Originally Posted by
LHR/MEL/Europe FF
No. This makes no difference at all. Provided your transit in Hong Kong isn't super long (like over 12 hours), you should ask for your bags to be through checked all the way from KTM to ORD. The KA agent will do this for you at check-in - just show the two separate tickets. This saves you having to pass through immigration, collect your bags, and then re-check in HKG.
Why do bags go missing? Variety of reasons, but often there may not be a good explanation and no one really knows why one bag makes it and another doesn't. The bag itself doesn't know whether it's on one ticket or two!
If for some reason you really want to collect your bags in HKG (and there is no reason to do so unless you have a super long transit), and if the bags don't show in HKG, don't worry. Ground staff will assist you and organise to have the bags sent to ORD and delivered, by car, to your home, free of charge. You will catch your flight to ORD as planned - no need to miss the flight.
I can have my bags checked to my final destination even if I booked those 2 flights separately with 2 separate itinerary? For example, the KA with BA Avios & CX with Aadvantage miles?
Regarding my experience with delayed bags on Etihad & Gulf airlines, It happened on flight from Bharain & AUH to Nepal. You arrive but bags won't arrive. What I knew later was this happens almost every day on each of those flights. You go to a counter where a rep of those airlines would take down your name & number and any hotels you are staying at. In KTM, there is no address system so if it is not a hotel, you can't even tell them where you are staying. The first time this happened, I was suggested to wait for the next flight to arrive and check for our bags. I waited for 4 hrs and bags weren't there. Left the airport and went back for the first flight the next day and grabbed them. The next year I flew there, same thing happened. I waited for the 2nd flight and grabbed them. Spent 5 hrs at night for that. I contacted their office and received compensations for the trouble. I 'd never fly to Kathmandu from those arab countries. I did it twice because my aadvantage miles would allow to travel via those countries only somehow.
I'd fly via Singapore, HKG, BKK, Delhi, any thing except from those gulf countries.
They have very poor customer service on flights to Nepal from Bharain & AHU because at least 97% of the passengers are Nepali citizens from remote corners of Nepal returning back to their country. They are treated poorly by the airlines and they get nothing but insult and threats of arrests if they go to make complaints at the airline office. If you don't hold a Nepalese passport, they would take your complaint and would resolve it.