But this makes it difficult to plan your trips. You now need to factor in a long transit JUST IN CASE one check in agent decides not to check your bags through.
Yeah,I agree,as a non EU passport holder,this will be a pain,because I often travel LHR-Schengen-AMM/HKG/Asia and I can't go landside. I don't often travel with checked baggage,but when I do there is a reason for that (eg:liquids).
I heard that in HKG you can ask the transit desk to re-tag your bag and someone will then pick up your bag from the carrousel and check it in again. Does that only happen in HKG,or is it common across the globe? Transit desks often ask me for my baggage tags when I travel on separate tickets,does that mean it's possible to re-tag your bag at the transit desk?