A question for check-in agents

[jerseyfinn]

OK, our situation is pretty simple.

We're doing our summer trip to Spain and Malaga via PHL-MAD.

We purchase Z fare tickets to eliminate the gate dance for Envoy upgrades PHL-MAD. Unfortunately, we need to fly MAD to AGP and when we book, US tells us we must book (more expensive) J seats to AGP because of our Z fare seats. This sucks as there are no true business class seats from MAD-AGP on either IB or JK and it's simply a rip off (6 across seating throughout the cabin ).

The US agent tells us to book our own coach seats on a connecting IB flight and to ask the agent in PHL to check our bags straight through to AGP by giving them our IB flight ticket numbers.

Of course this advice is given prior to the SHARES merger. So please tell me, will my family be able to check our bags all the way to AGP or is the new SHARES system incapable of identifying our IB ticket and sending our bag along without us having to reclaim them in MAD and recheck them?

Is there any special procedure in SHARES to make it happen? I'm just trying to take the headache/anxiety out of connecting and making sure our bags get on the IB flight. Any specific advice/procedure for the agent to follow to route our bags PHL-MAD-AGP on the flight as we were able to do last year when we purchase coach seats PHL-MAD-AGP and land the Envoy UG while our bags make it to AGP seamlessly?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts insights

Barry

 

[tadjr]

The agent can "HK" the segment in your record. All they need will be the Iberia flight number, booking class, departure and arrival times and a record locator number for the IB flight. Once the agent enters this info in your record, the bags will (should) come out to final destination. Its not a difficult transaction to check them all the way.

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

The agent can "HK" the segment in your record. All they need will be the Iberia flight number, booking class, departure and arrival times and a record locator number for the IB flight. Once the agent enters this info in your record, the bags will (should) come out to final destination. Its not a difficult transaction to check them all the way.

Of course, it would been a quicker transaction in Sabre. No need to enter in IB arrival and departure times.

 

[gizmo_sc]

I see you got your info from another person on the message board for the bag, The reason you had to purchase the MAD forward portion and return is that Z fare you purchased with US AIRWAYS. That should be a discounted BUSINESS ROUND TRIP fare PHL-MAD. Spain is one of the EU countries I have never visited but perhaps in the future. Have a good trip.

 

[jerseyfinn]

Thanks very much for the information everyone.

I'm relieved to hear that it should be a pretty simple process. My worry was that there might be unresolved IT glitches on the PHL end that entangle the process for the agents to easily route our bags to AGP. I could envision having to reclaim our bags in MAD and hope that our US flight arrives on time ( translation = no summer thunder storms )and that we clear the ( potentially long ) immigration queues in enough time to check in at IB & get our bags on the plane to AGP. Last year, we fly out of Barajas T4 which is seperate from the other 3 terminals and takes extra time to reach.

Booking PHL-MAD-AGP on any fare basis is a Catch 22 affair for several reasons. The AGP part of the itinerary requires the entire itinerary to be issued as a paper ticket ( which is not US Air's doing ). If you purchase coach seats, US can easily book the entire itinerary and your bags are automatically routed to AGP from PHL. Our two Z fare tickets skew our booking basis and would have pushed up the cost of those coach seats to AGP, hence our decision to book IB seperate.

Another problem we've had in the past is that we always swim upstream to H/M/Q fares & try to UG to Envoy coming and going. But the paper tickets do not allow us to utilize OLCI, and this creates a huge problem if our UGs are not confirmed in the 7 day CP window, especially for the MAD-PHL return.

Last year, my son and I get UG confirmed 7 days out, but my wife ( also a CP on a seperate itinerary ) is not confirmed and she can't even check in until she gets to the JK desk for our AGP-MAD flight the morning of. In MAD, it was chaos at the gate. The flight is full ( no surprise there ) & the GAs were gong to UG a Gold pax for the last Envoy seat. My wife has to beg plead and cavort to establish what the rules are to the GAs ( by luck, she had checked in some 30 minutes earlier than the Gold pax who was not even at the gate yet). She's there at the desk begging as we begin boarding, & some 10 minutes later she slips into the last Envoy seat. A nice flight home as those MAD FCs are real nice folks.

So this year we swim further upstream and purchase two Z fares and one B for our son (Silver) who thus far is only UG confirmed outbound. He's gonna be in the same position his mom was last year except that he too is on a seperate IB itinerary and we can OLCI 24 hours out on the return home.

Travel has all sorts of nuances. I'm a happy guy knowing that we don't have to fret over luggage and connecting flights. I'm hoping that our son's B fare will help him pull the UG on the way home. In any case, we'll have a nice 2 weeks in Costa del Sol where I'll be mostly motionless in a lounge chair save for those moments to get up and get another sangria.

Thanks again.

Barry

 

[jerseyfinn]

Barry,

Please file a trip report upon your return so we can see how things went.

I sincerely hope you and your family have an enjoyable trip.
Regards,
Bob

Bob, do you mean a report about the sangria or the flight?

Now that I've got the baggage question resolved, we're anticipating a smooth flight but I will let you know how goes it.

I will say this, when the summer weather gods are kind and the PHL-MAD flight pushes back on time and the rental car queues at AGP are thin, we've had some outstanding flight experiences in the past, getting to our resort and being on the beach less than 14 hours door to door after leaving the house for Philly airport -- that's pretty good considering we've got a connecting flight in there. The only hitch has been those nerve wracking gate dances for the UGs.

Barry