iusb

Hi,
I am on flight from PEN -> HKG(KA/CX, J) -> LAX (CX, J) -> PHX (AA, Y), same PNR but separate tickets for CX and AA. When I was at PEN airport, agent insisted I have to pay luggage fee for LAX->PHX (I am AA Gold/OW Ruby and 1 checked bag) in order to check through to PHX, otherwise I can only check through LAX. This is the first time I face this kind of issue. Based on past experience, I should be able to check through PHX without paying any fee. Is agent wrong or this is new policy? I don't want to hold up the line so after several minutes of conversations, i agreed to pay. If agent is wrong, is there any way I can get back the fee they charge? Thanks,

garykung

As a matter of law, you must collect your baggage at LAX because of CBP. But your baggage should be able to tag all the way to PHX without issue, especially you are an AA elite.

In term of refund, it will be difficult as it is not AA collecting the money, but CX/KA. So you may have some difficulty arguing about the refund.

You should simply let them offload your baggage and deal with it at LAX, as I am sure an AA GA will check the baggage for free.

BTW - it is not that far from TBIT to T4/T5.

ernestnywang

I am also ruby and I had almost the same itinerary last month, TPE CX HKG CX*AA LAX AA LAS. LAX-LAS is on a separate ticket but in the same PNR. I had 1 bag and no problem checking through to LAS. I printed a copy from AA.com indicating 1 free bag for Ruby, but I didn't have to show it. If I were you, I would have just checked to LAX if the agent insists. You have to take out the bag at LAX and drop it again anyway.

Now that you've already paid for it, I would email CX with the relevant link and ask them for a refund, although I'm not sure if they will.

jagmeets

https://saleslink.aa.com/en-US/docum...te_Tickets.pdf

I’m guessing that the AA annotated the PNR with the remarks mentioned on page 2 of that AA link, and the agent, clueless about AA’s bag fee exceptions, insisted on charging.

while not hopeful, I would still write to CX that that you were wrongly charged- and point to AA’s bag fee exemptions/policy. Could also write to AA, since I’d expect that fee to be passed on to AA by CX.

Often1

OP is unlikely to see his money from CX.

Not to blame OP, but for the benefit of others, given that OP had to claim his luggage at LAX in any event, it only makes a 2-3 minute difference whether the bags are tagged to their domestic destination and thus dropped with AA or one waits the 2-3 minutes at the AA desk to have new tags to PHX placed on the bag.

AA would, of course, apply the bag waiver for Gold/Ruby and not collect the fee.

ernestnywang

Per my personal experience the notation does not appear in the PNR for separate CX and AA tickets.

Often1

I can't imagine how either AA or CX would eve know of the existence of the other ticket, at least until OP turned up with his bag at CX and provided the information relating to the other ticket.

There is no particular reason why CX ought to understand the AA domestic bag waiver system for separate tickets originating in the US. The suggestion that agents worldwide ought to be trained in the minutiae of other carriers' policies on separate tickets is a great argument for dropping the courtesy CX provides of checking bags across tickets.

ernestnywang

If everything is in 1 PNR, as in the case of OP and mine, AA will certainly know. AA can match the e-ticket record (which contains only AA flights) and the PNR (which contains CX flights as info segments).

Often1

Even if not in the same PNR, an AA agent can find the CX e-ticket.

That is not the issue here. The suggestion was that someone at AA proactively went looking through the records of other tickets and placed notes in them. That is simply not going to happen.

It is more than likely that CX looked at the PNR and placed the note so that its own agent would collect the fee.

Bear in mind that if a fee was due from the passenger and CX failed to collect it, AA would still get paid. It is CX which would have been out the money. AA simply has no reason to concern itself with whether the passenger has paid CX.

ernestnywang

Yes, an AAgent can retrieve a CX e-ticket by entering the ticket number, but an AA agent would not be able to randomly know a CX ticket booked in a separate PNR is actually in the same "journey." I also don't think AA agent can pull up CX records by just entering the name. You asked about how AA would know, so I said AA would know if and only if everything is booked in 1 PNR.

Someone from AA does not need to be proactively looking. These are things a "robot" (system built in the GDS) can detect. @jagmeets referred to an AA document that mentioned such practice. I, on the other hand, believe this note is only generated when the other airline is a non-oneworld airline. At least from my personal experience, it is not generated for a PNR that includes only CX and AA sectors as well as only CX-160 and AA-001 tickets. However, the GDS certainly is capable of auto-generating it.

That is a huge assumption here. How would AA get paid if CX didn't charge the bag fee? Until a few years ago, most airlines will check-through for separate tickets booked in separate PNRs. I don't think there's a mechanism in place for them to collect bag fee on another carrier's behalf and pay the other carrier.