I checked in on Christmas Day in London, England for my Cathay Pacific First Class flight to Hong Kong and then connecting to Bangkok on Canadian. American Airlines staff checks in for Cathay after they took over from AC earlier this July.

For some strange reason, AA could not through check me and give me CP's boarding pass. I noticed that the agent was typing my flight in as CX 007 instead of CP 007. I advise her of this. And she asks me , "Who's CP? Aren't they Cathay Pacific?" (And this was on a CP ticket stock). No, I told her, it's Canadian. "Who?" Oneworld? <Blank look>
"Do they fly to Bangkok from Hong Kong?" Yes.
Oh...don't know these things. I hand her my Exec Plat card and she noted that she had never seen one of those before. Hello?

Anyway to cut a long story short. AA could not issue my boarding pass for CP connecting from HKG to BKK. They through checked my lugage though. And upon arrival in HKG, I realised that my arrival flight was parked at Gate 1, and I have to go to T4 (connecting gates 41) to get my boarding pass. No...Cathay cannot issue my boarding pass. I wanted to take a quick shower before heading off and I did in the end, but with much difficulty as Cathay staff couldn't make a decision even among themselves if I should be allowed to even to the CX lounge.

Anyway, got my shower, and went to the gate. CP almost screamed at me for being late to board. I told them that CX had already called the transfer desk at T4 . CP (now handled by JL staff) said no, and wondered if I could check -in so late as my bags might not make it. I flashed them my Exec Plat card...and only then did they say that they will do all possible. CP questioned why AA couldn't issue the BP in London. And why Cathay didn't tell them I was connecting onto this flight.

OneWorld ? Better get used to it.

[This message has been edited by Celestar340 (edited 12-27-1999).]

I had a similar experience leaving Mumbai on CX and connecting onto BA to LHR and BFS. CX in BOM could check my luggage through but could only issue the CX BP. I had to collect the rest of them from BA in DXB. My luggage did make it and BA did know I was coming so not as bad as your situation but with OW and all you tend to expect a little more!

I have got the same experience before. When I checked in for HKG-YVR-YUL in HK at the CX counter, for some reason, they couldn't give me the CP BP for YVR-YUL. Moreover, something even worse was two weeks ago, when I flew YUL-YYZ-HKG on CP then on CX, though CP had put on their priority luggage handling tag for me and checked my luggage to HKG, CX ppl just ignored the priority tag and it turned out that my luggage was the last piece to come out. So my advice is, if possible, try to check in again when you need to change flights with different airlines. I think OW should pay more attention to this problem

They will not issue boarding passes for connecting flights which are on the day ahead of the one you have just checked in for.
As for priority bag handling on CX the first bags off are always the crew's bags with the yellow card s attached.

Maybe a similar experience. In late Nov., when I was on a oneworld Explorer trip, I had a CP codeshare operated by BA, LHR-YYZ, connecting to YYZ-YOW on CP, the same day connection.

BA could not check me in through YOW at the check-in counter. They told me that I may be able to get a boarding pass for YYZ-YOW at the gate before my LHR-YYZ flight. (She seems to have called CP to make that arrangement.) I didn't bother partly because it was one of those flights that I had different FFP account numbers registered.

At the end of the day, I just asked for LHR-YYZ ony and I re-checked in at YYZ.

(The BA staff at the counter also did not recognise my Asiamiles (CX) card, so she picked up a thick manual (maybe 300 pages) on the desk to check which card it was. She was laughing that there were so many cards to remember. I laughted as well.)

Just this weekend, I had oneworld flights -- TPE-HKG on CX and then HKG-SIN-CGK on QF. At TPE, CX gave me boarding passes for TPE-HKG-SIN. The two boardng passes were CX plates. Up to two sectors they can issue, they told me.

When I went to the gate in HKG, I was given QF plate boarding passes for HKG-SIN-CGK. They were there when I went to the gate. So I didn't check in myself for SIN-CGK.

Well, for this weekend trip, I thought having an alliance would not be bad.

Maybe it's a computer link-up thing. When the STAR alliance first started out, THAI Airways couldn't issue a connecting UA flight at HKG either. So maybe after a year or two, things will work out better.

I am often surprised by the check-in staff's definition of 'cannot'. Recently, due to add-on to an RTW, I flew CP from EZE to GRU, then on AA back to MIA. My colleague and Iarrived at EZE expecting to check through (especially as AA operates this for CP at that airport.)

I was told by the clerk that I had to collect my bag in GRU, clear customs and immigration and then re-check in for the flight to MIA. Hello ? No so I responded. I was not going to risk that potential delay, and additional $36 departure tax.

So with some insistence, I got to speak to the supervisor. She intially didn't agree with me, but then changed her mind as it was clear we were not going to leave this issue.

CP got their own back on me eventually, as my bag was never off loaded in GRU, went on to Toronto and it ended up with an overnight stay in Tokyo Narita.

When I checked in at Paddington on Friday for LHR-YYZ-YOW (CP087+CP1582, note no codeshare), the baggage tag was for YOW, but the BA agent couldn't get a boarding pass to print for YYZ-YOW.

I told her not to worry about it, I had to deal with a CP agent at the transfer desk in Toronto anyway (after clearing customs). It did seem strange.

Re: priority tags: I've found CP (and AA) are useless at dealing with those red priority tags. On my first trip YOW-YVR-LAX on CP, my bag was literally the _last_ one onto the carousel at LAX -- the only thing after it was the plastic bin saying "no more bags". I travel without checked luggage now. On my LHR trip just completed, my bag was consistently somewhere in the middle each time, and always after some non-priority tagged bags came out.

FWIW, AC's record was better than 80% at having my priority bag come out in the first wave before any non-priority (at YYZ going both ways, at LAX, and at YOW).

Maybe now that they've taken over, they can explain to CP handlers what "PRIORITY" means.

andrew