BOM-DEL-EWR on AI and United baggage through checkin
 

Hi, I have BOM-DEL-EWR ticket booked via United where the domestic leg is AI and the international leg is United. It is a single ticket. Will the baggage through check in at Delhi? Will AI give me both boarding pass at Mumbai?

Yes to both

Your bag will be thru checked in to its final destination. You will get all the Boarding Passes from AI but once you get to DEL you will have to walk to the United Airlines transfer desk and exchange them for United Airlines boarding passes. If you skip this step of exchanging the AI issued Boarding passes for UA Boarding passes then immigration will send you back to get it exchanged. The transfer desk is easy to spot as you walk towards the exit.

I didn't have this problem a few months ago. United mileage ticket on the same route & I got my boarding passes from AI in BOM. I didn't have to exchange them in DEL.

When I last flew via DEL, I saw people holding signs from LH/AF/Virgin directing people to the transfer desk so I walked up to the United one. I was glad i did it as the immigration officer in the Domestic to International transfer sent a person ahead of me back to the transfer desk as they did not have the "right boarding pass". That's agonizing after you wait in line for 45 minutes.

This thing also happens in the US when transiting via LAX, a UA boarding pass for SQ is not accepted in TBIT and TSA sends you back to the SQ check in desk.

Interesting. But like I said before, I managed to go through with an AI boarding pass & no one asked me to change to the UA one.

What is the purpose of the Transfer Desk
 

What is the basic purpose of the transfer desk? Because I got hit by this when I flew IAH-SFO-SIN-MAA a few years ago with IAH-SFO-SIN on UA First/Polaris and a separate ticket on AI (Economy) from SIN-MAA and exactly the reverse on return. Since UA was able to check my bags all the way through to MAA from IAH and even gave me SIN-MAA AI boarding pass, I just passed my time at SIN SilverKris lounge until just before boarding. That is when I realized that I should have gone through the AI transfer desk in SIN much earlier and verified if my bags got transferred and then get a new boarding pass on AI for SIN-MAA.

I pleaded with the agent as I was about to miss my flight...and she reluctantly made me wait in agony, not knowing if I will make it or not; finally she made a few phone calls and then issued me my AI BP.

It was really close.

If UA and AI are all *A partners and interlined, what is the real purpose of the Transfer Desk? The UA agent at IAH never told me about this requirement at SIN when checked my bags all the way through to MAA on AI (separate tickets on UA and AI).

Please clarify.

First - how did you get to use SKL as an arrival lounge?

Secondly (and I assume this is your question on the purpose of a transfer desk) - that's an weird AI requirement to an AI BP I guess. Lots of others have reported having to do something similar in different airports within and outside India. Transfer desks and *A are generic and not built to cater to a specific airlines' or country's requirements. Transfer desks help with many things including transfers between two non-interlined airlines and collecting and checking in your luggage without having to go landside etc.

Thirdly - when traveling on separate tickets whether they interline or not - if you have the luxury through a transfer desk or a lounge agent or an airline counter to check your luggage status and BP - you should use it. It takes 2=3 minutes to ensure you're good to travel and your luggage is headed where you are.

I apologize. It could have been some other *A Gold lounge. It was back in like 2018-2019, pre-pandemic, and many years ago. I seem to get confused between SilverKris and KrisFlyer Gold (Is Silver better than Gold?)

In this case. Thanks to silly and inconsistent SQ branding - yes silver is way better than gold.