cause (not to mention it is also probably illegal).

My advice was that short-checking the bag, given the 7 hour layover, is both reasonable and legal. It was my understanding the OP wished to access his/her back in CDG for ~7 hours and then reboard for CDG-FRA-XXX-YYY with bag. This was very clear in my post:
[removed response to now-deleted post]

xianrocker

I have a similar question as the OP but different scenario. I am scheduled to fly on a UA reward ticket HND-BKK-HKT but have decided to go to USM (Koh Samui) instead. TG is sold out on the BKK-USM flight so I am going to buy a ticket on PG for BKK-USM. In order to avoid losing my lounge access during the transfer to PG, I was thinking of changing my original BKK-HKT flight to the last flight of the day so that I can still have the boarding pass for lounge entrance at BKK, short check my bag HND-BKK and have TG interline the bag to PG for BKK-USM. I figured that if I can get all the way to the lounge at BKK, I can just cancel my BKK-HKT portion. Do you think TG would even allow this? I know this really sounds like scamming but if I'm going to have a 3 hour wait at BKK, I'd like to have free breakfast

Aussie_flyer

What a lot of effort for a tg domestic lounge breakfast which is going to be rubbish. Did you know pg operate a lounge that all passengers can use regardless of status?

hgp

Yup, it sounds like scamming

A couple of points. It's not the right thing to do to check-in for BKK-HKT if you have no intention of taking this flight (and I note you said you were going to cancel the sector at the lounge). Additionally, I can't possibly imagine at HND TG will interline your luggage HND-BKK-USM (as opposed to short-check) given you'll be checking in for HND-BKK-HKT (and neither they should do this).

Please remember if you did short-check to BKK, you would need to clear passport control, collect your luggage, then re-check it (there goes 30 to 60 minutes of your 3 hour layover).

I agree wtih dazz81: this is way too much trouble for a basic domestic lounge breakfast.

Happy travels.