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Separate ticketing / PNR: AA, oneworld, through baggage & protection issues > 2016

Old Jun 18, 2016, 2:27 pm
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Last edit by: Prospero
oneworld announces alliance airlines no longer required to honor missed connections or interline baggage for those on separate PNRs

NOTE: See AA Protection on separate oneworld tickets / PNR

AA policy: “Through Checked Baggage Policy – Separate Tickets“ - see PDF available attached to post #1.

Background:
Originally Posted by OAG

According to OAG’s most recent report, “Self-Connection: The Rise and Roadblocks of a Growing Travel Booking Strategy,” 40 percent of U.S. travellers are bypassing typical booking practices, such as through an airline, travel agency or OTA, and are beginning to self-connect when they travel.

Self-connecting passengers are defined as those that book separate tickets to fly from City A to City C, via City B.

Already popular in Europe, self-connecting is beginning to increase in popularity in the U.S. market as passengers look to save money. Passengers can mix and match airlines in order to score the best deal or connect through a city they would like to visit on the way to their final destination. But what are some of the roadblocks and challenges to successfully self-connect, and how can airlines or airports make this process easier?
oneworld airlines are not required to provide connecting passenger protection of through checked baggage to passengers on separate PNRs; individual airlines may still choose to do so, but it is not required. AA, BA, QF (9/2016) have modified their policies regarding connection protection and baggage through checking of passengers flying on separate PNRs. Read on. (Yes, it means on separate PNRs AA won't even through check on AA to AA - link to ODF.))

Qatar Airways / QR has verified as of 1 March 2017 they will interline baggage on separate PNRs. They must be the first airline (not one honoring the original oneworld policy) one checks in with, and the connection must meet MCT (usually two hours). See more in post quoted below, and link to Australian Business Traveller article. (26 Feb 2017)

MH / Malaysia Airlines STILL HONOR connection protection and through checking / interlining on separate PNRs.

Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon reversed their policy and through check baggage on separate PNRs as of 1 Jan 2017. See post #1.

JL / Japan Airlines began through checking to oneworld partners again in Oct 2016.

Qatar Airways will through check baggage to oneworld partners if it’s the trip origin airline.

See Wikipost for this thread in oneworld forum for the list of oneworld airlines and known through checking policies.

Link to American Airlines' policy on through checking baggage as of 1 Sep 2016. Notice that different protocols are followed in IROPS / OSO conditions.

As well, “if you book an award ticket and a paid ticket at the same time, there are mixed reports here of well trained agents being able to combine these into a single PNR at the time of booking, which enables bags to be through checked. But this takes a good agent, probably several HUCAs, and can only be done at the time of booking. “ - JJeffrey

Code:
Through Checked Baggage Policy (AA, 1 Sep 2016) (link to PDF)

To align American Airlines (AA) with our oneworld partners and to reduce
baggage mishandlings, we will now only through check customers and
baggage when all the tickets are in the same PNR.

Through check-in will be honored between the following carriers only:
  • Code:
    American Airlines and American Eagle
    • Code:
       oneworld airlines and affiliates


Code:
What if I have separate tickets in the same PNR for itineraries with
American to a non-oneworld carrier?

"Our policy on American to non-oneworld airline tickets has not changed.
We will not through check customers or bags even if the tickets are in
the same PNR."

What would be the bag charges if the customer holds separate tickets
in separate PNRs?

American will not through check a customer’s bag, regardless if it is
a oneworld carrier. The customer will need to collect their bag at
the final destination on the AA ticket. They will pay for the bag on the
second ticket when they recheck it. This may involve exiting the secure
area, then claiming and re-checking the bags. The Minimum Connecting
Time (MCT) will usually not be sufficient when the customer has separate
tickets issued for each airline.

International flights on separate PNRs (or to non-oneworld carriers) will usually require claiming bags, clearing customs and rechecking bags on another carrier to be continued to their next destination.

What will customers be charged if we can through check the bag?

The charges would depend on what tickets the customer holds in the same PNR.

Do Alaska and our other codeshare/interline partners count as affiliate airlines?

No, the oneworld affiliate airlines are generally the regional partners of the other oneworld carriers. If a customer held an AS ticket and an AA ticket in the same PNR we would not through check the bag. They would need to reclaim then recheck their bag with AS.
When issuing separate tickets it is important your customer be informed that American is unable to ‘through-check' bags with 2 separate tickets (PNRs) if they are traveling on American and non-oneworld carriers. This will result in an airport check-in representative collecting the required baggage fees based on each airline's established policies.

Please advise the customer to allow additional time to claim their baggage, present the required travel documents to enter the country, if relevant, and meet check-in requirements for the connecting flight. The Minimum Connecting Time (MCT) will usually not be sufficient when the customer has separate tickets issued for each airline.

Link

(One PNR can be comprised of several tickets - up to 16, if memory serves.)

Australian Business Traveller (in part): “Despite the two airlines' (AA and QF) joint venture across the Pacific, check-in staff are no longer obliged to tag your baggage through to your final destination from September 1 2016 if your flights are booked separately (separate ONRs) rather than under the one reservation.”

Instead, those bags will only be tagged as far as the destination shown on each individual booking – not where you’re actually headed at the end of the trip. Both Qantas and American Airlines have confirmed the new arrangements to Australian Business Traveller.
Those also announcing they will NOT HONOR connection protection and through checking / interlining on separate PNRs, even on oneworld airline partners. (AA still honors connection protection if your next flight is on AA.)

E.g. CX new policy in line with above:

"+ oneworld Ticketing and Disruption Policy 01 Jun 2016

Separate Ticket Policy - Revised Through Check in Handling

With effect from 01 Jun 2016, all oneworld carriers have agreed that through* check-in will apply ONLY to passengers travelling on an oneworld itinerary ticketed on a single ticket or where segments are ticketed separately but in the same PNR.

*=Through services are defined as the customer and their baggage being through checked to their final destinations.

To align with the change, disruption policy will also be revised to exclude protection for passengers holding separate tickets that is not booked under the same PNR."
NOTE: CX will still offer protection and baggage interlining between Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon.

Oneworld (sic) communications chief Michael Blunt tells Australian Business Traveller that “individual member airlines are free to offer service above and beyond the (Oneworld) alliance minimum standard if they so choose, so some may continue to offer through check-in for customers travelling on separate bookings.”

"All our member airlines will be delighted to continue to check them and their baggage through to any of the 1,000 plus destinations on the alliance network, on multiple sectors,” Blunt says, “provided the itinerary is all on one booking so we are aware of where they and their baggage want to end up and we can plan accordingly and ensure the best possible customer service delivery throughout the journey.”

M. Blunt, as quoted in Australian Business Traveller
Gary Leff, View from the Wing, 16 Aug 2016: reached out to American and learned this new policy goes into effect September 1 although I’m not sure how they can retroactively apply it to tickets purchased before the new policy was implemented.

There’s one small saving grace. Customers traveling on separate tickets where one segment is an award ticket and another has been purchased can through-check bags. Travel must be on American or oneworld partners, and not on partners outside the oneworld alliance (like Etihad or Air Tahiti Nui). Tickets much be in the same reservation. Link
"
  • If you’re booked on two separate PNRs on oneworld carriers, you’ve previously been able to check your bags through to your final destination
  • If you’re booked on two separate tickets on oneworld carriers, you’ve been protected in the event of a misconnect or cancelation


As of June 1, 2016, the oneworld alliance has eliminated these benefits for passengers booked on separate tickets. Oneworld carriers no longer have to check your bags through to other oneworld carriers if booked on a separate ticket, and no longer have to protect you in the event of a misconnect when on separate tickets."

Link to full article in Boarding Area
"In a move which could cause connection chaos for many travellers, airlines belonging to the Oneworld (sic) alliance ... are no longer required to check passengers and their baggage through to their final destination on some connecting flights.

"The new scheme, which came into effect from June 1st (2016), impacts passengers whose journey involves flights on more than one airline where their travel encompasses more than one booking, rather than all flights being listed under a single booking reference. "

But, good news for those flying Qatar Airways:

Originally Posted by JDiver
Important change! Qatar Airways has announced they will no longer adhere to oneworld's draconian baggage transfer policy when flights are booked on separate PNRs.

As long as MCT / minimum connection times are met, QR will interline baggage on separate oneworld PNRs as of 1 March 2017.

Australian Business Traveller found the change in the QR ground services manual issued 23 Feb 2017, verified by a QR spokesperson.

NOTE: If one is beginning travel with a one world airline adhering to the oneworld policy and continuing on Qatar, one flying on separate PNRs is still going to have to collect baggage and recheck with QR.

E.g. SFO-LAX on AA, LAX-DOH-CMB on QR, two PNRs - the first sector on AA, remainder on QR, AA will not respect QR ground handling rules so one will have to recover baggage at LAX and transfer it to the QR checkin counter.

(Added to Wikipost 26 Feb 2017)

Link to full article on Australian Business Traveller
Link to update of Aus BT article with airline announcements of their positions

On FT: oneworld no longer interlining between separate tickets / PNRs?

On FT: BA no longer interlining baggage with separate tickets

On FT: CX will not interline to other oneworld airlines if travelling on separate PNRs

On FT: JAL will continue to interline to other oneworld carriers on separate PNRs (4 Oct 2016)

On FT: Qantas - no checking of luggage separate itineraries from 1 Sep (2016) [some exceptions]

Archived previous thread: ARCHIVE: Change to through-checking Oct 2014 (interlining) baggage on separate tickets

Updated 26 Feb 2017 - JDiver
Print Wikipost

Separate ticketing / PNR: AA, oneworld, through baggage & protection issues > 2016

Old Nov 6, 2018, 12:57 pm
  #781  
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Originally Posted by AtomicLush
So... I booked separate AA tickets (domestic) and CX tickets (international) connecting in SFO months ago for an upcoming flight later this month. At booking, the flights were tight with MCT (just under 2 hours), but within guidelines. However, due to some schedule changes for both carriers, I am now not meeting the 1:45 hr MCT on either the outbound or return flights by about ~5 minutes. Will this be protected if the positioning flight were to be delayed and causing me to miss the international leg? I'm not so worried about the return as we'd be able to do same day standby.
I do not believe that AA protects passengers if they do not meet the MCT requirements
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Old Nov 6, 2018, 3:13 pm
  #782  
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Originally Posted by AtomicLush
No - because if I miss the international flight due to a late positioning flight, there's no point in standing by for the next available domestic flight because the international flight would have left.
I wasn't suggesting that you stand by for a later domestic flight; I was suggesting that you consider standing by for an earlier one, so as to give you more time to "connect" to the outbound International flight.
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Old Nov 6, 2018, 3:49 pm
  #783  
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Originally Posted by Dave Noble
I do not believe that AA protects passengers if they do not meet the MCT requirements
\
However, if the airlines does a schedule change I think the airline will protect
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Old Nov 6, 2018, 3:49 pm
  #784  
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Originally Posted by AtomicLush
So... I booked separate AA tickets (domestic) and CX tickets (international) connecting in SFO months ago for an upcoming flight later this month. At booking, the flights were tight with MCT (just under 2 hours), but within guidelines. However, due to some schedule changes for both carriers, I am now not meeting the 1:45 hr MCT on either the outbound or return flights by about ~5 minutes. Will this be protected if the positioning flight were to be delayed and causing me to miss the international leg? I'm not so worried about the return as we'd be able to do same day standby.
Why not call AA and tell them this and see what they can do for you.
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Old Nov 6, 2018, 4:01 pm
  #785  
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Originally Posted by FlightNurse
\
However, if the airlines does a schedule change I think the airline will protect
If it were booked as one itinerary, if a schedule change occured, the airline would rebook you to something that didn't violate MCT. It wouldn't let you stay on that itinerary that violated MCT. So I think in the case of separate tickets like the OP, it doesn't matter what you booked, it matters the schedule you fly, and I wouldn't count on being protected if the new itineraries violated MCT.
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Old Nov 6, 2018, 4:20 pm
  #786  
 
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Originally Posted by AtomicLush
So... I booked separate AA tickets (domestic) and CX tickets (international) connecting in SFO months ago for an upcoming flight later this month. At booking, the flights were tight with MCT (just under 2 hours), but within guidelines. However, due to some schedule changes for both carriers, I am now not meeting the 1:45 hr MCT on either the outbound or return flights by about ~5 minutes. Will this be protected if the positioning flight were to be delayed and causing me to miss the international leg? I'm not so worried about the return as we'd be able to do same day standby.
I don't know if you will have checked baggage or not but you will likely have to claim your bags (if you have bags), go from SFO T2 to SFO International A, check in and clear security. That could be a lot for 2 hours. Personally I would go for a longer connection. More like 3 or 4 hours.
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Old Nov 6, 2018, 6:20 pm
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Originally Posted by cheltzel
I don't know if you will have checked baggage or not but you will likely have to claim your bags (if you have bags), go from SFO T2 to SFO International A, check in and clear security. That could be a lot for 2 hours. Personally I would go for a longer connection. More like 3 or 4 hours.
We do not have checked bags (always try not to whenever possible). How long does it take to go from T2 to International with pre-check? We also have Global Entry, but that won't help at SFO outbound.

Thanks everyone that replied. I'll have to weigh my options to get on an earlier positioning flight.
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Old Nov 6, 2018, 8:59 pm
  #788  
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Originally Posted by wrp96
If it were booked as one itinerary, if a schedule change occured, the airline would rebook you to something that didn't violate MCT. It wouldn't let you stay on that itinerary that violated MCT. So I think in the case of separate tickets like the OP, it doesn't matter what you booked, it matters the schedule you fly, and I wouldn't count on being protected if the new itineraries violated MCT.
But both airlines changed schedule, like I said, call AA and tell them that the schedule change will not work. I can't see AA not making a change, but I would have the new AA flight # or #s to feed the agent.
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Old Nov 11, 2018, 9:08 pm
  #789  
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Just want to confirm my understanding.

Trying to book SCL - MIA - RDU on AA in Y but using BA Avios. The system for whatever annoying reason has decided that despite SCL - MIA being T7 and MIA - RDU being T7, that SCL - MIA - RDU is T0 and so therefore won't ticket (confirmed using EF and also AA.com which is displaying the same annoying T0 for the full itinerary even though both legs are at T7).

Now SCL - MIA and MIA - RDU as separate tickets using BA Avios costs the exact same amount as SCL - MIA - RDU (50k + 15k vs. 65k for 2) so I'm inclined to just go ahead and book it that way. Of course it's AA ---> AA with a 3.5 hour layover in MIA (SCL - RDU arrives around 5am and MIA - RDU is 830am).

From what I've read in this thread it seems like:

1) They will check it all the way to RDU because it is AA ---> AA
2) There will be no bag fee charges and I will get the SA -- US baggage amount (which is 2 free bags) since it's AA ---> AA and therefore no collection followed by a -check with payment at MIA

Is that accurate?
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Old Nov 12, 2018, 5:45 am
  #790  
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Originally Posted by Duke787
1) They will check it all the way to RDU because it is AA ---> AA
2) There will be no bag fee charges and I will get the SA -- US baggage amount (which is 2 free bags) since it's AA ---> AA and therefore no collection followed by a -check with payment at MIA

Is that accurate?
AA will not check bags through on separate PNRs even if it is AA to AA. It's ridiculous just like the married segment nonsense you're seeing.

But as you said booking with Avios charges segment by segment anyways, can you call BA and see if they can book the flights on the same PNR? It's the same Avios cost regardless.
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Old Nov 12, 2018, 10:00 am
  #791  
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Originally Posted by JJeffrey
AA will not check bags through on separate PNRs even if it is AA to AA. It's ridiculous just like the married segment nonsense you're seeing.

But as you said booking with Avios charges segment by segment anyways, can you call BA and see if they can book the flights on the same PNR? It's the same Avios cost regardless.
What??? That's incredibly dumb -- but appreciate the insight. Will call BA and see if they are able to put it on the same PNR.

EDIT: To follow-up was searching AA and saw the whole ticket available so tried on BA.com and it ticketed -- AA must have decided to remove the married segment nonsense that was unnecessary on a flight of T7/T7

Last edited by Duke787; Nov 12, 2018 at 12:30 pm
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Old Nov 15, 2018, 1:48 pm
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For anyone following my saga, I ended up scrapping the entire trip and starting over. AA allowed me to change flights, but the schedules were terribly inconvenient to connect (6+ hour layovers) to my existing CX flights for a short weekend vacation to Asia. I had contacted CX to see if they would also change the routing time to one that would match up better to AA's schedule (as they fly 3 flights per day to my destination) and they refused to do so without a change fee (despite also having their schedule change - but they claim it was insignificant due to it being about 10 minutes and would not acknowledge the MCT issue as it was not on the same PNR). And since I would incur a change fee anyway, we just started over and booked something else. While I don't love the fact that I'll be on AA birds now for the long haul, the timing of the flights work much better (knock on wood) and they are no longer separate PNR's so I'm protected for misconnects. The irony is that I thought AA would give me a hard time as CX has generally been pretty accommodating, but it ended up in reverse.
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Old Dec 9, 2018, 4:49 pm
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Looking to book an IB flight MAD to LHR, and then connect to an AA flight LHR to LAX on a separate ticket.

I am right in assuming IB won't check my bag all the way to LAX since it's two separate tickets?
​​​
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Old Dec 9, 2018, 5:29 pm
  #794  
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Originally Posted by FlyingFrZ
Looking to book an IB flight MAD to LHR, and then connect to an AA flight LHR to LAX on a separate ticket.

I am right in assuming IB won't check my bag all the way to LAX since it's two separate tickets?
​​​
No interlining of baggage. Allow plenty of time for the LHR transfer. You do not have a connection in the common usage of that term for air tickets
Link---> Iberia no more interlining baggage on separate tickets from 01/FEB/17

And--->Bag interlining issues and OW policy changes (Combined threads)
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Old Dec 9, 2018, 7:58 pm
  #795  
 
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Originally Posted by Mwenenzi
No interlining of baggage. Allow plenty of time for the LHR transfer. You do not have a connection in the common usage of that term for air tickets
Link---> Iberia no more interlining baggage on separate tickets from 01/FEB/17

And--->Bag interlining issues and OW policy changes (Combined threads)
Didn't think so :/

Thanks for confirming
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