Originally Posted by
Bishope2
Greetings,
Without having to call AA and or HA I figured I would ask you folks about baggage charges on a codeshare flight.
My wife and I will be flying on AA from BOS/HNL. On the return out of LIH into HNL it will be on HA as a code share, then AA from HNL/BOS. All flights on AA will be in first while the code share flight on HA will be in coach.
My question, I know that I will have to check in with HA at LIH (or online), not AA. With that said, flying coach on HA from LIH to HNL, will we have to pay the baggage fee or will we be exempt because we are flying in first on AA and we bought our tickets from AA?
We have flown out of LIH, OGG and KOA on AA codeshares many (4X this year alone) times since the institution of baggage fees. You will need to check in with HA and we have never been asked to pay a baggage fee on HA. You could bring a printout from AA.COM that describes their policy, but I have never had to pay on a codeshare HA flight to HNL.
EDIT:
We checked in at KOA and for the first time ever, HA charged us a fee for checking in our bags. If the ticket date preceded September 14, it is free for the first bag and $17 for the second bag. Tickets dated September 14 and later are charged $10 for the first bag and $17 for the second (this is for inter-island flights only).
I am now investigating whether I will need to join the Premiere Club just to avoid these fees (we fly enough that this would pay for itself after only 4 flights), plus we would get priority boarding on HA flights.
I have found the following language on the AA.COM website under exemptions that states:
Customers flying on AA codeshare flights not operated by American Airlines, American Eagle or AmericanConnection® (operating carrier baggage allowance and charges will apply)
So it appears that I should have been paying the fee all along (since July 8, 2008), but HA was not collecting the fee until now (probably because there now is a fee for both the first and second bag). We always check 2 bags each because of all of the scuba gear.