Originally Posted by
hogo74
My wife is booked on a UA award ticket IAD-FRA-LEJ in a few weeks. Checking the itinerary today, the FRA-LEJ segment was changed from a flight (LH156) to a train (LH3770) to Leipzig Hbf / XIT. I have a few questions:
- Would she likely get her boarding pass / train ticket for FRA-XIT when checking in at IAD, or would she have to get it somewhere at FRA?
- One of the previous posts mentioned that baggage for such an intermodal ticket would be delivered to a separate pick-up area near the AirRail check-in in the walkway/bridge between the airport and the long distance train station rather than the regular luggage carousel after immigration and before customs - is that still the case? If so, does the luggage need to be tagged IAD-FRA-XIT (rather than just IAD-FRA) even though my wife will be picking it up at FRA and carrying it on the train? I'm just wondering what to look out for during check-in and baggage tagging.
- If she misses the train to XIT indicated on her boarding pass / train ticket due to a delayed flight or long immigration lines (her connection time is about 1:40 hours), how does she get rebooked onto the next train? Would she have to interact with the AirRail staff in the walkway/bridge for rebooking, or could she just take the next train with her existing boarding pass? (obviously she could just purchase a regular train ticket for whatever train she ends up taking in that scenario, but it'd be nice not to have to do so)
Thank you very much in advance.
She should get the boarding pass for the railway sector on check-in at IAD, but she could also get it online, at one of the check-in machines at FRA or even at the AirRail check-in. The luggage should indeed been tagged to XIT and then can be collected at the AirRail terminal. This is much preferable to having it tagged to FRA as (a) there's no need to carry it to the railway station and (b) the bag will be considered transit luggage, which has priority over luggage arriving at FRA. Some people have reported waiting for hours at the belt in FRA recently.. If she misses the train, she would need to get re-booked on another codeshared train (or flight to LEJ), she cannot use the 'old' boarding pass (which will come with a seat assignment) on another train. This can be done at the AirRail terminal as well.