mtkeller

I'm flying ORD-TPE-HAN with BR (business award booked through SQ), departing at 0020 on Saturday morning. Because my home airport is served only by AA, my first flight is on a separate ticket. I will get to ORD before 1800. I have had no luck getting a boarding pass through mobile or web check-in for BR. Does anyone have any brilliant ideas on how I might get a BR boarding pass either from AA at SUX (Pretty sure that's impossible.) or somewhere in the domestic terminals at ORD once I land on my AA flight? Given the length of the layover, it would be nice if I could use the Polaris lounge before transferring over to T5. As it stands now, it appears that I'll be at ORD about 2.5 hours before the BR checkin counters even open.

gengar

You're still 36 hours from departure time. You will have to wait to ACI via BR website. It should issue you a BP since payment conformance is unnecessary as you booked an award via SQ, unless for some reason they need to do passport conformance.

AA will not be able to issue the BP, and I doubt BR has any presence at ORD outside of T5. You could consider calling BR to ask, but I'd wait to see if you get a BP from ACI.

mtkeller

Since I'm within 48 hours of departure, I have tried ACI both on mobile and the website. Mobile said to go to the airport. Web gave me a check-in acknowledgement, but it's quite clear that it's not a boarding pass. My return is a separate KE ticket, so there may be a doc check block on things, too.

Sounds like I will probably wind up chilling airside in T3 and visiting Tortas Frontera and then getting the landside bus (train is being renovated) over to T5 closer to the time that BR will open their checkin counters, unless someone else has an idea. (I assume walking to UA counters in the domestic terminals is unlikely to produce a BP since they are neither the operating nor issuing carrier for my ticket, so the *A connection won't do much. I would be happy to be corrected if someone has experience.)

hayzel7773

Chicago is not a self-print station because of local regulations. You will need to go to the counters when they open at 2000 to get your boarding pass.

gengar

If BR is blocking the BP due to conformance, then no other airline is going to be able to print the BP.

Did this change recently? I've definitely OLCI'd for international flights ex-ORD before.

Or is it a visa issue? I just realized Vietnam is not part of VWP.

hayzel7773

You can OLCI, you just get a "check-in confirmation" instead of a BP. OP is also connecting onto HAN, which has additional visa restrictions that require passport check.

gengar

Sorry, I meant that I've gotten BP via OLCI for international flights ex-ORD before.

hayzel7773

Oh, that's not supposed to happen.

I think OP's issue here is that he has a connection to Vietnam. Passport confirmation and visa confirmation is needed.

monsieurcumulus

I travelled from ORD to International destinations and got BP all the time, unless a visa is required to destination and they need to check documents

ttuna3

It also might be the TSA requirements. Flights to/from/within the USA only allow check in at 24 hours before scheduled departure. I've checked online at T-24 with BR at SFO, IAH, SEA and LAX but I still won't have a BP until they do a passport check. UA has given me a BP but BR swaps it for one of their's at the lounge. I haven't had an issue getting into the lounge with the check in confirmation/itinerary and then the BR (also OZ) representative chases me down when they get to the lounge when I come in on a non *A connection. The system will show me checked in on the connection without a BP outbound and will spit out a BP for the connection to TPE at T-48 and hold the BP to the US until T-24 for that departure.

mtkeller

Whose lounge are you referring to? I would love to get into the Polaris lounge at ORD with my check-in confirmation, but given that BR operates out of T5, they certainly won't be chasing me down in the lounge. I don't mind taking the bus over and showing passport, etc. closer to departure, but I'm going to have 2.5 hours between my AA flight landing and BR even opening their check-in desks.

hayzel7773

The Chicago lounge is garbage.

On the bright side, you could try one of each sandwich in the fridge to see which one you like best

ttuna3

Mostly at LAX but also had it happened at SFO when I flew in from RNO connecting to BR17 on the way to NRT. The trick is to be in which ever lounge EVA uses. At LAX that's the *A lounge in TBIT, at SFO it was the lounge that's now the Polaris Lounge, I think that they're at the lounge by G100,

According to the EVA website they use AF/KLM Lounge so that's where the EVA staff will be sometime around 2030. Since you're eligible for lounge access you should be able to get into the Polaris Lounge (at worst the United Club) before you head over to T5. My experience with the UA Lounge Dragons at ORD has generally been good, but I had to get a supervisor once when I didn't have a BP from OZ yet and there was an issue about whether I had access as an OZ *G, connecting to a *G flight (yes I got in, no where near the hassle at EWR when I've needed a manager a couple of times).. Just make sure you have all of the vouchers and a copy of your itinerary.

Hope you enjoy the trip!

mtkeller

Hence the reason that I would rather hit the Polaris lounge until it closes and then go over to T5, get my Hello Kitty BP, and suffer through only two hours in the AF/KL lounge.

mtkeller

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm going to give it a go, because the situation over at T5 looks so bleak in comparison. Worst case scenario, they insist on a boarding pass, but sounds like I won't be the first person to show up this way. Printing full itinerary to add to my check-in confirmation as further documentation of the whole situation to help my case.

Pretty sure it's going to be a nice adventure once I get on board BR55. Hopefully the relaxation begins even before that!