Interline Baggage Agreements
 

Good Evening.

If I am to buy a split ticket on an ORD-LHR (RT) and LHR-TIV(RT), will I be able to get the agents to ticket bags through to final destination??? The ORD-LHR is on AA or BA metal, depending on what I choose, and LHR-TIV is on JAT-Jugoslav Metal. It appears that JAT, as bizarre as it may seem may even have some sort of relation with AA, as I got a weird itin. when I did Mult. Destinations on Travelocity that had both.

Does anyone know if there is a site that shows Interline baggage agreements, and furthermore, do you think I will get airlines to let me do this?

Alex

As per my latest table of the IATA Multilateral Interline Agreement list, JU and AA have an interline agreement but JU and BA do not.

B737!

Thanks SOO much for the info. Where would one go about getting a copy of the interline agreements? Is this something that the general public can get, or is it restricted.

In addition, since you determined that AA & JAT have a interline agreement for baggage, would you assume any problem if my friend checked in to ORD and wanted luggage checked through to TIV. There is just one stopover in LHR. It's a really important question, because as she isn't a US citizen, she needs a visa to go to GB, so the baggage must go through.

Let me know your thoughts. I really appreciate all your help and knowledge!!

Alex

Anybody can buy an updated copy from IATA, but its ridiculously expensive. The cheapest way to get your hands on them is to get a copy of the OAG "Cargo Rules" publication - the last "old" copy was published October 2003 which has a list of every airline and their agreements. These are updated every 3/6 months, so wait a few months and they are inevitably very cheap on the market - and usually 99% accurate.

If your friend is holding a CONFIRMED onward ticket on JU (not a standby/waitlisted ticket) and PROOF of reservation, AA will check the bags in all the way from ORD to TIV if requested. My suggestion is that she call in advance and get someone at AA to verify that the interline agreement exists and to MAKE A NOTE in the record that pax is connecting to JU at LHR and wants to interline bags. This will save time and aggravation at the airport while the agent there looks up whether there is an interline agreement, etc...

Sorry to stray a bit from the original post.
I have been wondering in a scenario like this:

I travel LAX-HKG-SIN by CX (LAX-HKG) and SQ (HKG-SIN) on the same day.
If I pay overweight charges in LAX, will SQ get some part of it as well?
After all, SQ will carry the excess baggage as well.

If your excess baggage is charged at the LAX-SIN rate and tagged accordingly, SQ will receive their pro-rated share through the MCO submitted to the IATA clearing house.

Thanks for your reply, B747-437B.
Are you saying that all excess charges are 'paid' to IATA first which will then distribute the revenue accordingly?

Not exactly. The IATA clearing house is a central accounting agency whose only job is to make sense of interline accounts. They don't ever handle any money and the member airlines all pay an annual fee to cover the overhead costs.

Take for example that you are flying on a single CX-issued ticket LAX-CX-HKG-SQ-SIN. You pay the entire amount for that ticket to CX and they issue the ticket all the way through to SIN, including the segment on SQ metal. When SQ lifts that flight coupon from you (at time of boarding usually), they will then forward the coupon to the IATA clearing house for reconciliation of accounts. This may seem simple when looking only at two airlines, but when you consider the hundreds of member air carriers - the clearing house plays a very key role in settling accounts between airlines with the minimum number of transactions.

In the case of your excess baggage example, CX will issue an MCO (Miscallaneous Charge Order) for the amount collected from you and attach a copy of that to the flight coupon for the SQ segment (or make an electronic reference to the document number if it is an e-ticket). When SQ collects the coupon, they will also receive the MCO and will forward it to the clearing house who will then credit them with the relevant pro-rated value.

B747-437B,

Does Bangkok Airways (PG) have an interline baggage agreement with TG? I have a couple of friends flying REP-BKK on PG connecting to BKK-DEL on TG and they would much rather skip the visa-on-arrival process at BKK.

Alas no (as of October 2003).

B737 et al,

Thank you all SOO much for your thoughts and ideas on this.

Once again, you all prove that flyertalk is invalualble

Alex