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Old May 17, 2014, 9:19 pm
  #1  
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Minimum time to recheck luggage on I-I BKK transit

I am flying into BKK on TG from FRA, landing at 6:25am on a UA ticket. I would like to connect on to REP on PG903 at 8:00am. I know that this meets the official 1:15 connect time for an I-I transfer. I am going to try to have UA interline the bags between the two tickets in which case the transit should be a breeze. However, if they refuse, I won't know until the day of departure.

Is the 1:35 anywhere near long enough to clear immigration and customs, reclaim my bags, recheck with PG, and then clear passport control and security? My guess is no. Am I far safer taking the next PG flight at 10:35am? Does PG have any concept of letting me jump an earlier flight if I book the later one?
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Old May 18, 2014, 11:43 pm
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Originally Posted by jasonvr
I am flying into BKK on TG from FRA, landing at 6:25am on a UA ticket. I would like to connect on to REP on PG903 at 8:00am. I know that this meets the official 1:15 connect time for an I-I transfer. I am going to try to have UA interline the bags between the two tickets in which case the transit should be a breeze. However, if they refuse, I won't know until the day of departure.

Is the 1:35 anywhere near long enough to clear immigration and customs, reclaim my bags, recheck with PG, and then clear passport control and security? My guess is no. Am I far safer taking the next PG flight at 10:35am? Does PG have any concept of letting me jump an earlier flight if I book the later one?
I'd guess you're right, that's not long enough. Arrival that time, unless you can use Fast Track Immigration, gonna take you 20-30 minutes to get to Immigration then clear Immigration. Maybe longer. Then wait another 20 or so for your bags. Go to check in and you've got maybe 30-40 minutes left to check in.

Works if your incoming flight is on time, if the arrival gate is close to Immigration, if there are no long queues at Immigration, if your bags aren't the last ones out, if, if, if. Too many if's for me.

Having said that, Bangkok Airways doesn't exactly have a great reputation for on time departures.

Myself, I hate being rushed and feeling under pressure to run to catch a flight or anything else. Book the later flight and relax.
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Old May 30, 2014, 7:48 am
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Originally Posted by jasonvr

Is the 1:35 anywhere near long enough to clear immigration and customs, reclaim my bags, recheck with PG, and then clear passport control and security?
Doable? Yes. Risky? YES!

IIRC PG has a 45min cutoff time for Int check in.

Originally Posted by jasonvr
Does PG have any concept of letting me jump an earlier flight if I book the later one?
No.

You sure are sweating this whole scenario (based upon the amount of threads you've started in various fora).
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Old May 30, 2014, 9:47 am
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It is very likely that TG will tag your bags to REP when you checkin in FRA, when you show your PG ticket.

However, if you want to be completely sure, you can book a later flight. Angkor Cambodian Air now flies the route too, had good experience with them a few months back.
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Old May 30, 2014, 10:26 pm
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Originally Posted by dsquared37
Doable? Yes. Risky? YES!

IIRC PG has a 45min cutoff time for Int check in.



No.

You sure are sweating this whole scenario (based upon the amount of threads you've started in various fora).
Originally Posted by BangkokTraveler
It is very likely that TG will tag your bags to REP when you checkin in FRA, when you show your PG ticket.

However, if you want to be completely sure, you can book a later flight. Angkor Cambodian Air now flies the route too, had good experience with them a few months back.
Thank you all for the responses. I ended up booking the later PG connection out of BKK. It ended up being the cheapest and easiest option (leaves about 4 hours after we arrive in BKK). If we can check all the way thru (flights actually start in SNA on the UA ticket), then we'll have some time to kill. If we can't we've got plenty of time to clear immigration (fast track due to F arrival), recheck, and wait until the PG flight. I'll use the two Lounge Club passes from my Ink card to get into a lounge in BKK.

Originally Posted by dsquared37
No.

You sure are sweating this whole scenario (based upon the amount of threads you've started in various fora).
It is true I have been fretting, and that I have started a couple of threads, but they have all been distinct questions
1) Experience with K6 (Cambodia Angkor Air)
2) This thread - minimum I-I connection with baggage recheck
3) Experience with UA interlining to PG

As I said, I have decided to take the safe route and book the later PG flight instead of an earlier flight or the K6 flight. On the way from REP to HKT, I actually booked PG REP-BKK and TG BKK-HKT on two separate tickets. Good timing and the TG flight will get me (domestic) lounge access in BKK for our layover, and I'm fairly confident in the PG-TG interline as it seems quite common. It was also a good price and some UA miles
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Old May 31, 2014, 2:28 am
  #6  
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Originally Posted by jasonvr
As I said, I have decided to take the safe route and book the later PG flight instead of an earlier flight or the K6 flight. On the way from REP to HKT, I actually booked PG REP-BKK and TG BKK-HKT on two separate tickets. Good timing and the TG flight will get me (domestic) lounge access in BKK for our layover, and I'm fairly confident in the PG-TG interline as it seems quite common. It was also a good price and some UA miles
Probably a wise choice to go with the 10:30 PG flight.

Just a note: PG has int and dom lounges for all pax.
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Old Jul 15, 2014, 11:57 pm
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Well, it looks like I won't be able to give an answer to my own question. Agent at LAX was able to check my bags all the way thru across the two tickets and they are now tagged as such. Barring some sort of huge problem, I won't need to exit the transit area in BKK at all which means several hours of waiting around.
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