Complex Baggage Question (AA/CX/QF interline)
 

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience on this?

-Will Qantas honor my international baggage allowance for domestic flights if they are booked separately?

-Do oneworld Emerald flyers receive the Qantas Platinum One baggage allowance or only standard, non-elite ticketed allowance +1 (oneworld benefit)?

-If I checked in 4, 70lb bags with AA and they interlined them to my final destination, does the US law that states the same baggage allowance must be honored for the full trip apply? As in, would Cathay Pacific charge me for my fourth bag on my return trip?

Here's my itinerary:

BNA - LAX - YVR (Roundtrip AA PNR)
YVR - HKG - MEL (Roundtrip CX PNR)
MEL - SYD (Roundtrip QF PNR)

And if I'm not able to take 4 bags as mentioned above and I follow Most Significant Carrier:

My CX allowance would be three 55lb bags. For my MEL - SYD flights in Australia, would Qantas give me only one bag in addition to the ticketed free bag, would they recognize my CX international allowance and give me that, or would they give me their allowance for QF Platinum One status flyers?

Thanks!

As the MEL-SYD is a separate ticket/PNR all you get is what is on the tickets t&c's. Your other flights are nothing to do with QF. So you are not entitled to anything esle

Each ticket/PNR has its t&c's. You cannot pick the best and try to apply to other totally seperate tickets
What extra's QF give to its own freq flyers does not roll on to your tickets
OneWorld status benefits here https://www.oneworld.com/ffp/emerald-privileges

US law only applies in USA

But the main thing is you are travelling with far too much baggage

QF now gives emerald flyers the same allowance as QF platinum. I have confirmed this several times with QF customer service and exercised it repeatedly.

But everything else you wrote is correct - separate tickets on different carriers means separate allowances for each.

Complex Baggage Question (AA/CX/QF interline)
 

I had a separate ticket on Qantas MEL-SYD then to Hobart and back to MEL and was traveling with two small bags (I was on a RTW and had a summer Sydney bag and winter sweaters Europe) that totaled the weight limit but was charged for the extra bag on each leg. Plus they make you do your own bag checkin and weight and the computer didn't care about the US laws, bag weight etc - it saw two bags and charged me. Lesson learned - pack one big bag to avoid extra fees.

Different travelers have different baggage needs. I'm a musician, traveling with instruments, other music gear, and merchandise...essentials to do my job. I don't have the luxury of traveling light.

That's very helpful to know; thanks! Follow up to that: do you know if they give the Platinum allowance as the ticketed allowance, hence oneworld benefit adds one additional bag? Because if they give the Platinum allowance to Emeralds, that is the same thing as getting the single bag allowance of a non-elite plus the 1 bag Emerald benefit (the only different being the weight increase from 23kg to 32kg).

The ticketed allowance is the ticketed allowance
QF Plat (OW Emerald) get extra 1 piece & 32kg for Au domestic.
OW Emerald get extra benefits as the OW web site
From the post above, looks like QF may apply the greater QF plat benefits

https://www.qantas.com/fflyer/dyn/fl...ts-of-platinum
http://www.qantas.com/travel/airline...mestic-flights


My understanding this in place of the OW Emerald (32kgs vs 20kg) (as its more than OW).
The OW Emerald extra is not on top of the QF Plat allowance. QF do not give a similar status extra twice. QF Plat is OW Emerald
From the post above, looks like QF may apply the greater QF plat benefits
https://www.oneworld.com/ffp/emerald-privileges
On you separate tickets just expect to pay. May be cheaper on line than at the airport.
With QF the people who do the check in do not deal with ticketing/money. You are sent off to another service counter for that, and then back to check in.

duplicate

Okay, yeah--that makes sense.

Having the extra information you all provided, I called Qantas to see what help I could get there. They said the same thing: Emeralds flying domestic get 2 pieces at 32kg. The agent talked with someone in the frequent flyer department who confirmed that if I give them my CX itinerary showing a 3 bag allowance, as an Emerald they'll honor that. I plan on calling back another time or two just to make sure I hear the same thing confirmed by other agents.

But on the day that may not happen. Does depend on the person. Try a check in desk & not the self service kiosks
Is SYD-MEL(QF) on the same day as the MEL-HKG(CX) with out a stopover?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qanta...te-pnrs-4.html

Yeah, for sure. That's why I'd like to at least see if multiple phone agents confirm it, so I feel more comfortable about whether it is policy to honor that or at an agent's discretion.

Domestic segments are on different days than the internationals. That's a good question for me to have in mind: will they honor the CX allowance if the QF flights are different days? (granted, if they were the same day I'd have them interlined so it wouldn't matter anyway).

Qantas' policy for their own international-domestic connections on separate tickets says:

http://www.qantas.com/travel/airline...mestic-flights

It would be surprising if they offered a more generous policy for QF-CX connections.

Yeah, it would. But even a few years back in my no-status days, I had flown Virgin Australia for the longhaul and Qantas domestic; I had shown them the Virgin itinerary and they honored that allowance. That was back before the financial trouble and I know agents have a lot less discretion these days.