[Anonymous]

[BA744fan]

I am flying BA to Hong Kong then connecting to a Cathay Pacific flight.

Can I check my bags in at LHR straight through to my final destination?

[JordanD]

Based on my experience a few years ago (2009): yes, but BA can’t issue CX boarding cards (although they will reserve you a seat and thru check luggage). You get your CX boarding card from within the transfer area of HKG.

[ImissConcorde]

oneworld transfers
If you are travelling on connecting oneworld flights, your luggage will be checked through to your final destination at the time of check-in.

http://www.oneworld.com/airports-destinations/baggage-information/baggage-queries-during-travel

[dutchyankee]

@ JordanD – 07/08/2013 10:09 GMT
@ ImissConcorde – 07/08/2013 10:12 GMT

Does your connecting flight have to be on the same ticket/PNR. I ask out of curiousity as I will have this situation with separate tickets DFW to HEL on AA/BA, and then HEL to LED on AY, but separate tickets?

[HongKongLady]

I have done this the other way round a couple or times, I.e a Cathay flight and then BA which were two seperate bookings. My luggage was checked through and I had a boarding card issued. You just need the locator and you should be fine.

[Cloud-9]

I flew LHR/HKG on BA and HKG on CX HKG/KUL on the same ticket earlier tjhis year with a colleague. No trouble with my booking but my colleage was only checked thorugh to HKG and had to see the BA/CX agent at HKG. No probs though – seat allocated and bags sent through to KUL.

However, on our return leg, we flew SGN/KUL on MH and then the CX and BA arrangement in one go. Although they didn’t need to – and shouldn’t have – our bags were checked through to LHR from SGN even though it was two separate bookings.

Just ask – they can only say no!

[Papillion53]

I’m glad you asked as I was just checking out the same thing earlier today.

The only other thing I was trying to figure out if flying with BA in CW and then connecting onto CX in business, CX seems to have a lower luggage allowance, so would you get the larger BA allowance on both flights as they are connecting? CX 30 kgs in business. Now I can easily take two @ 23 kgs no problem!

[Gold-2K]

This is from BA.com

•If your entire journey is with another airline, their checked baggage allowance will apply.
•If your journey includes connecting flights with more than one airline, the checked baggage policy of the airline that operates the longer leg will apply. For example, if you fly with American Airlines from New York to London and connect onto British Airways to Amsterdam, the leg with American Airlines is longer and their baggage policy applies to the whole journey.

Im going LHR/HKG with BA and connecting on to Cathay to AKL. The published flight times show HKG / AKL slightly longer than LHR / HKG on the outbound but HKG / LHR longer on the way back, so according to the above it will be Cathay allowance on the way out and BA allowance on the way back. To further confuse things, BA flights are in First, Cathay in Business. I think I will just take hand baggage and buy what I need when I get there 😉

[BA744fan]

@Papillon53 – BA CW checked baggage allowance is 3x bags up to 32kg each.

http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/baggage-essentials/checked-baggage-allowances.

[Papillion53]

Gold2K – thanks, that’s great information, we will have the BA allowance as it’s the longest flight.

Oh BA744Fan – you know not my DH! I know the full BA CW luggage allowance but I am only “allowed” 2 cases and he weighs them religiously! LOL! So it serves him right when I have to buy another case to pack any purchases especially if we are state-side. I’ve lost count of the number of “cheap” cases we have bought over the years, but the best one that lasted for ages and ages and I used it for a long time as a carry on, we bought in Tesco in Shanghai. No clubcard points though! 😉 🙂

When are you passing through HKG? We are not going until spring next year.

[BA744fan]

Papillion53 – interesting you say Tesco does the best cases. I bought one a few months ago for about £40 and it’s as good as anything I’ve bought in the past for considerably more money.

Will be transitting in HKG in November on the way to Ho Chi Minh.

[pdtraveller]

BA will happily through check bags to CX even on separate tickets. That is my experience at least.

I have also bagged some HKG Avios redemptions for April 14 ( there was nothing else to anywhere at the time) on the A380….but coming back 777 from Tokyo…Hope to have 4 or 5 days in the land of the rising sun and see the Cherry blossom!!

[Papillion53]

BA744fan – have a lovely time, you will be there before us. I think our Shanghai case cost us about a tenner!

PdTraveller – gosh we will miss you by a few days! There seems to be plenty of Avios availability to/from HKG on the A380 for next year, well there was till we snapped it up!! I was surprised we managed to get the dates we did as it’s Easter time! I have Japan on my “list”, but that’s for another trip! I’ve heard that Cherry Blossom time in Japan is simply spectacular! 🙂

Has anyone found the new Avios search is working much better these days – I found it very useful this past week.

[IanFromHKG]

i have had cause recently to look into all these issues, so I am setting out what I believe are the definitive answers to all these questions (predicated on both flights being with oneworld carriers)

Interlining bags on the same ticket: As ImissConcorde points out in the third post above, if travelling on oneworld airlines, you should be able to check your bags all the way through

Interlining bags on different tickets: This is at the discretion of the first-sector carrier. IME (and HongKongLady has experienced the same) CX will do this – although I am not sure whether this is only because we are CX frequent flyers. I note that Cloud-9 was also able to through-check on separate tickets where the first carrier was MH. Where the first carrier is BA, however – and admittedly in this case I was inter-lining to a non-oneworld carrier – it is my experience that BA will not do this (http://www.businesstraveller.com/discussion/topic/Interlining-bags-from-BA-to-non-oneworld-airline). However, it does no harm to ask at check-in – but I would allow sufficient time to retrieve and re-check bags during your layover

Baggage allowance on connecting flights: This is where it gets complicated. Individual airlines may offer more generous arrangements. However, the baseline is set out in IATA baggage resolution no. 302. Under that resolution, where you are on a multi-carrier ticket, the baggage allowance you get is dictated by the policies of the “most significant carrier” – which may not be the carrier you expect. For example, if you flew QF from Sydney to Hong Kong and connected onto a CX flight to London, your baggage allowance should be dictated by CX’s rules (CX is the Most Significant Carrier because its flight is the first to cross from one IATA Tariff Area to another), not those of QF with whom you will, presumably, check in. This all gets hideously complex where flights involving the US are involved, but for other areas CX have a decent explanation here:
http://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_AU/travel-information/baggage/check-in-baggage/most-significant-carrier-msc-for-multi-carrier-journey.html. You can see BT’s own description here: http://www.businesstraveller.com/asia-pacific/news/cx-and-dragonair-adopt-new-iata-baggage-policies. So, sorry to contradict earlier posters, but it is a little more complicated than just “the carrier on the longest sector”

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