My sister is going on Birthright, which booked her out of JFK on the 9:20 pm flight. She's on her own to get to and from New York, and asked me to get her connecting flights.

Birthright's instructions say to get to the airport 4 hours early. If I book her on a flight on Delta or AA from elsewhere on the east coast, can they interline her luggage to LY at JFK? If so, what is the minimum suggested time between flights at JFK?

Also, coming back, she's on the flight arriving at EWR at five in the morning. How much time should I give her before her connecting flight?

Thanks!

yonatan

I know that with AA and DL one can accure miles but no EQMs on an LY flight. I would imagine that therefore either of them should be able to interline her bags. Id call to make sure.

At JFK DL might be easier as LY leaves out of the Intl Term and DL is T-3 right next door, 10 mins walk or 1 stop on the AirTrain . While AA is T-9 on the other side of the Term area. Either is workable.

as for the min connecting time, Id call and ask LY as if say 2 hrs and they shut down at 3 hrs before Shed be SOL, if weatehr isnt aproblem that day, there should be no real problem getting off the plane with ones carry-ons getting onto the AirTrain and getting off at T-4 (Intl) .

As for EWR 1st flights are around 6am Id skip that one and get something closer to 7am, since it will be a separate tkt they wont know that she is coming off an Intl flight from TLV, the last time thru it took close to 40 mins before the bags started coming out and that was at 4pm. She could ask as well in TLV if they would tag her bags all the way thru. These things are hit or miss when its not all on the same tkt.

I'm going on Birthright out of JFK as well. Note that according to the instructions from birthright we are to be at JFK LY ticket counter 4 hours before our flight and we are specifcally told NOT to check the bags all the way through, rather to retrieve them at JFK and re-check with the group at LY counter.

The real questions- anyway to get FF miles on AA (or other airlines) on a birthright ticket on LY??

No plans to do this because I don't qualify anyway but has anyone ever done a birthright MR?

now you're talking. TA who books BR says no miles. I paid to change my return (extended my trip) so i wonder if there is any chance I could get miles then.

I also wonder since they wont' let you change seats b/c seats are assigned at airport, if there is any chance once I get my return ticket if I can login to the website and self-assign a signt for return flight.

These tickets are at rock-bottom prices that are not eligible for mileage accural. For seat assignment - call LY directly.

apirchik are you sure I can call directly? Birthright instructions say not to and I have no record locator or any other number to confirm. I'm told tickets are distributed with the group at JFK

Thanks for all the info.

Now a question about the return flight from EWR - does AA have check-in facilities next to customs (given that AFAIK they don't have any international flights to EWR), or would it be a hassle to transfer to an AA flight there if she has luggage?

Yonatan

Not sure about AA's facilities in EWR but I'd try to interline the luggage from TLV straight through to the final destination.

Then I guess you can't. It's possible they do a group booking like they do charters in Israel and have the names by initials only.

LY can check your bags to your final destination on AA and you recheck the bags in terminal B at EWR after customs. It works for all airlines - there is no individual bag check post for every airline. If your bags are not tagged to your final destination, there is no facility after customs for this - you have to go to the airline counters like a passengers travelling from EWR.

I never flew into EWR on LY (or anyone lese) and connected onwards as Im EWR based.

However, this I do know, ElAl uses Term B and American uses Term A, so I highly doubt that You would run into an AA employee anywhere in Term B. AA used to have a EWR-LHR flight but stopped that yrs ago. AA does Not have any Intl flights out of EWR

Its a 5 min walk between Terms or You can go to the departure level (do si mid term) then you'will see an escaltor to go up another level to teh AirTrain which you can take to Term A, make sure you can on the one heading that way other way.

Shucks. I wish they would have had these Birthright programs when I was 18.

If yo'ure willing to part with $$$, LY *will* upgrade birthright tickets.

as for checking bags through, I don't think they'll do it without your LY ticket in hand, and the BR people will have your tickets. The 4 hour check-in is ridiculous, they aren't even open for check-in then.

They had similar programs and you could always find ways to get them mostly funded if you were the right socio-economic fit.