Flying today from YHZ - YUL - ATH with AC and final destination JMK on Aegean. YHZ - ATH on 014 AC ticket but ATH - JMK booked directly with A3 because I had a 30% coupon to burn and they won’t allow them for codeshare flights so I had to split it up.

YHZ concierge at checkin said new policy dated Sept 26 Air Canada will NOT check bags through on interline anymore unless the entire trip is printed on 014 stock and on the same PNR

MODERATOR NOTE: This thread began in 2011. In light of AC's policy change in late 2022 and to keep the size of the thread manageable, a number of old posts were moved to a different thread. - Adam Smith, AC Forum Moderator

That's interesting - I don't recall reading anything about that - maybe some of our TA pals can chime in.

That said, they do work at the airport....

That would be unfortunate, if true.

I think they'd be well within their rights to not check bags through if they're on separate PNRs/separate tickets. AC has had a more generous policy in this aspect than some other airlines.

I would be surprised though if ticket stock mattered, though, if all flights were on one ticket. For example - lots of transborder flights through YYZ/YUL/YVR might be ticketed on UA ticket stock, with the first flight on AC, and I can't imagine AC wanting people to reclaim bags midway through.

They said their system is having problems linking the separate PNR and ticket #. Also when the interline airline would lose luggage allegedly AC was having to foot the bill for the missing / damaged luggage so no more.

That being said two different agents plus two different concierge�s mentioned to me separately that it�s a new policy and they remember the direction coming out about it very recently (one concierge said Sept 26). So it should check out if they all remember seeing it

Well thank goodness Japan is open or this policy change would have killed my trip in 10 days!! Hopefully SQ will check my bags through to AC at my NRT cnx so we don�t have to claim bags!

Interesting on the "foot the bill" comment as the IATA standard seems to be that the final carrier on the tag pays . . always . . . to avoid the "he said / she said" global discussion of who is at fault. It should all balance out in the end.

This is one reason I would say that airlines would be happy to check through.

Updated - So - I guess the fact that the final carrier pays means that IATA is recommending not to through-check because there were so many disasters happening from originating carriers and then the receiving carriers were having to deal with it . . This is bad for consumers so hopefully they find a way back to the more flexible policy and leave it up to the airlines what their interline bag rules are.

As mentioned upthread, here's the official update from AC:

Baggage Through-Check on Separate Tickets

As per IATA recommendations, Air Canada will follow suit with our airline partners and, effective immediately, we will no longer offer the ability to through-check customers and/or baggage to the destinations of the second ticket, except in the following scenarios:

1. Purchase individual Air Canada (014) tickets.
2. Purchase individual tickets from Pacific Coast (8P) or Air North (4N)
3. An approved and documented regulatory or legal exception on the customer's file
4. During irregular operations, two tickets were issued as a result of a single coupon reissue (including Air Canada to Other Airlines)
   • For instance, a customer may have an original YUL-AC-YYZ-LH-FRA ticket that has been reissued due to IROP on two tickets: YUL-AC-YYZ on AC (014) and YYZ-LH-FRA single coupon reissued on LH (220).

I wonder if this includes different carriers, so long as both tickets are 014? For instance, a paid 014 ticket on AC connecting to an Aeroplan partner award? Not sure what the rationale is for the ticket stock requirement.

My first time posting - need some direction. I have an upcoming flight on Nov 04 via AC YYZ - DOH (book via Aeroplan) and on a separate ticket, QA DOH - LHE (booked directly with QA). Time between two flights is about 4 hours. After booking tickets, I called AC (on Oct/21) and the agent on the phone advised that AC will be able to through-check the baggage - I made the agent note on the ticket/file. After reading the above few posts, I am a bit concerned that the baggage might not be through-check specially because Qatar has suspended visas due to FIFA World Cup. Can someone please advise if I have a good chance of baggage being through-check as the agent on the phone advised despite the policy above?

My understanding and experience from flying after this new policy has been put into place is that you will have to pick up your bags in Doha and recheck them.

I spoke to a Concierge today who said AC has discontinued all checking through of baggage to other airlines on a separate ticket. For me this makes things difficult as I often use AC Flight Passes and then connect to another airline to continue to destinations AC doesn't fly. This would mean you would need to go through customs, retreive your baggage and recheck it making tighter connections impossible. He said it doesn't matter if Star Alliance or not. Anyone know more on this.

There is discussion of this as a new policy in this thread.

I was hoping to check a bag through on an AC + AF single ticket, connecting to LH on a separate ticket. I guess that isn�t going to be possible.

Your bigger concern should be your eligibility to enter Qatar. Tourists aren't allowed to enter Nov-Dec unless they have a Hayya card.

As your AC ticket ends in DOH, and they're unlikely to through-check your bags, this is very risky to attempt. They'd be well within their rights to deny boarding in YYZ.

Is it possible to know the source of this Air Canada update as it does not show up in any searches through Google? Thanks!

I just wanted to point out,since someone has posted what appears to be the official policy, that this is incorrect. The "And" should be an "or". It should read:

Air Canada will NOT check bags through on interline anymore unless the entire trip is printed on 014 stock or on the same PNR.

And there are some exceptions.