Nov 25, 2016, 11:53 am

FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides

"Short Checking" -- the practice of checking bags to a location short of your travel destination is no longer permitted by UA (and many airlines). It is believed one reason for this is to discourage "Hidden City Ticketing."

There are a couple of exceptions / loopholes
-- Over nights in route stays -- you are overnight at a connecting city.
Long layover/connection check through baggage question (consolidated) (>12 hours)
UA policy on connecting bags requiring recheck

-- Port of entry for USA arrivals
At most USA port of entries, you will have clear customs and you then can exit with your baggage (or recheck).
This does not work at IAD mid-field arrivals since must clear TSA to exit.
Also PreClearance airports (where you clear immigration and customs at the departure international city -- such as most Canada-USA flights and DUB and some Caribbean)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lux Flyer

Default time is 12 hours. A small number of individual stations are enabled to allow bags to be checked thru for connections greater than 12 hours. Maybe we can build a list based on people's experiences for certain connection points.

I know FCO is up to 16 hours. SIN, HND, FRA, MUC, ZRH, BRU should all allow up to 24 hours.

UA will not Short Check bags (but some loopholes)

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Jul 28, 2023, 9:10 am

#421

Kacee

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Quote:

Originally Posted by JimInOhio

It’s possible the PNR was priced as a stopover at BRU and not a connection since the onward flight was maybe more than a day later. Might be worth the OP looking into that for the impact on pricing.

Per OP, it's a 9 hour connection. That's a throughfare.

Jul 28, 2023, 9:44 am

#422

JimInOhio

Join Date: Jun 2014

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Kacee

Per OP, it's a 9 hour connection. That's a throughfare.

That's the revised connection. The original was the following day out of BRU.

Jul 28, 2023, 11:01 am

#423

ss1710

Join Date: Aug 2017

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Quote:

Originally Posted by JimInOhio

Quote:

Originally Posted by WineCountryUA

This is called short-checking and generally UA will not do that. You can try to sk and explain. An exception if this is overnight

Customs and access to baggage is done at destination in EU

To break into two PNR, will cause the ticket to be repriced

Thanks for the info, appreciate it! Will ask at check in and see what they say.

Jan 3, 2024, 1:52 pm

#424

RS250Racer

Join Date: Jun 2006

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Didn't want to start a new thread so hope this is in the right place. I have an ANA flight next week that was booked via Chase travel, all segments on ANA metal except the first Flight which is UA LAX to SFO. I would like to short check my bags to NRT instead of them going all the way to Bangkok as I am dropping off a guitar and some presents to a friend in Narita. Layover at NRT is about 3.5 hours so plenty of time, will UA have any issue with this?