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Flying experts. Checking through bags question.

skyscraper101

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Any experts please...

I'm going from LA to London via NY - but not on the same ticket/airline - so can I still check my baggage through to London from LA? Also, can I just transfer within the Terminal without having to go Landside and re-do security? (both flights operate from T7 in JFK)

LAX > JFK is Alaska Airlines arriving 6am
JFK > LHR is BA leaving 7.55am

That seems a reasonable length of time to transfer, but only if I don't have to fanny about retrieving, and then re-checking bags and doing security etc. If I can't do this, then I may opt for a later flight out of JFK.

Bahnhof Strasse
 
I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to check the bags through...and you probably won’t be able to get from domestic arrivals to international departures without checking the bag and going through security.
Can’t you fit everything in cabin baggage?
 
I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to check the bags through...and you probably won’t be able to get from domestic arrivals to international departures without checking the bag and going through security.
Can’t you fit everything in cabin baggage?

Unlikely, I'm away for 2 weeks in total splitting time between LA and NY (and doing it the wrong way round).

So, short answer - one cannot check through bags if they are not on the same airline? That adds at least another hour and makes things too tight for my liking to make the 7.55am flight back home.
 
  1. You have to clear customs and immigration on your first port of arrival in the US so even if bags have been checked through you have to collect them walk them through customs and put them back on a belt. I'd take the later flight.
 
At least both are in terminal 7

yeah but you’ll have to collect your baggage and then go through international flight check in and US immigration exit procedures. I made an international flight out of LAX by minutes despite arriving nearly 4 hours before as there were hold ups with exit checks
 
  1. You have to clear customs and immigration on your first port of arrival in the US so even if bags have been checked through you have to collect them walk them through customs and put them back on a belt. I'd take the later flight.

I'm not arriving in the US though, I'm already in the US. I just want to hop off a domestic plane and onto an international one leaving from the same Terminal.
 
I'm not arriving in the US though, I'm already in the US. I just want to hop off a domestic plane and onto an international one leaving from the same Terminal.
So you are! Sorry should of read the post better. Less sure on the luggage. But 1hr55 is still quite a tight transfer to clear immigration in especially when it's 2 different tickets. Your first plane doesn't have to be very late to make it impossible. If there isn't a code share or the airlines are in the same alliance then check through is often not possible anyway
 
yeah but you’ll have to collect your baggage and then go through international flight check in and US immigration exit procedures. I made an international flight out of LAX by minutes despite arriving nearly 4 hours before as there were hold ups with exit checks

I've never been met with exit controls at LAX?
 
You may or may not be able to check them straight through.
I currently have this issue domestic through to international and despite being the same flight every time desk jockeys at check in regularly fuck it up and give me incorrect information or do the opposite of what I want.

I would phone the carrier and confirm all your questions (be aware this itself can be a bit of an emotional length phone call, lots of hold and press 1 etc)
When I got to the desk I would reconfirm and (this is important) check the codes on the luggage to see it’s doing what you want it to

Also be aware if you fluster a desk check in by asking questions they don’t know the answer to and complicating/knocking them
Off their stride they might make a mistake. So CHECK codes on luggage

The importance is what it says on your hold luggage codes

I got to the Middle East and when my luggage didn’t arrive I asked at the lost luggage and realised I had a sticker for an Australian connection stuck to my boarding pass because I had confused the desk staff and they had stuck previous customers luggage ticket on my bag

Next trip determined to get it right coming back the desk jockey fucked it up but realised after I left the desk and by the time I got to the gate I had been upgraded as my luggage wasn’t going to be where I wanted it when I landed despite trying my hardest

Take anything you absolutely need in your carryone and remember if your bag goes missing it will generally be back with you in 24 hours and an apology
 
So you are! Sorry should of read the post better. Less sure on the luggage. But 1hr55 is still quite a tight transfer to clear immigration in especially when it's 2 different tickets. Your first plane doesn't have to be very late to make it impossible. If there isn't a code share or the airlines are in the same alliance then check through is often not possible anyway

There's no immigration to clear. I'm not entering the USA. I'm leaving it.
 
I’ve just done a Thai airways international and domestic flight and as they were booked on separate tickets they wouldn’t check luggage all the way through
 
I'll call the airline if I can't get anything more definitive on this. I'm just suspicious that they'll give the answer which makes them least liable.
 
IME...I don't think a generalised answer can be provided for this. It will depend on the airlines, and this week's attitude to security and baggage (i.e. they are fairly fluid setups, between regions and overtime).

For example, in South Africa, they require you to collect bags at the first point of entry to the country (then re-check for the internal flight, but no further baggage checks). The US may be more mature (and adept to higher frequency of international travellers), or more reductive and security focused.
 
IME...I don't think a generalised answer can be provided for this. It will depend on the airlines, and this week's attitude to security and baggage (i.e. they are fairly fluid setups, between regions and overtime).

For example, in South Africa, they require you to collect bags at the first point of entry to the country (then re-check for the internal flight, but no further baggage checks). The US may be more mature (and adept to higher frequency of international travellers), or more reductive and security focused.

The US do the same. I have witnessed first hand people missing their connections over this ridic rule.

However, this is not about first port of entry. It's about exiting and checked through baggage between different airlines.
 
If it's not the same airline or a code-sharing partner where the tickets were sold together as one route then I wouldn't expect to be able to make that connection with checked luggage that had to be re-checked (I'd be surprised if you don't have to do this and you probably shouldn't assume you won't until you know otherwise for sure). In a number of airports (and particularly those in the US) I'd have some doubts about making the connection with hand luggage only (though I only travel hand luggage these days, even for trips of 5-6 weeks).

Additionally - what are the chances of the first leg running to time or, given it's domestic US, you not getting bumped?
 
In theory you will need to collect your bags and check in for the onward flight as you are not on one ticket. This wasn't always the case, BA led the charge to stop people on split tickets checking bags through. Not all airlines/check in staff adhere to it, so the answer is, "They might check your bags through, but prepare for them not to"

What is more worrying with a split ticket and relatively short transfer time is that if the AS flight is late in to JFK you will miss the BA to LHR plus you will lose the BA ticket and need to buy a new one. If that happens Norwegian to Gatwick at 5pm would probably be cheapest, but a ball-ache all the same.

Was it some kind of Sky Scanner company that recommended this transfer to you?
 
In theory you will need to collect your bags and check in for the onward flight as you are not on one ticket. This wasn't always the case, BA led the charge to stop people on split tickets checking bags through. Not all airlines/check in staff adhere to it, so the answer is, "They might check your bags through, but prepare for them not to"

What is more worrying with a split ticket and relatively short transfer time is that if the AS flight is late in to JFK you will miss the BA to LHR plus you will lose the BA ticket and need to buy a new one. If that happens Norwegian to Gatwick at 5pm would probably be cheapest, but a ball-ache all the same.

Was it some kind of Sky Scanner company that recommended this transfer to you?

Ta, I think I'm going to play this safe then and leave more time between flights.

It wasn't skyscanner, I'm booking a work trip to NY with BCD. But instead of returning straight home, I want to go to LA for a week (not work). So, as that isn't expensable I'm just booking that separately

Alaska seem to dominate that route with the most options, and the overnight from LAX-JFK would've been the most convenient if I could get off the plane and onto the next one with a comfortable 2 hour transfer within the same terminal.

If I have to deal with the ballache of waiting for bags, and then, re-checking bags, and then re-doing security. Then I'll have to rethink it because 2 hours won't be enough.
 
Ta, I think I'm going to play this safe then and leave more time between flights.

It wasn't skyscanner, I'm booking a work trip to NY with BCD. But instead of returning straight home, I want to go to LA for a week (not work). So, as that isn't expensible. I'm just booking that separately

Alaska seem to dominate that route with the most options, and the overnight from LAX-JFK would've been the most convenient if I could get off the plane and onto the next one with a comfortable 2 hour transfer within the same terminal.

If I have to deal with the ballache of waiting for bags, and then, re-checking bags, and then re-doing security. Then I'll have to rethink it because 2 hours won't be enough.

Is there any way your New York to London BA can be changed to a LAX-London and you pay for the difference? Might cost around the same as the Alaska Air flight...
 
Is there any way your New York to London BA can be changed to a LAX-London and you pay for the difference? Might cost around the same as the Alaska Air flight...

I was thinking it. But I just don't want to cause a bunch of hassle for doing something unorthadox and having to work it out with finance. When I floated that idea my boss was already sounding dubious and the company is massive and I CBA with the potential for confusion.
 
I was thinking it. But I just don't want to cause a bunch of hassle for doing something unorthadox and having to work it out with finance. When I floated that idea my boss was already sounding dubious.

Fair enough, but if you change the New York to London to a later date that will incur a cost (unless you are on a fully flex ticket, which I guess you won't be!). Can you not speak directly to BCD?
 
OK so...

I've called Alaska Airlines, and called Kennedy airport, and posted on Flyertalk forums. All have confirmed that I can check through the baggage to London in LA, and transfer planes without having to go landside. So that's a bonus. Now I'm still unsure whether to take that early flight which gets me home quicker (early eve) or take a mid morning flight and hang out in the lounge for a few hours, but then I don't get in until late.
 
Proper WTF conversation on the phone too with the airport:

Me: "...yeah so I wanted to know if I can just transfer in the terminal... I think they both use T7"
Operator: "sir, we only have 6 Terminals"
Me: "Er... Oh, I thought they both operate from Terminal 7?" frantically googles information confirming so
Operator: "Yes, but we only got 6 Terminals"
Me: "Right.. so which terminal do they each use?"
Operator: "Alaska is Terminal 7, and BA also Terminal 7"
Me: Errr. okay
Operator: You got, Terminal 1, Terminal 2, Terminal 4, Terminal 6, Terminal 7 and Terminal 8
Me: penny drops (3 and 5 are no longer in operation, which is totally irrelevant information)
Me: "Right, so bottom line, they both use T7 and I can just transfer without going landside"
Operator "Correct Sir"

Kinell :facepalm:
 
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