AA-THY "no baggage agreement"
 

Hi,

I just tried to purchase a joint THY/AA ticket IST-ORD on Travelocity. Well, I thought I had successfully done it. I fly a similar ticket almost every 6 weeks. Travelocity just emailed (and had me call THEM) to say that AA and THY didn't have a 'baggage agreement' and they couldn't ticket it and would have to issue me two separate tickets. That's no go, as my two 50 lb bags from Chicago would turn into one 20 kilo bag in Europe!

I explained that they could easily go to each airline's website to see that they're partners but of course these people read from a script and can't think outside the box.

Has anyone else heard of this? Of course I said I wouldn't accept it and there are now flurries of calls and emails.

Thanks for your help

Never heard of this and it doesn't sound right as the THY flights still carry AA codeshare numbers.

If you buy the ticket as an AA ticket then obviously they can handle your baggage....

Not clear though are you talking about the code share? or are you ticketed on THY to somewhere, then AA to ORD or something?

Come to think of it, I guess I could imagine that there would be a problem if you bought say THY to CDG, then AA CDG-ORD or something....(does AA even fly that?)... but it all still seems pretty unlikely.

Interested to hear how it turns out though.

Of course AA has an interline agreement with THY! It sounds like the THY ticket is using an unpublished fare, hence Travelocity cannot ticket it with AA (and you are right to be concerned about your excess baggage fees with THY, they are likely to be higher than your ticket price!). Check aa.com and see how that fare compares with what you have; if much higher, it confirms that you got a consolidator fare and not a published fare. Your options are limited if you need the baggage allowance.