Originally Posted by
Luv2Vacation
Hi ZenFlyer,
I am doing the same trip in a few weeks - United to a Qantas domestic flight in Sydney. I assume by your message that United doesn't ticket the luggage all the way through to the Qantas destination, that you must re-check your luggage at Sydney. My plan is to carry-on from San Francisco to Sydney (ensuring my luggage makes it), then check the luggage at Qantas. I was concerned I would have to carry all my luggage on the bus and check-in at T3 (domestic terminal). But, based on your comments, I check my luggage at T1 (international). Just checking that I understand correctly. Thanks!
Per
this thread on the United forum UA will no longer tag bags (interline) to non Star Alliance airlines, even when an interlining agreement is in place. So I did not bother asking United to tag the bags all the way through. But yes, you should be able to check your luggage at the Qantas desk as I described above. I note that the Qantas personnel stationed near the entrance of the transfer station were asking everyone "is your bag tagged"? I originally interpreted that as them trying to exclude people whose bags weren't tagged but it was the opposite -- they were merely trying to direct traffic, with passengers having already-tagged bags directed to the right, and passengers like me being directed to the service desk. So just tell them "no" when they ask that question and they'll point you in the right direction.
Originally Posted by
jja34-1
And unless things have changed recently you have to go to the check-in desks and can't use the bag drop. QF is for some reason unable to handle bag tags generated by other airlines. I've had this happen multiple times coming in on AA and transferring to QF.
Fwiw, when I was there a couple of weeks ago, the line for the service desk was much shorter than the line for the bag drop only, which was moving steadily but slowly. So that might actually be an advantage . . .