malcolmcampbell

got an award flight from washington DC to Edinburgh via LHR. Was easy enough when it was going to be United to BMI. Now it is United to BA. At least it's the BMI version of BA at TI but I m assuming we won't be able to check ourselves and luggage all the way through and will have to check in for the EDI flight at TI. This will make the connection very tight and I presume if we miss the connection we will get no help from BA.

Would it be better just to give up on the Edi flight and buy a straight cheap BA ticket allowing plenty of time to connect?

Swanhunter

If it is all ticketed together on one PNR then UA should through check. I'd certainly stand your ground at IAD and make that point very clearly.

While I don't have experience with UA specifically I've done BA to Star and Star to BA booked on one PNR before and had no issues with bags going though. Just one thing - make sure you show your luggage tags at check in/transfer/gate at T1 to ensure the bags do make it over.

colmc

As said, if it's all on one ticket, treat it pretty much all the same as if it was still BD. Lots of people are in the same situation since bmi left *A. UA can, and should, book your bags etc through to BA without issue. They may or may not be able to issue the BP, but if all else fails you can collect that in T1.

EsherFlyer

If it ticketed OK then you're OK on the minimum connection time (MCT), and everything should be fine as long as you don't dawdle through the airport. As it's on one PNR then if you miss the LHR-EDI (and haven't dawdled ) then you will get moved to a later flight anyway, so may as well keep it as it is IMHO.

Somone with ExpertFlyer or similar can tell you if UA can interline bags with BA, but I'd have thought so. There are lots of operational IATA managed things the airlines do that are nothing to do with which alliance they are in. You find code shares in odd places too!

[Zapped: see below]Only potential fly in the ointment I see is that I thought you'd have to collect bags at 'port of entry' (LHR) irrespective of which carriers you're on as you move on to domestic travel. So if it was BA all the way the same the same thing would apply.

If UA can't issue a BA BP at IAD I'd ask the BA agents , try the self-checkin units , or since you're BAEC Gold stick your head in the BA lounge once you're airside as they usually have a BP machine. It'd be one less thing off your mind if you can get them in IAD, but I wouldn't overly worry about it.

orudge

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you mean here, but you don't have to collect your bags when flying to a UK domestic airport, connecting at LHR. Actually, you don't have to connect them when flying to an international airport, connecting at LHR, either - assuming, of course, your bags have been tagged all the way. You need to collect and re-check your bags when entering the US, though - perhaps you're thinking of this?

United was able to issue me with a BD boarding pass back on precisely one occasion, back in January 2009, and since then I've never been able to get my BD boarding passes from UA, for reasons unknown - not even at the airport. I've always had to check in online separately with BD.

EsherFlyer

No, you're understanding me, but as I never connect in the UK (LHR is my very local airport) and hardly ever travel with checked luggage I was indeed assuming the US and Canadian model I've experienced was a standard. It seems to make sense in terms of better filtering what is arriving in the country, but hey ho.

Which makes more sense as you (and more particularly your bags) aren't entering the country.

Sorry to OP for potential confusion .

BristolTraveller

One of the benefits of being a little ole' island just off the north coast of Europe is that all our airports have customs. So you can through connect bags from any place in the world to any UK airport without having to pick them up en-route. So if the bags are tagged EDI, that's where you next see them and pick them up.

(You'll notice some bags tags have green edges to them. Those tags indicate they've been issued domestically or intra-EU and so don't have to be checked for customs. The tags issued elsewhere (including IAD) wont have those green edges, and so will show their extra-EU origins).

malcolmcampbell

thanks for the advice everyone. Will hope for the best.

teflon

At GLA (and so almost certainly at EDI too), bags arriving from domestic flights which originated internationally appear on a different belt. It's so you can clear customs - though the green channel is walking straight back out the door again, and the red channel is a red telephone on the wall.

EDIflyer

Yep - there's a separate belt for collecting international bags when you've come in on an international-domestic connecting flight. As a domestic arrival (you'll have cleared immigration in LHR) you come down the escalator next to the BA lounge and at the bottom go through a couple of automatic doors. You'll then see the baggage reclaim belts - the international bags come out on the furthest away one with a similar 'red telephone' setup to Glasgow if anything to declare.