I'm writing this flying on AA869 IAH/ORD at lunchtime, CST, having flown in from LHR on BA197 yesterday. This came at the end of almost a month of travel, and I have two heavy cases. My home is Chicago, but I routed myself via Houston to take in a brief business meeting this morning, and booked it all (including my ORD/LHR flight last month) on one ticket, precisely so I could through check my heavy bags to Chicago on my homeward journey, and just cope with my overnight in Houston on hand luggage. The connection being under 24 hours I did not think this would be a problem, and was assured at LHR when I checked in that, indeed, it was not a problem.

I'm aware that when on connecting flights in the US you have to retrieve you bags at the first port of entry and clear Customs, which I duly did, and followed the signs for Connecting Flights - only to find that there was nobody from AA or BA in that area, and a TSA screener told me rather abruptly that if I was on American I would have to take my cases to Terminal A - pretty much the other end of the airport complex. As the flight was late arriving, and the carousel/reclaim rather slow, I was already late for a dinner engagement, and it took about 20 minutes and considerable effort to get my bags down to AA. At which point they simply refused to accept them, on the basis they do not allow anyone to check bags in for the following day.

I pointed out that the bags were absolutely tagged to this end, and that I had very deliberately purchased a through ticket to make this possible, and that I'd been assured at LHR that this would be possible - all to no avail. As a result I was left having to cope with my two very heavy bags, running fairly seriously late for an engagement, seriously hot and sweaty from the effort, and not in a good mood at all. I had to take two pricey Uber rides into and out of the city center because of the bags, and was left feeling very disgruntled.

Quite aside of the issue of whether or not I could check through a bag on a flight the following day (which is certainly not a problem at LHR - I have often done it), it seems very poor of BA/AA to offer to through-check at Houston without it being possible to use a bag drop at the International Terminal.

All in all, I feel poorly served and am out of pocket around $80 because of having to take them with me when I had not anticipated doing so, and I was over 90 minutes late for my dinner, given this faff with the bags, and the late arrival of my flight.

I'm not even clear to whom I should complain. I felt that BA were responsible for putting me in this position, and I am GGL in BAEC. As it happens, for some mad reason it was cheaper to purchase the ticket as an AA 001 ticket, so they provided the ticket, and it was their staff who were unwilling to assist me at IAH. I'd welcome comments/opinions about what - if anything - I can really do about this. And I offer this as a warning to anyone planning to transit through IAH on a BA/AA combo.