Originally Posted by TexasKaren

I have a few different questions, so hopefully this is as good a place as any to ask them.

My Mom and I are flying from Tampa to Manchester (UK) in August. We have a positioning flight the same day on UA and the long haul is from IAH to MAN on SQ. The domestic flight is regular economy, and the international flight is business class. Mom has a United Explorer card which paid for the TPA to IAH flights for both of us. I have Star Alliance Gold through Krisflyer, but no status on UA.

My Krisflyer number is not connected to the UA flight because I purchased the flight on United.com and it automatically connected my UA FF number. Is there a way to change this, like if I call them and sit on hold for a day or something? I'd like to be recognized as Star Alliance gold for the domestic flight because of the free baggage allowance. Would the fact that my Mom paid for both tickets with her Explorer card get me the free bag, or is that perk just for her?

We want to check our bags all the way from TPA to MAN. I've seen mixed comments about interline baggage transfers being allowed or not. I would hate to arrive in Houston and have to get our bags to recheck because then we're pretty much screwed with our 8 hour layover. I doubt we'd be able to check the bags on SQ until about 3-4 hours before the flight and I want to avoid that. I want to be able to hang out in the Polaris lounge and not out in the ticket counter area. Does anyone here have very recent experience checking bags all the way through to the international destination when the positioning flight was booked separately?