Luggage can't be checked through to a flight > 24 hours away?
 

I recently flew NCE-LHR-DXB on BA and then DXB-SYD on QF and wanted to make sure my luggage was checked all the way through to SYD. I even called BA ahead of time to check and they said that yes, as long as the connection at DXB is < 24 hours it won't be a problem. However, when checking in at NCE I was told that I would have to collect my luggage at DXB: they cannot check it through on the DXB-SYD segment, because that's still over 24 hours away. (The DXB-SYD flight departed exactly 24 hours after the NCE-LHR flight and check-in was, obviously, before that.)

On the way back I traveled on *A instead. SYD-BKK-FRA on TG and FRA-NCE on LH and it was not a problem. The FRA-NCE flight departed > 38 hours after the SYD-BKK one and the luggage still got checked through all the way to NCE.

So clearly this is not a universal rule. Is it a OW rule? Or a BA rule? Or did I just get a check-in agent who didn't know what they were talking about?

By the way, for anyone else going through this: I didn't actually have to exit at DXB and collect the luggage. The agent at the Emirates check-in desk who issued my BP also "re-tagged" my luggage in the system, so it presumably got collected from the carousel and loaded onto the DXB-SYD flight. I was a bit concerned, because he wouldn't give me a new luggage receipt showing "SYD", but it arrived in SYD just fine.

Was it a separate reservation onwards from DXB?

Every airline sets their own rules. AA for example won't check through any connection greater than 12 hours.

Also some airports impose restrictions due to baggage system capacity.

Indeed. I flew CX HKF-BOM for a day of meetings and connecting the next night onto BA BOM-LHR. In HKG they tagged my bag all the way through. When I landed at BOM, crew told me I had to collect my bag after all as the connection was more than 24 hours. It was, in fact, precisely 24 hours and 5 minutes. I was not happy!