If this is already covered in another thread, please merge it. The only ones Google could find were in the pre-consolidation forum (no replies allowed).

I've got a flight coming up DUB-PHL-CLT-MSY, with an overnight layover in CLT. (This is an award trip, and that's the best routing I've been able to get so far.)

My understanding is that I should have the option to either check my bag to CLT, or all the way through to MSY, correct? Conventional wisdom seems to be to not leave the bag overnight in the airport if you can avoid it, which would make me want to collect it in CLT.

But, being an award trip, and knowing that sometimes space opens on better flights (like direct PHL-MSY) after the first leg has already begun, would it be wiser to check it through all the way to my final destination instead? I know it's not (normally) a huge problem for bags to be re-routed with you when the final destination is the same, but what about when they were originally scheduled to be picked up somewhere else?


Obviously, no valuables in the checked bag, etc.