Luggage being checked through on two British Airways tickets?

You will go through security at Heathrow again no matter what. I have always had my luggage checked through if less than 24 hours, but it has always been on one ticket. I don’t see any reason not to believe them.

I use to work for an airline.
For your own peace of mind when you check-in on the way to London May 8, clarify with the British Airways agent checking you in that your bag will go all the way to Frankfurt your final destination.
They will give you a claim check. The baggage tag and your claim check should have FRA for Frankfurt airport listed above LHR the airport code for London Heathrow.

If they are telling you that they can check your bag through, that is good news; however it conflicts with info on the BA website

https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/information/baggage-essentials/checked-baggage-allowances

”If you’ve booked separate flights with different booking references to get to your final destination each flight is considered a separate journey. This applies even if both of your flights are with British Airways. You’ll need to check your bags in for each separate flight. Make sure to leave enough time between each flight to do this and get to your departure gate for the next leg of your journey. Simply follow these steps:
Check in your bags for your first flight
Collect your bags when you land - you may need to go through customs
Go to departures and check your bags in again for your next flight
Collect your bags at your final destination
Please be aware that on journeys with separate tickets and different booking references, your bags will not be transferred on to your next flight as it is considered a separate journey.
In case of delay, cancellation or other disruption to your initial flight, when you hold a separate booking on a different reference for your next flight, airlines are limited in the assistance they can give you for your onward journey/subsequent flight, just as they have no obligation to automatically check your baggage through to your next flight as each booking is considered a separate contract.”

Many years ago, I was able to check bags through on separate tickets on BA, but they subsequently changed there policy. Many of the airlines changed their policy after 9/11. At Heathrow, you can get through the egates relatively quickly and then will just have to wait for luggage. Four hours should be enough time if your flight arrives on time. Hopefully, the info provided to you verbally is correct and this will be a non-issue, but I’d plan for the worst case.

An excellent justification to purchase Apple AirTags for the purpose of tracking your luggage.

It is against BA policy to through check bags if not on one ticket (for that matter it is the policy of the wider Oneworld Alliance). You may get someone willing to do it but certainly don't count on it.

Thank you all for your responses and it sounds like there is not much we can do about the situation but learn from it for future travel.

Two quick questions:

• Any possibility that BA let me merge the two tickets for a fee?
  • Will we be able to get our bags and re-check them for our 2nd BA flight without going through UK Customs? Both flights originate from Terminal 5 at LHR and I know we will have to go through Security again.

Thanks again for sharing your expertise!

We had flights booked SYD-LHR with QANTAS then LHR-MAD with British Airways (actual operator was Iberia) in February. We had four hours and 15 minutes between flights. We had collected checked bags and checked in for next flight and through security within 90 minutes (including spending 10 minutes getting lost trying to find the Iberia check in counter). Our flights arrived and left from Terminal 3.

We had hoped to check our bags through but QANTAS said they couldn't because of the codeshare with Iberia for the British Airways flight. We just chilled out in the BA lounge for a few hours.

All passengers arriving on international flights at Heathrow are funneled to passport control. Baggage claim is on the other side of passport control. So unfortunately there is no way to get checked bags without going through the process. If you’re lucky the egates will be working and not much of a wait. Good luck.

Passport Control at Heathrow usually goes quite quickly. “E-gates” mean you scan passport, machine scans you (facial recognition) and you are on your way.

Who told you that you couldn’t combine those tickets into one itinerary?

I ask because I had that experience with Delta in which the daughter of a friend of mine bought round-trip tickets between her local airport & Atlanta and then a few days later bought round-trip tickets between Atlanta and Paris. She called an agent to see if he could combine the tickets and he said no. I suggested she call Delta customer service again to speak with another agent and that other agent indeed DID combine her tickets into just 1 itinerary.

So, if Delta can do it, I would think other airlines could do that too so why not call back BA. It could give you such a piece of mine regarding your checked luggage.

I wanted to mention that there can sometimes be longer wait times associated with calling British Airways vs. using the online chat feature. I have found the online chat is usually fairly quick and I appreciate having a written record of what transpired.

Sorry, it is simple, when you check your bag, you will know exactly where it is going, they have to print out a tag. If only checked through to London, discuss with them, they should be able to change it. But you will know for sure what needs to be done before you even board your first flight.

Our anecdotal experience was pre-pandemic,but here goes. Somewhat similar situation on BA out of Seattle. We bought the first ticket thinking we’d stop in London before continuing. After reconsidering, we decided to go for it and just get the journey done in one shot. We booked the second ticket with BA but it was operated by Aer Lingus. They would not join the two reservations, even though we bought them both through BA. At airport check-in they did give us the boarding passes for both flights. If both flights had been operated by BA they said they could have checked the luggage through, but there was not reciprocity on codeshare flights for luggage.

The ticket agent MIGHT be able to check your bag to its final destination. Please go to the airport early, as it is not always easy for the agent to do it.

I work for an airline, (not BA) so not sure about their rules on this.

Thank you all for your responses and advice; I sincerely appreciate that people are willing to take their time and energy to share their travel experience and expertise in this forum.

I called British Airways again and they formally "linked" the flights together but cannot promise that we will be able to check our bags through to our final destination on either of our outbound and inbound flights. That decision will ultimately be made by the person who checks us in in Seattle and Munich but at least there will be evidence in the BA system that we have done what we can about the situation. Thanks again for your assistance and happy travels.

Just to follow up after our return, no one at British Airways in either Seattle or Munich was willing or able to check our luggage through to our final destination since the flights weren't booked on one ticket so lesson learned; get all flights on one single ticket. We had enough time upon arrival at LHR to get our luggage, go through passport control, recheck our bags and then back through security but it would have been easier to have the luggage checked through to our final destination.

Thanks for reporting back.

Thanks for reporting back. It’s always nice to know how these situations pan out. Glad you had sufficient time to get it all done.