I have a trip to San Diego next week routing via SFO. CX870 HKG-SFO arriving at 11:35 am and then connecting to a Southwest SFO-SAN flight leaving at 2pm. CX & Southwest sectors are on two separate tickets. I've never tried connecting CX-WN at the same airport on the same day before. So I don't know when check-in at HKG that day if they can tag my bags all the way to SAN so when I arrive at SFO, I can just drop my bags at the connecting belt after Immigration & Customs formalities and don't have to drag them to T1.

Earlier this year I connected CX-AC same day (also at SFO) on separate tickets and CX not only tagged my bags to my final destination, but also printed the AC BP on its own stock. But AC is not an LCC so it's a rather different story.

My gut is telling me that my bags may only be tagged as far as SFO when I check-in in HKG but hey I've never tried it hence my question. Regardless if they can't, Concourse A and T1 is more or less adjacent to one another so it'll be a short distance to drag both my checked and carryon bags.

I definately know on the return trip, WN will not tag my bags connecting to the CX sector.

Last I read, WN does not have interlining with anyone.

You can still get your WN boarding pass before your CX flight if you have access to a computer within 24 hours of your WN flight. You can also do CX pre-checkin from a computer (CX called it "online checkin", but you do not actually get a boarding pass; it does let you speed things up by pre-entering your passport information, and it lets you change your seat assignment with a seat map view).

I made it out of a CX flight through US immigration and customs at SFO in 40 minutes, but that was a flight arriving at about 14:00, and I had no checked baggage. An 11:35 arrival will arrive simultaneously with several other large planes coming from Asia, so the line at US immigration and customs will likely be longer.

Schedule your return with a generous layover between your flight to SFO and your CX flight leaving SFO (regardless of which airline you fly to SFO). Flights into SFO are frequently delayed due to weather, though this is more likely to occur with short domestic flights than overseas international flights.

I guess my question was really in regards to the luggage. In that it would be less work for me if I can drop the bags at the connecting belt instead of taking it with me to T1.

I have a U.S. passport (I'm a U.S. citizen not living in the U.S) so I can use the U.S. citizen line and in the past I have arrived at various times internationally into SFO and has never taken me more than 45 minutes to get from plane and out of customs. I've done it as fast as 15 minutes.

Coming back I'll have a 4-hr layover. Arriving at 9:35 am and then taking the departure back to HKG at 1:35 pm.

No airline has an interline agreement with WN (TZ did before they went under).

So you must carry your luggage between terminals.

John