What Happens to Checked Baggage When Flight Segements Booked Separately
 

First post, so sorry if this is in the wrong spot or a lame question, but I was wondering how checked baggage gets to the final destination if the flight segments are booked separately.

We are trying to get from the SFO-area to USH, but it seems like the best way to do this (in terms of using miles for the longest segment) might be to book SFO/SJC -> LAX and then use miles to get from LAX ->EZE, then one last segment from EZE->USH. And then something similar on the return. Are we going to have to get our luggage and re-check on each segment?

Posted this in the OW section, because most of my miles are on BA.

Thanks!

Welcome to FT traciemarie

There seems to be no hard and fast answer to your question. Is it an AA/LAN booking? In theory yes, they should be able to check your bags through to your destination. In practice some of us (myself included) have found that it cannot or will not be done.

The more segments the less likely in my experience. You may also want to post a question in the Argentina forum too because if Argentina is the same as Chile, Perú and Colombia, you will need to clear customs in EZE so whether or not you can have your bags checked through to USH is potentially academic.

As long as the airlines in question have an interline baggage check agreement between them, in principle it can be done. In practice, some agents are far more willing than others to perform. The key thing is to have a full itinerary printed out with flight numbers (preferably actual flight number by operating carrier, not codeshare) and the 16-digit ticket number. However, I usually treat this as a convenience, and I plan my layovers on separate tickets such that I have plenty of time to recheck bags myself if need be.

lan argentina goes to ush....you would arr eze, surface to aep w/bags....i have often used remis?[sp], cheaper than a taxi.... which has/had a booth just outside imm & customs at eze.... i have used lan arg on an award for aep-brc....so should work if available....

btw....welcome to ft....

if you are going on a cruise, i would get there a day early7....

if you are a us citizen, you will need an arg visa which is available at eze immigration....

perhaps you could post your routes for the trip and and more detail like when & # pax....good luck...

Thanks all. FT has been really helpful, even just as a lurker!

I ended up checked out some other dates, and it looks like I can get from SFO-EZE (and back) using OW miles. Then will just have to transfer over to AEP for the flight to USH, so we'll just have two separately booked segments anyway.

We are going on an expedition, and the dates the awards seats were available actually leave us with some extra time to check out both Buenos Aires and Ushuaia.^

Did you check whether LAN Airlines or LAN Argentina has award availability to/from USH on the dates you need? Which oneworld airline's miles are you planning to use?

No, I haven't. I have 104,300 BA miles. It will take 80K to get two people roundtrip SFO-EZE, so I'll have 24,300 BA miles left. The LAN site says it takes 42,000kms roundtrip for 1 person from AEP-USH. For award purposes, are kms the same as miles?

Is it possible to transfer the BA miles to LAN? The BA site doesn't recognize USH as a destination. I also have a few (2,000 or so) AA miles if that helps.

When using BA miles for an award, the BA rules govern. The LAN rules about its own frequent flyer program don't apply. I recommend that you visit the BA forum for advice about using BA miles between SFO and USH. You may get very good news there!

using aa mi w/ a partner mi you can get sfo-ush if available.......i would think that it would be ok w/i the ba program...check w/ ba....good luck..

you should ba able to get an award ticket sfo -ush-sfo on aa & lan....

is aa saver available from sfo area-eze on your dates?...