Originally Posted by
pigzilla
The only difference is that I couldn't just drop my bag off after customs like everyone else with pretaggged bags. I had to go off to the side and stand in the queue at the United bag transfer desk for them to manually print out a new tag and attach it to my bag. Didn't take too long ~10 minutes with 4 people in line, but YMMV.
Agreed about UA-UA being more difficult than UA-OAL, that's exactly what the EWR agent told me when she was doing it.
Pigzilla and Kacee.... so if I understand it correctly.... we have a friend who will be flying LHR-ORD-STL on a return leg.... if it is a single reservation she would need to clear Immigration with her luggage, but then could drop it off at a transfer desk in ORD Intl Terminal, and then proceed to domestic terminal to continue her flights........ however, if the LHR-ORD segment was an award tx and the ORD-STL were a paid ticket on a separate reservation, then she would still have to clear Immigration with her luggage but then have to take it with her to domestic terminal to be re-checked.
On the outbound flight STL-ORD-LHR.... if all flights on the same reservation then no issue with baggage transfer at ORD.... but if STL-ORD and ORD-LHR segments are on separate reservations (and I understand from this thread and others that they can not be combined), that a knowledgeable counter agent in STL could get the luggage scheduled all the the way through to LHR but we need to allow extra time at STL check-in (and since STL is not a hub, it is uncertain whether we will get an agent who understands how to make it happen)