WineCountryUA

Green tag and you need to pickup at the gate. Rare for UX at the gate to do white tags.

TTT

Nice - thanks!

On Delta, the E170/175s are treaded as mainline for bag checking (only non-mainline aircraft type that does that). No green (pink) tags - any gate checked bags are sent to final destination baggage claim.

undergrace

I'm currently living in China and will be spending the summer in Europe before heading to America to visit family. I see cheap flights from AMS-LAX that I want to purchase but I have a question about my checked bag. I have family in Houston and will be returning there after California. I see layovers at IAH that would be perfect for us to drop our large checked bag off with them (saving us schlepping around a large suitcase - we'll bring things we need in our carry-on). I know at point-of-entry it's common to claim bags and drop them back off once through customs. I don't want to cause problems if I have a bag "disappear" and not be on the LAX leg. Any advice? Thanks!

MCTUBBS

A couple of weeks ago I checked my bag LHR --> BNA, but when I landed in ORD I tore the tag off and carried it on the rest of the way. No problem.

sannmann

I'm not familiar with the process at IAH; however, this would not be possible at IAD, where the bag would show up at the Midfield Terminal and would have to be checked on to the final destination. United cracked down on shortchecking in order to stop hidden city ticketing.

Often1

For US domestic flights, carriers could care less. Simply cart your bag through Customs and rather than dropping it with bag drop for your onward flight to LAX, hand it off to your relatives at IAH. You then proceed off through the checkpoint and your onward flight and they head home with your bag.

There is no domestic bag match requirement for the domestic segment and thus the fact that your bag does not make the IAH-LAX flight causes no disruption.

The IAD example above is not relevant to IAH. There is no midfield terminal at IAH and you are not short-checking the bag.

undergrace

Thank you! ^ This eases my mind quite a bit. My family lives very close to IAH (15 minute drive) so with our 5 hour layover we will get to have lunch with them as well, and knowing we can get picked up and just leave that bag in their car when they drop us back off makes this plan even sweeter

joseeantonior

I don't understand why you would take the bag off on this short layover.

I do this very often. LIM-IAH-XXX. Let's say LIM-IAH-LAX. I clear customs, drop my bag at IAH re-check, and then exit with my carry-on to the non-sterile area. I meet my friends for lunch, and then I go through security with only my carry on, and board my onward flight.

Even better. Need somethig from your checked bag? Clear customs, take it out and put it in a plastic bag, close your bag, re-check in the transfer/re-check area, and go outside with your carry-on and your plastic bag. Leave them with all the liquids and things TSA doesn't let you bring, and clear security with your carry-on only to board your next flight.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

OP doesn't want to take bag on next flight to California. He/she wants to leave it in Houston and have it there when he/she returns to Houston from California.

joseeantonior

Then, it's a yes!

televisor

When flying (Europe)-EWR-(USA), it it possible to ask the European checkin agent to only tag bags to EWR? (Or more accurately: has anyone had experience doing this?)

The reason being: having bags tagged for EWR-XXX means SDC won't appear in the app for EWR-XXX, even if it would be otherwise available. And the UA agents at EWR on my last trip were too lazy to do a SDC for me at T-55 (despite T-45 being the bag drop limit). So in future, I'd prefer to only have bags tagged for the first segment to allow me to do my own rebooking, instead of relying on finding the right agent at EWR (most of the people at premier checkin are Airserv to boot, which makes even finding someone capable of doing SDC rather difficult).

I.e. in this case getting short-checked is perfectly legitimate, but do agents understand that? My usual origin airport is Swissport staffed, although on average they seem quit competent and friendly (as opposed to contract staff in most airports).

sannmann

Can't you call UA at T-24 for the EWR-xxx segment to SDC that segment? Granted, you'll lose your seat on the original flight, which could be bad if the TATL is delayed. Just a risk you'd have to take.

televisor

Not really: I only want to change flights if I know I have enough time to make the new connecting flight, in other words I won't know if I want to change until my bag arrives on the carousel in EWR.

This is for the essentially hourly p.s. flights, where I can often make a 1 or 1.5 hour connection *if* my first flight is on-time or early, and my bag is delivered quickly - but I usually book a 2-2.5 hour connection for peace of mind. When coming from Europe, arriving at my destination an hour+ earlier on those occasions where the stars have correctly aligned can be quite nice (first world problems, I know).

WineCountryUA

As EWR will be your port of entry. you can pickup your checked bags at EWR for customs -- just don't recheck you bags (exit and go to the standard checkin counters) until you have done SDC at the airport and then manually recheck the bags. Online SDC will probably not work.

thejaredhuang

I'm in the exact same scenario as you, did you end up doing it? My connection is >13 hours and overnight so UA shouldn't check my bag all the way through but I would like to hear about how it affected your SDC options if you ended up doing this.