Can I check through my luggage on a flight with a long (~1d) stopover, combining two different airlines on one ticket?

2/8/2017 6:01:39 AM

The official source of truth here is is American Airlines Contract of Carriage, which governs all tickets purchased for travel on American Airlines.

The first relevant section here is under “Definitions”, where it states :

Stopover – a deliberate interruption of travel for more than 4 hours
constitutes a domestic stopover unless specified otherwise.”

The second is under “Checking your bag”, where it states in part :

Baggage will not be checked:

  • To a city not on your routing
  • Beyond your next stopover city

Based on the 4 hour rule, what you have in Oakland is a “Stopover”, and thus Oakland is a “stopover city”.

So fairly clearly, AA will only check your bags to Oakland, and not any further.

This is fairly common for US airlines – especially for domestic connections. Internationally some airlines will hold bags for longer, but even that would not occur for connections equal or greater to 24 hours.

11/19/2017 3:19:51 PM

This is a very specific situation so the only way to answer this question is to make the reservation*, then call AA and ask. You may have to ask more than once, finding an Agent (more seniority is better) who knows what to look for, because there are several factors that come into play.

  • The exact scope of the Interline between AA and HA. Because they compete on these routes, AA might not even issue a ticket for the OAK-HNL sector.
  • The Baggage facilities at OAK. AA, HA, or OAK might not permit baggage stored over x hours outside of IROPS. I’ve had to claim bags on an ~8 hour connection. ~24 hours is a relatively long time.
  • HA might not accept bags before a certain time. Again, 24 hours is a long time.
  • Connection vs Stopover. If it’s a Stopover, you will definitely have to claim and recheck.

No, it is highly unlikely whose ticket stock used would make a difference. The baggage transfer rules would be the same.

For 24hrs, you might consider an inexpensive airport hotel to store the bags.

*I say make the reservation first so you can build it exactly the way you want and even an experienced Agent would likely build a reservation anyway just to see what Sabre spits out. If you don’t like the answer, you can cancel.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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