Originally Posted by
IADFlyer123
Not sure what you are referring to, but at IAD, the star alliance bag drop/ recheck is after customs and theoretically one can just walk out post bag claim.
A United to United transfer -- and, actually, many Star Alliance to United transfer -- will result in checked luggage being sent to the midfield terminal. There's no place to walk.
Originally Posted by
justsawaufo
If checking a bag making it more difficult, it will be avoided. The only connection I can get is ~2 hours.
Try multi-city search.
Originally Posted by
justsawaufo
As far as I understand it, the steps are typically
1) Get off the plane
2) Go through immigration
3) Pick up your luggage
4) Re-check your luggage (if any) and go through customs
5) Re-check your luggage (if any) and you have a connecting flight, if not, you can just go through the door out to the main terminal - is that incorrect?
At IAD in particular, you get on different moon buggies after deplaning -- one for passengers terminating at IAD (to the main terminal), and one for passengers connecting to another destination (to the midfield terminal). That's the rub -- if you check bags, you'd have to go retrieve them at the midfield terminal, and then you're effectively trapped.
As a reminder: if you choose to do this, UA has no obligation to send you to IAD. If there is a schedule change, or IRROPS on the day of travel, UA may choose to put you on another flight to YYZ. This would be particularly plausible on an ex-EU flight, because UA would be liable for EC.264 compensation if you did not arrive at YYZ within 4 hours of your scheduled time, so if they've got a delay and can put you onto an AC nonstop or something, they absolutely will.