Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Forums Frequent flyer programs British Airways Executive Club Bags not checked through to final destination

  • tomahawk 77 posts

    So I am looking at going to Windhoek via Joburg on a companion voucher. The CV only covers the Joburg part then its South African to WHK. I am being told they have to do 2 separate bookings because of the CV which means having to clear immigration, collect bags and then re-check in again in Joburg. They cant somehow link the bookings to make it a straightforward transit. Anyone got any bright ideas?

    SamG 1,859 posts

    No, not outbound. Inbound more likely they would likely send them to BA but I’d still build in enough time to do the collect/recheck. Also worth pointing out that a seperate ticket means risk if a flight is late either way as your “connection” isn’t protected

    tomahawk 77 posts

    Yes I’m aware of that so leaving about 6 hours each time between the landing and departure times. Not ideal but there you go doesn’t seem like I have much choice!

    WaynedP 258 posts

    I was about to post about the convenient re check-in desks just before exiting from International Arrivals into the public area @tomahawk, but remembered they were closed when I went through in Feb this year.

    On double checking, I found a useful FlyerTalk forum thread entitled “JNB / Johannesburg Airport – Connections, Facilities, Layovers, etc.” which has some useful info if you click the “Read More” link at the very top of the forum, especially the section marked International-International Connection (which I understand is the case for Namibia, but doesn’t apply to all Southern African destinations, some of which are treated as “Domestic”).

    Unfortunately the helpful info confirms that as of October 2022 those convenient re check-in desks are apparently closed permanently, which is a pity.

    Nevertheless, there is info specific to your situation regarding bags that haven’t been interlined (or “tagged” to use their nomenclature) through to Windhoek, and a warning that this might jeopardise the headlined “60 minutes” required connection time as it involves a manual intervention by some poor worker prepared to retrieve your bag for you from the baggage belt.

    If I were you, to aid identification for a stranger, I’d take helpful photos of your luggage as well as baggage tag before they disappear into the bowels of your departure airport luggage loading system.

    While I am passionately against anything that could be considered to be a bribe or inducement, in this case, as a form of “gratuity in advance”, I would consider having at hand ZAR20 to ZAR40 cash notes to pass to each of both the facilitating airport worker, and the poor grunt who is actually charged with physically retrieving your baggage from the International Arrivals Hall baggage reclaim belt.

    To be clear, the approach outlined avoids you having to pass through SA Immigration and instead wait in an international transit area while your baggage is retrieved and brought to you to be checked in for onward passage to Windhoek. But failing this, there is the less convenient fall-back option of indeed passing through SA Immigration, retrieving your own bags and lugging them up to International Departures to stand in queue and check-in yourself.

    tomahawk 77 posts

    Thanks for the comprehensive explanation. Its an interesting concept having a guy go off to try and locate your bag for you etc. I think given that I’m building in a 6 hour ish stopover I will just go and get them myself and re-check in etc, sounds less stressfull!! At least it sounds like the Joburg lounge has been renovated and is half decent.

    Rma 37 posts

    Re transiting above, we are transiting through JNB to Lusaka in September, BA to Airlink. Approximately a five hour layover. Does anyone have experience of the lounges in the ‘Domestic’ terminal ? Although this is an international transit, it looks as if the Airlink flight goes from the Domestic terminal. We have Dragonpass cards. Just wondered if anyone had experience of these lounges at JNB? Thanks.

    WaynedP 258 posts

    My wife and I passed through Terminal B (Domestic) around lunch-time/early afternoon on a Friday in Feb this year.

    Dragonpass seems to allow access to either of Sky Lounge or Bidvest Premier. On asking, someone told me that Sky lounge was slightly better, but I (wrongly) thought I wasn’t eligible to get in so joined the short queue for Bidvest Premier.

    It was OK, but then I’m a low-bar customer as I don’t need fast wifi or alcoholic drinks during daylight hours and wasn’t particularly hungry. All I wanted was a place to sit in quiet solitude for a while with a coffee and biscuit. I think we were just unlucky to be joined by half a dozen bosom buddies who had started their weekend early with generous portions of brandy-and-coke, but not unpleasant enough to make it worth our while getting up and going elsewhere.

    Food offering looked alright on my way past to use the satisfactorily clean toilets and the place was full for lunch without feeling uncomfortably overcrowded. Apparently it has showers which the Sky lounge doesn’t if that’s important. It was OK for a windowless space but I would try the Sky Lounge next time as it looks a bit brighter and airier from the pictures, and knowing now that my Amex Plat PP will actually get me in.

    They claim to stick to max 2 hr stay on the website, ours was just about that so didn’t test the flexibility of that limit, but with a 5 hr layover you might end up sampling both, giving you an ideal opportunity to make a same day comparison yourselves. Good luck and enjoy your trip to Zambia.

    Rma 37 posts

    Thank you, very useful to have your comprehensive input.
    It took me a while to realise that some international flights depart from the domestic terminal! Like you, all we are looking for is somewhere fairly quiet to have a coffee and a light snack. As this is a domestic terminal are all the lounges before passport control so presumably one has to allow time for this?
    Once again many thanks for your info.

    WaynedP 258 posts

    @Rma I presume that passport control is after lounge because I can’t recall any setup to check passports between check-in and security.

    But I can’t confirm for sure because we were actually flying domestic. If you can’t determine beforehand on the web you’ll have to double check by enquiring on check-in, sorry.

    Rma 37 posts

    Thank you. Will check the situation at check in. The website isn’t clear, which starts from having international flights departing from the domestic terminal. Also things change all the time. Thanks for your help – certainly looking forward to Zambia.

  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.