Hi everyone.
Might be silly questions all around here... but my parents (who are
not frequent travelers nor have any status to speak of) have booked a ticket through a TA for a trip to America. Their itinerary is all NZ flights, all one ticket, as BNE-AKL-LAX-ORD, LAX-AKL-BNE. The LAX-ORD flight is a NZ codeshare operated by UA. BNE/AKL is showing booking in V, AKL/LAX sectors in G and LAX/ORD is booked into W (I am not sure if this is NZ's codeshare booking class, UA's booking class or both).
So some questions.... normally I'd answer these off the cuff, or if it were me traveling I'd almost just take it as it comes. But.... they are parents, and all parents need some reassurance....
- What luggage allowance will they be allowed? I was assuming that they were allowed 2 x 23 kg bags - given this is an Americas flight and they are in Economy; then again, here is my QF bias showing - but I read the NZ site and it seems Y pax only are allowed 1 bag each (max 23 kg)? Is this for real?
- How would they go about transferring in LAX? I only have an experience going through SFO, though the process went:
- Bag was tagged through to my final destination at my first departure port (i.e. I did NRT-SFO-LAS, bag was tagged through to LAS). Boarding passes also given for both legs.
- Cleared immigration, baggage claim (got bag back) and customs.
- Outside customs, there was a special sign to a set of counters for transfer passengers, where if your bag was already tagged up, all you had to do was line up to a belt, get your BP checked then drop your bag.
- Clear security again.
Is there a similar arrangement at LAX?
- My folks have a 2 hour transfer at LAX. I assume this is enough time. If, in the unlikely event of a misconnect, given that a TA booked the ticket and it is all NZ marketed, who should my parents contact in the first instance to get to ORD? UA (i.e. a service counter)? NZ (i.e. their service counter at LAX, or ring them)? The TA (oh dear God please not this one)?
- Given my folks have no status at all, would they have to pay for their "first bag" for their UA flight? Or will the fact they are all on one ticket connecting from international suffice to avoid the charge?
- Perhaps this should be asked in the VA forum, would my folks earn Velocity points for the entire journey? It seems they'll be fine for BNE/AKL/LAX sectors, but LAX/ORD is uncertain (it is only NZ marketed, not operated....)
- I think I might have my NZ Silver lounge pass lying around. Can I give this to them to use so they can experience the lounge once? Only problem is that I think lounge passes don't allow guests, and of course they are not going to flip a coin to determine who goes in and who doesn't. Also, I wonder if those lounge passes only work for the Silver card holder.
- Lastly, can they select seats online? I'm guessing that since it was done through a TA, the answer is 'no', and I tried it myself the other day too. Is there no way to select seats except contact the TA, then?
Thanks for your help everyone.