Greetings,

Without having to call AA and or HA I figured I would ask you folks about baggage charges on a codeshare flight.

My wife and I will be flying on AA from BOS/HNL. On the return out of LIH into HNL it will be on HA as a code share, then AA from HNL/BOS. All flights on AA will be in first while the code share flight on HA will be in coach.

My question, I know that I will have to check in with HA at LIH (or online), not AA. With that said, flying coach on HA from LIH to HNL, will we have to pay the baggage fee or will we be exempt because we are flying in first on AA and we bought our tickets from AA?

Do you have status on AA?

Isn't this more a question for the HA forum (if there is one)? Or at least a question for HA itself? (i.e., pick up the phone!!!!)

The practice is that the baggage fee rules of the airline that checks you in (i.e. operating carrier of the first segment) apply; they will probably waive their fees if you are prepared to show that according to the rules of the carrier that sold you the ticket you are exempt from paying any fees, but YMMV.

There is no written "rule" about this recent practice, though, and AA.com is completely silent.

In your case, I'd call AA to ask; if they say that you're exempt from the fee at LIH, then ask them to annotate the record in a way that HA sees that annotation. Given that AA doesn't sell LIH-HNL, I have a strong suspicion that the LIH-HNL is a voluntary downgrade on a through first-class fare, which would be a strong platform to argue that fees are not due as you're flying on a first-class ticket on that segment; if that's the case, then you might also ask AA whether any LIH-HNL first class seats have opened up.

We have flown out of LIH, OGG and KOA on AA codeshares many (4X this year alone) times since the institution of baggage fees. You will need to check in with HA and we have never been asked to pay a baggage fee on HA. You could bring a printout from AA.COM that describes their policy, but I have never had to pay on a codeshare HA flight to HNL.


EDIT:

We checked in at KOA and for the first time ever, HA charged us a fee for checking in our bags. If the ticket date preceded September 14, it is free for the first bag and $17 for the second bag. Tickets dated September 14 and later are charged $10 for the first bag and $17 for the second (this is for inter-island flights only).

I am now investigating whether I will need to join the Premiere Club just to avoid these fees (we fly enough that this would pay for itself after only 4 flights), plus we would get priority boarding on HA flights.

I have found the following language on the AA.COM website under exemptions that states:

Customers flying on AA codeshare flights not operated by American Airlines, American Eagle or AmericanConnection� (operating carrier baggage allowance and charges will apply)

So it appears that I should have been paying the fee all along (since July 8, 2008), but HA was not collecting the fee until now (probably because there now is a fee for both the first and second bag). We always check 2 bags each because of all of the scuba gear.

I had this happen to me last week. I booked LAX-HNL-OGG-LAX on aa.com. The HNL-OGG leg was an HA codeshare.

I stayed overnight in HNL and was charged to check my bags from HNL-OGG. I was told by the HA gate agent that they don't waive the fee because they have their own loyalty program.

I contacted EXP desk and was told they don't have control over what HA charges. Said something about the fine print of "Other charges may apply".

Interestingly, if I hadn't stayed the night in HNL, HA would have handled my bags for no charge. The fact that I got my bags, stayed over night and then rechecked them caused the issue.

Fortunately only $20.