Originally Posted by
ANC RED-EYE
Hey all - perhaps I'm going to regret this, but here goes:
Soon I will be making a flight from Bozeman to San Pedro Sula on 2 different airlines (well 3 if you count Alaska and Horizon separately), and 3 different tickets.
Here's a sketch:
BZN-SEA-LAS - Alaska/Horizon, ticket #1 (issued on AS stock)
LAS - MIA - American, ticket #2 (issued on AA stock)
MIA - SAP - American, ticket #3 (issued on AA stock)
There was relatively significant cost advantage to book everything separately, to answer the first obvious question...
So, my question now is, can I check my bags through to SAP in BZN? If so, where should I expect to get saddled with American's Baggage fee? Or, are the oh so convenient interline baggage transfers no longer possible because the other guys need the opportunity to nickel and dime me, and thus won't allow AS to check me all the way through?
I had incorrectly assumed that since I am continuing onto an international ticket in MIA, that AA's international rules would apply to the LAS-MIA portion. I was advised by AA CS that indeed that is not the case, since I booked a domestic one way, I am subject to the domestic baggage rules on that flight no matter what additional flying I am doing (which I thought was ridiculous, but it will still be cheaper in the long run). She did say that the agents in LAS may well not assess the fee since I am continuing onto an international reservation, but there is no guarantee and I should plan on paying it.
Originally Posted by
jackal
Not really related, but I've been wanting to ask: If you interline your bags and are checked all the way through to your final destination by your originating carrier, does that provide any protection if the earlier flights are delayed and that disrupts your separately-booked connections, or are you on your own if you miss a later flight?
If you can show an itinerary which can be verified by AA for the other segments, then the bags can be checked through. However, with the MIA SAP segment with that 6.5 hour layover, if the MIA SAP flight is the next flight out then the bags can be checked all the way, if its not the next flight (as in, if you decided to stay there longer for personal reasons and could go out on an earlier flight) then they have to be retrieved in MIA.
The international baggage rules would be the ones followed if the bags are sent all the way through. So if AA allows for only 1 checked bag internationally to SAP, with the second being, lets say, an additional $100 then that is what we would have to charge you (as they will charge us). As far as the domestic portion - if the bags are checked
only to MIA, then it would be the AS bag rules.
As far as missing the subsequent flights - we would only be responsible for getting you to the final destination on
our itinerary. Any separate itinerary would be your responsibility or the other carriers. So were you to miss your connection you would be on your own. Best thing to do in that case is the moment you know you will be late, call the other carrier and explain the situation and see if they can rebook you on a later flight. Sometimes they will do so no charge when its ahead of time (not at the gate after you are already late) and they are given a heads up.