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More details: I bought a return ticket thru BA for a codeshare Qatar-operated flight from Dublin to Bangkok via Doha. At the end of my trip I will be in Vientiane (VTE) in Laos.
My QR flight home from BKK takes off at 01:50 and there is only one option to get from VTE to BKK, which is to fly the previous evening VTE-BKK with ThaiSmile (subsidiary of star alliance member Thai Airways) landing at 21:55.
Although I will have about 4 hours to go thru passport and collect luggage, there might be delays so it would be good to interline my hold bag and save a lot of time by not going Thai passport control. Indeed QR have an interline agreement with Thai Airways.
The questions are:
Does my BA ticket allow me to use QR interlining?
If it does, who do I talk to in order to set it up?
Can I do it in advance or is it the luck of the draw at checkin in Vientiane?
Does it make any difference that I am BA gold this year, but Silver next year when I fly?Most interlining agreements are predicated on you having a single ticket for the trip.
Here you don’t so it really is down to what the Thai Smiles staff checking you in at VTE do if you ask them to interline and their policy on interlining on separate tickets.
There is no one to call to ‘set it up’ because there is nothing to be set up.
Your BA status won’t help with Thai Smiles nor that you bought your QR ticket via BA.
Agree. I would say it is likely fine but you can’t do anything until you get to check in.
Personally I wouldn’t book this, if you can’t check the bags through it’s pretty tight to clear immigration in and out of Thailand if your flight is even a bit late and you’ve no scope for handling a cancellation apart from a potentially v expensive longhaul rebooking
Thanks for the answers – one followup: if interlining two separate tickets is allowed by the Vientiane ThaiSmile checkin desk, does it actually help me?
In this case my hold bag should be OK, but can I checkin online for the QR flight and at BKK, go thru an “international transit gate” to get to the departure area? I know I can do this in Doha but is it possible in BKK.
The good news is that ThaiSmile on my route has 99% punctuality at the moment.
If you can interline it saves you lots of time, it’s similar to Doha you come off your flight, go through transit security and then upstairs into departures.
I haven’t flown Qatar from Bangkok but often in Asia they’re funny about mobile BPs for long haul but there are transit desks you should be able to get a BP from
Make sure you give your luggage tag to the first person you come into contact with from Qatar so they can check it’s been added to your booking on their side
I’m not surprised the flight operates on time as it connects into Thai Airways main departure bank to Europe. I’d just be nervous I’d be on the one day it didn’t!!
I’d just be nervous I’d be on the one day it didn’t!!
Yup I could tell you tales to make your hair curl about the vagaries of low cost airlines in Asia and S America.
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