Hi,
Wife and I are travelling from Calgary to Chiang Mai. The main itinerary purchased from Air Canada Aeroplan consists of:
YYC (Calgary) to YVR (Vancouver) on AC J (Air Canada)
5 hours in Vancouver
YVR to TPE on BR J (Eva Air)
3.75 hours in Taipei
TPE to BKK on BR J (Eva Air) - scheduled to land in BKK at 11:10am
Since we cannot book direct to our final destination (CNX - Chiang Mai) with Aeroplan we will purchase separate tickets on Thai Smile:
2nd ticket:
BKK to CNX Y (Thai Smile)
There are 2 flights available that look doable with Thai Smile:
BKK to CNX @ 1:35pm - 2:25 after scheduled landing
BKK to CNX @ 3:05pm - 3:55 after scheduled landing
If our bags are checked through I think we can make the sooner domestic transit flight work with a 2hour 25 minute layover. We are in J on BR211 and are usually first off the plane. If our bags are not checked through then the later flight is probably safer.
I managed to find this blurb on the
Thai Smile website FAQ under "Baggages":
If I have connecting flight to/from other airline, will my baggage be checked through to final destination?
Your baggage will automatically transfer to final destination if you travel with the airline which has special agreement with THAI Smile; THAI Airways(TG), Lufthansa (LH), Swiss International Air Lines (LX), Austrian Airlines (OS), All Nippon Airways (NH), EVA Air (BR) and Bangkok Airways(PG), and concerned stations provide immigration control and custom inspection.
Otherwise, passengers have to claim baggage at the destination according to baggage tag and proceed to check baggage again.
*For PG, only available for INTER-INTER or DOM-DOM routes
So we purchased our tickets through Air Canada/Aeroplan but we arrive on Eva Air. Anyone know if we can leverage this Thai Smile - Eva Air "special agreement" to somehow have our bags checked through to Chiang Mai? Normally everything would get checked through from Calgary to Bangkok, but maybe it would be better to check in at the Eva Air desk in Vancouver and ask them about their special transit baggage agreement with Thai Smile and get everything checked from Vancouver to Chiang Mai instead?