Check through / interline to final destination on *A ? (re changes at One World)
 

Oneworld has just announced that its airlines are no longer required to check through / interline their multi-leg pax / baggage to the final destination if flights are on separate bookings. This was previously generally done by most OW airlines. So pax on such bookings will have to re-checkin at the transit airport, potentially requiring baggage collection, immigration, visa issues etc.

This will mostly apply to situations where flights are with different OW carriers, but some carriers will not even check through when both flights are with them. However airlines are able to offer more than the minimum OW standard, so some may still check pax/baggage through, with same or different carrier multi-ticket bookings.

This is causing considerable consternation with OW pax who regularly fly this way, to the point that some are considering changing alliances.

As a relative newbie to *A, what is the situation with *A ?

Do *A carriers check through / issue boarding passes to final destination, if on separate bookings with the same and/or different *A carriers ?

There's not a formal policy. Most *A carriers will interline bags to another *A carrier, but it ultimately depends on the policy of the carrier with whom you check-in.

There's also no uniform answer on obtaining a boarding pass for connecting flights . . . that will depend on how well the two carriers' systems talk to each other.

NZ do not thru check bags to any airlines on separate tickets which means this is never a *A requirement. However some agents will allow it if you have NZ*G status so it's down to individual airlines, never an alliance prerequisite.

The logic doesn't quite follow. Just because an airline does (or doesn't) do something doesn't mean it is (or is not) a *A requirement. *A has many requirements that individual airlines willfully violate (such as SQ's and BR's lounge policies). Effectively, the only *A "requirement" is that the airline pays the marketing fee to retain membership.

Which, in turn, as a statement is a load of crap...

Call it what you will, but when each airline is free to choose which "rules" to follow and which ones to ignore, the statement is true.

Datapoints
 

At:

AMS - LH/LX/OS to SQ no problem
OSL - SK to LH no problem
WAW - LO to SQ no problem
SFO - UA to LH no problem
BKK - TG to BR no problem
HAN - SQ to LX no problem
SIN/DPS/YOG - SQ/MI to LH/LX no problem
NRT - NH to LX no problem but the agent must have typed a novel on her keyboard

If there are to many stops on a luggage tag, you can suggest the agent to attach a second luggage tag for additional stops.

Boarding pass (if not able to print out) must be picked up or at airline lounge / transferdesk at carrier change point.

It helps if you have each carriers full ticketnumbers available, but i must honestly say i think it's all up if the computers are able too.

Thought I'd throw my personal experience out there. I flew UA from DAY-ORD-IAH and SQ from IAH-DME-SIN-BKK. The UA agent in Dayton tried to print out a luggage label all the way to BKK. I forget what the exact reasoning was, but she said something along the lines of the system wouldn't let her; possibly because there were too many stops (that last part is just a guess on my part).

In KTM, TG was able to check my luggage all the way through on the TG sector from KTM-BKK and the SQ sector from BKK-SIN-NRT-LAX. On the outbound I had 4 stopovers before my final destination while on the way back I had 3 stopovers. Again, this is speculation on my part, but perhaps 3 stopovers is the limit for the Star Alliance systems to process?

Let me add a few different ticket cases:

HER - A3 to ATH and then you name it: Never, ever a problem.
MEX - LH to MUC and then A3 to ATH, HER: No problem.
CUN - CM to PTY and then MEX, again CM: No problem.
SJO - CM to PTY and then CUN, again CM Not possible!
CAN - ET to CAI, ATH and then A3 to HER: No problem.

I have many more "No problem" cases both from HER to different US airports and back, as well as intra European flights. I simply don't remember the airlines involved (always *A) and the airports (were these on single or different tickets?). By the way, I'm *G, would this help? Not at SJO (same airline) :)

AI at IXE is a class act. They interlined my bag IXE-AI-BOM-LX-ZRH-SK-CPH-AC-YYZ-UA-ORD on separate tickets. It took 2 bag tags to fit all the segments in, but the bag arrived with all the other priority bags at the claim in ORD just fine.

They even issued all the boarding passes :)

UA thread may be interest http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ch-2015-a.html

A couple of data points:

OSL: Flying SK and AC, then UA on a separate ticket. No problem.
LHR: Flying SK, then SK and AC on a separate ticket. No problem.