It's not the cost of tagging it - it's the cost of dealing with the issue when the bag goes astray that they are worried about.

But this only helps if CX is the 1st carrier? A OW -> CX won't work as I understand it unless it is JL/UL/MH -> CX Correct?

Correct.

I only came across this issue on Boxing Day at T5 when I checked in for LHR>DOH>AUH on 2 PNRs - due to one being an Avios booking and the other a cash booking (the sole reason being due to the vagaries of the Avios site... but that's another story!).

Very poor service from check in agent in First Class check in area. I handed him by BA boarding passes and QR connection information, and without any explanation or apology he just ignored the QR paperwork and tagged my bag to DOH.

I only noticed by chance when I saw that the receipt had DOH on it, and raised my concerns as I had a tight (but 'approved') connection.

I was given short shrift and told they couldn't tag it through because it was a different airline. I was not happy as this had never happened before, and asked if I could escalate it. He said I could speak to his colleagues at "J1-2-3"(?) but when I turned to take my case off the belt, it had already been despatched into the baggage system!

Not content with the situation, I raised the issue in the First Class lounge: cue profuse apologies and a promise to pass the issue on to the crew in an attempt to arrange fast track at DOH. Similarly when the CSD sought me out there were more profuse apologies and I was told that the captain had radioed ahead and that there would be ground staff there to assist on arrival.

Unfortunately due to fog at DOH the flight was diverted to BAH and eventually arrived 4 hrs late by which time no ground staff were there to assist.

So, connection missed, I then had to pay �20 for a Qatar visa just to collect and re-check my bag ..... oh and rebook a new ticket for a PM flight at my own expense.

All very poor indeed ..... especially when this morning I arrived at the QR desk in AUH for the return leg and asked it they could check my bags through to LHR ...... and they happily did, after the supervisor showed the check in clerk how to do it!

I can understand why they want to do this, but to me they are throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Rather than seriously impacting their customer service and annoying customers, why don't they just levy a charge for combining separate PNRs and checking bags through?

The customer would then continue to get good service whilst the airlines makes some more money. Win-win surely .... cos this is lose-lose, what with many front line staff being dragged into embarrassing situations and having to do additional work to try and overcome the problems caused by a crass policy change.

I'm actually curious about what would really happen in DOH if your flight was on time?

Unfortunately, BA seem to be taking a fairly hard line with this. I believe you were lucky to receive the accommodation you did. See the BA forum thread for more reports:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...e-tickets.html

Yes, so am I. Had the flight arrived about 10 minutes early, as originally predicted, it was probably achievable (just) based on the time it actually took me to clear customs and re-check my bag ..... and this, presumably, would have been expedited if ground staff had fast-tracked me within the normal constraints.

If I am a typical example of the hoops that front line staff are prepared to go through, then it begs the question as to whether this policy is cost effective.

I fully understand the reasons why they see it as problem (EU fares and/or baggage and flight compensation) but as I said in my original post this really is not the way to solve the problem.

Another huge issue I have is the sly way it was implemented. Such a significant change in custom and practice really should have been fully publicised.

Had I been aware of the issue I would have carefully reconsidered the whole booking process, and allowed more time for my connection if necessary - but the significant problems caused BA / One World's flawed decision were exacerbated by my not knowing about it!

As I said in the previous post, surely there is a better way? In terms of dealing with the ex-EU issue, surely they could allow interlining generally but with a specific exception for people who, for example, choose to fly LHR>FRA and then straight away fly FRA>LHR>GRU etc.

Also with the lost baggage/missed connections issue they could simply make it a condition of tagging bags through on separate PNRs that there is no protection and it is at the customer's own risk ...... or they could charge a fee (as you would pay for overweight luggage) for the added benefit of interlining baggage on multiple PNRs, with or without 'protection'.

I really don't think they've thought this through .... and clearly CX have now dropped the policy following a re-evaluation, and other airlines, like QR, seem to be choosing not to implement it a local level.

It appears that this practice also used to apply to BA outstations (maybe it still does - I will find out in CPT in a few weeks time) as two months after the 1st June rule change, BA counter staff at EZE tagged my bag through to MAN even though my EZE>LHR and LHR>MAN flights were on two separate PNRs. At the time the station supervisor commented that it was now more difficult to do (because of new systems) but was able to over-ride the system herself even though the desk agent couldn't. That said, she blamed the new system rather than an explicit change of policy.

Coincidentally, BA customer service have just emailed me about another unconnected issue which occurred on my o/b flight, and they are about to get both barrels over this!

On my usual itinerary, there's been no problem, either before or since the change. Check in at BOS for QR 744 and 668, BOS-DOH-CMB. Show them my separate UL itin (booked completely separately on UL's website) CMB-BKK and they're happy to book my bags all the way through, BOS-DOH-CMB-BKK and issue all the boarding passes. Easy peazy!

Hi there,

I have two separate tickets DXB-DOH (QR) and DOH-LHR-JFK (BA). I
was wondering if QR agent in DXB will interline my bag all the way to BOS ?

Are they allowed to do it or is it discretionary on the agent checking me in ?
Most of the time QR agents at DXB are contract employees with very limited
flexibility :-(

F.A.

By the QR policy:-> No. But you can ask.
You will need a passport/visa that allows entry into Qatar to pick up you bags and check in with BA. This takes time.
Open the wiki. There are links to the individual airline threads on this topic

Thanks. Visa is not a problem but was trying to avoid the $25 charge :-)

F.A.

I understand there's an airside facility at DOH where a passenger can ask for their otherwise non-interlined bags to be re-tagged and sent to their onward destination.

Is anyone aware of this? How does one go about it?

Data point: I'm flying now MEL-DOH-JNB on QR (revenue J) connecting to JNB-MAD on IB (Avios J) on a different ticket. QR check-in staff in MEL had no problem to check my luggage all the way to Madrid. She even tried to issue my BP for JNB-MAD but that was about 36h away and she couldn't.

Thought I would share that I flew EZE>GRU>MAD on Latam yesterday and then had a sep. ticket from MAD>LHR on Iberia. Latam checked my bag all the way through to London for me (I had to ask twice, really nicely but got there in the end!)

Thanks for sharing. Moderator could consider moving this to the combined interlining issues thread and updating the wiki to reflect LA exception in this case...

Bag interlining issues and OW policy changes (Combined threads)