Originally Posted by
Backsmith
Thanks for you very informative post. I have been on the phone tonight to Alaskan Air to try to get to the bottom of this. I wish to travel on two tickets (one is an Exec Club reward) LHR-SEA-Kelowna. As you say Alaskan are a "partner" of BA but not OW. From reading your post I assume my journey is in the possible but not required category.
Alaskan say I should ask BA if they intend to check by bags through. I'm on a "legal" connecting flight with a 2h 10 lay over. I'm not motivated by avoiding the charges but by the difficulty of passing all the way out of the airport and then all the way back in. This will probably make my connection too tight and the next flight is 10h later. Through bags can be rechecked straight after U.S. Customs at SEA.
In reality, does anyone have experience of BA interlining with Alaskan? what are my chances? My BA flight is club world if that adds anything to the show.
Thanks for any advice.
John
You are at the mercy of the check-in agent at the time of check-in. Calling either BA or AS in advance will not yield you a definitive answer. You are on separate tickets on a non-OW transfer (not connection). You are not entitled to have your bags checked through and must plan for the possibility that BA will only check to SEA.
But, all is not lost. Even if your bag is checked through to YLW, you will nonetheless retrieve it at SEA, move it through Customs and then drop it at AS. If the bag is only checked to SEA, rather than dropping the bag at the AS drop point, you will need to stand there until the bag is checked. If there are any fees, you will need to pay those. Either way, you will also need to reclear security and head to your gate.