rugbyshirt

Hi all,
I thought I knew the answer to this, but just spoke to a JAL phone agent and now am not sure.

Dec 20 I have an itinerary HKG-NRT-BOS-RDU. HKG-NRT is on JAL (economy); NRT-BOS is on JAL (business); BOS-RDU is on JetBlue. All three are on separate reservations because the middle segment is an award booking I made through AA using AAdvantage miles. The HKG-NRT segment I paid cash and booked through JAL; BOS-RDU I paid cash and booked through JetBlue.

My question is about how far JAL in HKG might check us and our bags through. I would really like to avoid having to "enter Japan," pick up our bags, then go to the JAL check-in desk and check in as if it's our first flight of the day. Since JAL's website claims they'll still interline from JAL to OneWorld even if they're on sep reservations, I assumed we'd be safe here to get our bags checked through at least to BOS, but I was just talking to a JAL phone rep about something else re: the reservation and she said she'd put a note in the reservations, but she thought we'd have to pick up our bags in NRT, go through Japanese immigration, and then check in from scratch at NRT because they're on two separate reservations, one of which was made through AA and has an AA ticket number even though it's on a flight operated by JAL.

Any thoughts? Might the fact that the 2nd (long) segment is in Business make the JAL staff in HKG more sympathetic to our case? Or was this just a case of the JAL phone rep being noncommittal?

It would be great if they'd check the bags all the way through to RDU, including the JetBlue BOS-RDU segment, but I'm less concerned about that one because we have a 5-hour layover in BOS and we will be going through US customs/immigration there ANYWAY, whereas I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that if our bags are checked through HKG-NRT-BOS we will avoid going through Japanese immigration and could spend that time enjoying the JAL lounge....? Thanks for any help.