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If I am flying with more than 2 airlines, do they automatically transfer my checked luggage?
I’ve booked a trip via United using miles to South Africa, flying Aer Lingus and Egyptair.
Will my bags automatically transfer from airline to airline? They aren’t airline partners with one another, but each is partnered with United.
I assume I’ll need to recheck but since this is my first award trip using more than one airline I’m hoping more seasoned award travelers would know.
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8 Replies
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I had a horrible experience with a single United ticket flying from Warsaw to Orlando
First flight – Polish Airlines to Dusseldorf, sorry sir cannot check baggage to Orlando – we do not have visibility into the other systems, so they checked luggage to Dublin
The second flight – Eurowings by Lufthansa – Dusseldorf to Dublin – was delayed by more than an hour and as we had airtags in our luggage, we see our luggage at Dusseldorf airport
Third flight – Air Lingus – missed the flight as we had to wait till the last bag on the belt, and then file a missing baggage claim. We waited 4 hours in Aer Lingus customer service line for rebooking to be told they couldn’t help us as the last handler was Eurowings, which of course does not have a presence in Dublin.
I called United and they were able to help rebook us to Orlando the next day on the same flight. But couldn’t help with luggage. Our Airtags still show luggage is in Dusseldorf. I spent a night in a cheap hotel near the airport and flew home the next day without luggage (still in Dusseldorf).
We kept checking with luggage services in Dublin and finally, after a week, we reached out to TPG for help.
They gave us the contact details of a VP in Lufthansa Eurowings and that person helped move things. The day after my email to the VP, my airtags showed luggage movement. The luggage ultimately reached us two weeks after we left Europe.
If not for TPG’s help, I don’t think we would have received our luggage.
In short, what I mean to say – expect issues if flying different airlines on a single ticket.
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Unfortunately, both being partnered with United doesn’t matter, they (Aer Lingus / Egypt Air) need to be interline partners with each other.
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I booked on United with miles last July Air Canada Maui to YVR, then Edelweiss Air YVR to ZRH, and ZRH to MUC on LH. One ticket, and luggage went all the way through.
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You probably won’t know for sure until you check-in. Hope you have a long enough layover not to be driven crazy.
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I’m pretty sure they will not. We had a similar experience at JFK and we had to claim our bags and wait until the next carrier’s check-in opened for our flight, which was in two hours.
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Haven’t used United but when I purchased SFO to ARN through AA, I had to claim my bag at JFK and recheck it with Finnair (booked as same ticket through AA) then go back through security. Rechecking bags was required in both directions. I would call the airlines to be sure.
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If it is two separate tickets it’s very unlikely that they will transfer, which will mean you’ll have to go through immigration and customs to collect and recheck.
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If all the carriers were in Star Alliance, it should be fine but because Aer Lingus is the wildcard, I don’t know on this one, as the bags would have to be transferred between two non-aligned carriers. I’d call United to be sure but you probably won’t know until check-in.
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