salut0

Does the Terraces lounge in MAN, which I assume an AA PLT travelling internationally can use, have any nice breakfast food? What about outside in the terminal if not?

And is it easy to get BA to be flexible on their domestic baggage allowance if I'm connecting from a domestic ticket arriving in MAN to a different AA international ticket departing from MAN? (AA's transatlantic baggage allowance uses the piece system and in my experience AA are much less strict regarding carry-on baggage.) Will BA happily interline the bags to AA or do I have to go through a horrible rigmarole of claiming and rechecking? How bad might that be at MAN in the morning around 9am? How much time ought one to leave between the connections if the AA flight departs 1045?

number_6

Interlining is no problem, you can check the baggage through and also get the AA boarding passes from BA. The baggage allowance is a problem as the tickets are separate, you won't get the higher AA allowance for the BA leg and will have to pay an excess baggage charge if you are overweight. Carryon limits are the normal BA ones (roughly half the AA limit). AA checkin at MAN is pretty fast, but you won't have to use it.

The MAN lounge is quite nice and does have cereal, toast and pastries available in the morning. Some fairly nice chocolate croissants (my favourite). Lots of restaurants in T3 at MAN if you want hot food. As for connecting time, the minimum is 1 hour if I recall correctly but BA flights into MAN from LHR/LGW are often delayed (I've yet to have a single flight arrive within 15 minutes of the scheduled time, so my experience might be a bit biased).

salut0

Thanks for the advice. How much might the excess charge be if I were to take two suitcases weighing 23kg each on the BA flight?

Regarding the carry-on, would it be possible to check a rollaboard through to MAN only but my main bag through to the AA transatlantic leg? If there are few people on the plane, is it likely that BA will be flexible and generous and let me take the rollaboard as carry on (in addition to a laptop) or will they stick to procedure? How crowded are early AM LHR-MAN flights?

And could I use the BA lounge in LHR T1 with my PLT card?

thegoderic

MAN longe breakfast is OK. IIRC there is cornflakes and the like, bread to toast and other continental buffet stuff.

Outside there is a truly awful airport restaurant and a Starbucks like coffee shop

Not exactly gourmet dining, but the lounge tends to be OK for me.

House

You can use any BA Terraces Lounge with your AA card when travelling outside North America. Domestic flights leave from a dedicated part of Terminal 1 at LHR. This has a BA lounge next to gate 5 and you are able to use this.

Your baggage allowance for LHR-MAN is exactly half of the AA baggage allowance (1 piece of baggage allowed). You will likely have to pay an excess charge (likely to be less than �20 but I don't know the exact rate).

You MAY be able to persuade the BA staff at LHR to turn a blind eye in light of your onward transatlantic flight, but don't bet on or expecty this. Also, if the BA and AA flights are part of the same booking and were ticketed together then the AA allowance would apply to all flights.

swintonowl

My experience is that if your carry on bag is the right size and you use self service check in you never get asked any questions or asked to weigh it. On a small number of occasions when I have used a check-in desk they have weighed my bag. If you have to go to a desk I would advise that you only hand over the one bag for the hold when they ask you and only volunteer your rollaboard if they ask for it (which I think would be unlikely if it is the right size).

salut0

Johnny Rocket says that there are only crisps and junk food -- who's right? Are you referring to a First class lounge and not to the Terraces in MAN, or to food that can only be purchased whereas the crisps etc are free?

House

Food offerings depend on the time of day. You will get the sort of breakfast offering described by thegoderic . There is only 1 BA lounge at MAN - no First Class lounge.

Prospero

Excess baggage, if charged, will a fixed rate of �15 per piece to a max of 32kg (70lb). Free checked baggage allowance on UK Domestic is one piece, again not exceeding 32kg

salut0

Thank you everyone for your comprehensive and courteous help. This is what I love about Flyertalk!

UncleDude

Of course what everybody else has missed is that there is a Fully Stocked - Self Service complimentary Bar, no vouchers, no tipping. French Champagne and Bloody Mary's or whatever. Even Drambuie, now try that with milk on your Corn Flakes