Originally Posted by
LondonElite
AC is unlikely to check through your luggage on separate tickets.
You don’t have a connection, just two separate trips. I hope you have left a lot of time between these flights, as if you do not check in for the NZ flight in time (late AC arrival, cancellation) your entire NZ itinerary will auto cancel. In your case you will have to pick up your luggage, go landside, get yourself over to the NZ desks, and check in again, then go through security.
Pretty sure AC will check through on separate tickets, as long as the agent at check in is willing to put up the effort needed and possibly the effort needed to find out how to do it. AC has no policy against checking through on separate tickets, in contrast with One World airlines. As long as they interline, and definitively if both are Star Alliance. We have done this a few times, last one being YYC-YVR-ICN on AC and then ICN-Kunming on a Chinese airline that's a member of the AF/Delta/Korean alliance. Once on AC to SYD and then NZ. Once AC to LHR and then LH to somewhere in Germany. OTOH, true that it's a good idea to plan for a long connection, in case the first flight is delayed long enough to miss the second flight.