Great White North

Is it possible to transfer checked bags between airlines at a connection point without having to claim and recheck the luggage?

My specific case is this. I have a morning flight from SNA to SFO on AA. Three hours after I get into SFO, I have a flight to SEA on Alaska. Is there someway I can arrange to have AA simply transfer my luggage to Alaska or do I need to claim it from AA, change terminals and recheck it with Alaska? The flights are on seperate reservations.

clacko

you should be able to check them thru. in order to do this, there must be an agreement between the a/l's. most of the a/l's have these [except wn]. i've done it many times.

slippahs

It's called interline baggage agreements...

BUT, just to be the safe side, you might want to call Alaska or AA and check to see whether or not your two specific airlines have this agreement at SFO as there are some airlines that don't have agreements at some airports, etc.

Then, when you check-in, make sure AA checks your bag thru to SEA.

Aloha

[This message has been edited by slippahs (edited Dec 26, 2003).]

FlyGirl 03

Both airlines have an agreement to transfer baggage.
Let your check-in agent know that you're connecting to another airline- and provide a receipt of your ticket- so that your baggage is interlined accordingly.

Technically, you cannot demand that your ticket be considered a "thru" reservation because it isn't in the same PNR. Often enough, people buy RT ORD-STL tkts on AA and RT STL-LAS tkts on HP for the affordability. Technically- you're supposed to pick up your luggage leg-by-leg since that's how you purchased your tickets.
However, most airlines see the light in customer service standards and allow their agents to interline the baggage.
Considering that the 1st carrier is liable for any delay or misconnect of your baggage, you're asking for a favor. Ask kindly.

Great White North

Thanks for the information everyone. I left 3 hours between my flights to make sure that I could pick up and recheck my luggage if necessary, but I'd prefer not to haul it around from terminal to terminal at SFO. I'll see if AA will check it through to Seattle for me.

1K_From_SNA

Make sure you look at the baggage tag (or bag receipt) and its got the proper routing before it leaves... While the process works, it doesn't work properly if not tagged right, and there is room for error if the first airline doesn't show the other airline in the res.

Just last month I was flying AC to LAX and then UA to SNA. She first tagged it to LAX and then I had to say hold on. And both UA and AC are *A so you would think it would all work by itself.

The risk of error increases when you get more than 2 segments however because its easier for them to miss the later segments.

Aviatrix

The other thing you should do is check that your second airline has details of your bag in their computer system (this is something I was told by NW staff at IAH last year). If they don't just show them your baggage receipt and they will do the necessary.