abhilife2001

Hello,
I booked two intl United tickets recently.
Trip 1
Seattle - New Delhi (on UA and AI flights)
New Delhi - Seattle (on AI and UA flights)
Booked using UA miles on UA ticket stock on Saver flights.
Checked Baggage allowance is 1 bag of 23kg for the whole journey.

Trip 2
Seattle - Rome (on TK flights)
Rome - Amsterdam (on OS flight)
Amsterdam - Seattle (on UA flights)
Booked using UA miles on UA ticket stock on Saver flights.
Checked Baggage allowance is 2 bags of 23kg for the whole journey.

Usually I have seen 2 bags allowance for US - Asia/India routes but this time that route has only 1 and surprisingly the Europe trip has 2 checked bags allowed for all legs (incl the Rome - Amsterdam).
Wondering have they started giving 2 bags for Europe too?
Thx

jsloan

DOT regulations — your allowance for the entire ticket is determined by the first marketing carrier. On an award flight, the marketing and operating carriers are the same, and if you’re not changing carriers en route to your first stopover, you don’t have to worry about the Most Significant Carrier rule. So if TK offers 2 bags from SEA to FCO, that’s what you get throughout. It has nothing to do with UA.

On trip 1, I’ve never heard of UA delegating, so you should get the UA allowance from SEA to DEL. That appears to be 1x50 lbs. If it was more in the past, perhaps UA has gotten stingier, or perhaps you were flying someone or somewhere else?

Your implicit assumption that baggage is computed by region is incorrect. It’s done on a market-by-market basis; UA may offer 2 bags ro Japan but 1 to India, if that’s what they decide is competitive.

abhilife2001

Thanks for your detailed response
I was under the (wrong) impression that on award tickets its also from where /whom we buy the tickets, was not aware of the First marketing carrier rule . Thanks for the info.
Prior redemptions on UA miles have also given 2 pcs bags so I assumed wrongly.

WineCountryUA

It is the first marketing carrier, and for award tickets, that means the first operating carrier. No codeshares on award tickets.

abhilife2001

I rechecked some other dates where UA is the first carrier for the short domestic hop to SFO and then AI is the long international carrier SFO-DEL. In this, it shows 2 bags even though UA is the first carrier and in saver fare.
In my below post, that was also an UA + AI combination for the same route but on a different date and it showed 1 pc bag, so seems there maybe something else too?
Both tickets using UA Award miles.

WineCountryUA

If starting with UA, any *A status or credit card bag allowance? Note those will not carry over to non-UA return flight.

abhilife2001

No *A status nor any credit card bag allowance.
Basically there are two tickets as follows which has same carriers but for different dates and has differing bag allowances. Only difference is a very small domestic India leg (marked in bold below)
Ticket 1 - UA (US Domestic) -> AI (Intl) -> UK (India domestic) -> AI (India domestic) -> AI (India - Singapore) -> UA (Singapore - US) -> UA (US domestic) - 2 pcs bag whole journey
Ticket 2 - UA (US Domestic) -> AI (Intl) -> AI (India domestic) -> AI (India domestic) -> AI (India - Singapore) -> UA (Singapore - US) -> UA (US domestic) - 1 pc bag whole journey.

jsloan

The DOT regulations on this are clear as mud. Essentially, UA is allowed, but not required, to delegate to AI’s policies at UA’s discretion. That may be what you’re seeing. However, are all of these flights terminating at the same airport? It’s entirely possible that UA has decided to offer 1 bag to DEL but two bags to BLR, or vice versa.

nacho

@OP What was the actual baggage allowance?

I just had an issue with a 016 ticket on EVA air, my e-ticket said 2 checked bags and EVA check in insisted 1 bag. Fortunately I was able to stick to the allowance instead of paying $140 for a checked bag.