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BA no longer through checking baggage with separate tickets

Old Jul 8, 2016, 2:22 pm
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Last edit by: Prospero
UPDATED FOR 15 NOVEMBER 2016: BA will no longer accept interlining on BA-BA separate tickets / PNRs.

From 1 June 2016, the oneworld policy on accepting customers travelling on separate tickets was changed. BA, along with some other oneworld partners, has implemented this change in policy which is as follows:
Only those customers that have separate tickets issued in the same PNR/booking will be accepted for through check-in. Furthermore all sectors must be BA / oneworld / other carrier, but BA to/fron Vueling is specifically NOT allowed even on the same ticket. Aer Lingus is not specified but some be covered by "other carrier".

A PNR is a wrapper, and it can have several tickets, and other items such as hotels, in one PNR, so long as it was built that way at the time of purchase. Another (new) ticket can be inserted into an existing PNR after purchase, it is easiest to do this at a BA airport, and there is a small fee for doing this (15 in the UK). However you cannot merge 2 existing PNRs into one PNR - once a reservation has reached ticketed status it can't be moved. If you have 2 PNRs you need to allow time to collect and re-check any bags at the transfer airport.

There is one exception: BA to BA transfers, on 2 PNRs, are allowed. See post 643 for details.

___
From post 947. Select "do not have IATA number"
http://www.speedbirdclub.com/ch/reservations-ticketing/rulesregulations/separatetickets/
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BA no longer through checking baggage with separate tickets

Old Nov 7, 2018, 5:38 am
  #1846  
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Bournemouth, UK
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My father does the connection from 6292 to 56/54 quite frequently at JNB on two tickets, and he has rarely had an issue. He's even had the 6292 cancelled fairly regularly on him in the off-peak season and they've rebooked onto the South African flight every time, so I wouldn't have a problem at all with that.
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Beaulieu is offline  
Old Nov 7, 2018, 5:38 am
  #1847  
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
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I would think travel insurance would cover that?
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Old Nov 7, 2018, 8:36 am
  #1848  
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
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Thanks for the reassurance. I don't know if travel insurance would definitely cover and wouldn't want to pay out for two first class tickets and then find they wouldn't cover more than economy.
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Old Nov 7, 2018, 11:07 am
  #1849  
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 214
Originally Posted by bluemoon68
Have a trip planned where our flight home is BA54 (JNB-LHR) departs 22.05. Final leg of a trip in first booked in the BA sale.

Had planned a trip around South Africa that sees us end up in Livingstone in the final days. As far as I can see there are only 2 flights from LVI to JNB, one SA and one BA, both depart around 1.30pm - leaving 9 hours to connect. All good if things go to plan, but the risk is if those flights are cancelled.

The other option is to take a flight the day before, giving more options if things go wrong, but a day in JNB is not attractive. Assume from this thread that BA wouldn't help.

Collective wisdom, would you risk it?
remember that if you are going airside you will need a yellow fever certificate to enter south africa from zambia
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Old Nov 7, 2018, 11:26 am
  #1850  
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
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Originally Posted by edinburghgirl


remember that if you are going airside you will need a yellow fever certificate to enter south africa from zambia
I don't believe this has been necessary for at least the last three years, Zambia was removed from the list of countries at risk quite some time ago. There is still a low risk of it, though, but not substantial to require the vaccine and associated certificate/yellow book.

I have done the trip at least twice a year for the last four years, and I haven't been asked for my yellow book at check in at LVI in the same time.

Last edited by Beaulieu; Nov 7, 2018 at 12:15 pm
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Old Nov 7, 2018, 11:33 am
  #1851  
 
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I also thought it wasn't required. Thanks for the tip, will investigate further.
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Old Nov 7, 2018, 1:29 pm
  #1852  
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Originally Posted by bluemoon68
Have a trip planned where our flight home is BA54 (JNB-LHR) departs 22.05. Final leg of a trip in first booked in the BA sale.

Had planned a trip around South Africa that sees us end up in Livingstone in the final days. As far as I can see there are only 2 flights from LVI to JNB, one SA and one BA, both depart around 1.30pm - leaving 9 hours to connect. All good if things go to plan, but the risk is if those flights are cancelled.

The other option is to take a flight the day before, giving more options if things go wrong, but a day in JNB is not attractive. Assume from this thread that BA wouldn't help.

Collective wisdom, would you risk it?
The issue is not thst there is 9 hours - even a long delay and you will be ok , but that there is no other flight should the flight have an issue and get cancelled.

The odds on the flight getting cancelled is likely quite low, but what are the change fees and likely availability if it does get cancelled

If it is free or low cost to change, I would take the risk - if it is a non changeable ticket , then I wouldn't want to take risk of having to buy a new ticket
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Old Nov 7, 2018, 5:15 pm
  #1853  
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
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My approach would be to arrive in good time for the South African departure as Comair will almost always rebook if there is space. So I, personally, take the risk every now and again even with an unchangeable ticket.

I personally have only seen the Comair cancelled on the odd occasion in the off-peak tourist season (peak is June - October in Zambia). I have seen it run late though (up to about 2 hours) in the recent past. Comair sometimes take the flight to a JNB-VFA-LVI-JNB circular and I've never seen that one cancelled.

The general gist would be that it's not foolproof as with any connection on two tickets but overall I think it's pretty safe.
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Old Nov 12, 2018, 4:49 pm
  #1854  
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After watching Ultimate Dubai Airport on National Geographic, I'm wondering whether BA has legitimate concerns minimising connecting bags - in the series staff always seem to be so stressed about them and they can cause delays when passengers noshow their connecting flights?

(I'm just playing devil's advocate here - as a passenger I'm pretty sore BA (QF) has removed check through for connecting bags)
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Old Nov 27, 2018, 7:32 am
  #1855  
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
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A quick question for you guys.

I have my regular LHR-YYZ-YQT on BA then onto WS.

I book this on BA and normally get one PNR and one ticket number.

However these was a slight time change and they had to reissue the ticket for the WS legs for this, now giving a different ticket number (but still on 125 stock).

Is this killing the chances of the bag being through checked (even though i still need to pickup in customs) or will it retain as a single ticket, even though has changes and the tagging will take place through to YQT?

Thanks,
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Old Nov 27, 2018, 7:39 am
  #1856  
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
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Originally Posted by aidy
A quick question for you guys.

I have my regular LHR-YYZ-YQT on BA then onto WS.

I book this on BA and normally get one PNR and one ticket number.

However these was a slight time change and they had to reissue the ticket for the WS legs for this, now giving a different ticket number (but still on 125 stock).

Is this killing the chances of the bag being through checked (even though i still need to pickup in customs) or will it retain as a single ticket, even though has changes and the tagging will take place through to YQT?

Thanks,
Does the new e-Ticket still sit under the same overarching PNR? If so, you're fine.
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Old Nov 27, 2018, 7:39 am
  #1857  
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Tricky one. If WS were part of oneworld, that would be fine. Seems like you've had a partial reissue for the YYZ-YQT segment. Was this done over the phone or automatically?
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Old Nov 27, 2018, 7:43 am
  #1858  
 
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Originally Posted by flashware
Does the new e-Ticket still sit under the same overarching PNR? If so, you're fine.
Originally Posted by BA6501
Tricky one. If WS were part of oneworld, that would be fine. Seems like you've had a partial reissue for the YYZ-YQT segment. Was this done over the phone or automatically?
It is still on a single PNR.

There was a change on the app, couldn't be done automatically so had to call for them to reissue the ticket.
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Old Nov 27, 2018, 7:49 am
  #1859  
 
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Originally Posted by aidy
It is still on a single PNR.
You will be fine. It is actually a standard procedure to reissue the ticket just for the affected segment.
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Old Nov 27, 2018, 9:13 am
  #1860  
 
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A rather outdated data point here, however in February this year I was able to check through baggage on two different PNRs with BA. (From what I understand, this was not meant to happen?)

04 Feb : BA0857 PRG-LHR (part of a BA Holiday booking)
04 Feb : BA0133 LHR-JED (a booking by Kanoo travel agency in Saudi Arabia)

I told the agent in PRG that I was flying on a separate ticket to JED from LHR and asked if I could check my bags all the way, she did it instantly with no hesitation and even printed the boarding pass for the LHR-JED flight too.

I wonder, however, if at some point something weird happened with these two bookings as when I went for my flight from JED back to LHR 2 weeks later, I was unable to check in online and at the airport I was told that I had already flown on the ticket - I managed to fly on it anyway in the end!
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