Questions about booking a trip using multiple airlines

[hotcoffee]

I have read through some of the threads about baggage fees, etc, when booking a trip via multiple airlines. But, I still have some questions that I hope TUGGERs can answer. Since most of the travel websites (e.g., Hotwire) will show airfare prices using multiple airlines, I have the following questions when booking a trip using multiple airlines:

1. Can I use online checkin when multiple airlines are involved? If so, does this involve using both airlines' websites or just the site of the airline used on the first leg of trip? Same question regarding printing of boarding passes. Print the passes from just one website or both?

2. Can baggage be checked through to final destination when the airlines are not in the same alliance (For example, American Airlines (OneWorld Alliance)-to-United Airlines (Star Alliance))? What about baggage fees when the two airlines are not in the same alliance?

3. When boarding a roundtrip to Hawaii, is it possible to book a roundtrip that involves going to one island and returning from another island? How is that done using the online travel websites? I have not seen any option of booking a return trip from a different location from the one going to.

Thanks for answers to the above questions. I apologize if some of these questions have been answered already. It takes time to read through old threads, and I did not see specific answers to the above.

 

[Talent312]

1. Unless combined in a single reservation record (one confirmation code) or the other airline's flight is a code-share with the first airline, you must use the check-in procedure for each airline thru which a flight is booked. No airline can check you in for another, if it had nothing to do with the reservation on the other. Same answer as to boarding passes... an airline can print another airline's boarding docs, only if it was responsible for ticketing the other's flight (acting as the agent for the other).

-- Sometime back, Delta had to reroute me to Rome, IT, and gave me the Lufthansa docs. Had I booked the Lufthansa flight myself, that would not have happened.

2. It used to be that checking luggage thru to final destinations was not a problem. Just show 'em your confirmation for your segments. But if your flight is on a separate reservation record, unless you have a statement saying that you've paid the other's baggage fees, they'll tell you to retreive your luggage from baggage claim and re-check it with the other airline.

3. When booking "open jaw" type flights, you'll need to book separate one-way flights. Round-trips presume a return from the same airport as your destination.

Now, of course, someone will say that I'm worng.

 

[hotcoffee]

1. Unless combined in a single reservation record (one confirmation code) or the other airline's flight is a code-share with the first airline, you must use the check-in procedure for each airline thru which a flight is booked. No airline can check you in for another, if it had nothing to do with the reservation on the other. Same answer as to boarding passes... an airline can print another airline's boarding docs, only if it was responsible for ticketing the other's flight (acting as the agent for the other).

-- Sometime back, Delta had to reroute me to Rome, IT, and gave me the Lufthansa docs. Had I booked the Lufthansa flight myself, that would not have happened.

I assumed that this is going to be true.

2. It used to be that checking luggage thru to final destinations was not a problem. Just show 'em your confirmation for your segments. But if your flight is on a separate reservation record, unless you have a statement saying that you've paid the other's baggage fees, they'll tell you to retreive your luggage from baggage claim and re-check it with the other airline.

I have seen some claims of people being able to do this without having to pay multiple baggage fees. That is why I specifically asked about the non-aligned airlines. I would assume that airlines in the same alliance might not require multiple baggage fees. I suspect that United, Continental, and US Airways might might transfer luggage without paying multiple fees due to their being all in Star.

3. When booking "open jaw" type flights, you'll need to book separate one-way flights. Round-trips presume a return from the same airport as your destination.

I suspected this might be a problem when using the online reservation systems. I'm guessing that one would either have to make reservations via the phone or do two one-way reservations to make this happen.

 

[Pat H]

Flying into one place and returning from another is called "multi-city". All airlines/travel sites have that option. You do no have to book one way tickets. For example, I flew JFK-Venice and returned Rome-JFK.

If the flights are on airlines in the same alliance, you do not have to recheck your bag. Not sure about non-allince airlines. Recently I took a bump on AA. In order to get to my destination at a reasonable time, I had them reroute me on UA to Dulles where I transferred back to AA to DFW and then on to TUS. Th bag was tagged all the way thru so maybe it can be done.

 

[lynne]

One thing to be aware of if you are booking through multiple airlines to arrive at your destination. If there is a problem or a schedule change with one of the airlines, you will not be protected for your other flights. An example is if you booked on American and United and the American flight was delayed, you will not have any recourse for the United flight if you miss it.

Can also happen with the inter-island flights in Hawaii if not booked through the airline that you are originally traveling from. If you book the inter-island flight through United and the flight is delayed, United will protect you on a later Hawaiian Air inter-island flight.

 

[Talent312]

One thing to be aware of if you are booking through multiple airlines to arrive at your destination. If there is a problem or a schedule change with one of the airlines, you will not be protected for your other flights. An example is if you booked on American and United and the American flight was delayed, you will not have any recourse for the United flight if you miss it.

Like if you book a luau for the same night as your arrival. If your flight arrives late, they won't hold the luau for you.
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BTW, I spaced on the "multi-city" booking feature whichi is essentially a series of one-way reservations. Sometimes, a return from a different airport is allowed in the fare-rule, but usually its a higher price.

To get one baggage fee from multiple airlines in an alliance, I still think that you'd have to have a single reservation code that covers all the segments (like thru a booking service), but I'd call the first airline first to see if that's true.

 

[Carolinian]

Like if you book a luau for the same night as your arrival. If your flight arrives late, they won't hold the luau for you.
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BTW, I spaced on the "multi-city" booking feature whichi is essentially a series of one-way reservations. Sometimes, a return from a different airport is allowed in the fare-rule, but usually its a higher price.

To get one baggage fee from multiple airlines in an alliance, I still think that you'd have to have a single reservation code that covers all the segments (like thru a booking service), but I'd call the first airline first to see if that's true.

I have never done an open jaw on domestic flights but have frequently to Europe and a few times to the Caribbean. Every one has priced out at half the round trip fare for one city pair plus half the round trip fare for the other city pair, and that is a lot lower than two one way tickets.

As to checking baggage all the way through, again my experience here is TATL (trans-Atlantic) but from the country I work in back to the US usually involves airlines of different alliances or even no alliance. As long as the airlines have baggage interline agreements, and most do, then you should be able to check it all the way through. The only times I have had a problem is when I am stopping over enroute overnight, in which case I have to collect my baggage and recheck it. I have actually been rather surprised at how many small carriers in eastern Europe have baggage interline agreements with major US carriers.

 

[x3 skier]

As Carolinian says, most if not all US Airlines have interline baggage agreements, regardless of alliances. Unless you have a stop over en route, I see no reason that you could not check your bags to the final destination and only pay one baggage fee.

That said, I do not use different airlines on one trip if I can avoid it. Makes it a lot easier to determine who should address situations like lost or delayed bags or missed connections. I have even been known to drive to another airport just for that advantage.

Cheers

 

[hotcoffee]

Thanks to all who responded.

I had not used that multi-city option before on those searches. That seems to work perfectly for Hawaii because the second entry can be the island-to-island flight. I noticed that I got a lot of United Airlines only responses when I did a few test runs. In one case, I got a US Airways and Island Air option that was actually not that bad of a price. I would assume that US Airways to Island Air would transfer baggage okay.(?) I remember one year we had to wait for a long time at the Maui airport because we had taken AA to Honolulu and Hawaiian Airlines to Maui, and apparently baggage does not transfer well between those two. They were able to get our luggage on a later Hawaiian Airlines flight, but it was an inconvenience to wait for the next Hawaiian Airlines flight.

I thought there might be interline agreements between the major airlines regardless of what alliance they are in, but I know some of the low cost airlines (like Southwest) don't participate in the interline agreements.