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Checking baggage through on separate UA operated reservations...

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Old Jan 9, 2019, 5:41 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
It is possible to interline bags for no extra costs when on separate tickets, when both tickets are for UA flights.
However, for some agents, this can be a challenging task, so allow extra time at check-in (30 minutes extra?). The agent may need to consult the "Help Desk."

Recent reports suggest this may not be possible if one ticket is Basic Economy, no free checked bags, ticket

related thread: UA Bag Interlining If Separate Tix with *A Partners (YES) & Non *A Partners (NO)
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Checking baggage through on separate UA operated reservations...

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Old Feb 6, 2019, 10:33 am
  #46  
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Originally Posted by jsloan
UA-UA is more difficult specifically because of the scenario you encountered. You can add a dummy segment on another airline without doing inventory validation, because there's an allowance in the system for UA's systems being out of sync with the other airline. In a UA-UA situation, the system tries to be helpful, and will validate the updated inventory on the assumption that this is a real flight change.
Right, but this wasn’t a change, which is why the “dummy booking” thing seems so counterintuitive. It seems like it should be easy to merge two existing UA bookings, but it isn’t. I had read this thread in the past and was prepared to be standing there a while, but I was amazed by the time it took. With Premier Access and TSA PRE, I probably could have claimed and re-checked my bag in about the same amount of time this process ended up taking.
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Old Feb 6, 2019, 10:46 am
  #47  
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Originally Posted by joe_miami
Right, but this wasn’t a change, which is why the “dummy booking” thing seems so counterintuitive. It seems like it should be easy to merge two existing UA bookings, but it isn’t
But, it is a change, as far as the UA computers are concerned. The way it works is that they go into your existing record, add the dummy segment, and check the luggage. That works fine... as long as there is space available.
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Old Feb 6, 2019, 10:57 am
  #48  
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Haha. Yes, I know. It’s obviously a systems limitation.
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Old Feb 6, 2019, 12:05 pm
  #49  
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Originally Posted by 1P
What jsloan said. It can take a while to do while they work out how to do it (my latest experience lasted 20 minutes). Often the agent does not know to add dummy segments, let alone how to do that, in which case ask them to call the Help Desk.

This last time, I said to the agent, "Sorry it's such a problem to do that in SHARES." "Oh," she said, "you know about SHARES, do you?" "Enough to know it's a real pain for stuff like this," I responded.
Had the complete opposite experience this morning. The agent found both fiights before I had time to show her the paperwork, the machine spat out a "dummy" boarding pass for the first flight with a seat assignment in hell (as I started to pick it up to say the seat assignment was wrong, she said "No" and I said "Ah, that's the ghost segment" and she said "Right"). She had the baggage tags printed in less than a minute. When I mentioned SHARES, she said "Oh the new system makes this far more difficult. It's simple in SHARES. I was a Continental agent for years." I have never seen anybody accomplish the task so quickly!
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Old Feb 12, 2019, 9:59 am
  #50  
 
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Got lucky and the HKG premier agent knew exactly what to do. Very well versed in SHARES, and it was quick and painless.
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Old Feb 16, 2019, 5:01 am
  #51  
 
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Just tried this at RSW. No dice. The wrinkle is that on my second itinerary I have a connection onto ANA and the agent said that merging the UA tickets will trigger a re-issue on ANA and then all bets are off. Really sucks they can’t do something simple like this.

Off to the hell of ORD....
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Old Feb 16, 2019, 7:04 am
  #52  
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Originally Posted by pundit761
Just tried this at RSW. No dice. The wrinkle is that on my second itinerary I have a connection onto ANA and the agent said that merging the UA tickets will trigger a re-issue on ANA and then all bets are off. Really sucks they can’t do something simple like this.

Off to the hell of ORD....
Uh...

I don't know what the agent was thinking, but "merging" tickets isn't necessary (and, for that matter, isn't really possible without some serious black magic). The correct procedure is to add your downline flights onto the first PNR, issue the bag tag, and then remove them. SHARES will validate inventory on the UA segment added to the first PNR, which can be a hassle if the flight is sold out, but not on the partner segment. No tickets should have to be re-issued -- certainly not the second ticket, which isn't even supposed to be touched during the procedure. Next time, I'd try asking if they'd call the help desk. (I'd also try to find a different agent, because I'd really want to avoid whatever it was that your agent today was planning. )
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Old Feb 16, 2019, 9:17 am
  #53  
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Originally Posted by jsloan
Uh...
...The correct procedure is to add your downline flights onto the first PNR, issue the bag tag, and then remove them. SHARES will validate inventory on the UA segment added to the first PNR, which can be a hassle if the flight is sold out, but not on the partner segment. No tickets should have to be re-issued...
I am curious how they prevent the ticket from getting issued. Do they just not END the transaction - print the tag then IGNORE? Or, somehow there is a manual ticketing process that they don't send the changes to?

Thanks.
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Old Feb 16, 2019, 6:31 pm
  #54  
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Originally Posted by username
I am curious how they prevent the ticket from getting issued. Do they just not END the transaction - print the tag then IGNORE? Or, somehow there is a manual ticketing process that they don't send the changes to?

Thanks.
Ticket isssuance is manual. You can have whatever you want in a PNR, including flights that aren’t ticketed, protection flights, flights on other airlines, etc. The only caveat is that SHARES is built to validate inventory for UA flights — it’s difficult to add a UA segment that’s on a sold-out flight. For other airlines, SHARES will take the agent’s word that ticketing is handled separately
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Old Feb 17, 2019, 12:16 am
  #55  
 
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Linking 2 Tickets

Hi All,
I have 2 separate UA tickets in and out of Denver 3 hours apart and with this will UA link the tickets at check in of the first flight?
I have no status travelling in Y with both flights being domestic with checked baggage, while i have enough time to collect and recheck it would be nice not to.

Thanks in advance D
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Old Feb 17, 2019, 12:55 am
  #56  
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Originally Posted by KTA Return
....
I have 2 separate UA tickets in and out of Denver 3 hours apart and with this will UA link the tickets at check in of the first flight?
....
UA will "interline" bags from one UA flight to another UA even if on two separate tickets. It can take some extra time when checking in on the first flight. Neither flight can be a Basic Economy ticket.

Other than this there is no meaningful way to "link" two separate tickets and the bag interline does not give you the same misconnection protections as having a single ticket. However, UA will generally provide "best available" assistance for misconnections in this situation

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Feb 17, 2019 at 1:01 am
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Old Feb 17, 2019, 2:04 am
  #57  
 
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Originally Posted by jsloan
Uh...

I don't know what the agent was thinking, but "merging" tickets isn't necessary (and, for that matter, isn't really possible without some serious black magic). The correct procedure is to add your downline flights onto the first PNR, issue the bag tag, and then remove them. SHARES will validate inventory on the UA segment added to the first PNR, which can be a hassle if the flight is sold out, but not on the partner segment. No tickets should have to be re-issued -- certainly not the second ticket, which isn't even supposed to be touched during the procedure. Next time, I'd try asking if they'd call the help desk. (I'd also try to find a different agent, because I'd really want to avoid whatever it was that your agent today was planning. )
Thanks - this is actually very helpful. The agent spent 25 minutes trying to sort it out, and to compound the complexity, I had the dreaded “Mr.” Prefix problem so that my names didn’t match up on both PNRs. With that, plus a code-share, it was sort of the perfect storm. But yes, the advice to call the help desk is a good one - my agent was on the 1K desk and claimed that she had done this sort of thing before but couldn’t get it to work.

All good - priorty + pre check actually added only about 15 minutes to my total time to recheck the bag at ORD since things went very smoothly. Given the 24 hour journey, wasn’t the worst thing to get a bit of walking exercise in between flights 😂
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Old Mar 3, 2019, 2:29 pm
  #58  
 
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Baggage question on trip w/separate tix

So I am looking to book my return from KOA-EWR in early September. Based on equipment and pricing/point, combined with my needs/desires for coach and F, it likely makes sense for me to break the continuous trip up with two separate tickets. Basically, using CC points to purchase my KOA-SFO/LAX in Y on equipment I'd be fine with on a day flight, and then purchasing a competitive fare in J from one of those on to EWR. My question is this...Is it possible for me to check through my bags in KOA, or will I need to retrieve them and re-check since the tix will be on separate PNRs?
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Old Mar 3, 2019, 2:40 pm
  #59  
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UA should be able to ticket the bag(s) straight through to EWR at KOA. Just show up at least 15-30 minutes earlier than normal to allow an inexperienced agent figure it out. An experienced agent will do it in less than 5 minutes, but you can’t count on getting one.
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Old Mar 3, 2019, 5:35 pm
  #60  
 
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Originally Posted by joe_miami
I did this at IAH a few weeks ago. It took an agent and a supervisor about 30 minutes, since one of the segments was sold out in my cabin. (One would imagine UA-UA should be easy, but the agents need to create a dummy booking to pull it off.)
This is not all that uncommon. Aero (for those who are unaware is United's graphical front end reservations system, opposite to SHARES) is, for some reason, notoriously difficult when creating interline bag tags. Every single time an agent (hub or outstation) tries to use it to tag an interline bag of mine, Aero fails. They have always had to create dummy bookings.
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