Hi!
I have an international flight from an asian country back to my home in the US. I want to fly Emirates but they do not fly to my home town airport (Buffalo NY) so I'm going to have to get two plane tickets from two different carriers. (Emirates and then Jet Blue). So it will end up being ISB > JFK and then JFK > BUF.

I will have checked in luggage and I want to know if it would be possible to check in all my baggage and just pick it up from Buffalo airport with out having to re-check all the luggage at JFK.

I called the local Emirates office and they said they can check it in so I can pick it up at my final destination. I wanted to get some comments from members of this forum before I believed them.

Will jetblue be able to take my luggage from emirates and take it all the way to bufallo?

thanks!

I flew in from Cancun on Continental, transferred into EWR and transferred to BOS, and had to take my luggage through customs. I would contact JFK and see what they say about this to be a 100%. I'm almost positive, though, that you will have to claim your bags, hit up customs, imigration and then re-check them.

Assuming that JFK is the first airport in the US that you land in on the way from ISB, you will have to go through the following when you land there:

1. US immigration
2. collect checked baggage
3. US customs
4. recheck baggage
5. go through security screening

Step 2 is required in case US customs wants to look at something in your baggage. Step 5 is required because you could theoretically have moved prohibited-in-carryon items from your checked baggage to your carryon baggage.

Allow sufficient time for all of the above steps in your connection, especially if it is not through-ticketed.

If you're booking tix on JetBlue (aka B6), be aware that you'll need to take the bags between terminals yourself, as B6 does not have any interlining agreements, allowing you to through-check your luggage to your destination from your origin. So, once you go through customs, you'll have to schlep your luggage to the B6 terminal, and check in there (or use their e-bag drop).

Thank you very much for the helpful replies. Which airline has interline agreements that will allow me to pick up luggage right at BUF?

For example, if I choose something like Delta or AA then will I just have to go through US immigration and then straight to my terminal and then collect my bags at BUF? That would be much more convenient than lugging all the bags all over the airport

Whenever you fly into the US from an Internatinal destination, you have to claim and re-check your bags. Usually the re-check is right outside the baggage claim area, and is fairly simple.

That being said, I wouldn't let the transporting of bags between terminals at JFK dissuade you from B6. I have found B6 to be the best/most enjoyable connection between JFK and BUF. (Most other carriers have cut back to small RJ's between JFK and BUF...B6 gives you full-sized A320's, TV, etc.) The AirTrain has made between terminal travel pretty easy at JFK (compared to the nightmare that the busses used to be). When you get your baggage, get a cart, load up, and follow the signs to the AirTrain. Take the train to T6 and follow the signs to the terminal (there are elevators as well as escalators, so you can still take the cart with you).

That's all there is to it. IMO, the benefits of B6 far outweigh the minimal inconvenience of transferring luggage. YMMV. Happy travels! (Oh, and to answer your original question, most other airlines that fly into BUF have an interlining arrangement).