Always Flyin

There is no positive bag matching on domestic flights. The bag will continue on without you.

WineCountryUA

In the USA, as there is no PPBM, the bags may not be unload if it will delay the flight.

jsloan

I don't think UA would even notice. If they started to ask questions, you could just tell them you had to rush to your meetings. It might even be true.

I'd just make sure that the baggage office is open at the time you intend to pick up the bags (likely not a problem at SFO) and that you give yourself sufficient time in case there's a line of people waiting to file claims.

UA need not, and will not, unload the baggage at BBB, unless BBB-CCC is international or AAA-BBB requires a customs check. There is no positive bag match requirement on US flights.

sokolov

That is very interesting, thank you. Does this also apply to flights from Canada, with pre-clearance, that are treated as national flights upon arrival in the US?

raehl311

Not only that, but UA has taken to putting your bags on earlier flights if you check in early enough. Two times recently now I've checked in before the check-in cutoff for an earlier flight to the same destination and my bag went on the earlier flight.

BelmontRef

I'll give you a story of advancing bags from years ago traveling non-rev ORD-DEN. Didn't like the ORD-DEN loads so routed us ORD-OMA-DEN (a nice same plane / same crew "connection"). We had checked bags including skis. Arriving at DEN, we found our bags immediately waiting for us on the OMA arrival belt. We hadn't hurried so just first thought they beat us. But when other bags from our flight started appearing later, realized they had gone on the non-stop and the bag system, seeing them tagged for having arrived from OMA, routed them to the OMA belt. But where were the skis? Finally realized that since the skis were manually handled, they were probably down at the ORD belt - and they were.

Beer Me!

Just as a data point, I recently did STL-EWR-SKB w/ an overnight at EWR. Was scheduled to arrive EWR at 9:57pm and depart at 8:37am the following morning. I asked to shortcheck my bag stating that I was overnighting and was refused because the layover was < 12 hours. I didn't feel like arguing as there was a ground stop in EWR that had already racked up 2 hours of delays. I realized any extra time screwing around with bags would just cut into my potential sleep further.

I've been able to successfully shortcheck on other similar occasions in the past. As WineCountryUSA stated, YMMV.

sierranevada

Just reporting back - our bags were checked all the way through to SXM so we did not need to claim bags in ORD and recheck the next morning

mauiUAflyer

Was flying ABQ-ORD-IAD-YUL, with a 12 hour overnight at IAD. Didn't want to pack a separate bag (carry-on) to overnight with.

Called the 1K line; was told, yes, they will have to check it IAD, and I might possibly get an agent to check it all the way to YUL (which I didn't want).

Sure enough, check it at the airport, ABQ-ORD-IAD-YUL, but I was able to get her to change it to -IAD.

So which would be correct?

WineCountryUA

Standard policy -- no checking thru for overnight connection. See this thread's wiki or http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...solidated.html
Should be no problem getting the bags but some agents will check-thru if requested.

mauiUAflyer

That's what I thought, and that's what the 1K desk had told me, so I was surprised when she checked it all the way through without my even requesting it! Over-deliver!

BelmontRef

The empirical evidence suggests that despite policy that says bags are not checked through an overnight, Shares does so anyway and it takes CSR action to override that (or as happened to me, falling back to handwritten tags when gate checking our carry-ons that we needed at the hotel).

aussieinsf

Wiki says:
This does not work at IAD mid-field arrivals since must clear TSA to exit.

We recently tested this as we needed to overnight at Dulles on a ZRH-IAD-SFO ticket as my wife had a back injury and needed to break up the journey. Traveling on two separate tickets. Wanted to use standby to avoid paying a change fee.

When we checked in at ZRH we put all our bags on my wife's ticket so I was traveling without checked luggage. During the ZRH-IAD leg I used in flight wifi to confirm standby on a flight the following morning. Loads were extremely light the following day so availability wasn't an issue. I could not do standby for my wife I presume because she had bags checked.

When we got to IAD we cleared immigration/customs together via the connecting flights path. Once through customs we asked not to re-check our bags and said we wanted to overnight in Dulles. Were directed to UA personnel who added a sticker overlay to our bag tags and re-directed our bags to the IAD terminal. Our bags then went back into the baggage system. We were told they would take 30 mins to get to the terminal which was accurate. He also offloaded the bags from the original flight my wife was booked on in the UA system.

Once the bags were offloaded from my wife's original ticket, standby opened up on the app and I could confirm her via standby on my flight the following day.

We then cleared security into the C gate area, took the train in to baggage claim and picked up our bags (2 of the 3, the third bag was mistakenly sent on to SFO on our original flight and we got it on arrival into SFO the following day).

I would not count on this method of breaking the journey at Dulles with baggage but I wanted to report it as a possibility as it differs from the guidance on the wiki.

CKinMD

Hello all,

I will be flying FLL-IAD on Wednesday, with a 12 hour layover, before continuing on to GRU (all on the same PNR). Will UA at FLL allow me to short-check my bag and retrieve it at Dulles? I booked a day room near the airport so would like to have my primary bag with me to change clothes before the long flight.

Not sure if it matters, but this is an award ticket in J, so if the reason they don't short check is to prevent hidden city ticketing, I dont think that would apply in my case. Do I need to worry that an agent could be a stickler for the rules and refuse to short check it?

Thanks in advance,

CK

Often1

Whether on the same PNR or not, are you on the same ticket?

1. If the 12 hours is overnight, your bag will only be checked to IAD and you must reclaim it.
2. If you are on two tickets, even if they are booked into the same PNR, it is your option.
3. If one ticket and the 12 hours is not overnight, UA will not short-check, but it is possible that you may find an agent willing to do this. While the underlying policy reason may have to do with hidden city ticketing fraud, the policy is the policy and agents don't make policy, they just enforce it.

To be frank, if your sole reason is to change into more comfortable clothes, given UA's generous carry-on allowance, I would suggest tossing the change of clothes into your carryon and not have to deal with the checked luggage at IAD.