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AS refused to check my bags through despite policy on website

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AS refused to check my bags through despite policy on website

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Old May 22, 2019, 9:35 pm
  #16  
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Paid $20 to store 2 small bags at the airport. The upside is I don't have to carry the backpack either. Assuming that my stuff doesn't get stolen this is not such a bad outcome.

Currently in a Lyft OMW to Manhattan... can't think of a better place in the US to do a no-hotel overnight layover.
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Old May 22, 2019, 10:18 pm
  #17  
 
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I have had multiple experience when AS checked the bag from SEA to HKG through LAX on two separate tickets (not single ticket), one on AS stock, and one on CX stock, no questions asked. May be the agents at their home station know their policy well so no need to come up with excuses.
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Old May 22, 2019, 10:25 pm
  #18  
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Originally Posted by BW Flyer
I have had multiple experience when AS checked the bag from SEA to HKG through LAX on two separate tickets (not single ticket), one on AS stock, and one on CX stock, no questions asked. May be the agents at their home station know their policy well so no need to come up with excuses.
In fairness, the agents were REALLY good.

One agent was really friendly and trying to do it but she wasn't quite sure. She called over another agent to help. He seemed a bit more knowledgable and got all 4 segments up on the computer but the computer was flagging the JFK connection as invalid. He went and talked to a supervisor for about 5 min before coming back with the bad news. They were definitely not making excuses -- the computer would not let them do it. No complaints at all about the agents -- they were friendly and really tried to make it work.
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Old May 22, 2019, 11:16 pm
  #19  
 
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I believe its the overnight part that screws it up.

Flew HKG-LAX-SEA a few months ago, same ticket, the connection was less than 12 hours, but similar in that my connection was the next day. I was in first, they explained that because the connecting flight is the next day, they cannot check it though.
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Old May 23, 2019, 12:20 am
  #20  
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Well, I've done some crazy things before checking bags. If it doesn't work out, I'll sometimes push for manual tags. Not always the best however... there can be additional risks with those. And a lot of folks won't do them up. But they do exist.
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Old May 23, 2019, 12:28 am
  #21  
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What are manual tags?
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Old May 23, 2019, 4:56 am
  #22  
 
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I had my bags manual tagged when I had four different carriers that I was flying. Cathay was gracious to do that for me, we needed to make sure with each carrier that they had the bags checked through, but it worked (CX to TM to QR to LA--what a journey that was!). But nothing during an airport closure.
Manual tagging is basically telling the system how you're wanting to tag the bags instead of the system telling you what it would automatically do. I've heard people losing bags, as I would have, had I not checked before each flight.
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Old May 23, 2019, 5:41 am
  #23  
 
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You can always not pick the bag up, and show up at the bag office next day to pick it up. I've done this before on UA.
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Old May 23, 2019, 5:55 am
  #24  
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Originally Posted by Eastbay1K
Travel that includes multiple flights

If your trip includes more than one flight on Alaska Airlines and/or one of our airline partners, we will check your bags to the final destination on your ticket as long as there are fewer than 12 hours between flights.If you will be in the connecting city for 12 hours or longer, you will need to claim and re-check your baggage. Additional baggage fees may apply.
Ouch. I would send the storage bill to AS Customer Care, with a lovely screenshot of its web page, as there are no restrictions posted, such as sunrise, sunset, eclipse, anything turning into a pumpkin hour, moon hits your eye, and so on.

On second thought, I'd send the bill and complaint to an executive, as you're likely to get a response as meaningful as a canned reply to a PDB issue from Customer Care.
OP's "trip" terminated at JFK and that is the destination to which AS checked his bags. While it would have been more precise to say, "final ticketed destination on the e-ticket presented at check-in" that seems over the top. Staff may have believed that they could check across the other ticket and may have been able to, although not obligated to do so in the past, but that does not speak to the question of whether AS has obligated itself to pay.

Sending the bill is a poor way to deal with this. It will not hurt to send in a note stating that you incurred an expense of $ because the website was unclear. It is quite possible that AS will respond with a small gesture and a disclaimer that it owes a reimbursement. If you simply submit the bill, you are headed down the path to $0.
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Old May 23, 2019, 6:11 am
  #25  
 
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As I re-read the original post, it seems that the connection in JFK was AS to AS? Wouldn’t that be problematic as there are literally no valid connections to AS metal in JFK?
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Old May 23, 2019, 6:14 am
  #26  
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A "connection" is definitionally on a single e-ticket. Separate tickets, whether AS-AS or AS-OA are not "connections" (although the term is commonly used).
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Old May 23, 2019, 6:46 am
  #27  
 
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I would've just left them at baggage claim and picked them up in the AM. If you're worried about pilfering, go watch them in baggage claim until they are secured.

I guess that becomes a question of... what is your time worth to you.
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Old May 23, 2019, 9:03 am
  #28  
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Originally Posted by Often1
OP's "trip" terminated at JFK and that is the destination to which AS checked his bags. While it would have been more precise to say, "final ticketed destination on the e-ticket presented at check-in" that seems over the top. Staff may have believed that they could check across the other ticket and may have been able to, although not obligated to do so in the past, but that does not speak to the question of whether AS has obligated itself to pay.

Sending the bill is a poor way to deal with this. It will not hurt to send in a note stating that you incurred an expense of $ because the website was unclear. It is quite possible that AS will respond with a small gesture and a disclaimer that it owes a reimbursement. If you simply submit the bill, you are headed down the path to $0.
AS's language on its website is either wrong, unclear, or inaccurate, in that case. The "multiple airlines or tickets" language is there (and doesn't exclude interline ticketing on multiple tickets), but that section doesn't' even mention "airline partners." It only mentions that a baggage and ticketing agreement is in place. The only mention of "airline partners" is in the "Travel that includes multiple flights" section. It is more than reasonable to interpret that as if "If you fly AS and its partners, we've got you covered,"

If AS wanted to have a section called "Travel that includes multiple flights in the same reservation (or same ticket)," it could have easily done so.
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Old May 23, 2019, 9:10 am
  #29  
 
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Originally Posted by VegasGambler
What are manual tags?
Its a dinosaur from the past. Airlines will have paper bag tags that require an agent fill in all the details and slap it on your bag (like the old Gate Check tags). The problem is, the information about your bag is never entered into a computer - airports and airlines then have no way to track it.

Id never let an agent put one on my bag. Thats only because part of my job involves airline IT & I know how the systems at airports work....
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Old May 23, 2019, 9:27 am
  #30  
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Originally Posted by Often1
A "connection" is definitionally on a single e-ticket. Separate tickets, whether AS-AS or AS-OA are not "connections" (although the term is commonly used).
I believe you mean (most likely) definitionally on a single PNR. A single PNR can have multiple (up to 4?) e-tickets with a total of 16(?) segments. And you can have multiple ticket issuance within a PNR (i.e., typically it is because of 5+ segments, but it can also be, i.e., segments 1 and 4 on 1 ticket and segments 2 and 3 on another - rare, but possible).
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