Sometimes it makes sense to make two different bookings for your trip as opposed to having all flights in one booking. In this scenario, you will have two separate PNRs. All is well until you realize that you will be travelling with check-in luggage. What will oneworld airlines do in this case? Will they happily check your baggage in all the way to your final destination or will you need to rush to the luggage reclaim, get your bag, clear the customs and run to the check-in desks? Let’s find out!
Historical overview
In the happy world before 2015, this post would have been super short. The answer would have been, yes, all airlines will check your baggage all the way to your final destination. However, in 2015, oneworld decided that airlines do not need to do this anymore. Nowadays, your bags will be checked in as far as they can go by any local regulations of your destination country only if you fly on one ticket that has a single PNR.
If you have separate bookings, things get complicated…
Which airlines do through check-in of bags?
When you have two separate bookings, it is up to the first airline of your first ticket whether they will check your bags in for all the flights or not. Every airline has their own policy, and I have collected this information in the following table:
| Airline | Own flights | Other oneworld flights | Source |
| Alaska Airlines | No | No | Alaska Airlines baggage policy |
| American Airlines | Yes | No | American Airlines baggage policy |
| British Airways | No | No | British Airways baggage policy |
| Cathay Pacific | Yes | Yes | Cathay Pacific FAQ |
| Finnair | No | No | Finnair FAQ |
| Iberia | No | No | Iberia FAQ |
| Japan Airlines | Yes | Yes | Japan Airlines info page |
| Malaysia Airlines | Yes | Yes | Malaysia Airlines FAQ |
| Qantas | Yes | No | Qantas baggage policy |
| Qatar Airways | Yes | Yes | News story on the topic (non-official source) |
| Royal Air Maroc | No information | No information | |
| Royal Jordanian | No information | No information | |
| SriLankan Airlines | Yes | No | SriLankan Airlines FAQ |
For some airlines, it is important that the separate bookings are on their own flights. For example, American Airlines would check your baggage in to the final destination on two different AA bookings. Some airlines are more generous and they will try their best to deliver your bags to your final destination on different airlines as well.
Even if the policy says that they won’t check your bags even for their own flights, there is some anecdotal evidence that Alaska and Finnair would be more lenient on this matter than what their policy indicates. But do bare in mind that this is up to the check-in agent to decide – they don’t have to do anything that goes against their published policy.
Conclusions
Oneworld baggage through check-in is a complete mess and mostly you are out of luck. It would be nice if you could always count on the fact that the airlines belong to the same alliance. They do have interline agreements with each other and they can check your baggages on two different bookings. But most of the airlines just are not willing to do this.
