Originally Posted by
EQDsSUCK
At 1012pm I was talking to them on the phone and they said there was no one around recheck area; I said to keep looking for someone to ask.
Then at 1030pm I got a text that it was taken care of in Terminal C.
I am guessing that someone (airport employee) in the Terminal E recheck area told them to go to the United counter in Terminal C. They were probably there between 1020p and 1025p, and even though the Terminal C United counter closes at 1015pm (according to website), someone was there and took the bags. There were already tagged after all, all the person had to do was accept them.
The question still remains as to what time the Terminal E recheck closes, and if it always works to then take bags to the airline's normal ticket counter in a different terminal.
It doesn't seem like a great system for passengers who arrive internationally with checked bags after the recheck closes, and who plan on spending the night in the airport. If a passenger arrives at 10pm they are forced to take their bags and stay outside of security until ticket counters open to check bags about 4am. Is this what IAH expects of passengers?
I'm curious the role you played in the transaction/itinerary, you write as if you are a TA, not saying you are per se could be just helping out a friend. But in this case it may not be helpful booking a ticket arriving in the middle of the night (local time) with a long layover with a connection early in the morning without a hotel stay (implied by the conversation). If that was my itinerary i would have had a hotel with a later connecting flight the next day or looked at other itineraries to avoid the overnight long-layover issues. IMO nothing worse than being dumped in a country and everything is closed. YMMV.