Originally Posted by
TravelerMSY
They're not going to know your final on a gate-checked bag other than what you tell them
Originally Posted by
LaserSailor
On mainline a gate checked bag will go into checked luggage and won't be available plane side. If you hidden city ticket and have to check, you are caught.
Your bag will end up at your ticketed destination.
So I guess the question here is what (exactly) happened to gate-checked bags. Assume it's mainline and they aren't being valet checked for planeside pickup.
Does the FA (or baggage handler) manually create a tag right outside the aircraft and write whatever destination you tell them on it? Or do they associate your name to your reservation (whether via the system or a printed manifest) and tag it to the end?
Moreover, trying to get access to it is a red flag for HCT with the most aggressive airline fighting this practice currently.
On edit...not sure about that last statement.AA is aggressively pursuing FF fraud, not HCT. I think UA is hot on HCT right now.
I think they'd all relish the opportunity to bust someone doing an obvious hidden-city run, because they place great value on their fortress hubs and associated monopoly pricing. However, I've never particularly thought of WAS-CHI as a big hidden-city route, and a 4-hour layover would be at least a decent argument to have access to your bag. (I realize they don't ordinarily short-check, but you'd have a case considering they're forcing you to check it to begin with.)
Still wondering if this event really happened or not.