jsloan

UA is unlikely to interline the bags in either case.

cfischer

you have a much greater chance that UA will be willing to interline onto another 016 ticket than one booked directly from HA. They can certainly do it, but they have no obligation whatsoever. Ask nicely, present the other UA ticket and see if they are willing to entertain it.

pkerr

Just a follow up question / comment as my flight is this Friday. (I posted back in Nov)
I'm flying UA from STL to IAH on UA. Then a separate ticket on SQ to MAN.
Many have commented that UA should be able to check my bags all the way to my final destination even though I'm on 2 separate tickets. Is this still the consensus?
I'm flying J from IAH to MAN but coach from STL to IAH. Will I have to pay for my bags on the STL - IAH leg?
Thanks

WineCountryUA

It is still the UA's policy, as as long as the domestic ticket is not Basic Economy and the break between flights is less than 12 hours or not over night.
But allow extra time at check-in, 20-30 minutes, staff at smaller outstations can be untrained in this and may need help.
If the check-thru is successful, no.

pkerr

Thanks! Not basic economy and 6 hrs until onward flight.

pibrahim

Am likely to fly LAS to LAX with United Y, and then LAX to FRA with Lufthansa F. Two separate tickets.

What are the rules in terms of luggage, given that the LH F obviously has a higher luggage allowance? Will the international flight rules 'take priority' and United let me check in with either a heavier bag/two bags (and also hopefully combine the tickets so I don't need to reclaim baggage at LAX) or will I be asked to pay extra? Similarly, would I need to check in at the economy line at LAS?

Thanks in advance!

StuckinITH

Two separate tickets, if you have no high status with United you will have to pay for the luggage for the LAS-LAX segment. You can check the cost on the United website as only you know your status on United or Star Alliance.

And you will have to check-in in the economy line. There is no way to combine when the trip is in two PNRs.

At LAS, the United agent should be able to interline the luggage to your final destination. Just make sure that you allow an additional 15-20 minutes at the airport as sometimes it takes some time for the agent to complete the process. However, if your ticket LAS-LAX is in Basic Economy, there will be no interlining of your luggage to your final destination. And the names on the two tickets have to be exactly the same (like putting a title in one and no title in the other will mess the process).

wolfie_cr

", if your ticket LAS-LAX is in Basic Economy, there will be no interlining of your luggage to your final destination. " not even in the same alliance!

WineCountryUA

If you meet the interlining two separate ticket rules and successful check-thru. it has been the experience of others you get the higher allowance by nature of how the bag check-thru is handled (temporarily building a combined ticket). Allow 20-30 extra minutes to check bags to achieve the check-thru.
IMO, Yes. You hold an economy ticket

mozilla

I have a recent interlining experience, which was not so good.

I asked a contracted agent at Premier Access check-in counter of my home airport (a UA outstation) to interline two bags to LH from LHR to my final destination in the continental EU on a separate 220 ticket. The agent, which I've seen behind the counter at this outstation for several years, seemed to know what he had to do. He said the bags would turn up at the final destination. He showed me the bag tag, and I saw the correct itinerary of the LH flight on top, followed by the 2 UA flights. Same on the stub that I received. The UA in-app baggage tracker showed the complete itinerary for both bags as well.

Long story short, neither bag made it to the final destination. As far as I can tell, based on information from Tile tags in each bag - which matches what the in-app tracker was showing - UA transported both bags to LHR together with me, and then they got stuck. Albeit multiple-hours layover time - including immigration and security I still had ample time to visit both the Welcome Lounge (with a shower) and the United Club in LHR - they never got loaded on the LH flight. Filed lost baggage claim, and the agent couldn't understand either why not one but both bags weren't loaded on the LH flight.

They located one bag pretty quickly and shipped it the same night to my destination, and it was waiting for me in my hotel the next day, but LHR needed 72 hours to locate and ship the other bag, with my Tile showing a stationary "Hounslow, UK" location all the time. The one they found quickly was also severely damaged to boot, but I consider that an unrelated event and have been separately compensated for that.

I'm assuming both bags most likely ended up on the belt in LHR somehow, and yes given that I had ample time I should have checked that ("trust but verify" right) but the whole point of the *A interlining is that you shouldn't. I've been Googling to check if I'm just ignorant and LHR has a "recheck" policy for INTL like the US has, but I couldn't find anything that says this is the case, all sources say LHR checks through according to the bag tag.

LH schlepped my baggage through EU customs without ever asking if I had to declare something to customs, something of which I still don't understand the legal aspects. I've had UA doing the same for me with US customs.

On a positive note, the process was streamlined, and everyone that I spoke with in regards to this issue was very professional and seemed determined to get this fixed asap, both here in the US and in the EU. Without asking for it, LH provided a flyer with all information regarding compensation and paid out my requests in less than a week. But I'll definitely think again about interlining my bags in the future.

TL;DR On a recent trip, both checked bags traveled with me on my 016 itinerary but were never loaded on the final *A interline segment added by a UA check-in agent, albeit more than sufficient layover time. Took 72 hours to recover but I was compensated appropriately.

jsloan

Why would you assume that?

As long as your final destination is printed on the luggage tag, there's no reason to think that the bag would have been delivered at LHR.

As for whether or not you have to pick up the bag and carry it through customs: did you have to walk past baggage claim, or did you follow a sign for transferring passengers that just took you from immigration back into the terminal? Usually that's a pretty good clue (except in GUM, where you walk past the baggage claim but don't pick up your bags if you're connecting... :shrug

I've had bags go missing during online transfers; I've had them go missing during interline transfers. I've had bags go missing on nonstop flights. It happens. None of it would make me re-think doing it again in the future.

PVDtoDEL

Did you show LH your bag tag at the gate and make sure it was in their system? Sometimes the baggage information doesn't get pushed through, so the downline carrier doesn't know that they need to pick up the bag.

This applies whether on single or separate tickets - when you have an interline bag, always show your bag tag every time you switch carriers.

mozilla

Because of the statistical improbability of having not one but both bags mishandled without an apparent explanation (e.g. tight connection), though there could have been one.

Your observation with regards to picking up/rechecking is a good one. If it weren't for the Welcome Lounge that I wanted to visit, I'd have followed the signs for transferring pax.

I did not, neither did the agent or the relevant paragraph on the UA website instruct me to do this, so this is going to be the lesson to learn out of all this. This is the kind of experience wisdom that should be in the wiki.

I still wonder, what happened when the bags got scanned in LHR (were they not flagged for review?) and why did a multiple hour layover in the same terminal not suffice for a manual intervention to move the bags to the correct bin?

jsloan

Oh, I imagine you're correct that both bags were afflicted by the same issue. I just think it's more likely that the UA rep stuck them in the wrong corner of the baggage room... or, as PVDtoDEL suggests, that LH needed to be apprised of their existence, and wasn't, for some reason.

I had a similar situation at MAD, on a single ticket, UA->SN transfer. My bag never left MAD even though they had plenty of time to get it to SN, and then it took SN 2 1/2 days to deliver it despite them knowing exactly where it was the whole time. I don't remember if I showed my baggage claim check to the SN agent or not. I've had some airlines ask if I had checked bags when making an interline transfer; I don't remember if SN did, and I don't remember going out of my way to mention them.

pkerr

Assuming I don't get my boarding passes for my SQ flight the night before, can I get my boarding passes from the UA agent? And one other question... how do I get the UA agent to check my bags through if I don't have my boarding passes from SQ? I do have my itinerary and record locater available.
Thanks