We are flying DFW-JFK in F (7:50am - 12:28pm) and then JFK-MXP in J (7:30pm - 9:50am) All in the same day but booked as 2 separate tickets. Not sure what our process will be for when we land in JFK, regarding checked luggage, security, and checking in for our international flight at JFK (especially with negative covid test and other documentation). Can anyone provide any insight in what we will need to do at each departing airport? Also I know that since the tickets are booked separately they cannot be combined on the same itinerary, but would it help for me to call Delta and have them make note that we do have a connecting flight in JFK, in case there are any delays with our first flight? Sorry for all of the questions, I just have zero experience with multiple same day flights and also flying internationally.

DL will protect you on DL-to-DL tickets in the event of IROPS.

DL will also through-check your baggage on separate tickets when you check-in at DFW. I and many other FTers have done this several times. DL will through-check on separate tickets to a handful of partners as well (I and many FTers have done this before too; mentioning it for any potential future travel plans). To make things easier, have a print out of your separate ticket (JFK-MXP) with you at check-in at DFW and let the agent know you need your bag checked onward to MXP. Ensure the bag tag shows "MXP" as the destination before the agent sends it off. You will not need to claim your bag at JFK (you may still receive notifications through the DL App of "Welcome to JFK. Your bag will arrive at baggage claim within 20 minutes". You can ignore this).

What you may not be able to do in DFW is check-in or receive boarding passes for the second flight (JFK-MXP), and you may have to get your boarding pass for JFK-MXP at the gate or a service center or SkyClub at JFK, though you should be able to do this airside without having to exit and reclear security at JFK. For this reason, ensure your "connection" time in JFK is sufficient. While MCT (minimum connection time) may be 45 minutes for DL at JFK for a domestic to international connection, for your case, it's really "longer" as you may have to check-in for JFK-MXP at JFK, which means your MCT becomes the international check-in cut-off (90 minutes, https://www.delta.com/us/en/check-in...e-requirements) plus the time required to get off the DFW-JFK flight plus any potential delays to then get to a service center to complete check-in. I.e. you should probably allow a minimum of 2.5-3 hours for a "connection" in this manner at JFK to ensure you can meet the check-in requirement at JFK. Your current itinerary shows you have more than enough time for this (7 hours) but I'm mentioning this in case there are schedule changes between now and when you travel so you have something to base any potential itinerary changes off.

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply with all of this info.Exactly what I was needing to know!

If you check bags through you will be checked in the whole way (i.e. receive BP for JFK-MXP). No need to checkin again at JFK. You'll be asked to show COVID related documents and passport at checking in of bags.

Your reservation should update to show both flights once bags are checked through at DFW.

Good to know thank you!

As a minor note, that means if there is a COVID test requirement within xx hours of departure then this will probably be the JFK departure time. Though your miles may very.

Covid rules still change so fast nobody knows what they will be when you fl

More importantly, if doing the same on the reverse flight things are very different.

EDIT: I see flyerCO (who knows much better than me) states the Covid check would be at the documents check at DFW. I will accept that his policy is correct, but I would want to be safe an meet the rules for a single flight departing JFK.

I've had it work both ways. Oddly I had better success for a partner operated flight than I did a DL to DL flight. Same year. I did SEA-LAX on DL, connecting to LAX-BNE on Virgin Australia (separate tickets). In SEA, the DL agent was able to check me in and provide boarding passes for the VA LAX-BNE flight. Later that year, on another international trip, DL was unable to do the same for an SEA-BOS/BOS-AMS-BIO trip, which was DL to DL (well, AMS-BIO was operated by KLM but it was booked as a DL codeshare). While my bag could be tagged through to my destination in Europe during check-in at SEA, the agent was unable to check me in and provide boarding passes for the BOS-AMS-BIO ticket and I had to check-in for the BOS-AMS-BIO portion of the trip on arrival into BOS.

They were doing COVID tested flights to AMS at that time. These required doing checks before flight to AMS. This isn't the case anymore.

Given that my cases were in 2017, no, they were not doing COVID tested flights in 2017, so I'm not sure why you brought that up/mentioned it/jumped to that conclusion. My case simply had to do with, for whatever reason in SEA, when I took the SEA-BOS/BOS-AMS-BIO trip, the agent in SEA was unable to check me in for BOS-AMS-BIO. I had to check-in and get my boarding passes in BOS. But my bag was tagged through to BIO when I checked-in in SEA. Conversely, earlier that year, I was able to be checked in for a flight on a separate ticket (on a partner no less) with no issue. So I was simply providing two examples of how it could go either way for OP where he/she may or may not be able to check-in for JFK-MXP in DFW. I've even had similar issues on domestic DL to DL trips on separate tickets where an agent at my first origin was unable to check me in for the second portion of the trip but was able to tag bags through to my true final destination.

Sorry, I thought you were giving a recent example.

Nowadays when agents tags bags across tickets, you should be checked in all the way. They don't want bags going somewhere you can't. They added functionality making easier for agents to do this a couple years ago.

Several times in the past, I have been on separates reservations and successfully checked my luggage through to my final destination.

Three weeks ago, I had a MSP-ATL on one reservation and then a ATL-AMS-VIE on a separate reservation on the same day. I arrived at MSP early so I could make sure my luggage would get checked through to VIE. I had to get a supervisor involved but she told me there was no way that she could check my luggage through. She told me that I would need to go to the help counter once I got to ATL and have them reroute my luggage. I went their immediately after landing and they flagged and expedited my bag for my AMS flight.

Long story short, my bag never made it even after talking to 3 representatives who told me that my bag would be OK not to worry about it. After hours and hours on the phone (which is whole another crappy story), it finally arrived 4 days later. In one of the conversations I had on the phone with a supervisor I was told Delta is no longer doing this because they are so short staffed.

It was very frustrating and I still don't feel like I'm getting the whole truth. That being said, I hope you have a better experience than I did and it works out for you.

New staff in new jobs that don't have a clue. They can easily do DL/DL on the GUI that most agents are limited to. Supervisor was just plain wrong.

You�re not getting the truth. Sometimes sad that you would think you have to but it wouldn�t hurt to have the link saved to this page (or a paper print-out) to DL�s stated policy for through-checking bags across separate tickets:
https://pro.delta.com/content/agency...e-policy-.html

After two agents said it couldn't be done, I asked for a Red Coat and she also told me it couldn't be done. I disagree completely! It was a painful lesson all the way around but I will know better next time.

What if the passenger has no status and is doing two tickets (one domestic and one international)? Should the agent at the origin provide a free bag since it's included with the second ticket?