cheaptom

I'm sure you asked this at Flagship Checkin, but couldn't they re-ticket both tickets into one? I mean, start from scratch and re-ticket the entire itinerary LAX-LHR-GVA. I know it would be uncommon, but that would have saved you. As others have pointed out, this can be done "upon request."

rufflesinc

That's assuming a lot , really stretching it. It's quite common to buy separate intra-europe ticket from the TATL

ijgordon

That's all well and good, but when the airline wants to charge a $500 change fee and re-price the ticket based on current fares negating any advance purchase for your original flight, there's something completely economically out of whack when they're forcing you to do that just so they will add another 3 letters to the baggage tag. But alas, this is the airline industry where the price of services provided rarely has anything to do with the cost of services provided.

Dave Noble

The airline could have rebooked the LAX-LHR ticket as a LAX-GVA ticket, but I suspect that the person was not wanting to pay for the benefits of a through ticket

No one there would have been able to take an AA ticket from LAX-LHR and a BA ticket from LHR-GVA and merge them

bse118

Oh, so now clearly published change fees are a problem?

They're not forcing you do that just so they will add 3 letters to the tag. They're doing it because the customer is buying a different product than what they first bought. XXX-->BBB is a different good than XXX-->CCC. That's pretty obvious. If you want a fully changeable/refundable ticket - buy one.

Reminder 1: everyone in this thread has said the policy itself sucks.
Reminder 2: Few airlines have the customer-friendly policy that AA does of offering rebooking protection on separate tickets

OP is out of bounds for demanding compensation for AA following policy & for expecting AA to bend the rules to facilitate the OP's choice.

OK? So what? Doesn't matter how 'common' it is. Point is still that customers elect to make that choice - for their own reasons. You don't get to assume the benefits of a through ticket, if you choose not to buy one.

Mountain Trader

jordyn

Easy solution: next time you're about to shell out a ton of money for a transatlantic ticket, fly Delta. They'll still through-check in a situation like this. Maybe if AA actually loses some business over the policy, they'll re-think it.

ijgordon

chavala

JDiver

And, many of us do that. But 1) we know how that works, and 2) we leave significant “buffer” time to exit, recipover our checked bag (if any), recheck, pass through security, etc. At LHR that can be budgeting four hours or more, given the arriving aircraft may have to spend time inthe “race track” prior to landing, immigration queues can be atrocious, we may have to use HEX to get to the BA terminal, and finally process check-in and security queues.

Much of that information is easily found in this forum, and elsewhere. A little due diligence goes a long way.

bse118

And 3) we don't try to claim compensation and "the airline doesn't care" when things go south

---------

I have no problem with the customer making a choice to buy a separate ticket if he or she thinks that is more advantageous to them for what ever reason. As I have said several times in this thread.

I do have a problem with that customer not accepting the risks of that choice; looking for compensation when the airline follows it's policy; and going all DYKWIA. As is the case with the OP's post.

UKtravelbear

It's not a new policy. It started in 2016

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...es-2016-a.html

Often1

Go ahead and book DL-BA and DL will check your bags across the two tickets. But, neither DL nor BA will rebook you should your DL flight arrive late and you therefor noshow for onwards ticket. Thus, you either book a significant transfer time in order to protect yourself or accept the risk of purchasing a new LHR-GVA ticket at walk up pricing. Approx. $365 per passenger in ET tomorrow.

AA on the other hand, won't book your bags across tickets, but will protect you in the event of a delay.

For comparison, BA will neither check your bags nor protect you.

chris8796

I don't have any problems with the policy. I'm actually surprised that it is allowed to occur, given that it is expected that you fly with your bags (for security reasons). I don't like the idea of someone being able to add a bag to my flight without them present or waiting for the flight to confirm all of the checked baggage matches the checked in passengers. It would never occur to me that airlines would want this type of behavior. What if your bag didn't make it in time to the second airline? Who is responsible to make sure it gets to you and pays the added costs? How would you feel about the policy if you were negatively impacted by a security incident related to someone passing a bag on to a plane you or your family member was on?

rufflesinc

The DL policy I found is here
I don't see see where DL would thru check baggage to a BA flight on separate ticket