Wow. Valuable and insightful info by all. Thanks! To answer wallypiper's question, yes, it is an award ticket -- sorry that wasn't all too clear.

However, I just found out the backup person who I thought could pickup the luggage won't be around, so it looks like I'll be on the connecting flight after all to be safe. Which I guess is alright considering that there still seems to be some risk in doing what I was planning, based on all of your helpful opinions.

Feel free to keep the conversation rolling though if more thoughts come out, as I'm sure someone else will benefit from this in the future. Thanks again.