Will S7 check our bags through on LED-DME-DUS-JFK?
 

We are flying LED-DME on S7, and then DME-DUS-JFK on Air Berlin. Both tickets were purchased via the S7 call centre on the same date, but for some reason, they gave us separate PNR's (JFK-DUS-DME-DUS-JFK, DME-IKT-DME, DME-LED-DME).

Initially, the last DME connection was supposed to be ~5 hours, but later on S7 cancelled the morning flight and now we have a 2 hour connection. If there are no delays, it should still be ok, albeit tight.

My options are:
1) Ask S7 at LED to check the bags through all the way to JFK. May or may not work, because the flights are on separate tickets.
2) Collect the bags at DME and drop off at the Air Berlin counter. Will be tight if the LED-DME flight is delayed.
3) Leave the bags in the luggage room for 4 days, and go to SPb with carry-ons. On the way back, drop off the bags at the Air Berlin counter. Will be tight if the LED-DME flight is delayed.
4) Change the LED-DME tickets to very early morning - would have to leave the hotel at 2:30am and then pickle at DME for ~7 hours.

That LED-DME flight in on-time 95%.

Am I overthinking it?

I personally prefer not to have such а tight connection before a long-haul, especially on separate tickets.
Would have switched to red-eye from LED.
Most S7 flights don't use jetbridge in DME, so arrival procedures almost always take at least half an hour. Luggage delivery (if it is not through-checked for some reason) can often take even more time.

Thanks! Our tickets allow date/route changes up to 40 min before departure, so I should be able to do a last-minute change if we cannot make the connection.

As an afterthought, I should have got a refund on the original DME-LED tickets, and purchased the same seats with my primary Visa Infinite. That way, the entire trip would have been covered by the card insurance. Too late :(

Reporting back:

Our trip went well.

S7 agents at check-in counters can add connections to certain partner flights, but not all of them are trained to do so. We checked in online for all three segments. The girl at the baggage drop-off counter at LED understood what we needed, but had to call in a senior S7 rep to help her out. They added a connection to DUS/JFK, checked our bags all they way through, and printed 9 boarding passes.

The 2 hour connection at DME was easy, with about 30-40 minutes to spare.

The DUS connection was 1 hour, as scheduled. The DME-DUS flight arrived to gates B, and DUS-JFK was leaving from C, so we had to go through the passport control twice, and clear security. Connecting TWOV pax were escorted directly from B to C and were at the gate way before us.

Airberlin folks at the gate spent a good deal of time updating our APIS info - the tickets were purchased on Russian passports, and we were entering the US as Canadians. Everything worked well in the end, and the automated border control kiosk at JFK recognized our Canadian passports and pulled the correct flight info.

Do not expect that level of service at smaller regional airports. The check-in agent at IKT bluntly refused to check our bags through on two S7 flights IKT-DME/DME-LED, saying she could not do that, because the tickets were separate. Since we had 4 hours to kill at DME, it wasn't worth the fight.