Stopover allowed?
 

Napa, just a shot in the dark here but guessing JAL is involved in your itinerary, many international fares allow a stopover at no charge. Maybe the case for you? Might involve a change fee though?

Just my 50th of a buck for you.

Customs setup at MIA/skipping a connection
 

A friend is ticketed on AA BDA-MIA-XXX (XXX being in the USA). He no longer needs to go to XXX and would prefer to just get off in MIA and skip the MIA-XXX flight, but it's very expensive to change the ticket to have MIA as the legit final destination. He will have checked luggage.

Obviously if it was a domestic-domestic connection he'd have a problem, since the bags would be checked all the way through to XXX. But because he'll have to clear customs in MIA, he should have an opportunity to retrieve his bags.

I've never been through MIA, so I don't know what the setup is, but in most US Customs halls I've been through recently (JFK, DTW, EWR, IAH), you could pretty easily just walk out of customs with your bags, ignoring the baggage drop for connecting flights. Is there any reason this wouldn't work in MIA?

The only concerns I have are that either he'd be nervous and draw the suspicion of the Customs inspectors (not that he'll be carrying anything illegal, but it's a hassle to get interrogated/searched), or he'd somehow make the mistake of telling the airline and drawing their ire for hidden-city ticketing. But assuming he can handle those issues, is there anything else to be worried about?

This person is only an occasional flyer with AA, and does not make a habit of breaking rules like this. He just doesn't want to pay twice the original ticket price to drop a segment.

Also, please try to answer only the question in this thread. The other MIA threads I've read through are all filled with "MIA sucks!" rants, but I'm not asking about that. I just want to know whether it will be easy to walk out of the customs hall with bags that are technically checked through to a connecting destination.

He can walk right out. It shouldn't be a problem at all.

You pre-clear US Customs in Bermuda. So MIA arrival will appear to be a domestic flight.

The problem with this scenario will be the RETURN ticket. Since the pax no-showed on MIA-xxx .. the remainder of the reservation will automatically get cancelled. So your friend will have no reservation to get back from MIA-BDA.

If this is a one-way ticket fine .. but BDA will check the luggage all the way thru and there will be no opportunity to collect it at MIA.

In this particular case (BDA being pre-cleared US Customs/Immigration) ... and the STRONG potential for a totally lost return flight reservation .. it is not something to recommend. I'd pony up the additional fare.

JGR01 is quite correct about Bermuda -- it has pre-clearance for both immigration and customs (just like Canada). So the flight operates exactly like a domestic flight, making it impossible to get the bags at MIA unless they are tagged to go there (which the computer doesn't allow without an over-ride, so the agent cannot easily do this). Probably no practical way to do this with checked baggage and its likely to get flagged. This kind of pricing, cheaper outside of a hub, is very common with all airlines so they tend to look out for hidden city ticketing.

If XXX is the last leg on the ticket, the passenger can likely skip it, but if it isn't the last leg on the ticket, the rest of the itinerary will likely be cancelled. Be careful.

As for the BAGS, if in fact you go through customs in MIA, certainly you can walk out with it. I don't remember BDA very well. If it pre-cleared as described above, then you won't go through US customs in MIA, and therefore won't see the bag and won't have the option to take it, and the bag will route to XXX. This may also delay the flight to XXX trying to match the bag with the passenger.

If XXX is the LAST leg of the itinerary AND you know you will be going thru customs in MIA, then it is gray, but it will work. In all other conditions, DON'T DO IT!

It is also POSSIBLE to get BDA to check the bag to MIA as the final destination, without the XXX, but it is a crap shoot at the ticket counter as to whetehr they will do it or not, and if it doesn't go down like you want it to, you are screwed.

The posts above you are correct - the OP's friend will clear customs/immigration at BDA, not MIA.

I'd say that the odds of this reliably happening are slim to none.

Mike

You do preclear in BDA so the only option and it's no guarantee, but it worked for me once, was to ask very nicely at the checkin desk if it's possible to route your bag to MIA only, as you are bringing some "presents" for your family (use some sob story like your godchild or favorite niece), and your brother/sister/mom(choose one or all) live in MIA and they will meet you there for the few hours between connection and it will give you a chance to hand out all the presents and save you some money shipping it later.

Like I said, it may just work, but don't be surprised if you get denied. :D


BTW, the agent did ask me to take out the presents there and take them on as a carry on, in fact she was going to help me find some kind of a bag... :) , but my other 2 bags contained my laptop and an expensive SLR camera with lenses, so I had an excuse that I can't check either one of the fairly good size bags. She gave up and did what I asked. Once again, it may may not work and quite possibly my status may have helped.


EDITED TO ADD THE FOLLOWING:

I do agree with the others. If this is the outbound, and s/he needs to return on the same ticket, then don't even think about it. The return will automatically get cancelled, if the pax does not make the connection to the ticketed destination.

and, contrary to what some believe, I did this couple of times as an EXP. The one above was NAS-MIA-TPA and I decided to stay with friends in MIA for few days before going home to TPA (driving) and the second time it was a purely domestic flight and no check in luggage.

AA never called me looking for money, did not take away or dropped my status rank :D , did not take away any miles, and most importantly, did not take me to a secret room during my next trip to break my arms or legs as a punishment. ;)

To confirm the pre-clearance for BDA-US fligths, refer to the Bermuda airport web page dealing with pre-clearance.

There still remain two issues. 1)will BDA short-check the luggage for the pax? 2)is this the ending of a trip or the starting of a trip?

I would not chance it if this is the start of a trip. I have had AA cancel the return reservation by mistake (standby on flight not properly coded) (DFW-SJC-HNL .. HNL-DFW) and when I checked in at HNL they told me my reservation was cancelled. When I asked them HOW I got to HNL .. they relented and got me a seat.

Technically .. BDA-MIA-XXX then XXX-MIA-BDA if you skip the MIA-XXX segment you would really need to show up at XXX to return XXX-MIA-BDA to make it look plausible. Showing up at MIA for the return certainly will cause issues (no reservation and possibly full fare to get back to BDA).

Wow, Homeland Security must be getting strict if I have to go through customs just to re-enter the US from CT :eek: :D.

Hey, I'm just waiting until they realize that CA is not really part of the US and make us go through customs.

Cheers.

good catch... :D


(i meant BDA...)

I would advise the friend to check the cost of rescheduling the MIA-XXX segment so that they have a stopover in MIA. It is (barely) possible that this is cheaper than dropping MIA-XXX.

Another possibility is to check the cost of shipping the bags from Bermuda to Miami. May well be more expensive, but I would check.

It's a one-way ticket, so the return trip isn't an issue.

I didn't know BDA had precleared customs. That's a bummer, but thank you all very much for pointing it out. It would have sucked if my friend had assumed he was getting his bags in MIA only to find they were getting checked through.


That's the kind of creative thinking for which I love this forum.

I just looked into it, and it appears we can rebook it at minimal cost with an overnight in MIA and MIA-XXX early the next morning (MUCH cheaper than booking BDA-MIA alone).

Is there any reason AA wouldn't be willing to check the bags to MIA in that case? The stopover is less than 24 hours (BDA-MIA arrives around 11:30am, and MIA-XXX would leave early-morning the next day), but I've never had a problem getting CO or KL to check bags through only part way in situations with sub-24hr stopovers like this.

Thanks again for all your helpful answers!

I've never had any difficulty in doing this. I have sworn off long redeyes, so routinely break HNL-STL with an overnight at LAX. The assumption is always that I want my bags for the overnight, and they are just asking to confirm that I don't - for some weird reason that they don't understand - want to check them all the way through.