Hey folks,
I have a trip from LAX-PPT on TN that I booked on AA using Award miles. Hurray. Now, I'm working on booking SFO-LAX separately.
It looks like I have two options:
1. via UA @ $70
2. via AA @ $113
Should I take UA or AA?
The pros of taking AA is that I could then ask them to interline at SFO. And in theory, if things go awry on the AA SFO-LAX flight resulting in missing the TN flight, they should take care of me... right? (Is this a good assumption)
On the other hand the UA flight is a slightly better time, and it's almost 50% the price! But then I'd have to pick up my bags and re-check them in, correct?
What would you do?
1. I don't think AA will protect you if you miss the TN flight. You are using AA miles but your LAX-PPT trip is ticketed and operated by TN. AA's responsibility is only SFO-LAX if you are using AA for that segment. [rant] In the old days before AA eliminated the North American gateway rule for mileage redemption, you could have routed your award SFO-LAX-PPT using the same number of miles as LAX-PPT... in which case TN would have ticketed SFO-LAX-PPT (with AA operating SFO-LAX) and TN would be responsible for leaving you behind[/rant]
2. Neither UA or AA will check your bags thru. See here for AA-specific info:
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...kets-changing/ Remember... you are connecting from an AA flight to a TN flight, not a AA to AA or AA to OneWorld flight.
3. I would personally use AA because the T4 to TBIT transfer is easy short walk (less than 1 minute). If you use UA, it is either a long walk or a long shuttle ride (either way, it is around 25 minutes).
4. So it really comes down to schedule. Since you have to wait for your luggage to come out, I would recommend at least 90 minutes if you are using AA mainline (737 flights), 2 hours if you are using AA Eagle (E170 flights) or UA.