just few days ago i had KEF-HEL-SIN on AY and SIN-HKG-TPE on CX.

at KEF ground agent helped me short-check to HEL only, so i could try my luck at HEL. (i didnt expect third party ground agent in Iceland to be able to thru check to CX so i didnt bother)... so picked up my bag, went to Platinum checkin (i was flying J on both AY ane CX and OWE) and asked if they can tag to HK. they simply asked if this is same ticket, i said No, so they refused.. i ended up clearing immigration at Sing and recheck (i knew it was coming) so instead of a 90min connection if the bags were checked thru it became a 4hr run..

i guess there is cost AY pays ground agent to load bags to another airline. hey here is suggestion AY: why dont you offer interline bags at additional cost say 25eur? i would have happily paid that.... i think actual cost of loading bags is about few eur each ground agent charge (a recently debated carosel fee at HKIA is about 20eur cent for one bag loaded to carosel) so heck i am happy to pay it

i guess this rule is to protect their high yielding routes and direct business to a codeshare journey at inflated prx. but AY business model is hub*spark from asia centers via Hel and there isnt codeshare on all routes.. somehow such user pay scheme might be another successful addon fee if they wish to penetrate deeper to peripheral Asian destinations, as current setup is prohibitive for customers not based out of AY outports

Yeah, the rule doesn't really make sense for AY, since they serve only a limited number of destinations on their own. They serve several major OW hubs, but there are IMO very few codesahares in general, and some of the codeshares can't even be booked IRL (at least not on AY web page, maybe a TA can).

But AY vigorously defends the rule so there must be something in it for them. But it seems to be a rule that only pushes business away. I can't see the benefit if passengers to TPE and CAN for example chooses CX or QR.


BTW, not sure the add-on fee would work. At least according to what has been said publicly, the rule is there because "bags on separate tickets often won't make the connection, and then it is unclear who is responsible" not because of costs.

You don't need to be on a codeshare to book the trip on a single ticket. E.g. to TPE you can buy a ticket from AY with HEL - HKG on AY and HKG - TPE on CX. They same applies to a number of CX destinations which don't have AY codeshares. In the end being not able to buy a single ticket is a marginal case when connecting through OW hubs, so AY must have calculated that they will get more revenue by encouraging people to buy their trips on a single ticket.

Yes it is true there needn't be a codeshare to combine fares into one ticket. However, IME it makes it easier, not sure why. Perhaps the website treats codeshare destinations like AY-destination and there is something in the search engine that prefers codeshares?
Anyway, the site does indeed offer connections to TPE via HKG on BR, CX and KA. Don't think it used to do that but it is great it does!

To me personally the case is not marginal though. Searching a ticket EU-CAN in november on ay.com fails with "no such flights". Sometimes it offers a connection via PEK on CA, but never via HKG. HKG surely is a OW hub, but IME the possibilities to book HKG-connections are limited on ay.com, especially with OW affiliate KA.

In the case on CAN it seems very strange that they do not offer any connections there. In the summertime when they have direct flights to CAN it would make perfect sense to offer connections to those passengers who would need to fly in the other direction on a day that AY doesn't operate. Now all those passengers will go to other airlines. And as they do operate there in the summer season, the business case for offering connections can't be marginal.

The whole CAN strategy of AY is a mystery. One of the major (and richest) Chinese regions, Guangdong has 105m inhabitants. If that doesn't qualify for a year round daily service, I don't know what does.

Did you try a transfer counter at SIN (airside)? They will usually take your baggage tag receipts and retag your bags for you. I'm not sure how that works with CX being in T4 these days though.
That said, the SIN website now talks about needing to have "transfer facilities" included in your ticket to do this. I don't remember seeing that before. But it's always worth a shot....

i heard of that service at SIN but dont trust it so didnt try. afterall not knowing if such service is even present, i had to give plenty of time for connection so just did it the long way.

can i just confirm that the AY-AY separate ticket through-check policy is still valid? am planning to redeem HKG-HEL / HEL-CPH on 2 separate tickets (from different FFPs)

AFAIK, it is. I checked a few days ago and same policy was communicated.

But didn't somebody say that both tickets need to be AY-issued, and on 105 stock? If so, then Fishball would be ineligible because at least one of his tickets would not be on AY stock. I have no personal experience, though.

Yes, that is the policy. What is written in the wiki on top is the same as they are communicating to their travel agents.
So if check-in agent follows policy, they will refuse to check to final. Not sure why he is about to redeem from 2 different programs on 2 different PNR onto one carrier (AY) but perhaps he has points spread over different programs.


I don't have recent experience neither, as I avoid either having bags or AY altogether when on separate tickets. But can confirm the wording in policy is still the same.

Wouldn't checking in on a AY codeshare be done under AY rules? So still no checking to final.

And if checked in with AA rules, from what a very quick search tells me, no:

AA checks to the end of 001-ticket, but at JFK you wouldn't start on a 001-ticket, so ..?


Read all here.

my home program is CX but i have 15k points orphaned in AY+ about to expire...

assuming the agent sticks to policy - is 1hr 35mins between the flights enough time for me to recheck landside at HEL? noting the 45min cut-off

https://www.finnair.com/au/gb/faq/ba...al-destination

If this is correct, then ticket stock wouldn't matter?

You can go landside pretty quickly in HEL, depending on passport. I'd say 10 minutes from doors open to landside for me on a schengen passport. Check-in is literally one escalator from arrivals hall. If you do online check-in you can go to bag drop directly, it should not have any substantial waiting.

There is a airside transfer desk too, but I am unsure if they can re-check your bag in the flow (like HKG can and frequently do). Hopefully someone here knows.


If you could manage to get first part of trip on CX you are home free as CX has better policy. They will check to final, even if that is the rambunctious AY :-)

I believe they are careless with the wording in that text. Perhaps it is meant to read 'and' instead of 'or'...

Agents are told exactly what is in the wiki on top, ie stock matters on separate PNRs.

Right, with EU-passport it is very quick, but some time ago my Russian colleague was waiting at immigration line about an hour (which to my understanding still is very exceptional), so with non-EU passport I would take some marginal.

Is this to be found written somewhere online (AY pages)? I think I've seen it, but now can't find it anywhere :(

AFAIK, not on the publicly published pages.
It is however easily found on the intranet for travel agents.

I'm turning to you guys for help, as the good people of Kajaani were only confused, without any answer to my question...

I have an AY issued, AY operated ticket for the following route: FRA-HEL-SFO; LAX-HEL-FRA

I need to buy a HEL-FRA-HEL ticket to be able to actually fly it. For the first leg, it is not an issue, as based on info read here, I can ask the staff at HEL to check my suitcase straight to SFO, without the FRA detour, and even if not, for the morning flight there is ~2 hours in FRA between landing and take-off. However, I see issues with the return leg, as the turnaround time for the afternoon / evening flight to-from FRA is ~50 minutes, which would not be enough to collect the suitcase, check it in and pass through security again to catch the return flight.

I see two possibilities:

1, Short check suitcase in LAX to HEL, not bringing it to FRA and pick it up after returning from FRA the same evening

2, Ask the check-in agent at LAX to through-check my suitcase for LAX-HEL-FRA-HEL and hope that in FRA they don't get too confused about putting the suitcase back to the same flight they took it off from... Based on the published through-check policy of AY, this should be ok, as both tickets will be AY issued under 105 stock, AY marketed and AY operated.

Do you guys think that any of the above would work? Where can I find the MCT for FRA to see if the ~50 minutes would be enough or not?

I doubt this will work, intuition has some experience on putting baggage in the hold for a back-to-back flight and it didn't work then. If any way possible, don't check any luggage.

yes, I've been in a similar situation and I cannot see a solution to your problem. YMMV, and things may also have changed, but IME from outstations there is no way to fix this.

AY does not allow short-check, IME, but maybe you should push for solution 1 anyway. You could try to have a item in your checked bag that you must use during your short stop in HEL, like a liquid drug. I'm thinking this is your best option.


I also tried to do your solution 2, and had an extremely helpful agent at the outstation actually checking my bag on such a pattern. He told me I needed to contact ground staff in HEL during the layover and persuade them to make sure the bag was not unloaded at eg FRA, but stays in the hold while aircraft is on the ground.
The way to accomplish this is to stow it as if it had been gate checked. When landing, someone on the flight must talk to loaders and persuade them to leave the bag in hold. This can theoretically be done.

Needless to say, staff in HEL was moderately interested in helping me with this, and my bag ended up abandoned on the conveyor belt in eg FRA. It took 3 or4 days for my bag to reunite with me in HKG.

You cannot imagine how many times I've cursed myself for not putting a stopover in HEL into this ticket... Now it would cost me 210€ / pax to move the HEL-FRA leg to a day when same booking class availability is there. So decided to suck it up and stay overnight in FRA, where I can get for ~100€ a room in many of the airport hotels.

What's your connection time in HEL on the inbound? I've never had any problems short-checking with AY.

I have 50 minutes from landing from LAX to take off to FRA.

Oh well, then it's a no go for short-check ofc :D

This is an(other) area where AY policy - if there is one - and its implementation is totally inconsistent. I've never had a problem short-checking when departing from HKG and BKK, however JFK did not allow it a few months ago.

BTW, just to report back on this issue.. Officially AY couldn't / wouldn't do anything, so was all prepared to fly all the way to FRA and back to HEL the next day. Arrived to LAX and asked the check-in agent at the J line if she would be able to short-check our luggage to HEL, skipping the HEL-FRA leg, as "our plans have changed". She was probably new there (or just simply new to AY, as route opened not so long ago) and asked help from her manager. She (the manager) said that it is possible and sorted out that we no longer were checked in for the HEL-FRA leg and the suitcases were also only tagged to HEL.

Not sure if this is policy, or was just pure luck, but it worked out for us.

On board though the printed manifast still had us connecting to FRA, as both the FA taking care of my aisle in J and the purser was ensuring us that we'll make it to our flight to FRA despite our delay, as there are ~15 pax connecting there and they'll hold the HEL-FRA flight for 20 minutes.

Any news on the policy for two seperate tickets on AY?

I was wondering the same. I have a flight LIS-HEL and then HEL-HKG 22 hours later on a separate ticket.... would love to not have to lug my bags around....

How did the flight go? Were any of the tickets on 105 stock?

I believe you can check in your bags at HEL 24 hours before your flight, so in worst case they should accept your bags right away. Please let us know if LIS agreed to check the bags all the wat to HKG.

Baggage allowance on separate tickets
 

I have a ticket with my companion (OWE+no status) flying AY inaugural DFW-HEL using AS miles in J (and then onward to LHR after a few days stopover). I'm going to meet with some friends at HEL, and planning to book a separate AY stocked, marketed, and operated economy light for 4 people from HEL-RVN a few hours after we land. I'm checking in 2 bags total, sounded like we can't thru-check our bags to RVN since the first leg is AS stock (but with inexperienced DFW staff, who know?), bummer but whatever.

1) At check in counter at HEL, do I get 1 bag (I'm OWE), 2 bags (we have a baggage receipt for 2 bags from DFW), 4 bags (OWE + 3 companion on economy light ticket), or 5 bags (coming from an international J ticket with a single OWE)? What's a good way to get some official response from AY so I can print it out and show the check in staff at HEL?

2) For my return flight RVN-HEL (my London onward flight happen a few more days after), do I get 1 (OWE), 4 (OWE + 3 companion), or 5 (showing international J ticket) bags?

3) I'm also assuming these above allowance would be 32kg, if I have to purchase extra, it'd be 23kg?

Kinda suck to gamble because there's such a large difference between online and airport baggage prices.

1) One bag, on AY the luggage perk is member only and not the entire PNR like AA or BA (I don't know about AS)

2) Same as 1

3) You will get 32kg, I don't think your companions will get 32kgs per policy.

Of course, you can try and reason with the agent(s) given you checked two bags from DFW but don't count on it working.