pduck01

Hi folks.

CPT - JNB. Paid ticket in coach on SA. 2.5 hour layover.

JNB - ZRH. Award ticket in business on LX. Four hour layover.

ZRH - EWR. Paid ticket in coach on UA. Hoping upgrade clears. Or that JNB-JFK award business opens up and I eat the $300 fee.

The wrinkle here is that the JNB-ZRH leg is actually JNB-ZRH-FRA with a 12 hour layover. Called UA twice to ask LX to kill the last segment and they refused because "through-fare" on an award ticket...ok

So if you were us, would you check your luggage the whole way home in CPT and home it somehow doesn't end up in FRA or would you check just to ZRH and the re-check it in? How hard is that to do airside in ZRH?

Thank you!

jsloan

This isn't really a UA question, but I'd be surprised if it were possible to check your luggage to EWR in the first place. You may not even be able to check it to ZRH, depending upon what LX decides to allow. UA has started using married segment logic even on some partner award tickets -- were you ever intending to go to FRA? Or was this simply a matter of the JNB-ZRH award never being available on its own?

I can't imagine you could pick up and re-check your luggage airside at ZRH. In order to get to baggage claim, you'd have to go through passport control. You might be able to get someone at the transfer desk to re-route it for you.

sannmann

pduck01

timezone_trooper

Carryon weight rules are barely enforced in RSA, especially for business class passengers like the OP.

Often1

SA will, at your option, check your bags to either JNB, FRA, or EWR.
LX will, if your bags aren not checked through, check to either ZRH or EWR.
UA will, of course, check to EWR if needed.

If checking across tickets, it is best to have a paper print out of the onwards e-ticket receipts for each passenger. The information, especially the e-ticket number, can be helpful to agents checking across tickets and that reduces the likelihood of the bags going to some odd place not of your liking.

Highly unlikely that either SA or LX will short check to other than a ticket's destination. It is a red flag for hidden city ticketing. It is also worth noting that so long as the FRA segment is on the LX ticket, LX has a duty to get you to FRA, not ZRH. In IRROPS, the reroute may well be to FRA.

jsloan

I don't know their policies. That's why I said it's not really a UA question -- it's an LX question. If you have an overnight in ZRH, I'd guess that they would short-check, but that's all it is -- a guess.

I'm not sure SA will check the bags to EWR due to the ZRH-FRA segment. I'm not sure they won't, either -- that's a question for SA. And I'm not sure LX would either. As you say, it's a hidden-city ticketing thing. Did you mean "FRA or EWR" for LX? I can't even guarantee ZRH would be an option, depending upon LX's rules.

Dpetryszyn

I was flying in J from CPT to JNB on SAA about 4 months ago and they made me gate check my carry on for being over 7kg.

Often1

SA interlines with both LX and LX,of course, interlines with UA. There is no reason the bag can't be checked through. Whether SA will do so because it requires manual intervention is a different issue.

pduck01

Often1

It's a matter of personal preference.

While I don't check bags, so it is not a big deal to me, I suppose that I would prefer to hand my bags over at CPT and retrieve them at EWR.

JimInOhio

How are you reasonably going to check them through to EWR? The agent is going to see that you're supposedly flying to FRA but you don't hold a reservation for FRA-EWR. What do you expect them to do?

sannmann

pduck01

northsideguy