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British Airways stops ‘two ticket’ bag transfers and disruption protection – even to BA flights

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Back in mid May, a HfP reader sent me some gossip which I found a little hard to believe and which I couldn’t verify.  oneworld alliance airlines would no longer be required to check baggage through to other oneworld airlines from 1st June when travelling on separate tickets.

This means that if you were flying from London to Berlin on British Airways for cash and then onwards on an Avios redemption on airberlin to Abu Dhabi (which is an amazing value redemption) British Airways is no longer required to check your bags through.  You would need to collect them in Berlin and recheck them.

British Airways Globe-Trotter BOAC suitcase 2

1st June came and there was no announcement – not surprisingly, as I was told that this would be done very quietly in the hope that no-one noticed.  Slowly but surely examples started to emerge.  Not from British Airways but from Cathay Pacific.

British Airways has, finally, now made an announcement and it isn’t good news:

From 1 June 2016, the oneworld policy on accepting customers travelling on separate tickets was changed. BA, along with our oneworld partners, has implemented this change in policy which is as follows:

Only those customers that have separate tickets issued in the same PNR/booking for flights operated by a oneworld partner, will be accepted for through check-in.

If you are changing between oneworld airlines on the SAME ticket you do not have a problem.

It will only apply when you are connecting to another oneworld flight on a separately booked ticket, which is likely to be the case if you are mixing an Avios ticket with a paid connection.

This is, to be honest, a bit of a kick in the teeth for customers who thought that by booking flights with members of the same alliance they could have an easier time.  There could be real issues here, especially if you need to exit the airport in order to check in your baggage before clearing security again.

You may even need to obtain a visa pre-travel for the country where you are transiting in case you are required to go landside to re-check your bag.  This is not scaremongering from me, this is what Cathay Pacific has written in their own guidelines:

Please remind passengers opting to travel on two tickets that additional connecting time at their transfer point might be required as they will be required to re-check in either after landing or at the transfer point depends on each airport’s set up and facilities. Landing visa for transfer point might also be required.

BA will not even check baggage to other British Airways flights

In a separate document issued to the travel trade, BA has said that it will not even check baggage through to other British Airways flights now if each flight is on a separately booked ticket.

This is slightly crazy because BA is creating extra work for itself by having to check your bag in twice.  It is VERY possible that you might be mixing two British Airways flights on separate tickets.  If you live in Manchester and cannot get an Avios redemption on short-haul to match your long-haul redemption, you may well decide to pay cash.  That will now cause you serious difficulties.

You will have another snag.  You will no longer benefit from the rule that says you get the highest luggage allowance carried across to other flights.  This means that if you paid cash for a Manchester to Heathrow to connect to a Heathrow to Miami on Avios, you may end up paying for additional luggage on the short haul flight – even if you are inside your allowance on the long haul flight.

Whether going BA to BA or BA to oneworld, it is possible that you may have existing flight bookings where it will now be impossible for you to make your connection due to the time required to do this.

It might reduce overcrowding in airport lounges though – by the time you’ve got your bag and queued up to check it in again, it will be time for your next flight.

For the record it is worth noting that Cathay Pacific, in a similar document to travel agents, has specifically said that it WILL continue to transfer baggage to other Cathay or Dragonair flights on separate tickets.

Disruption protection has also been removed

There was also an unwritten rule in the past that oneworld partners would protect passengers who missed their flights due to a late connection from another oneworld partner.  This has also been removed, when the flights are on separate tickets.

BA has also removed this protection from its own connections.  If you miss your flight to Miami on BA because your BA flight from Manchester to Heathrow was late – and you booked on separate tickets because you couldn’t get an Avios redemption for the connection – BA is no longer obliged to reroute you.

Here is the official wording:

What it means for customers if they are not accepted for through check-in

  • Do not use Minimum Connecting Times
  • They will have to collect their bags on arrival at the destination on the ticket
  • They will have to re check-in at the departure airport of their onward travel
  • Different baggage allowance may apply to for each flight
  • If the arrival flight is delayed they are eligible for normal compensation (i.e. EU Legislation) for the delayed flight only
  • They cannot claim any costs associated to their onward flight if the arrival flight is delayed

In reality, I am sure that BA would still help you out – but it would probably tell you to come back in two days when the next spare BA seat was available, rather than paying to reroute you on another airline.

So, to clarify …..

If you have connecting flights on the same ticket, nothing changes. 

If you have connecting flights but on two tickets with two ticket reference numbers, your luggage will no longer be checked through.  It must be collected and rechecked at each airport.  You will need to pay additional baggage fees if your long haul allowance is larger than your short haul allowance.  If you miss the next flight in your schedule due to a late incoming aircraft, there is no obligation to reroute or rebook you.  This applies even if connecting from BA to BA.

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Comments (198)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Will says:
    11 Jun11 June 08:57

    Are BA determined to make life as miserable as possible for us to tempt us to pay their extortionate fares?

    You raised the clear benefit of the interlining with Air Berlin. Fair enough – it is a cunning strategy.

    But surely there are plenty of other legitimate reasons for using separate PNR’s as highlighted with the Haneda point. And as a consumer surely we should be given a certain freedom to shop around for the best deal and if that means separate PNRs then we weigh up the disadvantages.

    What I don’t get is the OneWorld partnership is an alliance to do just that – assist travel between different OneWorld airlines?

    So is it a revenue, to put it in my old student parlance, c&@k block? I.e. BA hope to bring back some revenue from people choosing to favour convenience?

    Either way it just makes the BA booking experience more misserable.

    Extra fees to choose your seat in all classes
    All soughts of clauses for gaining mileage on flights
    Some terrible lounges away from Heathrow.
    What looks like a pitiful Club Europe experience.

    So this one feels like a kick in the teeth. Others make perfect sense to me I.e.no more dodgy in flight meal for short haul.

  • Sohan says:
    11 Jun11 June 08:58

    Dear BA,
    This announcement will have a very clear effect on me. I will fly Ryanair from now on to make my European connections as there is literally no reason to fly with you anymore.
    Goodbye!

    • barry cutters says:
      11 Jun11 June 09:41

      not true, if you fly ba/ another one world – they will look after you if the first flight is delayed. good luck getting that on a Ryanair/oneworld connection.

      • Brian says:
        11 Jun11 June 10:20

        Did you not read the second part of Rob’s article? They MIGHT look after you – they specifically state that they have no obligation…

  • AB says:
    11 Jun11 June 09:05

    It goes back to what I was referring to yesterday on another BA post, which was nicely put together. BA is becoming the same as easyjet and ryanair with a very expensive price tag, and I hope they read this thread, because it would be a shame for BA employee’s miss this, wound’t it? they could potentially re-brand themselves as
    BAd

    • Rob says:
      11 Jun11 June 09:54

      Except that easyJet is rumoured to be planning to interline bags between its own flights when it gets into Gatwick North.

  • Mark R says:
    11 Jun11 June 09:08

    The cost cutting fingers of Alex Cruz I presume. Seems again like the regional flyer is being hit hardest.

    • Mark says:
      11 Jun11 June 09:46

      How does this change save cost? It increases cost from what I can see.

      • harry says:
        11 Jun11 June 09:49

        all the compo & cost when people miss connections now becomes the passenger’s fault not the airline’s responsibility

      • Rob says:
        11 Jun11 June 09:50

        It is oneworld change, although airlines are free to ignore it (AA has already said it will) or amend it (eg Cathay still through-checking to their own flights). On BA to BA it doesn’t save cash at all. It saves some cash on BA – oneworld as BA is no longer responsible if you miss the connection.

        • Callum says:
          11 Jun11 June 11:13

          Surely it costs BA if your baggage misconnects yet you make the connection on a BA-BA transfer?

          • RIccati says:
            11 Jun11 June 13:11

            Which makes for an interesting move.. late passenger heading up for the flight through transfers and dealing with the bag later, possibly on arrival to their final destination requesting BA to deliver it.

        • Pb says:
          11 Jun11 June 13:22

          On Jun 7, we successfully checked in with Cathay with different tickets. Both passenger and luggage through checked in, involving Cathay and AA. No issues or questions asked.

  • Alex W says:
    11 Jun11 June 09:09

    I booked separate redemption tickets in order to save about £100 each on fees going via Madrid. I assume some of this money would have gone to IAG.

    What is the policy for star alliance and sky team?

    • Jiashan Cui says:
      11 Jun11 June 09:34

      I am lucky I stick to skyteam, always get smooth transfer and luggage through via AMS

      • Mark says:
        11 Jun11 June 14:26

        Interesting.

        Had a good trip to the Dutch Caribbean last year, traveling with BA to Miami (Avios upgrade to Club booked pre-devaluation) and onward avios redemptions with AA. Thinking we might go back some time but discovered KLM business class fares from AMS are competitive with the cash element of what we spent, ignoring the avios entirely!

        Spent a night each way in Miami anyway, so even if we had to collect and recheck bags it would surely be a lot easier than travelling via MIA.

  • Nick says:
    11 Jun11 June 09:11

    Absolutely devalues the OneWorld alliance. I am travelling to Vietnam in November with a BA ticket to AMS and then onward on a Business Class ticket with Qatar purchased in a QR sale earlier this year. I now need to change my BA flights as there will be insufficient time to collect baggage and recheck at Amsterdam. Will BA agree to change the timing of my LHR-AMS flights as a result of their change of policy?

    • Nick says:
      11 Jun11 June 10:09

      Always best to leave plenty of time between connections if changing carrier. Rob has always stressed this. I’ve always spent 1 night at the first destination and thoroughly enjoyed it. 1 more destination off the bucket list.

  • Mark says:
    11 Jun11 June 09:13

    Flying back from Abu Dhabi with Air Berlin / BA via Berlin last year they refused to check our bags all the way through anyway. Was a real pain, especially since the AB flight deposited us in terminal C and we had to drag our bags to A.

    At the time I think the issue was the Etihad check in agent failing to understand when I explained they were part of the same alliance and had an agreement to check bags all the way through.

    I can see this being a real pain and I suspect has probably been instigated specifically to make cheaper routings on separate PNRs (e.g. ex-EUs for those of us in the UK) less attractive.

    As others have said though it will likely result in lost business, and makes it more tempting to miss out the final leg on an ex-EU, if you can engineer that so your luggage isn’t checked through.

    • Mark says:
      11 Jun11 June 09:15

      Final comment aimed specifically at BA ex-EUs of course, where you are started/ending in London and back-tracking…..

    • Cheshire Pete says:
      11 Jun11 June 09:42

      Yes in the past I’ve had Iberia checkin staff at Alicante telling me they couldn’t check my bags thru to Manchester I either needed to collect at Madrid and checkin again thru to Manchester or collect at Heathrow and recheck to Man! My booking was Alc-Mad-LHR-Man. All Iberia/BA but across two PNRs. However the choice they gave me had nothing to do with the PNRs just Iberia being, well, Iberia.

      I’m sure some posts here fail to understand the sheer inconvenience of this to the Regions. Some seem to be making comments about EX-Eu reasons, but last I saw Manchester was still in the UK. Some of you simply don’t understand a £110 3 night holiday deal from London simply isn’t that price when u start in Manchester, so you simply have to book cash separately or use avios for the domestic to get nearer the same deal as London customers.

      As long as the BA systems tells me it’s a value connection time, which I always verify doing a test thru booking then the separate PNRs simply isn’t a valid reason not to check thru. It’s idiotic gone mad.

      • harry says:
        11 Jun11 June 09:48

        but how on earth could you possibly expect an airline to give you free transport to London to start your journey or holiday deal?

        they offer free connection on LH because it makes commercial sense – the opposite applies on redemptions or short break deals, ie no commercial sense in doing it

        • Cheshire Pete says:
          11 Jun11 June 10:46

          I never said that. I said if I have to book using money or avios to connect into a BA Holiday deal from London, why are BA now saying I need to pick up my bags at T5 and check them in again!?

          • Polly says:
            11 Jun11 June 11:03

            Pete, with those Ba holidays, can they not start in Man on the same PNR? After all it’s BA all the way then? Or does it reprice too high? Just asking.

          • Cheshire Pete says:
            11 Jun11 June 11:51

            Yes you can, but it’s often much cheaper to get the deals starting in London. A holiday from London might come in at say £110. If then you then start in Manchester it might then go up to £290, so you have to analyse whether it’s worth the £180 extra for the domestic – which it more often that not isn’t! Then you connect in using 8000 avios and £35.

            It depends on each holiday really! Its more stark when looking at Luxury holiday deals. For instance they have a 2 day Luxury break in Club Europe from London for say £290. If you then start in Manchester it will then show you a silly price of say £800, as it’s trying to then book you into a Business UK flight from Manchester to London which is not necessary!

            I could go on.

        • Dan says:
          11 Jun11 June 11:21

          I do have some sympathy with what Harry is saying here. Although, as another poster pointed out earlier in the week, BA do not offer any direct routings from the regions. So it’s not hard to feel like they don’t value customers outside of London.

          I think, for me, this takes away any of the benefit of flying from my local airport (LBA) with BA. I could just about convince myself that there was a convenience factor as they would through check my luggage to the final destination. This change, along with the lack of accessible public transport to the airport….I’d rather get the train!

        • Alan says:
          12 Jun12 June 19:26

          Sorry, harry – don’t agree! I’m not looking for a free connection on a short-haul trip (although I think it’s pretty poor on on Avios they’ve made it double the cost), but as other have highlighted they often price it at a ludicrously higher price when coming in from the regions. It is therefore fare cheaper to book an ex-LON deal and either a separate Avios ticket or often even a separate domestic paid-for ticket. If the extra domestic connections were at a more reasonable cost I wouldn’t have such an issue.

          A much bigger issue though is that for long-haul redemptions those without Gold status are often left totally stuffed with regards short-haul availability! – they then end up not getting the ‘free’ connection at all and having to purchase this separately. For BA to then say they’re not even going to interline the bags in this situation is atrocious. Personally on long-haul redemptions i think they should do what bmi used to do and open up regional connecting flights via Revenue Management, especially when booking many months in advance. Interestingly when using a GUV2 the original advice Amex Travel received from BA Ticketing Desk was that they couldn’t put the EDI-LON connection on the same ticket for me as the domestic section couldn’t be upgraded! Needless to say I got Amex to go back to them with the knowledge this was nonsense and they relented – otherwise even on a paid ticket I would have ended up with separate tickets for my domestic connection.

          On the separate issue of protecting connections – TBH only AA ever published a benefit in this regard so I’ve got less of a problem by way of them removing this, it’s the baggage side of things that I’m particularly unimpressed by!

          • harry says:
            12 Jun12 June 19:35

            I back you on the interlining issue 100%

            pathetic move when it’s BA-BA, not so different when it’s BA-OW as surely part of the worth of an alliance is seamlessness/ smooth travel

          • Alan says:
            12 Jun12 June 19:40

            Now we just need BA to see sense – sadly expect it won’t happen any time soon though…

      • Mark LLL says:
        11 Jun11 June 11:26

        One World. I don’t think so.
        I tried to book IOM-LCY-IOM through QR using my (expiring) Q.Miles stash. The booking went through on the QR Website, but three days later QR rejected it, stating the reason that the carrier is ‘Eastern Airways for BA CityFlyer’ on this route, rather than BA CityFlyer itself. (Either BA or BA CityFlyer, QR assure me, would have been accepted for a points redemption flight.)

  • Jim says:
    11 Jun11 June 09:17

    All seems a bit petty to me. At the end of the day, for me, it just means more 11 pound Ryanair flights from Newcastle to Dublin, more time spent in GF drinking champagne, and – presuming EU legislation on flights is maintained after 23rd June – the principle of ALWAYS putting in a claim for compensation where due, where as in the past my principle has been not to do this if my costs are covered.

    • BillyBoy says:
      11 Jun11 June 13:38

      This.

      You screw with me, I screw with you. The goodwill is gone.

      Every single time you feck up (and you do this a LOT) I will impose costs on your operation.

      EC261 ? Check – 100% of the time !
      MCOL ? Check – every time you lie / obstruct / delay…
      Complaint ? Always.

      I know it won’t make a real difference to the gilded shareholders of IAG but I will feel much better! !!

      • harry says:
        11 Jun11 June 13:45

        Every time there’s a small defect, eg entertainment system not working or chair not 100%, claim Avios compensation.

        Broken IFE should get you 15,000 Avios

    • BillyBoy says:
      11 Jun11 June 13:45

      This.

      BA, you screw with me, I screw with you. The goodwill is gone.

      Every single time you feck up (and you do this a LOT) I will impose costs on your operation.

      Complaint ? Always.
      EC261 ? Check – 100% of the time !
      MCOL ? Check – every time you lie / obstruct / delay…

      I know it won’t make a real difference to the gilded shareholders of IAG but I will feel much better! !!

      But rwally, BA just… feck you 😡

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