Since this involves two Star airlines, I decided to post it here, but it actually pertains to UA...

My wife is flying KSD-ARN-ORD on SK (paper ticket) and ORD-DEN (separate e-ticket) on 4/9 (Wednesday). The SK phone agent told me she could have her bag tagged in KSD all the way through to DEN (apparently, she can give the SK agent her e-ticket record locator, and the agent can find the reservation--dunno how true that really is).

She has a 6-hour layover in ORD, but her ticket will allow her to take an earlier flight with no penalty. When she picks up her bags at ORD customs, can she go to the UA ticket counter and check-in for an earlier flight? Would that cause any issues? Could she do this at the United connections counter right after customs? Or could she just save some (potential) headaches and just check her bag just into ORD? If possible, I would like to have her bags checked through to DEN just in case of any (possible INS-related) delays.

In the past, SK says they can't tag bags through to a final destination if the connecting domestic flight is on a separate ticket. They kept saying, "You have to pick up your bags in ORD/EWR/IAD/SEA anyways." In a past discussion in this forum, that kind of comment was attributed to laziness on the SK agent's part. When I called UA, they gave essentially same response.

Thanks in advance.