Short-check to T5 or bag unload
 

I'm flying AA SEA-JFK then BA JFK-LHR-IST. I have a separate ticket on TK at IST. I have one bag that I want to leave in LHR left-luggage so that I don't have to get a visa and go landside at IST. It seems I have two potential options, short-check the bag to LHR, or if AA won't let me, request my bag to be unloaded at T5. Assuming AA won't let me short-check, can anyone tell me roughly how long it's likely to take to get my bag unloaded by BA at T5 and what the procedure is?

The best way (if AA refuse to short check) is to head to flight connections desk in T5. At this desk, tell the agent you are not travelling further and you wish to retrieve your bag. You do not need to give a reason/excuse. The bag will be auto-offloaded from your IST flight whilst in the bowels of the T5 baggage system. Head through the border as normal. It will pop out on Belt 8, eventually, in the baggage collection hall. This can take anywhere from 20-60 minutes in my experience. When waiting in the baggage hall, you can ask the agents at the baggage service desk to help speed things along.

If the OP takes this approach, will the agent not make some sort of note or take some action to cancel the remainder of the OP's booking? I'd have thought this is quite a risky strategy! As far as I can tell, the OP still wants to travel onward to IST, just without one of their bags.

The OP says they have an onward ticket to IST on TK, therefore would not be cancelled by BA.

Not quite - the OP says they have an onward ticket on TK *from* IST.

Just say you want the bag offloaded. I have never been asked for a reason.

Ah, you are correct - 2 letters makes all the difference ^

The advice above still stands, but as long as the OP tells the agent they are still travelling onwards to IST, they should not cancel the BA ticket. This is, of course, provided the OP has enough time between flights to manage this.

Forgive me for being a little old fashioned here but I think the simplest approach is to tell the truth. Explain your valid reason for wishing to have the bag at LHR when you first check it in.

Thanks for the pointers. I do of course intend to ask for the bag to be short-checked, but wish to be prepared for a refusal. Edit. My connection at LHR is 2:20

I just booked a BA ticket which the email says....

https://scontent-hkg3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...90&oe=5A97B390

The good news is the OP will be checking in with AA who is more likely to allow the short check, rather than BA who especially in some US locations seems to not allow it all.

That message on the email ticket has been there for quite some time and I'm sure a few of us have sent comments about the incorrect spelling of incur. The explanation I've had of it is that it refers to additional baggage charges, that if you through check entirely then you pay one free but if you short check and check again then you may be charged at the split point which obviously could cost substantially more.

AA doesn't short check either.

With a 2:20 connection and the need to allow at least 60 minutes waiting for the bag, this does not leave OP a great deal of time as he must deplane, make it to Flight Connections, wait at Flight Connections, walk to baggage pickup, do whatever it is that he plans to do with the bag, and then head back out to his IST gate. If the bag takes 60 minutes, that is 1:20 less conformance and any other minor delays.

They did at CUN in October, when travelling CUN-MIA-LHR-XXX - bag of a travelling companion was short checked to LHR.

This is essentially correct, but with 3 provisos.
- the SLA for this is 3 hours, and it sometimes does take that long, particularly if there are irrops elsewhere
- If this was Terminal 3 or 4, the process is manual and won't be easy, it may take days to be sorted. T2 is automated like T5.
- there is a risk that the bag has been already sent out for the onward flight, depending on where in the airport it is. If the passenger is still booked for flying, it won't be returned if the passenger boards. If the passenger is not flying, or offloads themselves, then the bag will only go back to Belt 8 after loading is completed, the driver has returned to base, had a cuppa etc.

Therefore in this precise scenario, unless the items in the bag are of immaterial value, if AA enforce through checking I would advise the OP to get an e-visa in the lounge and go through the process landside unless the bag is able to surface in baggage reclaim (which is after the UK Border) in T5. In which case they throw away the visa and can stay airside. Personally I would not recommend this course of action, you best go HBO.

Don't worry about the so-called "incure" message, a perusal of BA FT will show this first appeared 3 years ago, and effectively relates to adding bags over your allowance in the wrong place. Either way it is not a material factor in this issue.