Originally Posted by
windowontheAside
Is that new? I went BA to AA in March (and back again) and everyone I spoke to insisted that I had to go the long way round - I asked again on the way back to be told the exact same thing. I talked to immigration offices, AA ground staff and BA ground staff.
You personally still have to go through the entire trip through the terminal, out to landside and back in again.
The only difference is that if you have through-checked bags then you don't have to stop at the carousel to pick up the bag, you don't have to take it through customs, and you don't have to drop it off again the far side of customs. The bag goes through to your next flight without you having to touch it.
What was the route of the AA flight you were doing? It may be that there's some quirk in the definition of "international" for the onward flight that meant that your bag had to be collected and re-checked in the conventional way.
BTW, it's not that new - I think this has been in place for a good couple of years now.