dand99

I am flying to Istanbul with AC then LH, and on a separate ticket to Tel Aviv with A3.

I asked AC to interline my bags when I checked in - was done, bags tagged with all flights, but I was told that "they could not access my A3 booking via the PNR", and it looked like they input the A3 flight numbers manually.

SO I am thinking of contacting A3 to give them my AC baggage tag numbers, and perhaps to include a note in the PNR. I could exit at IST and go to the A3 check-in counter, or I could call ? A3 customer serivce ?

Any advice ?

Thanks

D.

irishguy28

If your bags are tagged throught to TLV, just make sure you approach the gate agent at IST in good time before boarding the flight commences. Show them the luggage tags and let them know that you have bags in transit.

dand99

I have to admit that I don't know how interlining works across carriers: I have had experiences where I was fully checked in for the second itinerary when I checked my luggage, there have been other times where (like now) it seemed to be done manually.

So, the luggage is correctly tagged - however,

I'm wondering whether in cases like these there is any transfer of information onto the second PNR - ie are tags alone enough to get the luggage home, or will the luggage be "rejected" in transit, because although there is flight information, it does not appear on the carrier's system ?

:D!

Just go to the boarding gate early when you are in IST, show them your tags, and ask them to check whether your bags have been loaded onto the flight. If you are checked in for the A3 flight then there won't be any issues, at least provided that your bags are transferred properly in Germany. If there is a delay and/or you miss some flights then things will be more difficult.

Entering Turkey to go to the check-in desk will achieve nothing.

irishguy28

Unless you inform A3 of the bags in transit - by physically showing an agent the luggage tags - there is a very good chance that the bags (although correctly tagged) will not be loaded on to your flight.

Aegean is not expecting any transfer luggage - as far as they know, you are starting your journey at IST, so why would there be luggage arriving from another flight? By alerting them to the existence of the luggage, you are greatly increasing the chances that the baggage will be loaded and travel with you.

Do not ring; do not call; just go to the boarding agents at the gate for your flight ASAP (don't wait until boarding starts; don't wait until you are boarding the flight yourself - then it is too late to find the luggage if it is not already loaded); or if there is an Aegean transfer desk airside (which I doubt there is at IST) you can ask there.

You need to talk to A3, or to the agents directly responsible for handling that flight [I am guessing that A3 is handled by some other ground handling company at IST]; there is no point talking to any other airline, or anyone else that is not directly connected to turning your flight around.

witlesspax

I don't know anything about interlining but I can confirm the Aegean transfer desk at IST is landside (though easy to access).

irishguy28

Is it a THY desk? I can't imagine A3 would require a desk of their own there when they only have 3 flights a day to a single destination from there!

witlesspax

It's a generic desk. I'm really annoyed I can't remember the name of the company, sorry.

dand99

Checking at the gate is the default option - going to check-in will - perhaps - get the search started earlier... and also get a note in the A3 PNR with the (AC) tag numbers and the AC PNR.

Do you not think there is any value in this ?

When I have had luggage interlined (two separate tickets), roughly half of the time my luggage went sightseeing for a few days before being located.

irishguy28

A "note" in a PNR is not worth the paper it is written on (and there is no paper involved anyway!). No-one will ever see this annotation - no-one examines a PNR unless they are given good reason to. And even then, such an annotation (if one was even made - someone may just tell you they did knowing that it is pointless, and then not do so) may not even be spotted.

The baggage handlers at IST certainly are not going to be looking up PNRs. No baggage system - automatic or manual - is going to be affected or influenced in any way by any of the regular contents of a PNR, let alone any annotation that may have been made.

You seem determined to go airside at IST; I assume you realise this may require getting a visa (though, as one ticket "ends" in IST, you would have needed to have this visa to check in for the flight anyway), going through immigration, and coming back through security. There should be no need for this.

And what did you do on these previous occasions?

Given that you really seem to want to go airside, and that you won't listen to the advice here, perhaps in future you should not ask to have your baggage interlined across separate tickets [for which no right exists anyway] and just collect the luggage after each ticket, and check it in for the next ticket.

dand99

Yes, in retrospect it might have been a better idea to pick up and recheck, however it was preferable for me to interline this trip.

In your long post, you almost answered my question, so let me ask again, perhaps more clearly.

Assuming arriving baggage has tags on it, for flight Y. Will the baggage handlers simply load it on to flight Y ?
I assume that the tags are scanned first ? Would this be checked against the carrier's checked luggage records ? And a reject (tagged to flight Y does not appear in flight Y records) means the luggage would be sent to some interim/holding area ?


(NB I am airside, I might go landside)

irishguy28

This question has already been answered.

That the bag is tagged is no guarantee that it will be loaded. We are advising you to alert the airline to the fact that bags are (unexpectedly, for them) in transit, or there is a good chance your bags won't arrive.

Which you have already apparently experienced before.

dand99

I decided to try the GA instead of check-in, and although it turned out OK it was a bad decision - in future I will go to check-in. The drawback of going to the GA is that sometimes they turn up right before boarding begins, and if it is only then that they get the luggage information, it might be too late for the luggage to make it on board (depending on the airport).

OTOH, if you do have the time to go to check-in, they can speak to luggage handling then and the message can go out much earlier.


Why do this instead of just picking up luggage and rechecking ?

There are several reasons to interline luggage. One of them is that if the connection between the two separate flights is tight (or even just reasonable) a significant delay might mean that you miss the flight as you do not have the time to go collect bags, go landside and return. Interlining gives ou more breathing space for these connections, which are sometimes a necessary risk (cost and/or schedule).
SO if there is little time I will again get GA to verify. If my incoming lands on time and I can spare the time to go landside and return, I will go to check-in.

Today's result: my luggage did not turn up. It was just traced and it made it through the problematic IST connection OK... but was left behind during my (standard) A3 connection in ATH.

D.


Irishguy, you did not reply to the question at all. I'll try to look it up, since the workings of luggage handling could be very useful when trying to figure out how to have them arrive with you.

"Assuming arriving baggage has tags on it, for flight Y. Will the baggage handlers simply load it on to flight Y ?
I assume that the tags are scanned first ? Would this be checked against the carrier's checked luggage records ? And a reject (tagged to flight Y does not appear in flight Y records) means the luggage would be sent to some interim/holding area ?"

irishguy28

"Assuming arriving baggage has tags on it, for flight Y. Will the baggage handlers simply load it on to flight Y ?

Answer: NO, as you have experienced on this trip, and as you experienced on several trips in the past.

"I assume that the tags are scanned first ? Would this be checked against the carrier's checked luggage records ? And a reject (tagged to flight Y does not appear in flight Y records) means the luggage would be sent to some interim/holding area ?"

Baggage handling will be different in every circumstance; there are several variables at play, so there is no single procedure. However, when you interline bags across separate tickets - which is a service only intended for connecting tickets - then you are already operating outside the normal design parameters of the system. To try to logically reason what happens to an interlined bag when the system neither expects nor knows that there are bags in the system that "shouldn't" be, isn't going to get you anywhere.

KLouis

one year ago when I did interline my bags "across" several airlines (all of which were *A) and up to three tickets (!), I made sure they'd put a green transfer tag on the luggage. Whether this helped not to get any kind of problem or whether this was due to help from Hermes (the Greek God responsible ) I have no idea. At any rate, it worked...